We have recently received some unfair and inaccurate criticism in the Daily Telegraph, when the Editor of their Consumer Affairs column Katie Morley has taken on a complaint from a client who became abusive with a member of our staff, to the point where it had become unacceptable.
Because of our wishes to adhere strictly to the General Data Protection Regulations around client confidentiality, an EU directive from 2018 and to remain on the right side of the law and the clients contractual rights, we have been unable to defend our selves against the spurious accusations made and taken forward by the journalist in question Katie Morley.
We do however wish to put on record that the client in question, who we cannot name, appeared to be unstable and had become verbally abusive to a key member of our matchmaking team who has been suffering from stage 4 breast cancer, stating ‘Karma’s a bitch watch out”. Many of you will be aware that we have a duty of care to our staff and employment law dictates that we had to take action to protect her by suspending the client.
The client also attempted a chargeback on her credit card but the bank involved ruled against this having examined the evidence in this case and our adherence to the contract in question, despite what is said in the Daily Telegraph no lawyer was involved in this – there was no need as it was very straight forward case, we had adhered to our contract and delivered the service that was promised. We also offered to continue with the Personal Matchmaking service offered to the client in question, if she agreed to work within the framework of our Client Code of Conduct and to stop being abusive to staff. I am sorry to say this was declined.
Despite an appeal to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph for reasonableness in the circumstances and a solicitors letter setting out our position of being unable to defend ourselves, the newspaper in question has still chosen to go with the story, which in the opinion of the company and our trade body the Dating Agency Association is wrong, unbalanced, clearly unfair and ultimately is inaccurate in terms of the headline, the amount involved and the facts.
If you look through this website, you will see genuine and recent testimonials from clients who have enjoyed success with us, you will see articles from our staff, who handle our clients everyday, talking about being proud to be part of the Attractive Partners team and a glowing endorsement from the Dating Agency Association on the work that we do and the very low level of complaints that we actually suffer.
What we offer is a high end, highly personalised, totally confidential professional dating service, that is a far cry from online dating and the awful publicity that form of dating has attracted in recent years. We also offer competitive pricing and tremendous value when judged against our matchmaking competitors and we remain the UK’s biggest and most popular dating agency in terms of numbers and the quality of service offered in our price bracket. We have also been invited to be the Best Practice Representatives for the Dating Industry in this years Parliamentary Review and it has been our honour to conduct this and recommend best practice to our colleagues throughout the industry. We will therefore let you judge our actions, in suspending the client’s membership and asking her to cease her abusive behaviour to a member of staff with breast cancer, for yourselves.
Mike Parker, Managing Director Attractive Partners Ltd.
