ComplaintsforA Foreign Affair

• Initial Complaint

  05/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In March 2024 I scheduled in person meetings with two women at a cost of $400.00. I was charged three times for this and have asked for a refund of the $800.00 overcharge. Additionally, one of the meetings did not take place resulting in an additional $125.00 refund being owed. After several attempts to recover the expected refund amount of $925.00 I have only received $400.00. While I have not yet committed to litigation to solve this problem, the lack of customer service from this company is making litigation the likely route I will go. Litigation is totally unnecessary as they have already identified the problem as being on their end. This was admitted in correspondence with *** who handles most of the refunds.

  Business response

  05/08/2024

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  ******* is a valued client who has been with us for over 4 years. It seems the problem is more of a tech issue than anything.  As soon as we saw this we reached out to him and had a very helpful conversation and was able to move forward to resolving the refund issue.
  
  It is not clear whether it was a glitch on our end or he simply clicked the submit button more than once, but he was charged two extra times for his $400.00 order.  He brought this to our attention and immediately two refunds for $400 each were submitted on April 4th.  On April 10th, ******* notified AFA by e-mail that only one of the two $400 refunds had posted. We immediately responded to *******, with a screenshot showing that both credits were submitted. In that response, we also asked him to notify AFA if the credit still does not post within the next 2 business days. On April 18th, ******* got back in touch to let us know that the other credit for $400 still had not posted. That same day,we e-mailed ******* a document that our credit card processor requires whenever a refund that was flagged as a duplicate (which was the case here) has to be resubmitted. We requested that he sign the document and send it back, so the refund could be re-issued, and the Processor is assured it is not a duplicate refund.  We were waiting for that form, however, it appears that ******* was not comfortable with signing it, thus the delay in the refund. Now that we have spoken he has said that he will sign the form so the Credit Card processor can submit the refund as we are not able to do so without that form.  Again, ******* is a valued client,it is unfortunate that there was this tech issue (it is there, on the processor side, to help prevent duplicate refunds by mistake) and that our communication seemed to break down.  We are confident that the refund will be processed as soon as we receive the documentation back from him, which he says should be in a day or so. 

• Initial Complaint

  03/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Have tried to close my profile and receive my funds not used returned. I have over 99 dollars worth n one account and 50 dollars in the phone account. Many emails and calls not returned.

  Business response

  03/08/2024

  For some reason there seems to be a communication issue between our Match Makers/Translators and the client.  We did receive the paid request to do a call with a woman from ****.  Our Match Maker tried to reach out to the client by phone and E-mail several times to arrange the call over the last couple weeks with no success.  Even after we received this complaint we reached out again by phone and E-mail, still no response.  Our Manager went ahead and processed the refund and closed the account, as requested. We E-mailed the client with that information but have still not heard back.  We are very easy to reach, the main number is ************, you can press 0 for an operator and they will assist you during normal business hours, Monday thru Friday between 9 to 5 MST.  You can also E-mail us at ****************** and they will assist you as well. We regret that we were unable to provide the service the client wanted and paid for.  If the client is still interested he can call us directly and we can easily arrange the call or better yet, an in-person meeting with the woman.  Thank you for your assistance with this matter!

  Customer response

  03/08/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

  I did not receive any communication from ******* the translator until AFTER I filed the complaint and after my account was closed, the refund is satisfactory at this point.

  The contact from ******* is meaningless AFTER the complaint and AFTER I stopped receiving messages from the lady.

  
  Regards,
  
  ***************************
  
   

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/04/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  i have been in correspondence with women on this site using the email service that the company provides. over the past year i have spent $4000-$5000 with no contact by phone. each time i get the same response that each woman has refused to speak with me directly. i was willing to pay the cost and was unsuccessful every single time. the same women that refused to speak to me wanted me to keep emailing them even after many months of contact by email and refusing to even take a phone call. i believe that this company has tours to visit is legitimate but the email service is fraudulent.

  Business response

  03/08/2024

  We contacted client by phone and spoke at length about the issue.  He is serious about meeting someone.  It appears the main issue is a woman from the ****************** that he has been corresponding with for several months.  For some reason there is a disconnect with them having a call. We have a policy that if there is correspondence there should be a call or meeting if desired, if not we will look into it and assist in facilitating the call or meeting or issue a refund and take other appropriate measures. He has a tour scheduled with us this summer to ********, and should be eligible for major discounts given his correspondence, we are working on that for him as well.  At this point our staff is working to find out what exactly the issue is with the call and resolve that to his full satisfaction.  We arrange thousands of calls and meetings each year with men and women who have been corresponding.  On the site, in many areas, we encourage men to call or meet the women on the site as soon as possible and discourage them to write for months at a time.  We will continue to work to resolve this and any other issues for this client.  Thank you for helping to bring this to our attention.
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/02/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I requested the assistance from ********** regarding one profile. I was in contact with one of their profile ************* ID *******. On her profile she claims to be a plastic surgeon in ******** from *****. She contacted me at first the 15 Dec 2023. The 29 Dec she told me " I work as a surgeon in a hospital in the Orlando **** in ***. And yes, I do have a house in ******, which I visit occasionally. "I went 3 times on internet and I found nobody who operate as a surgeon plastic with such a name. And I verified all the pictures listed and registered as a surgeon in *******.I requested them to investigate her as she has another profile here: ******************************************. Zendate.com was Asiandate.com owned by the group Anasatasia.com. So I was surprised that Loveme.com share a lot of profiles with **********************. One Zendate she contacted me also and repeated she was in ***. It was the first red flag.They sent me a short video from the woman where she explains she is in ***** so no explanation why she wrote me twice she was working in *** and she was showing her ID but too far away to read something. Second red flag She wrote me last time in January and refused a Skype call. I called Loveme several time, sent them many emails for assistance and recently I even requested a refund twice but all the time they promise me to send a communication to *****...3 months almost and I lost 100 dollars for nothing. Third red flag.100 dollars paid in 2 parts 06 January 2024, 09:54$50.00 and 29 December 2023, 09:46 $50.00 Desired outcome: Please refund my account

  Business response

  03/06/2024

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we will do our best to resolve this matter for you.  It appears staff was trying to assist and sent a detailed response on 1/15/24. You E-mailed them some time later saying you still have not heard from us, so they resent original response.  When there are issues we always try to contact the woman and many times have her do a video, or call with the man, and explain such issue(s).  In this case it appears she had said she was in the US studying and is now back in ***** working, but the translation made it sound like she was still in the US.  We do not verify or warrant the type of work men or women claim they do, (as most services) but we do try to look into such matters to assist if there is an issue or question. We do not prevent men or women from using other sites, and have no control over what such sites do.  We did blur the ** in the video (we have a copy) due to IMBRA regulations, but she did show her **.  We do not know why she would not do a Video call with you, but I am sure that we can arrange that.  In any case, due to the frustration you have had we will go ahead and provide the refund you requested, that should already have been processed and you should receive in a few days.  We wish you the best in your continued search for your soul mate, and if you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to us.  We agree that a video call or meeting is the always the best way to move forward.

  Customer response

  03/08/2024

  Good morning,

  Thank you for your answer. I noticed that again you promised to assit me to the fact that the woman didn't accept a video call to move forward in our relation and she never replied my last message. I waited a few days again before to contact you gain here. I requested 3 times a refund to my bank accounts and you just re-credited my profile with a bonus. Even if I appreciate your bonus I am surprised that nobody from your team has never tried to contact me through my personal contact. I hope you are going to understand that I faced too many bad issues with your website with zero real solution and I am sad to find out that you only reply the complaints here. So again I request you to refund my bank account please.

  Business response

  03/12/2024

  We apologize for the confusion with the refund.  In the original complaint the client had requested to refund it to his account, which we took as his account with us, as opposed to a credit card, so that is what we did.  We have no issue whatsoever in refunding the funds to his card, and have already done so, he should see it post in the next few days, but we have submitted it.  We are a bit confused about the client stating that we are not responding to him directly about the issues, but only on this platform.  We have screen shots from January and February with the head of ***************** ***, interacting with him several times.  There are also E-mails from October and November of last year where we were assisting him with things like IMBRA and other issues. We do interact with numerous men and women each day.  We regret that obviously there was a miscommunication problem on our side somewhere in this issue which led to the frustration. We do try to be as responsive and available to all of our clients, the women and the men, as much as possible, and normally do a very good job of it. 

  Thank you for your assistance with this issue.

   

• Initial Complaint

  12/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This company has serious business issues and has such poor customer service. On the website, the company pledges to address issues to the satisfaction of its customer including issue any refunds. It has failed up to this pledge and have not addressed my concerns adequately. This after spending several hundreds of dollars with the company over a period of several weeks. Ive been contact the company the company to refund me all emails related to several accounts. In one case, the person responding to email was using increasingly sexually suggestive language, sending pictures of fellow friends as opposed to herself. As the site charges for each and every picture and email, this is problematic given they claim to thoroughly vet all their accounts. In another situations, I received emails that were short and did not written coherently. The site claims to act as professional translators, but the translation is either did not happen or was so poor to render it meaningless. The site claims to help people find love, but its business practices prey on customer paying for expensive email correspondence back and forth. Another person sent an introduction letter only to say that I wasnt a fit later. Did the company help these women screen profiles before sending intro letters? Per AFA's website, "Our pledge to you is that we will either resolve the issue to your full satisfaction or refund the appropriate amount, either way we will work to satisfy you". I called several times and sent several emails. None of the actions taken to date has remotely satisfied or remedied the situation. This site has the potential to be so much better with better customer service. If there is a really connection, the company would be in line to earn some generous profits through tours or calls. But its killing its customer with email, photo fees in the meanwhile while offering very poor customer service up front.

  Business response

  12/26/2023

  We contacted **** immediately,had a constructive conversation with respect to the issues he raised.  He is a serious client, searching for his soul mate.  **************** did address some of his concerns and initially issued a refund.  However,he had sent a follow up E-mail requesting more concessions, (which were reasonable) as he was not satisfied with our initial response.  The staff was out that day and did not respond promptly, thus **** elicited the help here.  **** raised some valid points with respect to the quality of the letters, both content and translations.  He is also correct that we pledge to do our best to resolve any matter to the clients full satisfaction.  Unfortunately, his last E-mail was not addressed promptly, however I believe that ultimately they would have addressed all concerns, as we do strive to do so.  Moving forward,we are providing Norm with more of a refund than he requested due to the delay in our response.  **** also indicated he wanted to take a Group Tour with us, which is great as he will meet many of the women in person, we are  going to provide him with a credit towards that as well.  We are looking into the translation issues, photos etc. in this case and will take corrective actions as necessary.  We do pride ourselves on our customer service which is normally excellent, however,in this case we should have done a better job serving Norm and fully addressing his concerns in a prompt manner.
  We would like to thank the BBB for bringing this to our attention and assisting in resolving the issue.

• Initial Complaint

  09/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This business is a scam. They offer you introductions to women through writing letter and photos through their site. They charge for every communication each way. Every letter comes with multiple photos of the women which you also pay for. When I asked the women to prove that they were who I was communicating with by providing a whatsapp number for free video chats. I was told to keep writing letters and paying for the letters without them providing any proof. These women may be part of the scam or not be real at all. Keep the hamster on the wheel while they drain the wallet. A total fraud. You never find out who you actually communicated with. When you try to contact customer service you get transferred to voicemail. Voicemail messages are never returned. This business should be closed.

  Business response

  09/22/2023

  Thank you for assisting us.  As soon as we saw this we reached out to *****, spoke with him, and discussed how the site works in detail.  We are a Premium International ******************** and as such there are differences from most other dating sites, at times there may be some confusion with new users. Due to language, cultural,and other factors, we provide a much higher level of support for both the women and the men throughout the entire process, even after the couple meets in person.  Our offices around the world facilitate thousands of in-person meetings each year. We advise all the men that it is much better to meet in person than correspond and if they are going to correspond to do so with a plan to meet.  You do not have to correspond first in order to meet.  We are governed by US Federal Law, including IMBRA, International Marriage Broker Regulation Act.  That requires us to do certain things before contact info or meetings can be arranged for everyone safety.  This includes *** offender checks, criminal and marital background disclosures, among other things.  After speaking to *****, who was very sincere and serious, we decided that there was a misunderstanding of how the service works and that one of our group tours would be a much better fit.  We did fail to return his calls due to an issue with the voicemail not playing correctly, but regardless the call should have been returned.  Due to that issue and the misunderstanding of how the service works, we are providing a credit for ***** towards the tour.  We are excited that he is moving forward with a tour as we feel that is one of the best ways to meet many potential candidates at once!
  

• Initial Complaint

  08/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This is a dating site for international women. They advertise attractive foreign women as being available and some having US visas to travel. I began corresponding with one female in ********** by writing a letter. They charge for every letter. At first, the letters were responded to in a normal manner after 1-2 days so I have no complaints, then the last letter sent late at night was responded to in a few hours and the tone was completely different than the first few letters. It was very obvious that 2 different people were writing the letters. Furthermore, this business writes small disclaimers basically admitting that the girls don't actually write the letters many times, The woman don't initiate letters (they use form letters to send to men) and someone else may write the letter on their behalf during correspondence. This is fraud! You are pretending that woman write these letters and having a disclaimer in small print does not release you from committing misrepresentation. It's clear this business makes it's money from impersonation of attractive foreign woman who are likely married or in a relationship and merely use their picture and details to defraud lonely men of their money. I emailed and called to complain but the emails stop after one reply and no one called me back after I left a voicemail.

  Business response

  08/26/2023

  We apologize for the lack of follow up, and looking in to it.  We normally respond promptly to resolve issues. 3 letters were sent, over a month. We contacted the manager and woman.  She stated she corresponded with help of same Matchmaker. She works as a nurse/irregular hours, we work around womens availability, odd hours can happen. Most women dont have visas, she stated she did, but currently could not travel, was happy to meet.  We did not notice a change in tone.  We strive to resolve issues, given your dissatisfaction, we will issue a full refund.  She stated she is willing to meet or do a call, we are happy to facilitate that. Being internationally focused we provide more support with meetings, tours, calls, correspondence, etc., resulting in thousands of marriages since ****. We work to be transparent by stating how the service works, not just in T&Cs but in relevant areas ie, Members home page, Inbox, and others. Matchmakers assist with correspondence for various reasons; translations, cultural differences, safety/convenience issues,and compliance with the US law IMBRA regulating us. Matchmakers are not supposed to write correspondence or Intro letters on behalf of women, but assist with correspondence, and even content, (many women and some men request this) women must participate with the Matchmaker, as per our rules. We constantly check for compliance by randomly calling women. Matchmakers help by assisting with sending Intro letters to possible matches as stated in many areas on the site. Matchmakers support and encourage women to engage with men via correspondence/meetings/skypes,which is why men have more opportunity to meet than most sites. A screening process for profiles helps ensure they are interested, not married etc.  We take your concerns seriously, reviewing information and working to make it even more transparent.    We hope we can assist with this particular woman or in the future, Thank You.

• Initial Complaint

  07/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On June 29 I paid foreign affair 100 using my credit card to add money to my account. I contacted **** on Saturday July 1st asking if the transaction went threw they said the money was deducted from my account but was in pending waiting for foreign affair to receive the money. So I called **** again Monday July 3 I was told foreign affair received the money at ****om on July 2. So I called foreign affair they told me *** who apparently is the only person in billing was out of the office until July 5 . I called back on July 5th they told me she was out of the office until July 6. I called back on July 6 left another voice mail because I got no response. I called several times and left emails and received no response. I will included both transaction history from the site from the past few days you will not see anywhere where my account was credited with 100. I will also show you a copy from my **** account showing where they was paid on July 2 at ****pm.i lhave left many voice mails and emails all have been ignored. It's been 10 days now I'm tired of the games thus I hope BBB can see the documents that back up my claim and help.

  Business response

  07/11/2023

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  Actually, **** is correct.  He did place the order as stated and it was not reflected in his balance.  We experienced a server issue at that time (something that in our 28 year history is very rare) which caused some issues with crediting certain accounts during that short window when the issue occurred.  Unfortunately,at the same time we had staff out, and between the weekend and the July 4th holiday we were behind partly due to an increase in customer server issues related to that outage.  We are not trying to make excuses as it should have been dealt with much faster, (we normally reply within one business day) as we pride ourselves on our customer service.  We did reach out to **** and explained the situation to him and refunded the amount that he paid.  I did reach out to him myself as well to further apologize for the inconvenience, but was unable to reach him.   I believe **** had indicated he had a possible interest in a tour at some future date and if that is the case we would like to extend a credit of an additional $200.00 towards any tour of his choice. 

  We appreciate the opportunity to resolve this situation with **** and look forward to possibly working with him in the future to assist him in finding his soul mate!

  Customer response

  07/11/2023

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************
  
   
  

• Initial Complaint

  06/02/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This company charged me for opening individual mail and sending mail On a dating site which was fine. What is not fine they made a unauthorized $100 debt on my credit card to put in a wallet type account for their site for future use. I did not authorize this and I do not want to continue using this company, this company is a fraud they charge you to exchange mail with foreign women which is fine but what they dont tell you is youre never allowed to exchange emails phone numbers or contact information. Which means you will have to go through them for life. They need to return my hundred dollars that they took and placed in a wallet type account.

  Business response

  06/05/2023

  First, thank you for your past patronage.  There seems to have been some confusion which I am sure we can resolve. I did try calling but could not get through.  Since **************************************************************************************************************** serious relationships.  Yes, due to the international nature, there are laws and regulations we must follow intended for member safety when exchanging contact info, as detailed on the site, but you can certainly exchange contact info with other members. We assist with hundreds if not thousands of personal, face to face, introductions each month, the men and women can certainly exchange contact info, we encourage it, there are also ways to do so on-line without meeting first (we always recommend meeting).  You did have the option to be billed the exact amount of the correspondence or the $100.00 (balance to your account which is refundable). We do that because the $100.00 is the best value by far, you receive $110.00 to your account ($10.00 for free!).  There are also ways to earn credits towards tours as well,  That way we decrease the number of transactions and pass the savings on to you. If that was an issue you could have simply called and we would have refunded the balance (less the extra 10% which was given to you for free) right away.  We have refunded the full $100.00, (may take up to 3 days or more for your bank to process it) even though you did use some of it, and closed your account per your request.  If you would ever like to meet someone in person just reach out to us and we will be happy to assist!  We wish you the very best in your search for that special someone!

• Initial Complaint

  04/08/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  From January 30 through March 13, 2023, I paid $300 to exchange email communication with a person on A Foreign Affairs website, whom I thought was real and genuinely interested in developing a serious, long-term relationship. After a few weeks, I discovered the person I was writing to was actually a paid interpreter/employee from A Foreign Affair, who was leading me on but refused video communication on AFAs website or outside its platform. I realized I was being scammed when the person whom I was communicating with refused video communication on AFAs Skype, despite professing interest in me and sending me several letters expressing a desire to establish a relationship. It cost me $10 to read each of the letters that I received and $10-$15 to respond to each correspondence. The Skype option was relatively safe, as a third-party AFA interpreter would have been there to facilitate and assist with the conversation. Moreover, the Skype video option was on the sites platform so no personal information would have had to be exchanged. When I called AFA to address this issue, the person I spoke to admitted that I was speaking to an AFA interpreter/employee. Moreover, *** told me that a manger would call me to discuss the matter. However, I never received a return call from AFA. On March 30, 2023, I sent a written letter to AFA to request a partial refund ($150) for the money that I lost from this apparent scam. Per AFA's website, "Our pledge to you is that we will either resolve the issue to your full satisfaction or refund the appropriate amount, either way we will work to satisfy you" (Source: *****************************************************). Unfortunately, AFA never bothered to respond to my email or communicate with me to resolve this problem. AFA should be investigated for making deceptive claims about their services and clients and tricking customers to believe that they are willing to independently resolve consumer complaints to their full satisfaction.

  Business response

  04/12/2023

  Thank you for assisting with this matter. We just spoke with ******* and had a very good conversation.  There seemed to be some misunderstandings and we did drop the ball on communication with him as to what we were doing to assist him.  Part of the issue was it was Holy week in *************** and then of course Easter.  The offices are closed or severely cut back for several days.  In his letter he was wanting a resolution by the 15th of April and since that was still many days away our main office was waiting to hear back from the agency.  They did not communicate that to ******* as they should have which was our fault and prompted him to reach out to the BBB.  There was also a miscommunication as to the paid interpreter.  Our staff relayed that the letters go through a paid interpreter, which they do as stated on the site,but the woman must be involved.  We contacted the agency and received proof of the womans involvement in the correspondence.  It was a relatively short correspondence so the woman was not quite prepared to do a 30 minute skype call which takes more time and energy given that she needs to travel to the office to do the video call.  However, she is willing to do it and or meet him.  We informed him of that but he stated that he may consider doing a tour with us in the future to *************.  That is something we highly advise as the tours and in person meetings are much more productive than correspondence.  We resolved the issue with ******* as he asked and look forward to working with him again in the future!

  Customer response

  04/16/2023

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  Thank you for your services. I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 

  Moreover, I recently checked my credit card statement and it shows AFA promptly reimbursed the amount that I requested to resolve this matter.

  I appreciate ****'s timely resolution to this matter and returning my funds, as promised. I also appreciate ****'s professionalism and candor in dealing with this issue.

  Thank you, again, for your services!

  Kind Regards,

  
  **********************************************
  
   

  
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩