Late Night Credit Card Blues

Late last night, in a moment of weakness, I signed up for a 6 month subscription to a well known dating site. I cannot even use alcohol as an excuse, as there wasn't a drop in my system. I just had a rough week and ill advisedly decided to combine retail therapy with "taking charge" of my life. I know the rules well; never make big changes while going through a break up.

My dalliance with this dating site lasted almost 13 hours and I was sleeping for 8 of them. The first thing I noticed was that most of the dating selections were outside the age and distance parameters the site had forced me to select. You can not search for matches on you own. This particular site uses a self-report assessment to set up your profile and then disregards all of that information in order to send you possible matches who you have only the most cursory commonalities with, like say, whether you prefer Chevy Chase or Bill Murray (an actual question). I really like Bill Murray, but not enough to ignore a huge red flags. "He thinks having a child out of wedlock is a sin and believes a woman's place is in the kitchen, but he really loved Stripes so it's a date!"

Before you can start corresponding with someone directly, you have to go through the site's guided communication, which consists of selecting 5 multiple choice questions from a list and sending them to a match to answer. The only question on the list I would consider pertinent to my vetting process was "how many books have you read in the last year?" Every time I received questions, I looked down the list for a shrug or meh response. Despite intense soul-searching I could muster strong feelings about restaurant atmosphere and no one should have to choose between Paris or hiking in the mountains (the Alps and the Pyrenees and not that far from Paris, surely there's time to do both).

With a premium subscription (the only one available for a short term contract), you get a "Book of You" that describes you based on your "strongly disagree to strongly agree" scale responses to questions you probably don't really care about. My book apparently belonged to two different people. One of me was kindness to a fault, giving so much of myself; I should have footprints on me. The other was a megalomaniac b!tch who didn't give a single thought to other people as long as she had the spotlight. Now, I am sure I have been each of these things and many more besides in my life (so there is no need to write in with your examples), but I find it hard to believe I currently exude both at the same time.  

In the light of day, I realized I had made a not inexpensive mistake. The site promises you can cancel within the first 3 days of signing up, but it doesn't make it very easy to do so. I had to dig through several pages of FAQ even to find contact information. My first step was to email, and though I did receive a response in less than 24 hours, I was told I could not cancel because I was on a payment plan, despite being well within the 3 day policy. I then phoned to cancel and the customer service rep talked me into a 14 day preview extension. I asked her to send a confirmation email and while I waited for it, I started to read reviews of the site that all included failing to cancel and get money back. I worried that, without an email confirmation of the 14 day extension, I would be outside my 3 day window and so ineligible for a refund. After a couple of hours I called again and this time was a lot more blunt and assertive about my desire to cancel. I received my cancellation confirmation via email and breathed a sigh of relief. 

In hindsight, what a really need most right now is for my credit card to be frozen for online purchases between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.  Friday to Sunday. Now, I think I'll get out of the house for a bit, maybe do some shopping.