Thursday, 19 June 2008
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I Failed the eHarmony Compatibility Test
By Miss Double ShotA few years ago, my friend and I were looking for a way to kill time on a weeknight, and with the TV blaring eHarmony ads in the background - you remember the "this! will! beeee! my everlasting love" ads, right? - we decided to log onto the site and take the free compatibility test. He was more excited than I was: "We're gonna find you the perfect man within a 20-mile radius!"
The one caveat we set was that we were going to be honest about the responses - it would've been fun to pretend to be an 87-year-old obese man named Ned who was only looking for casual encounters, but come on. Serious business.
So we took the test, watching the completion progress bar inch toward 100% with every answer we provided. The test itself is relatively painless but does ask you to do some serious thinking about who you are and what you look for in a potential mate. It was nice to have a second perspective, too - I guess I didn't realize that some of my neuroticisms were so obvious to others...
We got halfway through the test before the unthinkable happened."eHarmony is based upon a complex matching system developed through extensive research with married couples. One of the requirements for successful matching is that participants to fall within certain defined profiles. If we find that we will not be able to match a user using these profiles, we feel it is only fair to inform them early in the process.
We are so convinced of the importance of creating compatible matches to help people establish happy, lasting relationships that we sometimes choose not to provide service rather than risk an uncertain match.
Unfortunately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching model could not accurately predict with whom you would be best matched. This occurs for about 20% of potential users, so 1 in 5 people simply will not benefit from our service. We hope that you understand, and we regret our inability to provide service for you at this time."
I had failed the eHarmony test.
My friend didn't really know what to say after that, and neither did I. I'm used to being the odd one out, being taller than the average woman, left-handed and with a hair color that 2% of the population has, but this was just silly and a tad bit embarrassing.
That was the end of my online dating career - I decided that I'd rather look for guys in a non-virtual world than post pictures, write a profile and hope for someone to come across it.
Have you ever taken compatibility tests on dating sites? How'd it go?
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Comments (16)
a friend of mine tried it in college, he was told there are zero matches within 100 miles but we'll let you know when someone pops up!!!
You're just too complex and interesting to fit into a profile model.
I never tried to take the test.. now i am curious! :D hahaha
As for the VS sales~ I can't stand going there when there are 5+ girls trying to get a each bin of sale items. I'm not big on crowds haha! vs.com :D ^^ where the lazy goes!
FAIL!
I did the eHarmony profile once because I was bored. The matches that it came up with for me were usually anywhere from 200-500 miles away from me and obese smokers in their mid thirties none of which fit even close to anything I had said I was looking for. Thus I decided that eHarmony is a bunch of crap.
I can't say I've gotten past the "pay this amount" on any dating site. Didn't you have to pay before you got to do the evaluation?
After filling out the personality survey on a dating site,
and reading a comprehensive breakdown of the type of woman that I am
compatible with, I got this result:
"0 matches
There are currently no matches for you to manage. "
A bit disappointed I expanded my search from "within 60 miles" to "Anywhere in the world" and got the same result.
It's now confirmed. She doesn't exist.
My boyfriend went to match.com before he met me and was told "we are unable to match you at this time". I guess it was just because I wasn't on the site...
@RuchingDiva - this one was free. I'd never pay to take a test like that! I think once you sign up, you have to pay, but the comprehensive compatibility test is on the house.
eHarmony rejected me too! twice!
This same thing happened to me a few years back. I was a member of a forum for a particular personality type (from the Meyers Brigg Type Indicator scale), INTPcentral.com. It became a huge craze, once one person posted they failed the EHarmony personality test, we ALL took it and failed. I guess strange brainy types just can't find love. There is also the fact that they only match straight couples.
You know what website I use regularly, more as a social site than anything else? OKCupid.com. Many questions are written by the staff but the majority are all user submitted (pending approval). The matching algorithm is pretty interesting. I've found a lot of good friends there (they have a "match" percentage and a "friend" percentage) and we have eerily similar personalities.
Funny how that happens. I'm in a healthy and happy relationship, but I was bored and decided to do the test. So I told him I just wanted to see what the hell those stupid TV aids were about. He just laughed and we sat down and put me through the system. Don't you know it - I came up incompatible. There was a stunned pause where we just sort of stared at each other and than started laughing. Since I've already met the dude, I have to say they're full of it.
I took it back in like 2004 and failed also I received that same message, I thought it was pretty funny I was that complex.
unately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching model could not accurately predict with whom you would be best matched. This occurs for about 20% of potential users, so 1 in 5 people simply will not benefit from our service. We hope that you understand, and we regret our inability to provide service for you at this time."
They reset my questionnaire after I complained about not having any matches. After my complaint, I retook the questionnaire only to come up as unmatchable. So I called them to complain and they simply reset the questionnaire. What? Am I supposed to make something up now? Ridiculous.
I totally failed that test, too. I laughed.
I felt a bit cheated, since I didn't at least get a "this seems to be your basic tendencies" percentage tally addendum alongside the whole "you're one of the 20% of humanity that we can't quantify."
Good post. I failed the eHarmony test as well. At first I felt a little bad about not passing the test but then I realized that the way I see my life isn't likely to match the values of the people who built eHarmony to begin with.