Ring-Ring: Anyone Out There Actually Using Telephone Dating Services?

Aug 27, 2009 4 Comments »

Are there any good people out there meeting singles through those telephone dating services? Frankly the whole idea frightens me a little and brings back nothing but freakish memories of days past. That’s not to say these things don’t work. There are dozens of them floating around out there and they all claim to have relatively high success rates, but success for whom?

The commercials for these phone services all feature gorgeous women who probably represent the smallest fraction of actual clientele. The models who appear in the ads, all claiming their Friday nights are best spent by pressing 2 to hear a profile and 3 to leave a greeting, all while lying around in their undies, are in all reality spending their nights at parties, in clubs or in their boy friends’ Mercedes.

So who are these people who are dialling their nights away? Well, personally I have images of an old roommate who’d get home around 5:30 every day, plant himself on the couch and then pick up the phone. When I was around, my evenings were spent listening to the soundtrack of incessant touch-tones and a guy who’d place somewhere behind Homer Simpson in a beauty contest describing himself as fit and attractive.

Always I’d wonder who was on the receiving end of those messages. Is the mix equal to that of a typical online dating site? Are the telephone diallers basically the same bunch, and what is it that’s keeping them from posting a profile online? Is it the lack of computer or internet? Is it the fear of being asked for a photo? Maybe meeting singles that way simply feels right to them.

As far as I’m aware, my roommate only ever managed to meet one girl off the phone service. She also would have placed somewhere behind homer in a beauty contest, but I like to think that she was nice. Of course, my well established bias against said roommate makes it hard for me to imagine any woman of sound mind and pleasant personality settling for him. And settle she did; the last time I saw her she was sporting an engagement ring.

Those memories are only some of what keeps me from trying the phone thing out. There’s also the fact that I’m just not all that good on the phone, not to mention that other means of meeting singles seem to be working out for me. Surely there are people other than me trying those services out, otherwise they wouldn’t be in business and my old roomy would have needed a new hobby.

Have any of you ever given telephone dating services a try? If you were exploring nightclub alternatives a decade ago before online dating really took off then it’s likely that you have, but it’s the more recent users that are most intriguing. Why the phone and not the net? Do you use them both? Did you ever manage to score a better catch than my old roommate? Let’s hear some stories; just click on the comments link below.

Related posts:

1. Single Life: You Get What You Pay For
2. Salvaging a Bad Date
3. Phone Etiquette When Dating
4. How Can You Standout From Other Singles?
5. Tips For Safe Internet Dating