Today, they started charging me credits BEFORE I even read messages!

[odysseus007]

Hiya guys,

Just wanted to share something which I find a little disturbing, as the headline says. So I send them an enquiry. 3 messages this morning, 3 credits disappear, so now the gals basically CONTROL my credits, unless I BLOCK them, which is rather Draconian since it is CHNLove's fault. I find it makes me vulnerable to those gals who feel like Twittering or sending some short random messages multiple times a day, geez!

So here's the cut & paste of the reply from them :

Vicki Chow (Customer Care) : 2010-01-27 09:33:32 GMT
Dear Lawrence, Thank you for your message.Please be kindl... Detail
From:   Vicki Chow (Customer Care)
To:   Lawrence Low
Date:   27 Jan, 2010 GMT
 
 
 
Dear Lawrence,

Thank you for your message.Please be kindly noted we have received your concern and will deal with it as soon as possible.

For your concern, as you may know, when contacting your favorite lady via EMF letters, one credit will be deducted from your account each time you sent or received an EMF letter. To know more about how the credit system works, please have a look at:
http://www.chnlove.com/help/faq.php?qid=197

You may wonder why the credit is deducted before you open the lady's reply. Actually, the money we collect from the credits is mainly used to cover the translation cost for each letter handled by the agencies. For each of your coming EMF mail, the translators inside the agencies need to translate and forward each EMF mail to the ladies. In due time, they need to contact them again to obtain their reply, then translate it into English. In the whole process, the ladies are free to enjoy the free translation service as well as professional consultation and advices from the agencies, which make her feel comfortable and confident to build trust and prompt the relationship. To help ease your concern, here below is the link for your kind reference:
http://www.chnlove.com/help/tips_advice/article.php?id=9

On the other hand, if you do not wish to receive more letters from the lady, you may add her to your Block List:
http://www.chnlove.com/my/block.php

Thanks again for your support to our service. Please feel free to let us know if you have additional question or concern. We'll be glad to help our sincere clients.

Kind regards,

Vicki Chow
Chnlove Customer Care
 
 


Then my follow-up :

From:   Lawrence Low
To:  Chnlove Customer Care
Date:   27 Jan, 2010 GMT
 
 
 
Under the first link :

How does the CL Credit system work?

Your OWN ANSWER :

"You may view these mails after you purchase new credits. It is until you purchase new credits and view the letters will credits be deducted. For the mails unread by the gentleman, credits will not be deducted."

What does the last sentence say?

FOR THE MAILS UNREAD BY THE GENTLEMAN, CREDITS WILL NOT BE DEDUCTED.

So you have contradicted your own policy. I am not asking WHY it is deducted. I am asking WHY you do not follow your own procedure.



While I await their reply, what do you guys have to say? Anybody else been on the receiving end?

By the way I am no innocent lamb. I have been to China many times before, can find my way around, and I CAN speak decent Chinese.

[David E]

Lawrence...

Been there...done that.

The key to this particular deception is whether or not you have credits in your account. If you have, then any EMF sent to you will result in a credit deduction WHETHER OR NOT YOU READ IT !!!

If you have no credits, then nothing will/can be deducted from your account until such time as you purchase credits...then they will be deducted !!

As usual, the garbage written by the Customer Care Department is meaningless...and they wont do anything to fix it.

So, unles you actually want to read a specific letter from a specific Lady/Ladies you are writing to.....then dont have credits in your account...you cant escape their money making machine.

I wont go any further into the nefarious activities of CHNLove...there are hundreds of posts here that explain it all.

However, this is all part of the reason why we say get off EMF's as soon as possible and onto QQ or similar...but that is yet another story, and yet another way that CHNLove fight like Tigers to keep the revenue stream going strong !!

welcome to your worst nightmare ...but the rewards are potentially so good that we all stick with it...and many eventually win :icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin:

DavidE

[odysseus007]

Thanks David,

I have thought of that as well. Now there are 2 problems I can foresee with that approach :

1) the gals all seem to want EMF, whether or not they are in collusion with the agencies, or even if the agencies are unilaterally duping me is another matter;

2) if I only buy credits when I want to read a particular EMF, then to keep the credits low, I will have to buy like 4 credits at a pop, which makes each credit even pricier. And then the backlog of EMFs will wipe out my whole balance of credits.

As sane & logical folks, collectively we should be able to defeat their nefarious scheme. What, has nobody found a way?

So far I am toying with a plan that involves blocking gals & deleting EMFs until I get an EMF that I want to read. Also, giving the gals an ultimatum to get off EMF. Blocked gals cannot send me EMFs indiscriminately. And EMFs not sent will not cost me credits, even if I have big fat credits sitting idle in my account tempting the dirty rotten scoundrels of the agencies. Your thoughts?

[David E]

Its all about what strategy you choose to employ in your search...targetted or scattergun !!!

If you only invite one or two Ladies to communicate...those who you are particularly interested in, then the EMF expense is more modest and more controllable.

If, however, you want to contact many Ladies before you choose one/two or ?? to get more serious with, then the cost of EMF's will rise.

As a personal opinion, I would suggest to restrict your prospecting to only a few, for many reasons other than the cost of EMF's....its very hard to keep sucessful commnications with many ladies simultaneously !!!

Either which way, the EMF route is unlikely to allow you to get to know the real person...too much translator influence both ways !! QQ or similar gives you a better understanding of who you are communicating with.

If you find a lady who you want to go further with, dig your heels in about more personal contact...if she is serious, she will eventually agree...or lose you !!

David

[odysseus007]

Totally agree David !

As I said, I speak fluent English, Chinese & Malay (the last is irrelevant here). So in fact there is absolutely no reason or the gals not to progress to phone conversation unless it's about money.

Methodically I believe it is best to do targeted. I select the gals, not the other way round. Then from maybe a dozen I start whittling down. It's the way headhunters work. And fast, coz 50 credits only lasted like 2 weeks, that too with me deliberately holding back replies.

With options open I retain control. I can make ultimatums. If I just want to play around, here in my home ground it is a lot faster & cheaper to do so. My purpose in CHN is for real & for keeps.

[Vince G]

odysseus007, Welcome to the forum.

Hiding your profile will give more control to you. I think we all complained of the EMF that you don't want to read and got paid for. The first EMF from a woman was free? (I think) I guess they did away with that? If you hide your profile you make the pick not them.

[brett]

I hid my profile as soon as I found my girl. I've also blocked all the other girls I had any contact with. It's harsh, but I found that otherwise I would end up with having to pay for "touch base" type of EMFs that I presume agencies send out if you don't respond quickly enough.

[RobertBfrom aust]

Mr L one way to slow things is to hide your profile and only talk to the ones that you wish to talk to via their free contact note , regards Ying and Robert .

[ttwjr32]

typical of cnl procedures and the answer from custumer service was standard rubbish.
 do they even know what "customer service" means or stands for??? i would get off emf's
 as soon as possible like 3 or 5 emf's i think and some of you might disagree but that is enough
 yes the language might be a problem but it will still be a problem after 25 emf's so why prolong it
 tackle it head on i just think to much good money is waisted on these emf's and chnlove knows this
 and appreciates everyones money. they gave me the same rubbish i left and went to cll and there i
 found my wife after weeding out the knucklehead chatters or gold diggers but it ws no were near the
 cost of chnlove. just my opinion from someone who didnt want to put up with there crap any more. i
 think they think they are the only game in town and from the looks of the posts there lately doesnt
 seem to be as lively as it once once. no matter were you go you will have to weed out the bad to get
 the good at least on other sites you dont have to worry about a translator talking to you instead of
 a lady. ok i will shut up on this as it just gets me going when i see their bussiness practices.

[Vince G]

Ted, Even if he got off EMF's and talked direct that wouldn't stop other women (agency) from writing and taking up credits. Hiding the profile is the only thing to do.

[odysseus007]

Thanks Vince, David, Robert :angel:

Yes, hiding I must investigate further. I understand that if I did not initiate contact with a cupid, then admiration mails cannot escalate coz I did not give them the power, & I won't be charged.

Only those that I reply to, or initiate with cupid will auto deduct credits. If so be the case, then I can selectively block the also-rans, and need not worry about the admirers. BUT I still keep profile active to get admirers from the new gals. UNLESS of coz I found "THE ONE". But I wouldn't call it a day unless I have met her & it's mutually approved. Please correct me if I made a flaw in logic or in fact.

I have been in over 20 cities & towns in China, and "wang ba"s are ubiquitous I attest. No excuse for being unable to find one & get on the webcam.. Altho I really find them not much better than the Nazi gas chambers of Auschwitz, with all the inveterate smokers there.

[Vince G]

Ahem! I'm a smoker. Just kidding there's no offence taken. I've been a member on CL for about 2 years or so? I think I'm starting my 3rd? I hid my profile maybe 6 months in? A year after some others, and learning the ropes I sent a cupid to a lady and we've been a couple since. Before this there was one young women that was very nice but kept sending notes instead of a letter. "I not hear from you in three days? you write soon OK"  I ended up blocking her.

As for web camming? Some do, some don't? It's hard to say.

[odysseus007]

Thanks Ted,

I am already looking into CLL. There are other free places like DIA (with lotsa pinay goldigger crap as usual) where gals are far more forthcoming with contact details. The funny thing is, back before all these dating sites came up, I usually ended up meeting the nicest gals not from the ones I went to meet after letters back & forth, but met them by accident or in public places AFTER I arrived in China. Like in the hotel I stayed at, I met like at least 12 decent to great gals, from just 3 hotels/hostels. My ex, I met with nothing more than a blurry photo beforehand, was fabulous ! We were together for 5 years. It was helluva a risk I took back then, I admit. But no middleman, no translator. All direct.

The first "gal" I met in Wuhan turned out to be nothing like her photo, and a chain smoker to boot. That was a real disaster, but before the days of internet dating. Still, she treated me decently except for the appearance deception, and her daughter was adorable.

The second gal I was heads over heels with was actually my "private tour guide". Very pretty & smart, but long story short she ended up with some European guy later.

It's all a gamble sometimes, but these days I try to mitigate the risks.Ah Vince,

noone taken :icon_cheesygrin: Was just sayin that the ventilation in these places are atrocious to nonexistent, and the youths.... some of em eat, sleep & wake up & play MMORPG games all day & night there. Gotta go by gut feel. I tell em straight up : if you are gonna write a 1 liner, guess what, you're a one-timer with me. Coz I got better thangs to do with my credit. Heck, I can buy like 7 pirated DVDs with the price of 1 credit ferchrissake.

[ttwjr32]

dia is a site for purely entertainment purposes. that place is a
gathering place for all the hooligans. and i dont mean to offend
anyone here but the ones from the philipines wow they are in love
at the opening of your profile :dodgy:

[odysseus007]

Hahaha yeah you're right Ted,
But I've spoken (phone calls) to a few chinese ladies from there who are genuine. Not the pinays tho, the odds are real bad for em. I've also met some of the Thai university students from actual events I attend in BKK, very decent gals, and nothing like the bargal types u find mostly.