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Roommates.com Reviews Summary
The overall reputation of Roommates.com is mixed, with a significant divide in customer experiences. Positive feedback highlights the platform's effectiveness in matching users with quality roommates, particularly for those who have utilized the service over the years. However, numerous complaints emphasize persistent issues with spam and scams, leading to frustration over unread messages and poor customer support. Many users express disappointment with the site's matching algorithm and the perceived lack of genuine interactions, suggesting a need for improved moderation and communication features to enhance user experience and trust.
This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews
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So Ridiculous, so just like everyone else, I Only Signed Up for a 3 DAY SUBSCRIPTION. Blew up my mailbox with junk, didn't find the site useful at all. Nobody signs up here, maybe like a few listings a day in my area and I live in East La. Found my own place elsewhere, yesterday, so mind you I haven't even used it in a couple days. Today I check my bank account, and see that they charged me a 29.20$ Charge! That I NEVER AGREED TO. Literally, there was no fine print. NOTHING. THEY AUTOMATICALLY CHARGE YOU WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT. Called Chase right away and they shut down my debit card, because CANNOT TRUST THEM. Plus they don't even have a phone number to contact them on site, all they have is a phony $#*! email. Like WTF is that going to do? SAVE YOURSELF. DO NOT USE
After signing up I receive an email... Thank you for joining Roommates.com! Use the following login information to gain access to the members area. You'll then be able to browse matches, send and receive messages, and edit your account / profile. If you were disconnected during sign up, don't worry, your information has been saved. Just revisit the site and log in with your user name and password. It says that you can send and RECEIVE messages, but RECEIVE is where they trick you. Yes, you can receive messages, but they fail to tell you that YOU HAVE TO PAY TO OPEN YOUR MESSAGES.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry that you felt misled regarding the memberships and how the site works.
The Basic membership for Roommates.com is free, and as a basic member you can add a profile, browse your matches and send RoomMail messages, all for free. It is true that in order to read messages received from other members, you must become a Choice Member.
When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read messages received, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
I used to pay $5.00 every email. It got me know where. It doesn't matter, male, female, Everybody I spoke to is hyper and drunk! Can't make up their mind if they want a roommate or a lover! One person told me, I can't bring meat in the house, but he has a friend accross the road whom would rent to me. So, I called. I was able to bring meat in the house, but not cook it. I thought then and there, I will not pay $5.00 to put myself through this again. So then, I started putting my number in to still get emails back! If I gave you the number, it takes nothing to write it down and call. Especially after giving the number to do so. A scam? I will never know and don't want to deal with this. I need a roommate not a head game! I don't understand adults playing this game. If you are not serious, what's the point? Go on twitter to play games!
I wish I had read these before I paid the 20.00. I never receive any answers back. I think they have people posting fake stuff to get you to pay the money.
Bad site
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I'm sorry you didn't have success finding a roommate on the site, and I understand that finding a roommate can be a difficult and frustrating process, especially if you are not receiving as many responses as you'd like.
The site is a bulletin board service and the profiles listed are not listed by the company. Roommates.com is happy to help you search for a roommate with our automated matching services, but it is a self-service site so you do have to send messages to your matches, post photos and look for profiles that would be a good fit you.
Even though you were not successful in using our website, if you should require a roommate in the future, I ask that you give us a second chance. I would be more than happy to explain how to get the most out of your account with Roommates.com, even with the free service.
When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read Roommates.com emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
Our Customer Support department is more than willing to answer any questions you may have concerning your account. Feel free to email us if you ever need any sort of assistance.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
Unlike others who have complained about the $20 membership fee I wish this site would get rid of the "freebies". If everyone had to pay then maybe the only people who would take the time to fill out a profile would be serious about finding a roommate. As it stands, the site is filled with absolute crap, fake people, people who put a profile up just for kicks and forget to take it down, etc. And the simple fact that you cannot contact a potential roommate unless you are a paid subscriber negates the effectiveness of the site. At least 1 person has to have paid. I kinda cheated and listed an Outlook email account I created just for finding a roommate. But again, unless someone has paid, you can't even see that. To be fair, several potential roommates (non scam) did contact me but it didn't work out. But that's over a period of about 6 months. It seems to me the site is not a true roommate site. As in 2 people share a place completely 50/50. It's mainly lots and lots of people who have trouble making their mortgage and just want to rent a room.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear you did not receive more valid responses. Roommates.com is a bulletin board service so there will always be some people that are not on the site for the right reasons, but we try to remove them as quickly as possible.
We do have the MatchPlus option on the site, which matches you with members who are looking for a place like you so that you can find a place together.
The Basic membership for Roommates.com is free, and as a basic member you can add a profile, browse your matches and send RoomMail messages, all for free. It is true that in order to read messages received from other members, you must become a Choice Member.
When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read Roommates.com emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
Total scam, it makes no indication that you have to pay for anything until someone emails you, then it tells you have have to "upgrade" aka pay money to see the message. Stay away.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with Roommates.com as well as the fact that you feel misled by the website with regard to the upgraded memberships. Please understand that is not our intention.
When you go to the Roommates.com website under the More Info tab, you will find the Frequently Asked Questions page. On this page you will find information on how the site works with the free membership and the upgraded membership, along with the membership cost options.
When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read Roommates.com emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
I have an ad for a room and only paid roomers respond via email. If you want to respond to a possibly roomer, you have to pay to read the responses.
UPDATE 9-2-2015 - Any mail u get - u can't read unless you are a paying person. Any mail you send will get to the other person, but they cannot read it if they are not a paying person. Unless your letter to the person includes all your contact, and they pay the fee, no one can read what you wrote to them. They might pay to read, then they respond back to you, but if you aren't paying the fee, you can't read what they wrote (a waste of their money!). Basically, if you are serious about renting, pay the fee and get the hits. They can't read your description now unless they are a paying member. So, putting contact info in the description is now useless unless they pay the fee. The site does do well, though.
I have been on for a few months as a paying member. Only got one real response, who stood me up, and a fake response from a girl from Germany saying that she worked for The International Labor Organization and they would mail me a check for the rent and deposit before her arrival. So she is telling me she is willing to send me, a stranger, $2000, sight unseen? Also Germany withdrew from the International Labour Organization in 1935. I put up a blog about her as a present and now she is threatening me, so I contacted a couple of fraud reporting sites. I reported her to Roommates.com, I am only going to stay on a few more days to see if they take her down. And no one ever responded to any of my emails.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear that you were contacted by a scammer and I understand that finding a roommate can be a difficult and frustrating process, especially if you are not receiving as many responses as you'd like.
We do have a Scam Alert posted on the website that explains the types of common scams that are currently being perpetrated on this website as well as many others. We hope that this information will assist people in educating themselves so as not to fall victim to fraud.
Most of the scams are done in the manner described in your review. Most users willing to send an overpayment in advance in the form of cashier’s check or money order have proven to be scams. When a fraudulent account is detected by our Fraud Department, the account and any messages sent from that account are automatically removed in order to protect the legitimate members of Roommates.com. Unfortunately, many times scammers don't make themselves known until they get you to email them through their private email address, which Roommates is not privy to. We are doing all we can to protect our members and keep scammers from posting on our site.
The messages you send to other members are immediately delivered to their Mail Center for a response. It is left up to the member to decide if they would like to respond to those messages they receive. They do have the option to message you back with their contact information if they do not want to upgrade their account to read your message.
Roommates.com is a bulletin board service. As always, some areas may have more roommate potential than others, but aside from your My Matches List, we also offer a Power Search, and a Basic Search option that can assist in increasing your Match list.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
I sent messages to 33 people the website said were matches and received 2 responses and 1 from someone who was not even a match. The 1st message I ever received in my mailbox was spam which to look at I had to get a membership. I paid $19.99 and the message was fraudulent. I did not receive any messages for days so I emailed customer service asking why the response rate was so low and never got a response. This was the biggest waste of my time, money and efforts. I feel taken advantage of and I am extremely disappointed by this website, extremely.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I’m sorry to hear that you did not have a good experience with our site.
If you paid for a membership and the message received was a scam message, you are entitled to a refund. I’m sorry that you did not receive more valid responses.
When you receive matches that do not match the criteria that you entered on your profile it is due to the open nature of our website. Members are not required to fill out specific criteria regarding themselves or their preferences. Members who choose not to fill out certain parts of their profile such as gender, will be matched with you as long as the portion they do fill out matches your listing. It will be left to the members themselves to make contact and ask any questions they feel are important in selecting a potential new roommate.
I’m not sure why you did not receive a response back from our Customer Service, but we would like a chance to correct the issue. Please contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you with a refund.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
Same as every other review on here. Went through the whole process of setting up an account, got an email the next day which I wasn't allowed to read. I thought about sending this person an email explaining that I'm not a paid member but I assumed they were not either so just didn't bother. And why is it so expensive? Six bucks for a three day trial? I'd rather be spammed with ads than pay for something I'll only use once. Such a waste of time.
Protip: If you're going to set up an online business that charges a subscription fee, you really ought to mention that before making people create pointless accounts, otherwise you're just gonna piss off a lot of people and ruin your business.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with Roommates.com as well as the fact that you feel misled by the website with regard to the upgraded memberships. Please understand that is not our intention.
When you go to the Roommates.com website under the More Info tab, you will find the Frequently Asked Questions page. On this page you will find information on how the site works with the free membership and the upgraded membership, along with the membership cost options. We encourage you to send out messages to your matches. Most members will upgrade so they can communicate directly with their potential roommate.
When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read Roommates.com emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
I agree. Roommates.com is a huge waste of time and money. I was looking to rent a room in NYC. After upgrading for the 1 month unlimited access, I sent out about 40 inquires. Of the 10 or so that actually replied, 9 were from scam artists. The tenth I'm not sure that he was or not. The site does alert you about scammers. Basically everyone that replied to me, I received a message from the administrators that the user was a fraud and suppressed. Complete waste of time and money. I don't mind paying to upgrade if I'm going to get what I need. With this site it's not worth it. I believe almost 90% of the profiles are scammers. Zero stars.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear that you were contacted by a scammer and I understand that finding a roommate can be a difficult and frustrating process, especially if you are not receiving as many responses as you'd like.
If you paid for a membership and the message received was a scam message, you are entitled to a refund.
When a fraudulent account is detected by our Fraud Department, the account and any messages sent from that account are automatically removed in order to protect the legitimate members of Roommates.com. Unfortunately, many times scammers don't make themselves known until they get you to email them through their private email address, which Roommates is not privy to. We are doing all we can to protect our members and keep scammers from posting on our site.
Roommates.com is a bulletin board service. As always, some areas may have more roommate potential than others, but aside from your My Matches List, we also offer a Power Search, and a Basic Search option that can assist in increasing your Match list.
Please contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you with a refund.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
All the emails I got was fake, I tried Dream-mate.com and found a great room. You get to speak to a live person and they give you landlord information the same day. I moved in the next day. Roommates.com is a SCAM
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
We are glad you were able to find a roommate, even if it wasn’t through our site.
We are sorry you were not happy with the site. And we assure you that Roommates.com is not a scam.
We have assisted countless members in finding the perfect roommate. We are doing all we can to stop the scammers. Additionally, we have implemented several new security features we believe will reduce the amount of scamming activity on the site.
Obviously we would love to see everyone who uses Roommates.com be successful in their search for a roommate. However, we do realize that is not always the case as the process of finding a roommate can be difficult.
Even though you were not successful in using our website, if you should require a roommate in the future, we ask that you give us a second chance. We would be more than happy to explain how to get the most out of your account with Roommates.com, even with the free service.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
Spent the 20 bucks, received ZERO emails for my posting or replies to emails i sent. Within days after my upgraded account running out, I started receiving emails. TOTAL SCAM. Sorry roommates.com, but that's oldschool dating site scammery from the 90's and easily recognizable. Immediately deactivated account, only to find now i cannot delete my account. Certainly so that the website can use it to scam others, which is yet another dating site scam from 2 years ago. What a total fraud site. Stay away. Far away.
Hello,
My name is Jessica and I am one of the Relationship Managers at Roommates.com.
I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with Roommates.com as well as the fact that you feel misled by the website with regard to the upgraded memberships. Please understand that you are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. You do not have to pay in order to view matches. That has never been the case. Certain aspects of a profile may not be available to you if you have not paid but you are still able to view the basic information of the match itself and send an
Email to the potential match. As stated previously, many have successfully found a roommate using the free portion of the site. They send their contact information within emails to other users and many post their contact information within their profile description for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
As with most websites, there are added benefits to purchasing an upgrade. Those benefits include having full access to your emails as well as being able to view larger photos, maps, and the comment sections of other member's profiles. Purchasing an upgraded membership can be done at any time. Many individuals who utilize Roommates.com wait to purchase an upgrade
Until they have several emails waiting for them. This way, they fully maximize their upgrade.
With regard to deleting your account, you absolutely have that ability. You can click a link within your account to deactivate the account. When that occurs, your account is immediately removed from any public search. It is deactivated and after 30 days it is permanently deleted. Roommates.com does not use any account for any purpose. Accounts belong to the account holder and there is absolutely no reason for Roommates.com to use it.
Finally, with regard to fraudulent accounts on the site; We're doing all we can to stop the
Scammers. Our Staff performs daily scam searches on the site looking for and banning any scam accounts we find. Additionally, we have implemented several new security features we believe will reduce the amount of scamming activity on the site as well as some new features
That assist us in locating potential scam accounts quickly. For Scammers, attempting to defraud the public is their full-time job and one they take seriously. We also take the issue of scammers very seriously and will continue to do so. It is not in our best interest to allow fake accounts on the site. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know exactly what a user's intention is when they create an account. We continue to combat this problem and if anyone sees a profile they
Believe to be fraudulent, we ask that you bring it to our attention. We do have a Scam Alert placed on the site so that users are able to arm themselves with valuable information in order to avoid falling victim to a scammer and if you do purchase an upgrade only to find that the user is fraudulent, we always provide a refund.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support.
Thank you,
I had to cancel my listing once I realized what they were doing. Here was my comment to them: There is no functionality except to see a match or listing but only basic information without upgrading. There is no way to communicate with prospects without upgrading. In fact there is really nothing useful that can be done without upgrading. Why do you allow people to even post for free. I was VERY dissatisfied and your service is useless to me and I found it underhanded and misleading. If you had just said that this is NOT a free service up front, it would have at least been honest. I will be using another service and posting my experience regarding Roommates.com.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with Roommates.com as well as the fact that you feel misled by the website with regard to the upgraded memberships. Please understand that is not our intention.
A Roommates.com Basic Membership is free. As a basic member you can add a profile, browse your matches and send RoomMail messages all for free. As a Choice Member, you can open emails, view larger photos, maps, and the comments sections of other member's profiles
When you go to the Roommates.com website under the More Info tab, you will find the Frequently Asked Questions page. On this page you will find information on how the site works with the free membership and the upgraded membership, along with the membership cost options. We encourage you to send out messages to your matches. Most members will upgrade so they can communicate directly with their potential roommate.
When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within messages to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read Roommates.com emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
My experience has been pretty much the same as all of the others. No legitimate emails. I had a couple that were so clearly fraud with misspelled words and very poor English. The sender claimed to live in my city but from the statements they made it was obvious she had never even been here. If this was an email that they let through what must the others that they stopped be like? Terrible!
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
I am sorry to hear you did not receive more valid responses. Roommates.com is a bulletin board service so there will always be some people that are not on the site for the right reasons, but we try to remove them as quickly as possible.
When a fraudulent account is detected by our Fraud Department, the account and any messages sent from that account are automatically removed in order to protect the legitimate members of Roommates.com. Unfortunately, many times scammers don't make themselves known until they get you to email them through their private email address, which Roommates is not privy to. We are doing all we can to protect our members and keep scammers from posting on our site.
We hope you will give us another try. We have some helpful tips to make the most out of your time on the site. Please contact us if you would like to give the site another try.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
This is a scam. They collect money and then use the same fishing profiles over and over that are not even real. I did not receive one call back from any of the profiles since they are old or never existed. Do NOT use this site.
I came on site jabber to do the review for roomster.com - because it absolutely sucked with 1 fake lead and tries to auto-renew your membership, while roommates.com actually gave me real leads and got me a room.
So after reviewing roomster.com with 1/5, I decided to take a look here, and surprise, 1/5 also!
From my view roommates.com worked, so it deserves at least a 3/5.
Since the sites needs to make money, it's totally understandable to charge people for its service. Now, if only it allowed FREE members to read messages sent by PAID members, I'd give it a 5/5. I'd imagine it will drastically improve chances of a good match, and not as many messages sent with no reply.
Such a scam. I paid the inital $3 fee to have a 3 day trial and I just realized, two months later that they were charging me $30 a month to have my account active. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ROOMMATES.COM. I found my roommate on craigslist and she is totally normal.
Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
We are glad you were able to find a roommate, even if it wasn’t through our site.
We are sorry you were not happy with the site. And we assure you that Roommates.com is not a scam. We have assisted countless members in finding the perfect roommate.
Roommates.com does not auto rebill our members. In order to be billed a second time you would have to reenter your billing information, so you don’t have to worry about canceling a subscription. Roommates.com does not have a membership option for $30.00. I’m not sure what company was auto billing you, but be assured it was not Roommates.com.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
This website sucks! I am sorry for setting up an account, what a waste of time- I can't set my preference to narrow my search and then to have to upgrade just to figure what area of phoenix these listings are located. I will blog about my experience through Roommates.com not a very easy or rewarding experience this has been for me. I am more frustrated then ever wasting my time with this ridiculous site. I will spend more time validating through rating blogs about you ROOMMATE.COM good luck with your business, I would rather go through craigslist then to pay roommate.com who trick viewers to setup an account only to request payment for capabilities to view information on available roommate ads from the start of creating an account. Roommate doesn't operate business on integrity or for the interest of internet prospectors.
Utter waste of time and money. Thankfully, I only lost $20.00. Nothing worth paying for on this site. The free sites gave me more choices, matches and information. I knew better, but still fell for the "pay" to view more info on my matches ploy!
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Hello,
This is Roommates.com Customer Support.
We are glad you were able to find a roommate, even if it wasn’t through our site.
Roommates.com does not automatically rebill our members. We do not offer a rebill option. We also do not have a membership option for $29.20. Roommates.com membership options are $5.99 3 Days, $19.99 30 Days, and $29.99 60 Days, and again we do not have a rebill option. Do you possibly have us confused with another site?
In order to keep our prices low, we avoid having to staff a Call Center by limiting the use of telephones and only accept email correspondence, but if you send an email we will get back to quickly. Also, our phone number is always located on your statement if you upgraded your account.
Hopefully you will be able to contact the website that charged you and get a refund.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com