Roommates.comReviews 323

I needed a place, I used Roommates.com paid membership about 8-9 years ago and I found a great roommate. Now I had a place to rent and I posted an ad on roommates.com. I mostly got emails that had been "flagged by their fraud department". They don't show you the content of those emails, just tell you the message was removed. Emails I sent to prospective roommates never got answered. (Now I know why, but more on that later!). I decided to upgrade my membership. I did get a couple of messages, but not enough to justify the paid membership; and I still was getting "flagged" messages often. I also sent several emails to possible "matches" but all those emails went unanswered. Once my paid membership ended I decided not to renew, but kept the free ad running just in case. I did get a few "flagged" emails and a couple of what appears to be legit emails, but it turns out "I can't read them unless I pay for membership". What a bunch of BS! Now I know the reason why all those e-mails I sent to prospective roommates were never answered, most of them didn't have the paid membership. I get that some of the "premium" features should only available to those who pay, but the ability to read/respond to emails should not be one of them. It seems now this site is just a scam with made up profiles to make it look bigger than it is. It used to be a good service, but that's no longer the case. 8-9 years later you think the web site would have been upgraded, but it looks just as it did then.

This site is total garbage! Most of the emails I ever got were blocked from the site as being detected as fraud... which is all well and good, except I was still nearly scammed. I sent out numerous emails and only got 1 response. As I read the other reviews I can see I am not the only one. I only wish I had read these prior to wasting the 29.99 I didn't have to waste in the first place. And now I just caaan't waaait for Matt from roommates to respond with his useless comment on my post. Oh look at that I have a "match" in my email. I can't wait to not read it because I refuse to be defrauded again.

This is the only roommate website I've encountered where I regularly get scammer emails. In fact, the vast majority of my emails have been from scammers in one case from the same one twice after it changed its user name after having been detected. On two occasions after my premium membership expired and I paid the fee again so I could read my email, I checked my email and guess what? Scammers. I really think that in a case such as this some consideration should be given to those who've paid the fee just so they can read their email only to find that it was suppressed by the Fraud Department. This strikes me as highly suspicious. I wouldn't recommend this site to anyone.

The rep from the site said it's free to view and email potential roommates. Untrue. If you've signed on as a freebe, you MUST upgrade to a paid account to view any email sent to you by other members who have attempted to send you emails. My suspicion is that staffers are actually sending emails because the email I received dated 4/20/12 stated in the subject line: "We're a perfect match." Hello? I don't think so.

Buyer beware!

As with the other reviews, I can verify everything that they've said is true. As a paying member, you are subjected to scams. When you turn these scammers in, nothing is done to remove them from the site. Other non-paying members can not view your profile or read your e-mails. If you send an e-mail to complain about the lack of customer service, you will get a rude response telling you to just discontinue use of their service. They will not offer you a refund. They are a waste of money. Don't bother.

My complaint about this site is similar to Stef P.'s. When I pay money, I expect to receive ALL the information I need to decide who to contact and who not to contact. Roommates.com does not let paid members know the identity of other paid members. What that means is that they expect me to email many people who will not be able to read my emails without paying to unlock their inbox.

The company's goal is to have you pay them in order to give you the ability to waste your time trying to get other people to pay them with very little potential benefit to you.

This site is a huge waste of time and money. You can create a profile for free, but you are completely unable to use the site for finding a roommate without paying for a subscription fee. Unfortunately, most people do not pay for a subscription fee, so your emails to roommate matches will go unanswered. The only response I ever got was from a scammer.

Their profile system is horrible too--you cannot select gender without also selecting a sexual orientation, and the only options you have are straight male/female or gay male/female. I'm sorry, but not everybody can be compartmentalized like that and I had to misrepresent myself just to create a profile--not something I want to do when I'm looking for somebody to share a living space with me.

In short, don't waste your time or money with this useless site. Use Craigslist if you actually want to find a roommate.

I was a little confused on the first posting, so here goes. My first experience with Roommates.com was excellent. My first roommate was very decent and there weren't any problems. He simply got married, so I listed my profile, yet again. This man sent me emails and we first corresponded and then he wanted my phone number, which I felt was safe. He began to call me two and three times a day, asking me numerous questions about my political beliefs, etc. He was very pushy and wanted my address, but I felt a neutral place of meeting was safer. We met for dinner and just seemed odd. All along he had told me, he could afford the rental room. I decided to show him the room and once inside the house he tried to kiss me and he made it very clear that he wanted sex. I threatened to call the police and he left. Also, I received a phone call and I caught him trying to turn on my computer. I immediately sent an email to Roommates.com and I reported him to Roommates.com. After all of this, he was still listed. I couldn't believe it. Now, I will only deal with the newspapers. I feel it is safer.

From first hand knowledge, I want to warn others (who are thinking about becoming a paying member of Roommates.com) on how this website does business so that they won't waste their time and money on it as I did. As a paying member you would expect that nonpaying members could read your emails sent to them. The only way a nonpaying member can read emails of a paying member is when they too become a paying member. Since the website does not tell you who the paying and nonpaying members are, a paying member may (as I did) spend hours sending emails to nonpaying members not knowing that they are unable to read them. Since very few people become paying members, it would be wise to go to other roommate websites that does allow all members (paying and nonpaying) to read paying member's emails.

Roommates.com is a worthless site. I went to it because I remember hearing about it a few years ago on TV. I didn't want to try craig's list because I though it was sketchy. I feel like an idiot for using this site. The price of enrollment is way to high and there are very few people on it. This is throwing your money away. They are also masters of the upsale, so prepared to be annoyed. I spent two month on the site and got only two responses, one being a nudist, the other one flaking. I gave up and tried craig's list and got 8 responses within hours. I found my roommate right away. I feel so strongly about it that I even wanted to make sure to write this so other people don't make that mistake.