Lack of Chemistry

My 30-day subscription to online dating site Chemistry was 29 days too long.

In the spirit of time sucks, I mean, Eharmony, Chemistry attempts to match subscribers based on levels of compatibility by requiring they complete a lengthy questionnaire. Thankfully, it’s not as long as Eharm’s, and unlike Eharm, Chemistry matches for height. Both systems deliver matches to members rather than permitting them to freely search for singles. I actually quite like this approach because it feels as though someone or something is looking beyond appearances; however, no matching system can account for chemistry, or lack thereof.

After activating my account to begin receiving matches, I refrained from becoming a paid subscriber until a couple of weeks had passed. I wanted to get a look at the so-called compatible matches first. Unfortunately, non-paying members don’t have privileges to view match information or pictures without paying. Still, I wanted to see how many men were interested in me. The results rolled in slowly at first, but soon I had several men express interest and others who sent direct emails.

On the upside, Chemistry doesn’t offer the painstaking question and answer filter touted by Eharm; members can send emails right away. On the downside, email recipients can’t read the messages until they show interested in the sender. I didn’t want to show interest in a guy before I read his message!

Ultimately, though, the lack of quality matches turned me off more than any of Chemistry’s features. The service tries too hard to forge a dateable path between parent company Match.com and Eharmony, but ends up with a lackluster database of singles that rivals neither.