speed dating

Why use a Dating Agency

We provide a bespoke, professional dating agency service where professional singles meet.  Our dating service is twofold, firstly through our Singles Events which we run in Brighton, Sussex, Guildford and Tunbridge Wells.  We also provide opportunities to meet through a Personal Introduction.  I set the company up due to my experiences as a past user of online dating sites.  Some of my experiences left me wondering how people could access safer and more affordable ways of dating.

Following a long term relationship and engagement in my 20s I was single for the majority of my 30s. I attended all of my family and friends’ weddings without a ‘plus one’. People wondered what was wrong with me. I put being single down to my choice of career, which inhibited me from meeting people due to working long, unsociable hours for the police. In an effort to be supportive friends would utter the words every single person despises, “If you stop looking you will find someone”. I cannot stress how futile these words of so called advice were to me at that time and if you’re single and reading this, undoubtedly you will have heard them too.  I tried everything available to me for Brighton singles, where I lived.  There just appeared to be speed dating.  Other dating events included dinner parties or use of a dating agency, but their fees were outrageous.  One dating agency required a lump sum of £900 upfront and there was no guarantee.  Needless to say they are no longer exist in the area.

Year after year Christmas would come and go and every January I signed up to some new online Brighton dating site, each time vowing this would be the year when I would put concentrated efforts into finding ‘The One’. I sifted through the virtual winks and kisses I received. Email exchanges back and forth would either end without a reason or lead to a telephone call, which I abruptly terminated when I heard the voice at the other end of the line utter, in a seedy voice, “what are you wearing?” Almost as soon as I had signed up to online dating, paid my money and uploaded my shiny new profile, I would hide it. I disliked the fact that in order to get online ‘views’ I had to publish my photograph for the whole world to see. It was bad enough that I knew I was one of the many singles but did my work colleagues and clients have to know that too?

If I did take the plunge to meet someone for a date, I likened it to an ‘interview with cocktails’, especially if my date came armed with a typed questionnaire for me to complete. If that wasn’t bad enough, I found that the majority of my dates lied about such things as their age, height, weight and sometimes even their marital status.

These days, online dating no longer bears a stigma. It’s accepted in society to say “we met online”. After all 25% of new relationships start this way with the help of a variety of dating sites and Apps to find local singles. However, lurking beneath the veneer of potential hot dates and handsome profiles there are some very real dangers to be aware of, such as:

Criminals adept in grooming techniques pretending to be seeking relationships, use fake profiles to extract money from victims. In one year a whopping £24.5m was lost to online dating fraudsters in the UK. For more information please view Get Safe Online.

But more sinister offences have occurred whereby one online dating user suffered serious violent and sexual assaults after agreeing to meet a man on a well known dating website.  View the Telegraph article.

That said online dating has proved successful for some, with people within my circle married or engaged to be.  Although 25% of relationships start by online dating only 1% are said to be successful.

That is why so many people are turning to bespoke personal introduction services like ours and at South Downs Introductions we put your safety first by meeting every member in person and carrying out identify checks.  If we don’t already have someone in mind for you, we proactively search through our network of professional singles.  Alternatively you can choose to come to one of our singles events where you will meet like minded people.  Some of our clients have met through our events.  Read what people have to say about our dating agency and dating service, Dating Agency and Singles Events Testimonials 

For more information about how we work with you and what services we provide email us at connect@southdownsintroductions.co.uk