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.
Roommates.com did exactly what it advertises. I got on and paid for the use of it. The person renting a room also paid her part. It took me about a week to find a roommate. The reviews complain about scammers, but you will find them everywhere, Craig's list and Facebook included. I am very satisfied with my experience with roommates.com and if needed, will use them again.
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.
You can't do anything in the free version of the site that would lead towards finding a new roommate. You can't see what a person writes about themselves, you can't read their messages, you can't see their photos or exchange contact info. The only thing you can do is write a profile for free. I suppose that's convenient for the service to claim they have lots of people using the site. A bunch of free profiles seeing their matches, sending messages in the dark, hoping the other person has a paid account. But for $20/month, it seems like quite the premium for a bare bones profile matching and message services. It doesn't really have any vetting behind it, to give it an appeal over just using something that is free, like Craigslist, or posting on community Reddit/facebook groups etc.
In 2008, I had the opportunity to move to Boulder, Colorado for a new position. Not knowing the area well--and not having time to travel there to investigate--I found Roommates.com and was able to connect with a family that had a basement to rent. It worked perfectly for me! After a couple phone calls and providing references to my prospective landlord/roommate, I made the commitment and moved to Colorado! I ended up staying in that rental for two years, much longer than originally intended as it worked out so well.
A couple years later, I went through the same process when moving to northern Virginia for a job in DC. Worked great again, and while my landlord eventually decided to no longer want a roommate, I was once again able to use Roommates.com to find my next residence!
I would not hesitate to use them again if the need arose. Just be sure to *exchange* references with your prospective landlord/roommate and check them before committing.
Try it!
Hello,
Thank you for being so loyal to our site. We are thrilled that you were able to find such good places long distance. We appreciate your helpful tips regarding checking out the references before committing. Thank you!
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
I have used roommate. Com for several years. It is a little more expensive then other sites but in the scheme of renting, it is not ridiculous. I have sent many messages that have gone unanswered. I assume the receiver did not want to pay to get the message. I feel like if they will not pay to receive messages one they're not very serious about finding a place to live and two if they won't pay $15 to help themselves find a place will they pay the rent repeatedly on time. I have been successful using this site. I do wish it had a cheaper annual fee that you could use instead of the shorter more expensive ones.
When I decided to place an ad for a roommate in my home, I was reluctant about the type of person responding as this was a new experience for me. I started searching for a site specific to my needs and came across Roommates.com. I joined and placed my posting and within a week or two received an email from a potential roommate. She is an awesome person, honest, caring, professional... she is my friend! I am looking for another roommate to join us. Thank you so very much. Elaine
Hello,
We are happy you were able to find a roommate and a friend! That is great!
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
The site encourages you to sign up and create a profile without ever revealing that you have to pay a fee in order to read the messages that people send you. It's only after you've put in the work of creating a profile, and you get a notification that someone sent you a message, that the site reveals you have to "upgrade" in order to read the message.
This is obviously intentionally deceptive on their part. If they wanted people to make an informed decision about whether to sign up, they'd say right on the front page, "If you create a profile, you have to be prepared to pay or it won't work."
This also allows them to make deceptive claims about how many users are on their site. They can count everyone who creates a free profile as a "user", without disclosing that most of those "users" abandoned their profile as soon as they found out they had to pay.
Hello,
Thank you for your comments they are important to us and will be taken into consideration for future site improvements.
You are able to utilize the free portion of the website to find a roommate by including your contact information in the free messages that you can send out to members so that only one of you have to pay for a membership. We've assisted countless members in finding a roommate with this option.
Our Terms of Service that you agree to when creating an account do include all the Fees and Costs information regarding the memberships.
If you would like to give us another try and get some helpful tips on how to utilize the site to the fullest please contact us at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support
My husband and I had never done anything like this before and saw this site had good reviews so we gave it a try.
At first they seemed good. We got a few calls, one or two people came out to see the room. But the longer we were on, the less action we got. I also noticed I was seeing the same people looking for a room for months at a time.
The kicker for me is that in the last 6 weeks I noticed people being removed from my matches only to come back on a few days later as a match.
I am currently working with a realtor at full price to rent my room. We had no choice, this sight just did not work.
Hello,
Roommates.com is a bulletin board service so the amount of response will vary depending on who is looking in your area.
If members unhide their profile, change their status or reactivate their account they will show up in your matches again.
It's unfortunate you didn't have any luck finding a roommate on our site, but if you want to try us again we can give you some helpful tips on how to get the most out of your membership by contacting us at support@roommates.com. Hope to hear from you soon!
Roommates.com Support
The site has low activity; same rooms appear month after month.
Messages are not prompt, so by the time received the person contacting you may have disappeared or taken a different room depending on role.
Quality of the users varies, and nothing is vetted -- not the renters, not the landlords.
Hello,
It's unfortunate that you did not have any luck finding a roommate on the site.
As a bulletin board service responses will vary depending on your location and who is looking or offering in that area. We aren't able to guarantee other members will respond to your inquiries.
If you would like some helpful tips on using the site please contact us at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support
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
Love this website! It's a paid account, but it's worth it, plus it weeds out all the baddies, in my opinion. Not only did i find a great roommate through roommates.com, but had so many great potential people contact me! Highly recommend it!
I found a roommate through here, and trusted it because I thought it would go by personality. I emailed roommates.com support just to let them know that it simply just did not work for me and it was a horrible experience. All they replied back was that I should have done a background check. Well, background checks don't always show that people are insane and thieves. I am more upset with the lack of caring by the website more so than my horrible experience with my roommate. Finding a roommate in a big city that you do not know anyone is hard enough, and though in theory this website is a great idea, they need to show a little bit more compassion for when it doesn't work. I wish they would at least refund people when their website does not work. I will not be recommending this to anyone, and highly believe you should not use it. Save your money.
Hello,
We are glad that you found a roommate on the site, but it’s unfortunate the roommate you chose didn’t work out. The site doesn’t have options to match personalities, it just matches basic preferences, such as location, smoking, pets, etc. There is no guarantee that roommates will be a good fit when using a bulletin board service unless you have spent a good chunk of time with them, and even then it is not the same as living together. The site doesn’t do background checks or prescreen its members so you do have to be careful and use caution.
Hopefully you will find a new roommate soon that you are happy with.
If you have additional questions don’t hesitate to contacts at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support
This is the second time I have tried Roommates.com. It's cheap, 10 bucks a month but it's still a waste of 10 dollars. I have found people use it as a dating site(I'm a women, if I'm looking for a date I'll go on Match)
The people I have approached that have a listing start giving me all kinds of excuses(I can't show the room for two months, I'm renting it as Airbnb right now, etc) If you don't have a room, get off the site!
I feel like people are on there for giggles just to see how much they might get...
Waste of time!
Hello,
It's unfortunate you weren't able to find a roommate on the site. Roommates.com is a bulletin board service so you do have to do your homework to find the right match, but we have assisted countless members with finding a roommate.
There is a report button on each profile so you can report those that aren't on the site for the right reasons and we do our best to keep them off the site.
Hopefully you have found a roommate by now. If you would like to try the site again and want some helpful tips on using the free portion of the site please contact us at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support
Waste of time. You can't view any messages unless you pay. Even if the person you're sending messages to/receiving messages from has already paid. The website is doubly greedy and provides nothing in return. There are equivalent websites that don't require you to pay. DON'T BOTHER.
Hello,
You do have to pay to read your incoming messages, but sending messages is free and you can include your contact information in the messages you send out so that only one member has to pay in order for you to communicate outside of the website.
Hopefully you give us another try. If you would like some helpful tips on how to get the most out of the website please contact us at support@roommates.com and we will be happy to assist you.
Roommates.com Support
Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it. This site was very helpful in finding a good room mate. At least you know what that person is interested in which helps you to narrow down your search.
Thank you again for all your help. Take care and have a great day now!
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
This was my first time signing up on your website to help me find the right people to rent the rooms and all it took was less than a week for your site to find the best suitable roommates based exactly of my expectations and paying the fee was well worth and i tried other websites but this was the best as once your website found someone i was able to connect with them directly and not lose money - totally superb! Will never use any other website - thank you for all your help and the some $19 fee was well worth!
I would highly recommend this site because of the privacy situation of looking for a roommate and being able to view several possibilities before committing to actual contact. Also, I feel that the price for a 30 day posting is very reasonable.
I paid from $20-$30 least 4 times, and to say the least, I don't have very good experience with this. I feel they some how discriminate and so that you will not reach others. I will write more on this another time. But really, my experience with this for more than a year doesn't allow me to recommend it.
Hello,
It's unfortunate you didn't have a good experience on the site. Roommates.com is a bulletin board service that matches you with other members according to the preferences that you pick for your profile which you can adjust at anytime. You also have the option to send free messages to anyone on the site if you would like. Once you start receiving replies to your messages we do require that you pay for a membership to open and read your messages, but you do have the option to include your contact information in your free sent messages so only one of you has to upgrade.
If you would like to give us another try please contact us at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support
Answer: Yeah, if you are looking for crazy drunk high on drugs kind of people and it doesn't matter if you are male or female, after a couple of weeks, if that, they also get this crazy idea that they own you and can control your every thought move and somehow make themselves believe they are not renting a room, but using the web site to find a wife or husband type without the vows! This is not just based on one incident, but an average of 8 years of using the site on both sides. First I was renting rooms and the same applies and then I needed to rent a room which the same description applies. But understand, it is an web site for others to use. The users are the problem, not the site. It is amazing what I have experienced with all of what I said. I would think of another solution if I were you unless you want to learn as I did and I don't think it is a good idea. I would not write this if I did not know it all to well to be 1000% TRUE! I do not understand what these type of people are doing? Maybe they are a little to lonely or because you are renting a room or you need to rent a room that you do not have your own life and therefore they can take advantage of your sanity. I'm not sure, but I sure have had enough of these people for the past eight years that I have moved on to other roommate sites. Guess What? The same thing! Sorry, wish I could give a thumbs up, but No Can Do! Good luck
Answer: Please contact our customer support team at support@roommates.com for assistance with your account.
Answer: Hello, We are an online bulletin board service. Please go to roommates.com website to fill out a profile to see who matches your preferences. Roommates.com Support
Answer: Hello, Sorry you are having a hard time uploading your photos. Please go to https://help.roommates.com/article/31-upload-edit-photos for step-by-step instructions on how to upload your photos. If you still have trouble getting them to post, please contact our customer service at support@roommates.com and they will be happy to assist you. Roommates.com Support
Answer: Identity verification is $2.99 and is helpful for other members to know you are legitimate, but it is not required to use the site. If you have additional questions don't hesitate to contact us at support@roommates.com. Roommates.com Support
Answer: Hello, The ID verification is optional. You can verify your email, phone number, facebook, and identity. Other members are able to see what you have verified and some members feel more comfortable with members that have verified their identity, but again the verifications are option except for your email. If you have additional questions about your account please contact us at support@roommates.com. Roommates.com Support
Answer: Hello, Please check your preferences to make sure your age limit for who you want to room with is correct. Also, if a member chooses the option of 'I prefer not to say' when it asks their age then it could still match them with you on your other preferences. If you need further assistance with this please contact us at support@roommates.com and we will be happy to help you with your account. Roommates.com Support
Answer: Hello, If your account has been inactive for more than 30 days it will deactivate. You can choose to HIde your profile and make sure you login every 30 days to keep it active if you would like. If you have additional questions about your account please contact us at support@roommates.com. Roommates.com Support
Roommates.com has a rating of 2.1 stars from 323 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Roommates.com most frequently mention total scam, pay money and read messages. Roommates.com ranks 6th among Roommate sites.
Hello,
I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with Roommates.com. 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. You are welcome to list your contact information in the comments section of your profile and include it in any messages that you send out. All outgoing messages are free and you can see the nickname of the member on incoming messages.
As with most websites, there are added benefits to purchasing an upgrade. Those benefits include having full access to your roommates.com 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.
If you have any questions on how to utilize the website and/or make the most out of your membership, please let me know. We will be happy to provide you with additional tips on using Roommates.com.
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com