Alt.com standard (free) members are constantly encouraged to 'update' their membership by taking out a subscription. If you click on a members picture or name you are taken to an upgrade page with the members thumbnail, 'handle' age and area. However they have now changed this page so it no longer includes previously displayed information that told you when last that member signed into their account.
The have deliberately withheld this information now so potential customers are unaware that an account may be inactive until after they pay for a subscription to contact that person. As Alt and other various.inc sites are full of inactive accounts this is poor business practice and I suggest anyone caught by it demand an immediate and full refund.
Bait and Switch.
Ever time a Standard (free) member signs in to Alt and other Various.inc dating sites they are offered the opportunity to purchase 'Gold' or 'Silver' membership subscription packages. I particular they tell customers that 'Gold' will allow them to; Be the FIRST to contact new members, and they tell silver they can; Contact new members.in actual fact they can only contact new members who have also taken out a subscription. They fail to mention that new standard (free) members who form the vast majority are unable to view contacts made to them within their first 50 days of membership. As standard members mails are only held on record 30 days any lost sent is lost before it can be read.
On contacting customer support about this I was advised that they would be able to read and reply to my contact if I purchased 'Standard contacts' (a service only described as allowing standard members to read your profile and INITIATE contact). So they ask you to pay to contact new members yet when you do so they then tell you need to pay for an extra service to enable these new members to actually see the contact. Nowhere in the advertising or in the help pages of the site is this explained, this is all kept from the prospective customer until they have their money.
This is Bait and Switch.
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