MeetupReviews 498

This site is great for meeting people with similar interests, attributes, or talents that are outside of the interests of the average local bar patron. I have a rare personality type and a 160 IQ which makes it very difficult to meet people that I can have a meaningful conversation with. I started a meetup group and have met some very interesting people. I think that groups that revolve around cleverness have better odds of turning out well because most of the people that show up can have amusing conversations on just about anything.

The much older people, shyer people, or geekier people that show up I just try to include and give them advice on things that they complain about. I like the idea of helping people with what I have learned as much as I do meeting people who challenge me and teach me things.

Most of these people would take me years of pub crawling to meet randomly

I am disappointed in Meetup.com's ethics. This week I 'stepped down' as Organiser of my group, handing over the leadership to a lovely woman in the group who I know will be enthusiastic and continue to nurture the group:-) I had already paid Organisers Dues (fees) up until 23 September 2013. I also ticked the box that asked me if I wanted to transfer this payment over to the new leader. She accepted the position as Organiser, but was charged $42! I was alarmed at this charge, but several emails between myself and Meetup.com to clarify this, just resulted in their 'apologising' for the "confusion". There shouldn't have been any confusion. They were double-dipping, and would not refund the $42 to my friend. They obviously didn't 'transfer' my payment (til September) to her. They then told me that any payments made relate to the person (Organiser), not the Group. Had we known this upfront, I probably would have remained as Organiser until my payment had expired in September. Up until this time, I have had good experience with Meetup.com. I have thought it to be a good networking site. But they have now lost my vote by their dishonesty and sneakiness.

I went to a number of events, the organizers seemed more concerned about making money more than anything else, or inviting members to well orchestrated 'setup' events just to attempt to put the person down and then take advantage of them. In particular one event organizer in Toronto Sarah demanded money for events one failed to attend even when the emails were unsolicited. Now I am not saying that all the meet up groups are the same, but I would say there are quite a number that only want to take advantage of new members.

Great potential that I want to recommend but a disappointment in UK practice.

Look at the number of foul-mouthed people trolling INTERNET and you must expect some foul-mouthed, weirdoes. They just want to make others feel how they feel as rejected social dregs. Give them a hug. If they don't change - tell them where to go.

There was a time when Meetup.com told you all people in your area interested in the same topic or activity as you. For some reason Meetup, stopped giving that information. Why? Feel a con coming?

Now Meetup.com tells you there are 64 people near you interested in the same topic. What does 'interested' mean? Something vaguely similar.

What does 'near' mean? Up to 100 miles.

Now either Meetup.com are out to con all new organisers or they are just plain dumb. They are Americans. From the other side of the Atlantic, they look at a map and see that Dover is near London. But Dover is up to three hours by public transport and a near 2 hour car journey that few in the UK would undertake lightly. And not for a regular social event.

What started as a great idea with potential is now degenerating into a con. Let me plaguerise Boomtown Rats: Its a rat trap - don't be conned!

I signed up for a new group yesterday morning. By the afternoon i got an email from some women at Meetup that she didn't like my design and went ahead and changed it. I emailed them that although i appriciated there effort to improve my page, i wasn't happy they changed it without my okay. I asked them to agree not to change my page, that i paid for as long as i was within policy and if they couldn't do that to send me my money back. They choose to refund my money. So, be warned. Although you've paid for the page, they have full control over its content and lay out and by the way. This facit is not in there TOS

Many people have asked about Meetup.com. They are a complete scam and ripoff!

First, they take your money (subscription), then a week later pick and choose who they do not want on their site. Without notice, they cancel your account and say it was due to a term violation and they will refund the money. After several emails and phone calls, all we received was a standard form email saying they will not discuss it any further and the case has been closed!

Second, so far, there has bee no refund and no emails returned on that as well.

Third, we forwarded several "identical" groups to ours that did the exact same group that we did but they ignored our objections and the one "local" competitor (who turned us in) remains on meetup with their group!

Fourth, we found through a source that actually offered up proof, that a "voluntary, additional contribution" to Meetup would get you what you wanted. Such as a competitor terminated!

This is a total scam and a simple sear around the internet will reveal additional Meetup "ripoff reports as well. Here are a few examples...

http://www.ripoffreport.com/lucy-from-meetup-com/event-planners-sites/internet-internet-fb91a.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/seminars/meetup-com/meetup-com-meet-up-com-meetup-082b8.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/media-outlets/meetup-inc/meetup-inc-i-paid-for-an-on-*******.htm

This is a great site by which to find social events and activities, but the good thing about meetup is also the bad thing: Anyone and everyone can join any meetup group. The people lie in their profiles, post pictures of cartoon characters or when they were 20 years younger and so forth. The groups get huge turnout when they are first announced and then after that, no one is interested and attendance fades to nothing after 2-3 meetings.

If you charge for workshops, even fewer people will come, and everyone is out for themselves from their own farming angle: if you go to a singles group rest assured the organizer has a singles company or website business, and so on.

Also, if you want to organize a meetup group, the fees are fairly expensive considering that most groups lose 90 percent of their turnout after the first two meetings or so.

So... there are pros and cons, and they're huge. Big turnout when your group is announced, only to have turnout drop drastically after one or two meetings as people lose interest and look for the next "new" thing that they can go to for free. The people lie and just click on whatever the "new" group is without reading group descriptions or requirements and meeting places are often expensive to reserve with no-shows a huge issue with meetup.

I've organized close to a hundred meetup groups at this point and feel very ambivalent about the groups, the people, and the company. Meetup has deleted my groups for no apparent reason and without notice, sending automated e-mails when I asked them why (you have to use very vague language in offering descriptions).

So I can take or leave meetup depending on the day of the week and how I feel.

Be very careful which groups you join & scrutinize the intentions of the organizers.
In general, the organizers exist to serve their own interests. I have first hand knowledge of one organizer who's created various singles clubs to target the age groups of twenties, thirties, fourties, fifties. He also used fake personas of pretty girls as co-organizers, to kickoff invite to meetups. Now approach a venue / restaurant and offer to bring X people if they can give you a kickback. The kickback varied from negotiating a cheap meal (and not passing it on, in effect pocketing the difference). Needless to say, the pretty organizers always found an emergency excuse not to turn up. This happened in Sydney Australia. Thread very carefully if you live in Sydney and see variations of the same theme, do not take anything at face value.

While the service that Meetup.com provide is excellent, their Privacy Policy is not. It's hard to believe that an established internet company in this day and age would engage in sending unsolicited emails... but that's exactly what this company does. And they have quite a reputation for it.

Top tip: If you sign up -- Use an email address that you don't check!

It's very disappointing indeed that they have such a large disregard for their customers. You thought Facebook was bad? It's nothing compared to this company!

I too have major issues with privacy on meetup.com. I had set all my account info, groups and photo to private. One day I happened to do google search my name and location and to my horror it returned ALL my meetup.com information, including my groups (which I seriously wanted to stay private). It also showed up the messages sent to me in meetup.com. Furthermore, it showed my photo (and groups) as the first result in google image search. I had uploaded my photo on my meetup.com account only for a few days and then had removed it. Moreover, all the settings were private. The info. And pic still kept showing up. Then, I left the groups one by one and waited for a few days, it was still showing. Finally, I closed my meetup.com account 4 days back but the whole info is still showing up. I tried to resolve this with google.com but their response was that meetup.com has put this info publicly and google crawlers catch all public info. They advised me to contact webmaster of meetup.com and get the info removed. I had been sending emails to quite a few meetup.com contacts including webmaster since last 4 days to remove me completely, no response so far. I am very upset. This is a very serious breach of my privacy. I hope that there is a legal recourse available in case there is no action on their part. Any advice please...

This is a local website (has branches in many US cities). There are groups for people of all ages and hobbies, and just about any interest. Each group has their own page, photos, and message boards. I believe it's just about as safe as anything on the internet these days. There are regular activities and people meet in homes, restaurants, clubs, and at outdoor events. People get to know each other in person. It's also nice because at the holidays, which can be lonely for some, there are always get togethers.

I like the site in general, but they send too many unsolicited emails and there is NO WAY TO STOP THEM. Believe me, I tried.
I deleted all my "Interests" to stop their auto-generated "New Meetup Groups" emails, but that didn't work. So I even deleted my account, thinking SURELY that would stop the emails. But no! I am STILL receiving them. Which really bothers me because that means they still have my personal information in their database. "Privacy invasion," anyone?

They offer NO CONTACT information for Customer Service. I. e., there IS no customer service. All they offer is an endless list of FAQs. I tried using their suggestion box but even that didn't work. I looked at their blog and message boards and tried commenting to postings from their programmers about "bugs" but couldn't. I am positively livid.

Will this work? Will someone at Meetup.com see my above comments and finally DO something to stop the emails? And actually delete all my personal information from their database?