Dating can be daunting, so when a matchmaking service seeks to put you at ease starting with their name (“Hey, nothing to worry about, it’s just lunch!”), it has to be great, right? Well, if you’re in the habit of judging a book by its cover (or a company solely by its name), the answer would be yes.
However, we’d invite you to stick around for our It’s Just Lunch review because while there are some big positives worth noting, there are some concerns that you should be aware of before deciding to shell out the cash for their private matchmaking services.
And don’t worry, it’s just a review… Okay, okay…sorry for the dad joke. Let’s get into it.
It’s Just Lunch services over 200 cities, but the lawsuits are a real concern
The positives for It’s Just Lunch are that they service a wide area with over 200 participating cities and have over 30 years in business with a well-laid out matchmaking process. However, the concerns are numerous and include class action lawsuits, a trend of similar customer complaints, and a possible issue with diversity.
If this doesn’t sound like the right fit, you can always check out our list of the best matchmaking services to find some other high quality providers worth checking out. Or if you’re ready to learn a little more, let’s dig into our full It’s Just Lunch review and fill in the blanks around the statements we just shared.
We can’t ignore the legal troubles at It’s Just Lunch.
While we usually like to start our reviews with the positives, it’s hard not to address the massive elephant in the room—the lawsuits. And yes, that is lawsuits, plural. For today, we’ll focus on the big one.
In the case of Rodriguez, et al. v. It’s Just Lunch International, et al., Case No.1:07-cv-099227, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, It’s Just Lunch was ordered to pay $4.75 million in damages and $60 million in date vouchers. The lawsuit referred to the service as “a massive scheme to defraud tens of thousands of single professionals throughout the country—especially busy, affluent professional women.”
What were they accused of (and later found liable for)? The list is pretty lengthy but what stood out to us were two things.
First, the website claims It’s Just Lunch employs expert matchmakers. However, the lawsuit stated that they “hire staff members who have no experience, training or background whatsoever in the field of matchmaking.”
Second, there were claims that the company ignores your preferences and gives you matches solely to try and meet the monthly quotas stipulated in a client’s contract.
If you want to see even more details and things the suit said the company did, check out our full breakdown of the It’s Just Lunch lawsuit.
An alternative worth checking out
Real quick, if you currently have a sour taste in your mouth about using It’s Just Lunch, we get it. But if you’re still interested in using a matchmaking service (which we do recommend as it’s a phenomenal way to find love with the help of a professional who does the heavy lifting for you), we’d like to offer an It’s Just Lunch alternative that we think is amazing.
Meet Three Day Rule. The company has been in business for over a decade, has no legal woes that we’ve seen, and offers an incredibly thoughtful and effective approach to modern matchmaking. The one drawback to Three Day Rule is that they company only services clients in 11 major U.S. cities, as opposed to the 200 cities (110 in the U.S.) that It’s Just Rule does. But if you live in or close to one of those cities or are okay with a little travel for the perfect man or perfect woman, you should definitely check it out.
Here’s a link to learn more about the company and to get connected if you want more information.
More on the court case findings for IJL
All of this, is pretty terrible if you ask us. One of the chief concerns you hear about with matchmaking services is that they try their best to find you a good match, but when they can’t (but are required to by contract), they’ll send you someone that the know is most likely not a good fit. Maybe this is something that happens more often when you don’t hire actual professionals?
Now, in the defense of It’s Just Lunch, the initial court filing dates all the way back to 2007, which is over 15 years ago. The case was adjudicated in 2019, which was over 5 years ago. It would be plausible to think there’s a good chance It’s Just Lunch has cleaned up its act since then. That said, some of the trends in customer complaints we’ve found (though we can’t substantiate them), might not support that. We’ll share some of those in just a minute.
If you want to read the full brief of the case (it’s a bit of a fun read), here’s a link.
The expansive coverage and franchise set-up could be positives.
If you’re in the camp of forgiveness or you believe that enough time has passed, let’s talk some things that we like about It’s Just Lunch from our comprehensive review.
First, and this may go to defense of the court issues, It’s Just Lunch is set up as a franchise. In other words, each IJL location operates independently of the others, but under the same business set up and guidelines. This is much like how all Subway sandwich shops look the same and follow certain rules, but each is run by a separate owner who has some freedom in the way they do things.
What this means is that It’s Just Lunch Chicago might be amazing, while It’s Just Lunch NYC might not be great (we’re not saying either is, this is just an example to explain the point). Each location has its own staff, its own success rates (that are not published), and some freedom in how they curate matches. While we would still judge each location as fundamentally being a part of the same company and therefore having to own the same track record, maybe that’s not the best approach. We’ll leave that up to you to decide.
The second thing we like about It’s Just Lunch is that these franchises are spread out over 200 cities worldwide, 110 of which are located in the U.S. What this means is that you’re most likely going to be getting a hyper-localized approach to matchmaking. If you live in a big enough city (and the matchmakers are good), this means they may have an incredibly tight pulse on the city. However, if you live in a smaller city or the matchmakers aren’t as plugged in as they should be, you might be at risk of getting less-than-stellar matches.
Note: It’s Just Lunch does offer multi-city packages, in case that is something you are interested in.
Reviews from real users are a mixed bag…
While we obviously know the reviews of many users from 15+ years ago thanks to the court filings, we wanted to look at more current reviews to see if things had changed. Again, keep in mind that reviews tend to favor wildly amazing or wildly terrible experiences, and not the average experience, and you technically can’t substantiate that the writer of the review is an actual user. That said, they’re a great place to get a pulse on things.
Here are a few things that stood out to us when we were looking around. This thread on Reddit had some interesting gems (if true).
We pulled out some of the standouts for you and posted them below.
Not great there. And this next comment is a bit alarming (again, we were unable to substantiate whether this was true or not, so take it with that in mind).
Yelp reviews were not much better for the company. Their rating was an abysmal 1.2 out of 5.
While you always have to take individual reviews with some caution, we struggled to find literally anyone saying anything positive about the company anywhere online within the last 10 years.
The IJL website doesn’t seem to promote a lot of diversity…
Alright, we may be digging a little here, but something interesting stood out to us during our review of It’s Just Lunch. For some reason (and we will admit it could totally be because of coincidence), but an overwhelmingly large percentage of the images on the main It’s Just Lunch website are all white people. We are not calling the company racist or making any other claims. It’s just something that stood out to us that may be a sign that diversity isn’t the most important thing within the company or its marketing channels.
It’s Just Lunch has 42 success stories posted on their website. It would appear that not a single one of those includes anyone who is Black. Actually 0. Again, could be a coincidence or we may not know someone’s full background, but something worth considering.
That’s as far as we’re going to go with this one, but again, it is something that stood out to us.
How Much Does It’s Just Lunch Cost?
Like many matchmaking services, It’s Just Lunch does not post its pricing on their website. That said, we do have a few ways of finding what people are paying through reviews, interviews, and yes, court filings.
The average price of an It’s Just Lunch premium client membership is between $1,000 and $15,000. The average price that people pay for a 12-date package is around $3,000.
Here are some examples of what people say they paid:
- $3,400 for 12 dates – Client: Mindy Miller
- $2,800 for 12 dates – Client: Sherri Ferrara
- $2,700 for lifetime + $90 per date – Client: Elizabeth Young
- $2,595 for a 12-month membership – Client: Roseanne Vrutgman
- $4,700 for a 6-month membership – Client: Tammy Gillingwater
- $3,400 for 12 dates – BBB complaint #21983130
- $4,000 for 12 dates – BBB complaint from 2/18/2024
- $5,000 + $10,000 sign up fee (VIP) – Ted from Phoenix, AZ (Source: Consumer Reports Complaint)
- $2,900 for an unknown number of dates – BBB complaint from 6/8/2023
- $3,500 for an unknown number of dates – Yelp review from 7/27/2023
- $1,000 for 3 dates – Yelp review from 3/6/2023
Sources:
- https://www.bbb.org/us/nv/henderson/profile/dating-services/its-just-lunch-1086-70134/complaints
- https://cbs12.com/news/local/i-team-dating-service-deceptive-its-just-lunch-miami-florida
- https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2020/01/15/matchmaking-service-its-just-lunch-sued-by-st-pete-woman-over-bad-dates/
- https://www.denver7.com/news/investigations/local-matchmaker-service-faces-legal-action-as-many-of-its-customers-call-it-a-waste-of-money
- https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/fa/67/6c0be87348229696341a5f491e1d/its-just-lunch-new-complaint.pdf
- https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/consumer-products/subscriptions/its-just-lunch-class-action-lawsuit-says-co-broke-settlement-terms/
- https://www.yelp.com/biz/its-just-lunch-new-york?start=10
Additionally, it’s worth noting that with the franchise set up, it’s possible that prices will vary based on your location.
Would we recommend It’s Just Lunch?
We would not recommend It’s Just Lunch. While it’s entirely possible that you could have a great experience there, the prior lawsuits and overwhelming number of negative reviews that echo the same trends and sentiments is too alarming. Additionally, as you’d be spending several thousand dollars, it feels like too much of a risk based on the information that we uncovered during our It’s Just Lunch review. For us, it’s going to be a hard pass at this time.
If you’re still interested in a matchmaker, we do have a list of matchmaking services that we think are a much better fit for you that you should consider checking out.