Meetup

I created a beautiful page as an organizer who holds free and low cost health and spiritual practice events. I thought Meetup would be a good place to get the word out in our local area. I WAS SO WRONG. After hours of getting friends and local like minded people to join my new page and not to mention the hours creating the page and adding events etc... I get this email!

Our Community Team reviews each newly-created Meetup Group to see if it's a good fit for our platform. When we took a look at your Meetup Group, Three Roots Wellness, Center 4 Holistic Practices, NE, *******, we determined that it wasn't in line with our Group Community Guidelines. You can check them out here:

http://meetu.ps/1znyRv

As a result, we've closed your Meetup Group. Sorry about that. Don't worry, we've also refunded your Organizer Dues. It may take 3-7 business days for that refund to appear on your account. Please confirm receipt directly with your card issuer.

We appreciate your interest in Meetup!

Best,
Meetup HQ

ARE THEY GOD? They didn't even have the decent business professionalism to say "we noticed xyz and feel it is a violation of our terms you have 24hrs to remove it etc" NOTHING and when I emailed them so bewildered not even understanding what I did wrong they had an EVEN RUDER response...

I am so angry

These people are completely NOT professional and think they have the monopoly on social networking!

Oh don't bother calling them... you will not get anywhere because the customer service people do not handle ANYTHING according to Lianae (representative) who couldn't even tell me what I did wrong!

Worst meeting experience from 21 century

Right now when I write this message I arrive home from a very horrible and terrible and everything you can call it meeting from meetup. I guess this case is worst than anyone here. Take a moment to read. I live in Sydney Australia and an organiser by the name of George was arranging a group in Sydney for social group bla bla bla. Everything seems quite well normal at the first view. I arrive earlier at the meeting and people starting to come. It was planning to be 9 people but the number got increased more so I didn't bother. The meeting was taking place in a restaurant in Sydney. Everything went quite well at the beggining people socialise i listen to them talk to them a little eat drink all good. Then when the meeting was nearly close to the end I ended up speaking with a random guy there about a great opportunity for job which he personally wanted to help me to get involved in industry area while talking relaxing having a drink. Suddenly the organiser took me from the table touching me and was going with me in a different place from the meeting point saying to me that he wants to talk to me. Then fast he humiliates me that I smell so ugly when all the people there was so fine with me and never noticed that and then he said that he personally rejected me from group because of this and after he ask me fast like interrogation where do you live what do you do for living and he looks at me as the last human being from planet like a garbage who is about to throw at the next bin in the street. I ask myself: what is the real purpose of this meetings? When someone in the group tries to help you involving in life having a job the organiser humiliates you in a horrible disgusting way and throw you out like a verm without even doing anything wrong? This meetings supposed to socialise and eventually making friends helping each other with something and this is how you get treated? I strongly recommend when you see this organiser NEVER EVER in your lifetime make deals with him in order to join in his groups. BE AWARE.

I can not pay my dues for ANY meet ups. Even created new ids, used different cards, computers, devices. Google chrome, IOS, PC, Mac - nothing works!

$#*! this site. I tryed making a animatronic group but it asked for 99 dollars. I $#*!ing hate this site $#*! them they can suck a $#*!!

I waa member of meetup almost 3 yrs and while i did connect with 2 pple as acqaintances the overall experience was disappointing. First it ses like pple who join meetup are either just looking for something to do randomly in btwn their lives or they're pple who are just curious to see what its like with a different crowd. Half the groups i joined that had great carch phrases as descriptions were inactive then the other ones the events were merely disappointing.

My last straw was after i had planned for almost 2weeks on a listes event to where i had arranged childcare etc and about 12 hours before the event it was listed as "canceled"! No explanation no personalization with direct msg just a last minute cancellation. As a parent it takes a lot of planning to be be able to participate in social events and i find it very disrespectful when an organizer pretty much wastes your time. Mind you this is a small goup of pple i had met before. They cld havw definitely contacted me before hand. They literally canceled at 9pm for anebent scheduled the next morning. I even tried to reach out to the organizer and nobody responded.

The other group had what seemes to be a group of anti social females who basically wanted to form a click. It seemed exhausting.

Bottom line for me it yielded no real results and i ended up deactivating my account. Ill try connect with pple in person wherever i go and im a person who jas no problem with my own company anyway and am very open minded and social.

Meet up basically confirmed what i have always felt about anything to do with meeting pple online.

Unfortunately, anyone can attend and anyone can host these meetings. There is no screening. I just left a social for "foodies" and will never return. I thought it was a good way to meet new people (hence the name Meet Up) But it seems more like an avenue for a bunch of dorky and unsavory types. For a bunch of 40 somethings and older the majority were unmannered and socially inept--actually sat next to a man who played on his cell phone while sitting in the middle of a table of guests. I addressed his bad manners, instead of him apologizing to everyone, he defended his poor behavior by saying that it was a matter of opinion! Then another man defended this man's bad manners by saying that sometimes he (himself) needed to use his phone to check in on his girlfriend (as he was physically all over the woman next to him). They proceeded to tell me that the group was not for singles, it was for everyone. In other words, it was a great pool of lonely, single and desperate women victimized ( or not) by married and otherwise attached men. Why would it be open to married and attached people but they were not coming as couples? Why wouldn't they just go out to dinner on their own or have the social skills as a couple to make their own friends (which is very easy to do)? Not surprising that the organizers of the group were all men! If these attached men needed a social group, there are many other avenues that are morally acceptable than to prey on lonely, unattached women.
I also attended a meeting for spiritual awareness that describes itself as a meditation only to discover that it costs $8.00 per 45 minutes to "meditate" and connect with dead people. The organizer of that one finds everything possible to host a "meet up" and keeps a time clock next to her! She hosts a "meet up" group almost daily at $8 per person. I cannot believe that "meet up " rules allows a very profitable business to operate and use meet up avenues as their primary advertising.
In the case of these meet ups, I would definitely say BUYER BEWARE. It seems to be a great magnet for deceitful practices and more so, rude and ignorant people.

So, where to start... well, this site is now engineered to be a headache to use on mobile devices.

Want to find a meetup? Whatever you do do NOT sign in. Seriously. When you sign in meetup.com has a profile they use to determine which meetups to display and do not even give you access to the majority of them. Instead, you need to go to https://www.meetup.com/find/ to find a meetup. This is not too bad, just bookmark it, but it would be alright if not for the fact that meetup.com at times keeps redirecting you to https://www.meetup.com/apps to try to force you to download their app which of course is spyware.

After you find a meetup group you usually have to log in and then join it. Not a big deal? Well, meetup.com's join button is set to not work on mobile devices. To join a group I have to hold my finger on the join button until a context menu appears, select open in new tab, switch to that tab and then tap the join button in the group calendar page that opened in that tab. This has nothing to do with the lack of capabilities in the web browser, i was using an updated version of google chrome. After doing so I was not allowed to join until I upload a picture of myself and the only option presented was to upload a picture from facebook, no options to use a picture I already have on my phone. I did not see any option for using the pictures on my cell phone.

At this point I decided to access the web site from my laptop. Which still requires me to go to https://www.meetup.com/find/ without logging in to be able to find a meetup group without being profiled and limited in available choices. I also found that when trying to join the same group I was not asked to upload a picture from facebook.

The end goal of Online Dating is to "meet" potential matches. Most online dating platforms fail miserably in this department. In most cases both parties must be paid members to communicate. There is also the issue of fake or abandoned profiles. In most cases online dating platforms don't have your best interests at heart in terms of helping you to "meet" potential matches. You pay for a service but what service do you get for the time, money and effort you commit. What is your ROI.

MeetUp.com is not about Online Dating or dating specifically but this online platform is 100% focused on helping users meet new and real people. There is no charge to communicate with other users while the platform also enables the facilitation of real-life events and group gatherings focused around topics that might interest you. The secret is to join 10 or more groups (they are mostly all free to join) and to participate in group events being planned in your area. MeetUp.com, as an online platform, helps you meet new people whether you are seeking new friendships or new longer-term partners.

The criticism on this review website seems to be primarily from group organizers and not the users. MeetUp.com has to make its money somehow and chooses to bill group organizers instead of users. For users this helps keep everything flowing with few obstacles placed in the way to meeting real people. Group organizers are essentially the founders behind their niche topic of which users flock to join these groups or not. The company provides an online platform to help facilitate the real-world gatherings and events. It's not always easy being a MeetUp.com group organizer and I know from experience. If I plan to step down from paying group maintenance fees then the company alerts participating users within a group such that someone else might be willing to step up and pay the fees instead. This sounds fair and allows the group to continue if interest still exists. If not, then the group ends.

I have participated in Online Dating and experienced many of the online platforms firsthand. MeetUp.com has been my #1 tool, as a user, helping connect me with potential matches in the real world based on shared topics of interest. Successful dating is partly about the experience you share when together and the emotion you each bring to the table. Participating in real world, group events allows for less pressure but also more emotion to be had by all. Potentially a more favorable environment for finding longer term matches. As a group organizer I can sympathize that it's not a perfect world but as a user MeetUp.com is a far better option than the online dating platforms.

Years of technical issues have left me frustrated as an organizer.
Been a very active groups organizer since 2016
Really Frustrated with Meetup
Had 30 Meetup groups at one time, down to 12 & planning to jump ship.
Aside from years of frustrations these are the most recent that are my tipping point
1. Price increase in Canada (from 23,99 US to 26.87 US = around 36.00 Canadian $) Too Much!
2. Pages have always been & are still slow across most devices
3. When you edit an event then save, often the event is duplicated on the parent date, each time.
4. Group Members receive notices for events, days after events are completed
5. Editor seems unstable, at least for me, often get #### in front of text on event pages
6. Lack of features, functions & controls - paying for a glorified calendar that is available free elsewhere
7. Years & Years of other frustrations
8. Members always complaining about too many e-mail messages from meetup
9. Meetup is has adds now - ON PAID GROUPS. We pay premium prices & have to see ads as well

Done with Meetup here. There are so many alternatives.

This is one we found that was pretty good & recommending. There are also so many other options. Do some research. I like this one.

https://groups.ezumee.com

1. Free Groups for organizers - members pay 1.75 month to belong or
2. Organizers pay 9.95 Canadian (about 7.95 usd) includes 3 groups, Free for Group members
2. Pages load fast
3. Gives full control over events settings, can customize home page & events
4. Has in groups video chat (extra cost but still lower than Zoom for example)
5. Has in groups games - included
6. Has in groups file sharing - small extra cost for file sharing
7. In groups presentation system - included
8. In groups forums (optional discourse type forums available)

And many other features. Includes control over date, time, frequency that event messages get sent out to avoid the super frustrating amount of e-mail messages from meetup.

Pretty Happy with it & wanted to share this alternative to meetup with everyone. Been frustration free with this one & the lower cost appreciated.

While researching I found so many new options. This one but there are others. Instead of complaining about Meetup, suggest finding an alternative to get rid of your stress & frustrations.

This is my own experience with Meetup. Also my own experience in finding an alternative. Sharing.

Cheers

Ethan

Young newbies of PBC is a group that is only there to sell and do drugs. They should shut it down

With meetup.com's new settings (currently set as of January 2017), your activities are public information to anyone with access to the internet. So if you are going on a hike with just a few people, or opening up your home for a meetup (e.g., for professional networking, hobbies or a children's playdate), the title of your event, date, time, and the number of people going are information available to anyone in the public searching on meetup.com, not just your members. If the title of a posted meetup event includes the location, then predators will know where to go and when--which is not good if you are a small group, or have kids, or will go into remote areas (e.g. For hiking), or will be in a private home (which is never a good idea with strangers in any case). If you omit the location from the title, predators can still see an easy target, request to join, and once joined, can find out the location of the meetup. Meetup.com is about meeting up with people, including those you don't know (for recreation, professional purposes, etc.) In the past, you can limit your risk by providing meetup information to just your members, but now you are exposed to an unlimited number of people on the internet. I've contacted Meetup Headquarters, and they refused to change the settings so that your event information can be kept private because they want others to know your group's activity so they can join if interested. In other words, they want more people to join meetup groups. The bigger the group, the more sponsors it might get (and therefore perhaps more money goes to Meetup). But sponsors BEWARE. Most members of a meetup group are INACTIVE--they don't even visit the group's website anymore. Here's how sponsors can verify this. Request to join membership of a meetup group. Once a member, click on "members" and click on "last visited". You will then see the members who have visited the website in the last couple days, weeks, months, or year. The bigger the group, the more INACTIVE members there are. Therefore know that the number of membership is meaningless before you pour money or freebies into the group. As for security, Facebook Group is a better alternative since you can keep your group information private with them so far, and it's also free (unlike Meetup, which charges organizers). I'm moving my group to Facebook Group, and hope others heed my warning about meetup.com. Check out horror stories about Craigslist.com to know the types of crimes that can happen. I've written to Meetup Headquarters about this danger, and they refuse to allow people to keep meetup information completely private. Having been put on notice about the dangers means that's negligence, or recklessness, for which they can be sued if something should happen. PLEASE don't use meetup.com for children's events, or to go into remote areas, or to go into a private home for an event.

I tried meetups several times and neither time was worth it...

The first time I attended what sounded like a great group - but the guy who set it up did not bother showing up. The PR made the group sound like a lot of people would show up and about 30 people did. The location was in what was supposedly public space but private security informed us that to have so many people there required a permit so with no leader we moved on to a restaurant and had lunch with some of the group members.

With no leader bothering to show up and chased off from the meeting location others attending could not find us. If I had it to do all over again I would have skipped the lunch since we split the ticket so those who ordered expensive items got a free discount from those of us who ordered moderately priced items.

There were no interesting gals there but I struck up a conversation with some interesting people. It turned out one was some sort of a cult nut who tried to force me into going to see "something wonderful" (without any explanation) so I balked. This might work with kids but not me. So add to the above dysfunctional mix people recruiting for cults at meetups...

So we have a group the leader does not show up, get thrown off of the location and the 30 people who showed up tried to improvise not a good deal at all...

I'll usually give anyone a second chance so I figured another meetup might be interesting about a year later... Recently I saw an ad on craigslist from a gal I had met briefly at the second meetup I tried. She was attractive so I replied. It was obvious the person placing the ad was not the gal (someone took her pictures from the meetup site and posted them pretending to be the meetup gal). I got suspicious when chatting with the CL fake and thought I could reach the gal through meetups. I contacted the gal and she was pissy (keep in mind I only briefly chatted with her in the past and so did not know her well).

Anyway I can see why someone wanted to get even with her by using her meetup photos to pose as her on craigslist because she came across as a $#*!. Had I known I would not have bothered trying to help her out by informing her someone was impersonating her on craigslist it was not worth the hassle...

If you add up my personal experience with meetups you should run for the hills and save yourself a lot of hassles.

If I didn't have to remain a member to get information from my club, I would resign immediately. GO BACK TO YOUR CORE PURPOSE, MEETUP!

I second that the new Meetup site is horrible and it sucks I need to put the old one back

I'm on several meetups. Mostly I use it for organizing motorcycle rides. I have no complaints.

I recently joined this group and was in for nothing but put-downs and judgemental views from the "leader" of the group.
Many people, including myself, stated that events aren't organized and that for a "meet-up" group the organizers don't do much to make that happen.
I'll say!
When I couldn't find ANY ONE of the 206 members that went to a festival that occurred recently I voiced my concerns about the fact that there was no meet-up time and no meet-up place... the "owner" of this group had the audacity to tell me that his intent was for this to just be for informational purposes only and that he was "too busy" to deal with the group and that he didn't mean to create it as an event, EVEN though he stated "Come join us" in the headlines and even what headwear he would don in order to be more "recognizable." So there IS an "us"?
After I made my claim about the fact that there was no meetup group to speak of, despite having to RSVP for a "supposed" group meeting in the park, he began creating scenarios in his head, saying I'm not from Calgary so how about he explains to me how "Calgary culture" functions [excuse me!?!?!?!]. He continued to say it was my choice to be sad and miserable [and I said this WHEN?] and that if I wanted to "meet-up" with anyone then I can "feel free" to "volunteer" to wear a sign in order to draw people to me.
I'm sorry, but who picked HIM to be leader of a MEET UP group!?!?! This person goes under the simple name of "Atul", has a short, square face, has a triangular nose, wears sunglasses in his photo and baseball cap. If you do choose to go along and join his group just be aware that it's his way or the highway and anything you try to bring to his intention will not only be put down, but he will put YOU down, DISRESPECT you AND put the ENTIRE blame on YOUR shoulders!
He has written comments [like the ones stated above] to other members and quite frankly, I don't know how the group continues to exist.
So that has been my experience. The choice you make about this group from here on out is yours!
Oh, and one star is WAY too many for the disrespect and arrogance I experienced. Simply ridiculous!

I have been, and still am, both an organizer of groups and a member. Loved every minute of it.

3/30/2015 Problems with Product/Service | Complaint Details Unavailable
2/13/2015 Billing/Collection Issues | Complaint Details Unavailable
12/11/2014 Billing/Collection Issues | Complaint Details Unavailable
10/22/2014 Billing/Collection Issues | Complaint Details Unavailable
10/15/2014 Problems with Product/Service | Complaint Details Unavailable
9/10/2014 Problems with Product/Service | Complaint Details Unavailable
8/7/2014 Problems with Product/Service | Complaint Details Unavailable
7/1/2014 Advertising/Sales Issues | Complaint Details Unavailable
5/15/2014 Billing/Collection Issues | Complaint Details Unavailable
4/24/2014 Problems with Product/Service | Read Complaint Details
Details on last complaint:
Additional Notes

Complaint: My email was changed with meetup.com by a hacker. I called and they said they could not help. They would not give me the email of the person pretending to be me, and stated again that they could not help. Only allowed to email in, which has already been done with Incident #*****and led to an absolute fail of finding a solution. Now, my groups, and one that I organize are subjected to comments I do not make or actions I do not make by someone pretending to be me. Meetup does not care. My credit card/billing information for the monthly dues I pay for organizing the Winning Resume Strategies group is also at huge risk by the person who figured out my password and changed my email in the system.

Desired Settlement: I want meetup to restore the original gmail.com address for my meetup groups and to prosecute the person that hacked into my online identity and assumed it. This is a serious legal matter and the people at Meetup HQ do not seem to understand this since I've been brushed off both via email and phone. Please rectify immediately.

Consumer Response: Better Business Bureau:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Hi I went to my first meetup today and it was great and I am looking forward to the next one.

They have no phone number, no customer service and nothing to offer.

Even before I participated in this, I realized that this won't last long.

I was banned from the room for no reason whatsoever! Don't even think about getting mental support!

There are so many ways to find people with similar interests that you would not have met otherwise.