"Do you have enough finances for this?" or "Customer relationship, are you kidding?" - Russian Ukrainian Belarus Travel Music Woman Dating News

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"Do you have enough finances for this?" or "Customer relationship, are you kidding?"
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Posted by: Akhenathon

I've just received this (unbelievable) letter from Yoshkar-Ola.com. I had to share it with you (bolds are mine):

--
Dear Sir,

Thank you for filling out the form on our web-site.

Before we start sending you introduction letters
and photos from Russian ladies for free, please
answer one more question.

Do you understand what is involved in marrying
a Russian lady? After some correspondence you will
have to make a trip to Russia to meet her in person.
Do you have enough finances for this?

Sorry for this question but sending introduction
letters is quite time-consuming and we don't want
to waste your time.

Please reply soon. If you ignore this message, we
will understand that you are not interested in our
services and you won't receive introduction letters
and photos from Russian ladies for free,

Customer Service

Posted by: ham

well, they have a very realistic approach.
i can just commend them for that, irrespective of the fact such outfit might or might not be legitimate.
It is a known fact only 3-4% men in the MOB game will ever visit the FSU.
At least an healthier approach than fairy tales about "marrying a model" or other rubbish pushed by unscrupulous agencies.

Posted by: Akhenathon

I respect your point of view. But a "realistic approach" doesn't mean you have to be rude with your (potential) customer. This is a stone-age marketing and CR strategy.

If you have a personal meeting business and you are concerned about wasting your time sending e-mails, close it and open a hot-dog kiosk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ham

well, they have a very realistic approach.
i can just commend them for that, irrespective of the fact such outfit might or might not be legitimate.
It is a known fact only 3-4% men in the MOB game will ever visit the FSU.
At least an healthier approach than fairy tales about "marrying a model" or other rubbish pushed by unscrupulous agencies.

Posted by: ham

they are probably russian men: you can't expect too much.
on the other hand, i read countless over countless bad or poor opinions about "western operated " agencies hiring cold calling pros (for upto 50% of whatever you pay ) skilled at hard selling you anything.
Hell, recently i saw one typing such bold a claim as nearly 50% of men going on their tours do get married or like that.
I read a report today about a big name, super endorsed, western operated agency and that man claimed 36% of the addresses provided were fake because no phone call could be made & no flower delivery could take place...ah, and 1 woman told him she was married with a child!
He was lured into it by (apparently) good western style customer service...
Perhaps that agency will have real women...they are Maksim, known to have bought the once free FSU personals site eecl.org

Posted by: Akhenathon

The e-mail from YO was signed by a woman.

I've read about western agencies and faked e-mails. But I had a contact with a "girl" who asked me, after a couple of messages, some euros and dollars... Oh, I forgot to say: "she" was from the city of Yoshkar-Ola...

The process of sending e-mails and digests can be fully automated, and free from charge.

I am sorry about my words, but when you contact an agency, you don't want to "buy" someone, you want to find a girl who fits in what you want and expect. This is a terrible approach: start some relation with an agency that is concerned with your bank account.

I wrote to Maksim and I told him what I think. I know russian capitalism is young, but you don't have to forget to respect your customer. Well, money is important for everyone, but some lessons on marketing and Customer Relationship could be a good idea.

Did I mention that the city of Yoshkar-Ola is known as the world capital of scamming? And how YO-Agency works on it? Asking me about my finances? Bad, very bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ham

they are probably russian men: you can't expect too much.
on the other hand, i read countless over countless bad or poor opinions about "western operated " agencies hiring cold calling pros (for upto 50% of whatever you pay ) skilled at hard selling you anything.
Hell, recently i saw one typing such bold a claim as nearly 50% of men going on their tours do get married or like that.
I read a report today about a big name, super endorsed, western operated agency and that man claimed 36% of the addresses provided were fake because no phone call could be made & no flower delivery could take place...ah, and 1 woman told him she was married with a child!
He was lured into it by (apparently) good western style customer service...
Perhaps that agency will have real women...they are Maksim, known to have bought the once free FSU personals site eecl.org

Posted by: Pin Boy

ak,

welcome...and don't atke it too harshly. english may be that person's second language and that person may not have the nuances of the language to put it any other way.

actually, i think it's refreshing that an agency would tell the cold hard truth. such an endeavor takes a hell of a lot of money.

pin boy

Posted by: jpierce55

I have to put my two cents in. I agree on the fact that so few men actually go to meet the women. Elena also told me a story about one of her friends who met a guy on the internet. He was very poor but they fell in love. Now she is miserably poor, he could barely afford to move her to another country. They do love each other and have worked around it.

It could just be an agency that actually has a little concern for the women, especially if they are trying to develop a good name for the company. It may be they don't want failure, but want high success rate levels. You can't have better advertisement then that. You said it is a woman, so maybe a woman runs the company and personally had a bad experience.

Yoshkar-Ola might be scam central, but who is to say someone from Yoshkar would admit it. They might claim to be from Moscow, or someplace else if they are a scammer.

Things are very-very expensive. I think the $10,000 estimates I read are misleading I expect more by the end of this and consider myself farely conservative with money. As a warning don't take to much advice from marriage agencies, they do create a hype to sell their uneeded services. (Although in some cases they might help)

Give it a shot, and use caution. Caution needs used with any of these correspondences in anycase.

Posted by: ConnerVT

Actually, I think they are sincerely worried if you have enough money -- so they can make some.

There are basically two types of business models for the introduction industry. The first makes it's profits off of letter writing -- $10 to sell you contact info, $5 to send/translate a letter, etc. These agencies are rife with scam. They hope you will never visit, just sit at home and write more letters (and give them more money).

The second type of business model is more geared as a travel agency. They make their money on arranging travel and accommodations, supplying interpretors, transportation, etc. A quick look at the page that opened when I surfed www.Yoshkar-Ola.com looked more like a travel site than an introduction agency. You have to go deeper into the site to see that they are hooked up with Maksim Introductions. My guess is they don't make much money from the introduction business (and perhaps it even costs them some). But it's a hook to get people to use their travel services.

My guess is the letter is intended to weed out the "Keyboard Romeos." It was just written with a typical amount of Russian bluntness. If you plan on spending much time around Russians, get used to it...

Posted by: searcher

Actually I have to agree with Ham and commend them for that.

But as PinBoy pointed out, understand that English may be this persons second language and can sometimes come across as harsh or rude.

I experienced that from one guy at the airport but then realized that he was just being honest and direct and not trying to be rude.

I know it may seem rude but I don't believe they are trying to be so, they are just trying to find sincere men with not only good intentions but with the financial means to visit these ladies.

Good intents are great but actions speak louder than words!

Posted by: Chrismc

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConnerVT

Actually, I think they are sincerely worried if you have enough money -- so they can make some.

There are basically two types of business models for the introduction industry. The first makes it's profits off of letter writing -- $10 to sell you contact info, $5 to send/translate a letter, etc. These agencies are rife with scam. They hope you will never visit, just sit at home and write more letters (and give them more money).

The second type of business model is more geared as a travel agency. They make their money on arranging travel and accommodations, supplying interpretors, transportation, etc. A quick look at the page that opened when I surfed www.Yoshkar-Ola.com looked more like a travel site than an introduction agency. You have to go deeper into the site to see that they are hooked up with Maksim Introductions. My guess is they don't make much money from the introduction business (and perhaps it even costs them some). But it's a hook to get people to use their travel services.

My guess is the letter is intended to weed out the "Keyboard Romeos." It was just written with a typical amount of Russian bluntness. If you plan on spending much time around Russians, get used to it...

I endorse what Connor states, they certainly seem very travel agency orientated and seem to be offering loads of additional services for which there is obviously extra fees involved, but also what others have said about English being a second language is true. It could have been worded more delicately, but it it is not easy to come across exactly as you would like when using a second language.

Personally I found it is just cheaper and better to make travel arrangements etc yourself rather than use romance tours etc, but doing it that way there is a lot more work for yourself and a lot more things to organise, so it all depends on your confidence levels.

Posted by: Eryk

>>I know russian capitalism is young, but you don't have to forget to respect >>your customer.

If you want to talk about 'lack of respect' then I think that sneaky, underhand spying (the 'Credit Reference Agency' business) is far more offensive than direct questioning.

Eryk

Posted by: ham

i think political correctness is a fraud from those who make a profit out of it.
it can't change the reality and -in fact- it hurts you more because it lets you think the problem doesn't exist.
finances are the biggest to start with.
I highly appreciate their mention of the man travelling to the FSU: that excludes the infamous visa scam, because to be honest some men are cheap a$$es expecting women to pizza deliver themselves at their door for under $500.
The only result is the $500 are gone, no woman and the man grows bitter thinking all FSUWs are money grabbing wh-res, while ultimately it's all his fault.
there is no fault if at the time one has not enough $ or time to travel to the FSU: once you are wary of that, there are no risks, no broken hearts, nothing.
I think most scams & the general fake fairy tale vision in the MOB game are to be blamed upon overly simplistic, soothing yet misleading claims by unscrupulous agencies, such as you can have a FSU Britney Spears even if you're 80 living off food stamps because her salary is around $50 a month. FSUWs don't mind biblical age gaps and favor old men because they make better husbands. FSUWs don't care about material comfort for they're unspoilt: a washing & drying machine is enough to keep them self contented because they have no heating & no tap water

Posted by: Akhenathon

Thank you very much to everyone, for your clever and refreshing opinions. This is a very good space for exchange experiences on the subject.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConnerVT

Actually, I think they are sincerely worried if you have enough money -- so they can make some.

Posted by: MadHatter

This is the agency that I'm using right now. I've got contact with quite a few of the ladies from there. I've talked with most by phone and have also seen them on web cam as well. They are pretty fare about handling bad situations and also giving a refund if something goes wrong with you and the lady. They even assign a manager to work with you and assist in maters with your account and the ladies.

I've never had a problem.

Posted by: Link

This topic was started in 2005 maybe the agency has by now new policies.

On the other hand I think they say the cold truth but I don't think that was the appropriate way say it.

Maybe they said it because the guy was from Brazil (not a fully developed country), but in the few agencies that I uploaded my profile I never had a problem and I'm from Mexico (not a fully developed country too).