(UPDATE: Because of the fall of the US Dollar, money advice here doesn’t apply anymore. See this post for details.)
Ed’s note: Looking to learn more about eHarmony? Read more eHarmony site reviews in our Reviews category.
Two days ago we reported eHarmony’s first “country specific site” eHarmony.ca. I traveled around eHarmony.ca today and found a few interesting things:
- I found the two sites identical except the top-left eHarmony logo. They both accept registrations from either country and from the same other countries. The new site has the same test, the same guided communication process, the same screens.
- It even utilises the same American spelling; but I’m sure the polite Canadians won’t take offence.
- The free personality profile costs less in Canada — it costs $40 Canadian. I think it’s because Canadians are easier to psychoanalyse. Or maybe it’s because of the free healthcare.
- The .ca site sends .com-registered members to the .com My Matches screen, and the .com site sends .ca-registered members to the .ca My Matches screen. This means that .ca registrants will always be .ca members, whatever they say on registration and even if they change their country.
- .ca accepts only Visa and Mastercard. The site says that they accept cashier’s cheque and money order payments but the page makes me doubt whether they are aware that certain cashier’s cheques and money orders issued in Canada are not negotiable in the States.
Here’s the bonus: Everyone can save 12 to 14% by taking the compatibility test in eHarmony.ca, not in .com. If you look at the .ca membership prices, the figures are in Canadian dollars. At the time of this writing, 59.95 Canadian dollars = 51.37 U.S. dollars. See, you save 14% right there!
Except for this cool bonus, this so-called expansion fails to impress us here at eHarmony Blog. For the time they spent reprogramming the site, they could instead have been honest and added a Last Activity Date, or make life easier for subscribers by memorising responses to the canned questions or adding more Final Message choices. How about dead accounts? Is “expanding” to Canada more important than sparing customers from annoying dead accounts?
February 15 Update: The Canadian Internet Registry Authority (CIRA) told me that they will start an investigation and inquiry with eH.ca’s Canadian Presence eligibility. As I wrote earlier, .ca registration rules require that the registrant company be a bona-fide Canadian company. That is, Americans can’t just get typographi.ca because it sounds cool. The process takes a month and may lead to the suspension of the domain.
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