A Tale of Two Dating Companies — Part 1, The Good: Aste #DateSafer
I recently interacted with two fairly new companies in the online dating sphere and had two very different experiences. In part one of this two-part series, I talk about the positive experience I had with a very unique company — Aste.
Disclaimer: This is in no way sponsored content; I was not asked to write this post and I wasn’t offered anything in return [though I certainly wouldn’t turn down a free report if it were offered ;-) ] . The company didn’t know I was writing this until after I had received what I paid for and later messaged them with a concern about the company (more detials on that later). All opinions are genuinely my own and reflect my real experience. Also, I edited this article on 2/1/17 to reflect Aste’s new pricing model. The prices are the only thing in this article that was changed.
A few days ago I tweeted something with a few dating hashtags, and next thing I knew I was followed by the Aste Date Safer account. I am pretty accustomed to being followed by random accounts after tweeting about dating, so I quickly clicked their profile, not expecting much but when I saw their bio, I was instantly intrigued:
Professional investigators ensuring your online date truly is who they say they are, saving you time and keeping you safe in your quest for love. #DateSafer
After a quick search of their website, I learned that the founder created the service after she almost went on a date with someone who was awaiting trial for bank robbery. When she confronted him, he said he had to “YOLO” before trial. Now, Aste offers to compile a report for you about your upcoming date even if all you have is a first name, phone number, and location.
Their pricing is below:
I couldn’t resist trying it out. I have been talking to someone who wouldn’t give me their last name, even once we transitioned from a dating app to texting. They also claim to work for a very large, well-known company in the area but I couldn’t find them on LinkedIn — this was especially odd because the company is going through some changes right now and I don’t want to give any identifying details away, but lets just say that this is a time when young employees should be on LinkedIn in case anything should happen to their job. He seems like a nice guy but something just wasn’t sitting right with me. I consider myself fairly decent at the online sleuthing when I need to be, but I just wasn’t finding anything about this guy. Aste claims that everything they find is completely legal and in the public domain, just difficult and time consuming to find, so I thought it would be interesting to see what they were able to come up with.
As I was browsing their website and considering purchasing a report, their social media responsiveness was AMAZING. I DMed them on Twitter to ask a question about their prices and they got back to me right away. They also thanked me for retweeting an article they were featured in. When I spent a few minutes on their website, one of those automatic help chats came up asking if I needed anything, but instead of being a random chatbot, it was from the company’s founder. I decided to go ahead and get a report.
I sent Aste his first name, phone number, and a screenshot of his bumble profile. There was also a notes section to include anything specific you wanted looked into, so I included my concerns about his place of work. About 20 hours later I had a very detailed report.
I don’t know how they do it, but they uncovered not only his last name but also every social media profile (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube channel, and Twitter — although the Twitter was not active and was questionable whether it was actually his account or not.) They had his gmail and work email. They checked his sex offender and arrest history (none, thank goodness) and even compiled a list of his interests and random other facts. I don’t want to get too specific in case this article ever winds up in front of him, but I will just say that this guy has a few quirky interests and there was something in this list of facts that was tinged with juuuuust the right amount of sarcasm that it made me laugh out loud. Whether that was intentional or unintentional I’m not sure, but I still laughed.
I think what I found most impressive about the report was the fact that in their email to me, they referenced the job concerns that I had mentioned when I got the report. It was obvious they had really read my concerns and tried their best to address them.
The company is still very, very new. From what I can tell, it seems it was only officially launched within the past month or two. Whether they will be able to keep their personal touch, their great responsiveness, and their 24-hour turnaround as they grow remains to be seen, but for now I’d say this service is worth it if you ever have some lingering doubts about someone you are about to go on a date with. Unfortunately, their pricing, while cheaper than competitors, is still expensive enough that it is probably not feasible to check out every date, but it is a good service to know about if you ever feel like you need it [edit: pricing has gone down a bit since I first wrote this article. The prices listed in the photo at the beginning of this article are the most up to date as of 2/1/17]. As they grow, it would be great to see them maybe add monthly subscriber options. For example, maybe you get 3 reports for month for a certain monthly fee, but instead of a 24 hour turnaround you have to wait 72 hours in exchange for the cheaper price.
My one concern…
When I got the report and saw how amazingly detailed it was, I couldn’t help but wonder about what will happen when this inevitably ends up being used for the wrong reasons one day. It’s unfortunate to say, but I can totally see a guy who is mad he got turned down for a date via a dating app or who went on a first date and is mad the girl doesn’t want a second using this info to harass, internet stalk, and potentially physically harm her. (To be fair, it is possible for a woman to use the app for these negative reasons as well, but let’s be honest, because more guys initiate conversation and dates, they are more likely to be the ones getting turned down.) At this point, I felt it was appropriate to reach out to them before I wrote about it in this post. I sent them the following DM:
They got back to me within a day despite it being a weekend (a holiday weekend at that), and told me to be on the lookout for an email from their founder. The founder’s email was great for several reasons:
- It thanked me for feedback, both positive and negative
- It indicated that she had spoken heavily to lawyers about these concerns before starting the business
- It described some things they purposely left out of the report, and compared it with other similar companies and what they include in their reports
- It pointed out some aspects of the Terms of Service agreement
- It acknowledged that despite all of the above it is still possible that someone may try to abuse the service and it assured me that as they grow they are going to explore options to make sure this doesn’t happen.
- It said she was looking forward to seeing my blog post and that she hoped my date had gone well.
The overall message of this email to me was, other services provide much scarier information than we do and we think the benefits of the safety we are providing our clients outweights the potential risk, but we are working with lawyers and other people to make sure the risks are as minimal as possible. The email was genuine and not at all condescending. I would venture to guess she has some type of communications background or has at least handled communications roles as one aspect of her previous jobs.
Although it is impossible for the company’s reponse to completely dissolve my concerns, I think they did the best they could and I do agree with them that they seem to be genuinely trying to make dating safer and that if someone is that intent on using services like this maliciously, they are going to find a way to do it no matter what.
All in all, my experience with Aste was very positive and I will be keeping an eye on how they evolve as they grow. I wish I could afford a report for every date, but for now I will be keeping this in my back pocket for when I really feel like I need it.
If you have tried to #DateSafer with Aste, I’d love to hear about your experience!
