The arrow was off target

"Not only do people feel screwed, but a lot of people are understandably reluctant to come forward and say they signed up," stated John Balestriere, plaintiff lawyer.

It seems that there is a group of rather well-off women who have taken issue that their $1,500 a year membership didn't get them the man of their dreams. They now have filed a civil lawsuit in Manhatten NY federal court against the online dating service - It's Just Lunch.

According to the court papers filed last week, the company which has sold IJL franchises to more than 100 matchmaking entrepreneurs worldwide, they are focused soley on profits at the expense of the client and willing to lie. John Balestriere states that the company lies in the initial interviews and lies about the prospective dates. He adds that the plaintiff's feel that they lie to meet monthly quotas and that the parent company has them use a very well laid out plan for continuing those lies.

The company countered by stating that they believe their uniform training guidelines insure consistant services and quality and the documents that have been cited out of context, don't reflect the extensive interviews conducted before a client is accepted. The company was founded by Andrea McGinty in 1992 after her fiance jilted her weeks before the wedding and it boasts of having more than 30,000 members currently.

As for the complaints about poor matchups... they include a woman who didn't want republicans or religious types and had her first two matches with a Catholic Republican and a Seventh-Day Adventist and other women who found that the art dealer was a guy who worked for a freight company, a landscaping executive who cut lawns, a blind date in bar with a man who was an alchoholic and one woman who found out her date was still legally married.

One affluent former client stated that there seemed to be no pattern to who she was set up with for dates but added, I wouldn't have believed them if they had told me that they were setting me up with a Prince Charming type of guy. In general she stated that she had a good experience with the company and added....... it gets you out of the house.

The cost of this dating service may seem steep to most anyone looking to find Mr Right but when it is targeted at afluent people, that is probably what they spend on getting "Fluffy" clipped at the groomers. Frankly, it's an online dating service and anyone with common sense should know that there are going to still be a lot of toads to sort through, no matter what the cost of membership........ just take a look around the clubhouse of any "exclusive" gym or golf course.......... not too many Prince Charming types there, huh?





H/T to Jason Barney at overlawyered