Fictional Reality

By Jocelyn Geboy in News on Jun 6, 2006 7:51PM

Upon reading the blurb about Galina Safir, a suburban woman who is suing her dating service, Soulmates, Inc. because they didn't hook her up with a mate, we were wondering the following things:

Who pays a dating service $4,000? Maybe she just didn't follow the "dating tips?" Will she get dates from this story? Who pays a dating service $4,000?

However, upon further investigation, it seems she's not the only one who's had this problem. Back in 2004, Robert Baty of McHenry also butted heads with the service when he was presented with three ladies who were not what he had requested. When he tried to get out of his contract, the service was less than cooperative.

The Better Business Bureau said they had a "satisfactory record" at the time -- but in 2000, Soulmates signed an agreement called an assurance of voluntary compliance with the office of the Attorney General. In the Northwest Herald article we found, Scott Mulford, spokesman for the Illinois attorney general's office, said that such agreements are signed when there has been a possible violation of consumer law by the business.

At first look, we were inclined to pass this off as the requisite This Week In Stupid inspired cocktail of stupidity mixed in with a good splash of desperation. However, with a little help from the internets, we see there might be more to this Soulmates, Inc. scam than we thought. We won't pay money for the chance of trying to find the love of our life through someone else's screening process, but if they're not delivering even the basic idea of what they promise, that's a fictional reality we think they should have to account for.

Image via indyvoter.org