Edmonton woman pays thousands for a date and ends up with toothless homeless man

[FlamesAddiction]

I had a couple of friends back in Vancouver who used to go to the ATMs and grab discarded receipts. They would find the ones with substantial amounts of money and then go to the bar. They would write their phone numbers on them (making it look like they were just looking for a random piece of scrap paper in their wallets) and give them to girls at the bar and almost always get phone calls back, whether or not the girls seemed interested in them that night.

[CaptainCrunch]

Honest to god, E-harmoney should be all over this woman, just think of the publicity.

Grab her, give her a free membership, find her a hunka hunka burning love, and plaster her all over the interweb.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I had a couple of friends back in Vancouver who used to go to the ATMs and grab discarded receipts. They would find the ones with substantial amounts of money and then go to the bar. They would write their phone numbers on them (making it look like they were just looking for a random piece of scrap paper in their wallets) and give them to girls at the bar and almost always get phone calls back, whether or not the girls seemed interested in them that night.

Or you can show up wearing a cowboy hat, a nasa jacket and wear sunglasses.

Yeah baby, I'm a former astronaut who owns a ranch so I'm like a cowboy. Oh the sunglasses, they hide the intensity of my integrity just like my pants hide my embarrassingly freakishly large appendage.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Source? Where did you see she listed off a bunch of rare, superficial, unrealistic qualities?

In the article it says she filled out:
-attractive (that's a relative term, that doesn't mean she was looking for a 11 in a sea of 4s.
- have a career
- be a few years on either side of 55.

If that's an unrealistic, la-la land set of qualities, holy crap did I set my bar way too high when I was on Tinder.

But you have to look at it as an exchange of qualities. What exactly was she offering?

And attractive might be slightly relative, but there are some pretty universal qualities that make someone attractive. Typically, to get someone attractive, you need to be offering attractive traits back.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Acey

I have, and it's ruthless. I had a classmate at SAIT who signed up just for giggles, cute blonde girl. Hundreds of matches in just a few days and she showed us her messages. Just savage. It'd have been unreasonable for her to actually pursue an in-person meeting with 90% of those guys.

It's a 2-way street as many women on dating sites have totally unrealistic expectations. My brother is an above average looking guy and has done well on dating sites finding a couple of longtime girlfriends that were very nice girls. That said he's 5'10" which is not exactly short and it was surprising the amount of height shaming he had to put up with. Plenty of women that are not exactly prizes will have criteria like "must be 6 feet tall or more", "not hairy", "no blacks", "handsome", "strong", etc. He would go out on dates with women that had nowhere near the "athletic" builds described in their profile and strategic photos that paint them as much more attractive than they really are. Funny thing is that he would be nice to these girls even though he wasn't attracted to them and at the end they would be the ones that would tell him he's not up to their physical standards ha ha ha. I've been married for a long time so I suppose I wasn't prepared to see some of the stuff he would show me, although I have absolutely no doubt that the males on these sites could be as you describe above.

[FlamesFanStrandedInEDM]

Dating is a complete hypocrisy as it is.

People expect more in the person they are dating than they expect of themselves. Whether its a woman looking for a man who has more financial success, or a guy who is expecting the woman to be better looking than he is. True love and happiness happens when both sides are equally satisfied or tricked by what the other person is offering.

[TorqueDog]

I feel bad for her because she spent $7,344 to find a date. She was a gullible, easy mark for this shady outfit.

However, I do not feel bad for her because the guy she was set up with was not to her liking. That is literally what dating is. Sometimes you go out with someone who makes your eyes pop out of your head, but they're annoying as hell. Other times, you meet someone who you have a great conversation with, but looks like they eat mayonnaise out of the jar while watching television. And then sometimes, you meet someone who has the right amount of everything and stuff works.

If you happen to get the third possibility on the first, fifth, or tenth try, that's awesome. Some people never find that.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's a 2-way street as many women on dating sites have totally unrealistic expectations. My brother is an above average looking guy and has done well on dating sites finding a couple of longtime girlfriends that were very nice girls. That said he's 5'10" which is not exactly short and it was surprising the amount of height shaming he had to put up with. Plenty of women that are not exactly prizes will have criteria like "must be 6 feet tall or more", "not hairy", "no blacks", "handsome", "strong", etc. He would go out on dates with women that had nowhere near the "athletic" builds described in their profile and strategic photos that paint them as much more attractive than they really are. Funny thing is that he would be nice to these girls even though he wasn't attracted to them and at the end they would be the ones that would tell him he's not up to their physical standards ha ha ha. I've been married for a long time so I suppose I wasn't prepared to see some of the stuff he would show me, although I have absolutely no doubt that the males on these sites could be as you describe above.

Yeah, both what Acey said and you is sadly very true. The harassment towards women on dating apps/websites can be appalling. The height thing is totally true on the other side though. When I was on those things, it was really common to see "I'm 5'7" and wear 5" heels, so you must be 6'2"+". 5'11" is short apparently, and 6'0" is tall. Online dating is a war zone.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

But you have to look at it as an exchange of qualities. What exactly was she offering?

The dude did not have a job. He didn't have a permanent address.
He apparently didn't even have a dentist. And I'm willing to bet he wasn't a client in their database.

In your exchange of qualities scenario, honestly, how much less could this guy be 'offering'? At least judging by the article, she has a source of income. This doesn't exactly seem like she's running to the media because he wasn't cute enough - if she was, I could see the argument.

This doesn't seem like the story of a woman who came in with completely absurd expectations, and after refusing the first 50 people they tried to set her up with, they waived their hands in the air and picked this guy.

The company refused to respond to CBC. The US affiliate was shut down, fined half a million dollars, and ordered to pay back customers. The Canadian affiliate has already been investigated for similar claims.

But the company can't be ripping her off, it must be because she's a troll and should only expect to date the homeless.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

The height thing is totally true on the other side though. When I was on those things, it was really common to see "I'm 5'7" and wear 5" heels, so you must be 6'2"+". 5'11" is short apparently, and 6'0" is tall. Online dating is a war zone.

Haha 5'7? Usually it was "I'm 5'2, so only 6'2" or taller".

I always wanted to advertise a weight limit on my profile in response to that.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

The dude did not have a job. He didn't have a permanent address.
He apparently didn't even have a dentist. And I'm willing to bet he wasn't a client in their database.

In your exchange of qualities scenario, honestly, how much less could this guy be 'offering'? At least judging by the article, she has a source of income. This doesn't exactly seem like she's running to the media because he wasn't cute enough - if she was, I could see the argument.

This doesn't seem like the story of a woman who came in with completely absurd expectations, and after refusing the first 50 people they tried to set her up with, they waived their hands in the air and picked this guy.

The company refused to respond to CBC. The US affiliate was shut down, fined half a million dollars, and ordered to pay back customers. The Canadian affiliate has already been investigated for similar claims.

But the company can't be ripping her off, it must be because she's a troll and should only expect to date the homeless.

They probably looked for a man's profile that said looks weren't important and looked at her profile picture and figured after $7k, it was worth a shot. I mean, it was just a date, not an arranged marriage.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

They probably looked for a man's profile that said looks weren't important and looked at her profile picture and figured after $7k, it was worth a shot. I mean, it was just a date, not an arranged marriage.

I really don't think that's the scenario here. Another article shows one of their terms as matching people within their database, in which case the person they matched her with would have been a paid member. Which doesn't look like it here.

But even that is case here, the idea of a premium service like that is to get a more customized service, not throwing spaghetti at the wall. Looking at the lawsuit filed in '15, the fine print is for one guaranteed meet, up to 16. Reading any google reviews, the MO seems to be barely meet the fineprint, take the money, never set up another match, and never return or call emails.

Even their website returns an error. The whole thing just screams a shady scam, moreso than a woman unhappy with her match.

[northcrunk]

Pretty sure Shaadi.com would have been cheaper and she would have found a husband.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Haha 5'7? Usually it was "I'm 5'2, so only 6'2" or taller".

I always wanted to advertise a weight limit on my profile in response to that.

THats becasue the guys on the website are probably 5'9 posting that they are 6 feet tall.

[snootchiebootchies]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

Yeah, both what Acey said and you is sadly very true. The harassment towards women on dating apps/websites can be appalling. The height thing is totally true on the other side though. When I was on those things, it was really common to see "I'm 5'7" and wear 5" heels, so you must be 6'2"+". 5'11" is short apparently, and 6'0" is tall. Online dating is a war zone.

Online dating can indeed be pretty brutal if you're an average looking person but so are some traditional methods -- like the bar/nightclub scene. One is still ignored/dismissed if one doesn't have the right look, height, figure, hair, clothes, etc.

With that said, my wife and I found each other online. We are thankful that online dating sites exist but also thankful we never have to use them again.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

Yeah, both what Acey said and you is sadly very true. The harassment towards women on dating apps/websites can be appalling. The height thing is totally true on the other side though. When I was on those things, it was really common to see "I'm 5'7" and wear 5" heels, so you must be 6'2"+". 5'11" is short apparently, and 6'0" is tall. Online dating is a war zone.

It does go both ways.

Dating sites are full of men who are only looking to get laid and act like pigs and women who catfish all day and then complain once they are found out. Both groups have ridiculous double standards and will lie outright, thinking that once they meet the other person, they will overlook the 50+ lbs not shown in pictures because of their "personality".

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

It does go both ways.

Dating sites are full of men who are only looking to get laid and act like pigs and women who catfish all day and then complain once they are found out. Both groups have ridiculous double standards and will lie outright, thinking that once they meet the other person, they will overlook the 50+ lbs not shown in pictures because of their "personality".

What does "catfish all day" mean?

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

What does "catfish all day" mean?

It's people who represent themselves as someone they think their prospective matches will find more attractive, when in reality they are much different than their profile.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

It's people who represent themselves as someone they think their prospective matches will find more attractive, when in reality they are much different than their profile.

Jesus I am glad I am married.

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by pylon

The guy lived in a camper, so he's not homeless. And he didn't have all his teeth? Also the article height shames him. Maybe he's a super nice guy, and just an eccentric outdoorsman.

Ok. Let's do this, and turn it around. If a man approached CBC about this service, and complained even remotely about the appearance or social status of a woman he was set up with? Oh lord. He'd be publicly shamed into the Stone Age. Go Fund ME's and makeovers would be pouring in. Oprah would have the slow piano music darkened studio intro for her.

The double standard on display with this report is kinda sickening. I'm not saying the matchmaking service is in the clear. But what do you expect when your basically treating dating like yanking on a slot machine handle in a seedy casino.

I don't think pylon's comment is getting enough attention. The OP got shamed for judging the girl on her personal appearance, but the woman in the article did the same thing to the man she was set up with.

The article is riddled with double standards.