The Fixer: Be careful when seeking a match online

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Valentine’s Day can be a real downer for people who’ve recently broken up or gotten divorced.

Lots of those folks are turning to dating websites or matchmaking services, as statistics from the Better Business Bureau attest. The local BBB says it got 5,358 inquiries about matchmaking services last year, up from 2,696 in 2009.

But while dating services and websites can work, The Fixer wants all you singles to be careful out there.

According to the BBB, the most common consumer complaints include not getting the number of dates they were promised, being matched with people who didn’t meet their criteria (i.e., a smoker or a person who lives far away) and high-pressure sales tactics followed by poor customer service.

Consumers need to read every word of the contracts they sign and be wary of vaguely worded limitations and exclusions, says Steve J. Bernas, president and CEO of the local BBB. One consumer told the BBB she was promised 33 matches with “high-caliber” men, but the dates the matchmaking service sent her were “anyone alive and moving. One guy showed up for dinner with no teeth and gummed his food.”

Illinois law does allow you to cancel a dating services contract within three days, but that won’t help if the problem is discovered later. It’s best to check out any dating service first — at BBB.org and at other online complaint websites.

Also, be careful of auto-pay arrangements and contracts that allow the dating service to re-subscribe you automatically after the first year.

And then there are the online scams. Last fall, The Fixer wrote about Lise-lotte, an attractive, smart, professional woman from the suburbs who’d posted a profile on Match.com. When a handsome U.S. Air Force pilot contacted her, she was over the moon.

They developed an e-mail relationship off the site, and he poured his heart out about his first wife’s death, his sick 3-year-old child, his service in Afghanistan and his desire to start a charter aircraft business with his pilot buddies. Liselotte did what she could to help, eventually sending him a total of $23,000.

Only later did she find out he was a scammer in Nigeria posing as an American airman.

It’s too bad there are shady people willing to make a buck on other people’s desire for love. The Fixer’s advice this Valentine’s Day is to keep your heart open . . . but your head attuned to scams.

Costly lesson

A consumer’s tale of woe

There’s an old saying in journalism: “If you mother says she loves you, check it out.”

That vigilance goes double on the used car lot. Regular readers of The Fixer column know to never buy a used car without thoroughly exam ining it and getting every promise in writing.

H.M. of Chicago is wishing he’d done that with his recent purchase of a used SUV. But it was late in the evening and he wanted to get the deal done. The helpful sales guy told him that if he found anything wrong with the car later, H.M. could bring it back and they’d fix it.

Of course, that sales guy was probably crossing his fingers behind his back, because when H.M. did come back with a complaint about the power window and the paint job, the sales guy got a bad case of amnesia. He didn’t seem to remember anything about fixing anything for free.

“He said that all they can do is recommend a place they take their cars to but they would not pay for the damages because the broken window could have been because someone tried to force it and break into the car,” H.M. wrote The Fixer. “Finally, the manager agreed to pay for half the labor, but he wouldn’t pay for all the repairs and the new window I needed.”

H.M. learned this lesson the hard way. Now for the rest of us: Go hug your mom and remember that a spoken promise isn’t going to help you on the used car lot.

Getting the runaround over a consumer problem? Tell it to The Fixer at Suntimes.com/fixer,