A matchmaking company charged an 80-year-old man with dementia nearly $8,500 to set up dates, even though he couldn’t go on them because of his illness, the man’s son claimed.
Blake Mooney, who manages his father’s finances due to his condition, discovered that his father paid $8,495 to Matchmaking Company on June 28.
His father, who remains unidentified, lives in an assisted living facility in Lake County, Florida, while Mooney lives hundreds of miles away in North Carolina.
Mooney discovered that his father, who is a widower, managed to take an Uber to the Matchmaking Company office in Winter Park, where he allegedly signed a contract that would entitle him to 12 ‘introductions,’ or dates, with women. That was also when he shelled out a staggering four-figure sum.
‘He’s not going on a date. You can’t have a date. “He has dementia,” Mooney said. News 6. “Unfortunately, when I try to talk to him about this, he doesn’t remember everything.”
Blake Mooney, left, is pictured with his 80-year-old father, who paid nearly $8,500 to The Matchmaking Company in hopes of meeting 12 different women.
Pictured: The credit card charge made by Mooney’s father for the dating service.
Pictured: The receipt showing exactly where Mooney’s father traveled to sign the contract with The Matchmaking Company.
Mooney believes his father may have stumbled upon the company’s website, which promises to “create lasting, authentic and loving relationships” for its clients.
He added that while his father’s memory loss may not be immediately noticeable to people meeting him for the first time, spending a lot of time with him will reveal his mental challenges.
“Once (the conversation) starts involving financial situations, numbers and dates, he will have no idea,” Mooney said. “You could call him right now and ask him what the date is and he won’t be able to remind you.”
According to application paperwork Mooney’s father submitted to the Oklahoma-based dating service, he listed his year of birth as 1922, which would have made him 102 years old.
Once Mooney discovered what had happened, he began calling every number he had for Matchmaking Company, desperately trying to explain the situation.
“I lost count when I got 51 phone calls in the first two days,” Mooney said.
Sometimes he would run into an automated voicemail system and other times he would contact company representatives.
Mooney claimed that when he called The Matchmaking Company, he was met with resistance and questions about whether he would also like to sign up.
Pictured: The Matchmaking Company office in Winter Park, Florida. This is where Mooney’s father signed the contract.
Although, according to him, they were not very interested in returning the money.
“There’s no one to talk to,” Mooney explained. ‘There’s no one who can help you in any way other than (asking) “Would you like to sign up? Would you like some matchmaking done for you?”‘
After Mooney contacted News 6 for help, reporter Mike DeForest visited the company’s office in Winter Park, the same place Mooney’s father signed the contract, to hopefully get some answers.
Staff did not respond to DeForest’s questions, but shortly after his visit, Chase Overstreet, the company’s general counsel, contacted Mooney.
Overstreet apparently refused to void his father’s contract.
“He said, ‘Well, I called your dad and he told me he doesn’t have dementia,'” Mooney said.
Since Mooney is his father’s power of attorney, giving him the right to make legal and financial decisions for him, Mooney was able to continue his battle with the matchmaker.
Once Mooney sent the power of attorney documents to the company, he received the contract his father had signed.
Under that contract, his father had three days to cancel and receive a full refund.
The saving grace of the document was the fact that it could be canceled “if, by physician’s order, services cannot be physically received.”
Mooney, pictured, had her father’s doctor write a letter to The Matchmaking Company attesting to his patient’s dementia.
Orlando attorney Raymond Traendly advises families to check on their elderly relatives to make sure they are still of sound mind. If doubts arise, it might be time to explore obtaining power of attorney to mitigate situations like the one Mooney encountered.
“It’s ridiculous, the hoops they put us through,” Mooney said.
Mooney contacted his father’s doctor, who wrote a letter saying that his patient “has been diagnosed with dementia” and is “experiencing significant cognitive impairment affecting memory, reasoning, and judgment.”
‘After a comprehensive evaluation and clinical evaluations, my professional medical opinion is that you lack the capacity to make sound decisions regarding the use of Match (sic) Company services,’ the doctor concluded.
Once Matchmaking Company received the letter, it issued a refund of $5,953, which is almost $2,500 less than what Mooney’s father actually paid.
DailyMail.com contacted the company but it did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why it still has a significant portion of the payment.
“This would have killed him financially,” Mooney said, while arguing that his father should have been entitled to a full refund. “It would have been bad if we hadn’t caught him. It would have been very bad.”
Attorney Raymond Traendly of TK Law in Orlando told News 6 that family members with older relatives should check in periodically to see if their decision-making is still sound.
If not, it might be time to get power of attorney in case they start stealing a random credit card.
“You want to have a conversation with your loved ones early and often,” Traendly said. “The best time to make a power of attorney is before there is any dispute over lack of capacity.”