FORT MILL, SC (FOX 46 WJZY) — Multiple women told FOX 46 they were scammed out of thousands of dollars by Charlotte Matchmakers, a dating service based in Fort Mill, SC.
“They are absolutely taking advantage of people,” one woman said.
FOX 46 interviewed multiple women who claimed they signed contracts with Charlotte Matchmakers, an elite dating service.
For roughly $6,000, they were promised multiple dates, but they told FOX 46 those dates did not happen and the service would not refund their money.
These women said they were promised to find true love.
“People that were well-established, had good incomes, I guess good credit history, no criminal background, they supposedly did criminal background checks and they guaranteed that if you had eight dates you were going to find the one, the perfect one for you,” one woman said.
The Better Business Bureau said Charlotte Matchmakers had a F rating with them, until they recently closed their doors.
The company Brotherton Holdings said it’s purchased the assets of Charlotte Matchmakers and is now referring clients to one of its dating services, Carolina Introductions.
Brotherton Holdings spokesperson Rich Nichols said the company “has purchased the assets of many companies that had a variety of challenges and issues. However, Brotherton operates with integrity and Brotherton has been able to turn the assets of these companies into successful businesses that ultimately helped many people find love, marriage and happiness.”
Coincidentally, that same spokesperson (Nichols) was also a spokesperson for Charlotte Matchmakers.
Nichols said Brotherton hired three members of the Charlotte Matchmakers professional service staff.
The Better Business Bureau said this is the fourth time a dating service in Fort Mill, including Charlotte Matchmakers, has received a vast amount of complaints, closed its doors and then a similar dating service opens up nearby.
“Thus far, we haven’t been able to tie ownership together, but it seems really coincidental,” B.B.B. of the Southern Piedmont President Tom Bartholomy said.
Bartholomy said, many of these dating services operate under “high-pressure sales.”
Even though Charlotte Matchmakers has “Charlotte” in its name — the business was located in Fort Mill, S.C.
The B.B.B. said there’s a reason for that, and it all comes back to the contracts that clients sign.
“If they would have signed that in North Carolina you would have had three days to cancel that contract,” Bartholomy said.
South Carolina does not have a buyer’s remorse law, like North Carolina.
“And that’s one of the reasons, probably the primary reason that this company, these types of companies, set up shop in South Carolina, right across the state line and then prey on people in North Carolina.”
The B.B.B. said, unfortunately, once people sign a contract with these dating services, they’re pretty much “hooked.”
One client said her credit card company has since refunded the money she had paid to Charlotte Matchmakers.
Another client said she is working to get a refund.
Carolina Introductions said it has not received any communication from the B.B.B. in which the B.B.B. described the actions of Carolina Introductions as “preying” on anyone.
