The son of an elderly Florida man says he was shocked to find an $8,500 charge from a matchmaking service on his father’s credit card – because his father has dementia and couldn’t go on dates even if he wanted to.
To add insult to injury, the Oklahoma firm – called The Matchmaking Company – provided a partial refund only after a Florida news station poked around, According to News 6 in Orlando.
Blake Mooney, the 80-year-old man’s son, said that at first, he tried to get the money back on his own. But he was stymied by the company’s byzantine call system, he said.
“There’s no one there to talk to,” the North Carolina man told the station. “There’s no one who can help you in any way other than (asking), ‘Would you like to sign up?’ Would you like to get some engagement done for yourself?’ ,
The family saga began in June, when Mooney’s father took a ride-share from a Lake County assisted living facility to The Matchmaking Company’s Winter Park office, News 6 said.
Half an hour later, the elderly man signed a contract entitling him to 12 dates for $8,495.
Mooney said her father’s mental state was not always clear. But that would come up very quickly during an intense conversation, the son said.
“Once (the conversation) starts to involve financials, numbers and dates, they won’t have a clue,” Mooney said. “You can call him right now and ask him what the date is, and he won’t be able to remember it for you.”
For example, his father listed his year of birth as 1922 on the application form, which would have made the octogenarian man approximately 102 years old, the station said.
Mooney doesn’t even know how her widower father found this company, which claims to “create long-lasting, authentic and loving relationships” for customers.
“He can’t go on dates,” Mooney said, adding that her father barely remembers signing the contract. “He’s got dementia.”
This created a big issue for his son, who had to figure out how to clean up the mess.
“For family members, you have to understand that, absent certain court orders, there’s going to be freedom to enter into contracts,” attorney Raymond Trundley of TK Law in Altamonte Springs, Florida, told the station.
“There will be freedom to swipe that credit card and make a purchase. And then the burden becomes on you to prove that your family member did not have capacity at that time.”
Mooney said he called the company dozens of times to try to resolve things, but to no avail.
On the rare occasion he spoke to a live representative, they got nowhere — they said they weren’t interested in hearing about his father’s dilemma or getting him a refund.
News 6 eventually began asking about the incident and a reporter visited the Winter Park office, the station said.
Later, the company’s corporate lawyer called Mooney and said he had spoken to her father, who denied having dementia.
But Mooney — who has power of attorney over her elderly father — sent the company a doctor’s letter saying her father had indeed been diagnosed and experienced “significant cognitive impairment that impairs memory, reasoning and judgment.” Affects.
“After extensive evaluation and clinical assessment, it is my professional medical opinion that she does not have the capacity to make sound decisions regarding the use of (the matchmaking company’s) services,” the letter said.
News 6 said the company reluctantly canceled the contract and gave a $6,000 refund.
Despite repeated inquiries from the station, the company would not explain why it kept the $2,500 – or comment on anything else.
For his part, Mooney is happy to get most of the cash back.
“This is going to kill him financially,” Mooney said of his father and the situation. “It would have been worse if we had not caught it. That would have been very bad.”
(TagstoTranslate)US News(T)Dementia(T)Elder Care(T)Florida(T)Engagement
