The FTC has been in the news lately in the performance marketing industry, but it turns out there is one industry that is really receiving a lot of complaints: the dating industry. According to a recent Freedom of Information Act request, it seems that in the last few years thousands and consumers have received thousands of complaints against dating sites.
While a lot of those complaints were about consumers being scammed by other users trying to get them to send money or complaints about billing practices, it seems that an unusual amount of complaints were about a common issue with dating: no one wanted to go out with some of the users.
Yes, the FTC has received complaints from consumers that can’t get dates, even on dating sites. For whatever reason, people have decided to turn to a government agency to complain that basically that they were too ugly or too uninteresting to get dates from a variety of sites.
One user complained to the FTC about eHarmony, saying that “Out of thousands of lesbians across the United States nobody sent me a hello or wonk [sic].” Rejection sucks, but turning to a Federal Agency to help you with your dating problems seem a little excessive, no?
This however does bring up a question about consumers in general and the role of the FTC. Many people in the online advertising industry complain that the FTC is turning into a mommy agency, that investigates almost everything including things that should be sort of obvious.
If people think the Government should protect them from bad dating experiences, no wonder they complain about everything else under the sun. In this day in age, it amazes me that with the ability to research anything on the internet, to look at customer reviews, that anyone buys anything without doing proper research. Consumers really do act like they are children, and don’t understand that not every product does exactly what it says it will do, and the guy from Nigeria isn’t really interested in sending you five-million dollars via email.
I’m not sure to blame our education system or the crap children grow up watching on TV, but its become really, really clear that a large percentage of the population is just plain idiots who would probably die of starvation if there wasn’t McDonalds to stick things in a box that they can easily shove in their face. While for most of us, it seems obvious that you shouldn’t trust everyone at what they say, others really believe it’s the job of the Government to protect them even from heartbreak. Seriously?
