Dude Finds Love On Match.com But Sues For $5 Million Anyway

A Brooklyn man filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against Match.com yesterday, accusing the dating site of teasing users with profiles of "canceled subscribers or [ones who] never subscribed at all." As a result, Match sparked an inferno of "humiliation and disappointment" for 37-year-old user Sean McGinn, whose lawsuit argues that "Match's policy causes severe emotional distress and anxiety for some [subscribers], including those who keep writing e-mails to one member after another and never hear back because he/she is writing to people who've canceled... Because the writer has no way of knowing this, he or she may experience profound personal anguish, suffering which is easily preventable by Match."

Unfortunately, the lawsuit seems to let Match off the hook for causing halitosis and male-pattern baldness. But it further alleges that "Match induces canceled members to log in... creating the appearance that inactive members are active" by sending bogus BlackBerry notifications that read, "Someone has winked back at you." And then you futilely "wink" back again and again into a frigid, soulless void, until finally breaking down and sobbing so loudly your roommate has to bang on your bedroom wall.

McGinn's aptly-named attorney Norah Hart says she has 15 other frustrated singles ready to turn this into a class action lawsuit, telling the Daily News, "They are left feeling they've been completely ignored and rejected. For some people, it could affect their romantic future." Ironically, Hart also tells the Post that McGinn "met someone he's happy with" through Match, which costs $39.99 a month and claims 86 million searches monthly in the U.S. And back in 2005, another lonely heart sued Match for allegedly "sending ringers on fake dates with lonely hearts to keep them from dumping the service."

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By John Del Signore in News on June 10, 2009 2:08 PM

Comments [rss]

bigmikebrooklyn

so.. ummmm, Gwinny >shuffles feet, shifts awkwardlylooks downlooks up, smiles sheepishlyHolds Breath

bigmikebrooklyn

So I was going to ask you out for coffee, but apparently I broke gothamists comment system, so now I'm just gonna slink back into the dark corner I came from and be alone with my douche chills.

Pizza_Time

Some people are just whiny little douchebags no matter what.

You can hand them a bar of gold and they will sue you because it is not shiny enough.

NannyState

Taking "psoriasis" out of your profile helps...

just saying

WAIT-the article says that McGinn eventually did find love on match.com. So why still a $5M lawsuit?

I guess love is not enough for him, he needs love and money.

mihow

Wouldn't it be awesome if Gwinny met a guy on here? COME ON, NOT DOUCHEBAGGY GOTHAMIST MEN, STEP UP AND ASK THIS GAL OUT!

I would, but I'm a married mother of one.

MFer

Impossible. All Gothamist men are douchebags by definition, including me. Gwinny, now I realize that you have a cat as an avatar. But seriously stay away from that psycho cat-loving-you-know-who.

militza

I think the problem with the online stuff is the fact that it is online! online is a universe that to a certain extent isn't reality. you might think you get along with someone but when you meet them it's a totally different story. that is why meeting in person is waaaay better. your mind doesn't have time to build up all sorts of preconceptions.

I think we can all acknowledge that humans are complex creatures and cannot be whittled down to a page-long profile. that's the fun part of getting to know someone, you learn more about them over time, not over a screen snapshot.

hotstepper

get to swingin'! hot!

rdsizzle

Not acting too desperate is also a good place to start...

JacqueMehoff

I should be more specific, they're GoddessBBW parties.

JacqueMehoff

go to them Goddess parties downtown,

they seem friendly and like to party.

whitecastlerock

Shower, shave, stop looking at internet porn, leave the basement, exercise, get a hobby, and talk to members of the opposite sex. Chances are you will meet someone interested in you. Scouring profiles like a serial killer is fucking lame.

robingee

"Chances are you will meet someone interested in you."

Chances are, Johnny Mathis? I don't know... it's pretty rare. Looking a online profiles isn't so bad.

Peter

Outfits like match.com all suffer from the same issue: the number of men seeking women is significantly higher than the number of women seeking men. If they admitted the truth, they'd have a harder time selling memberships to men, so they stretch the truth.

Gwinny

That's actually not the case in the NYC area... there are over 200,000 more single women than single men here. I am sure that many of these women are also flooding the dating sites (having given up on everything else).

http://www.observer.com/2008/straight-women-new-york-citys-mating-market-worst-country

GREGORYABUTLER

Gwinny,

A LOT of New York women want "Mr Big" - the rich, handsome (and did I say rich?) Wall Street guy who's going to buy them the big house in the suburbs, enable them to quit their job, and pay for the 4 kids, a dog and a minivan that they say they want.

There's a chronic shortage of men like that here - and, just like SATC's fictional "Mr Big" the real life ones are mostly married.

On the other hand, there is a huge surplus of regular guys who just want a good woman - and guys like that have to resort to things like Match.com - because the women looking for "Mr Big" won't even give regular men a second look!

Dude69

I hope now people can assess the damage SATC has done to the millions of naive young women throughout the world. An effigy of SJ Parker should be burnt in front of a Jimmy Choo store as a reminder of the delusional expectations caused by this show.

The Edge

Maybe they need to stop looking for that Ivy League educated millionaire who looks like Brad Pitt and/orr Hugh Jackman, because THOSE kinds of guys don't have time for regular ol' Jane Doe.

I do.

Gwinny

I don't doubt that there are a lot of goldiggers out there, but there are also plenty of women who are just looking for a normal guy. Personally, I can't say I've run across a whole lot of them either, though.