Paul,

Your comments here are very interesting.  When you were in NJ, was the
group you joined call (This is a really lame name) HI other wise known
as Handycaped Introductions?

I signed on with them about 10 years ago.  I ended up getting a lot of
maches, and at one point I lived with a woman for 5 years.

About 3 months ago, I tried to find them again, but know luck.  I
think out of all the maches I got, I only ended up contacting maybe 3
people over a 2 year span.  But I was Ok with that because as I said,
in most cases, they did a good job at staying within my profile.

Thanks-Gary


On Sun, 9 May 1999, Paul Villano wrote:

> A while back someone on the list asked about dating organizations
> specifically for the "disabled"...I had been involved with one years ago and
> had some success (obviously not much since I'm still a bachelor!  Grin.).
> So when the subject came up again, I got curious and decided to try them out
> again.  BIG mistake!  The few (very few) such organizations I've found out
> there seem to me to be rip-offs, big time.  My advice is to run, wheel or
> walk away as fast as you can from such organizations.
>
> Sadly, both of the ones I tried are run by "disabled" folks preying on other
> disabled folks.  They take your money then give you either worthless matches
> or nothing at all.  (At least in my case.  As I said, years ago one of them
> was run under different management and was quite good.  But today they
> appear to me to be a sham.)
>
> The first organization seems to be a one-woman show working out of her home.
> She charged $100 and impressed me with a very in-depth interview on the
> phone.  Unfortunately, she used nothing she learned from that interview in
> the matching process.  I got exactly two matches for my money.  One match
> was with an underage girl even though I am a middle-aged man!  (Nothing like
> THAT in my interview!!)  The other was with a woman in another state who
> turned out to have more than physical problems, though I'd asked not to be
> matched with anyone with a history of emotional illness.
>
> The other organization gladly took my money...but FAST...yet has never sent
> me any potential dates in 6 months.  The membership was for 6 months (about
> $10 per month, all told...You can't get less than a 6-month membership).
> This was the organization I belonged to years ago.  At that time I got quite
> a few matches, very quickly, and they seemed to actually match my requests.
> Then the woman who'd been helping them out left, and the place went downhill
> fast.  The last time (previous to this) I got nothing and thought it was
> just a fluke.  This time, I realized it is probably an intentional fraud.
> (I won't know for sure until I have the authorities check them out.)  They
> send you (in my case) nothing for 6 months.  Then they say they will extend
> your membership.  So, in effect, you have paid them for absolutely nothing.
> When enough people do this, thinking "they'll send me something someday",
> then they forget about it, you realize these people are getting lots of
> money for doing absolutely NOTHING.
>
> I've heard of some folks who DO receive matches...Always the very last month
> that their membership is due to expire.  But the matches never have anything
> to do with their requests.  And they are never in the same area.  (That is
> another part of the "bait and switch" tactics.  When I was in New Jersey,
> they told me there were no matches in the Northeast.  Everyone is located in
> the South or California, because of the weather...Now that I live in South
> Carolina they tell me everyone lives in the Northeast or out west.  Hmmm...)
>
> Anyway, just wanted to warn y'all that, in the end you are better off
> looking LOCALLY, on your own, than trusting these apparent rip-off artists.
> If nothing else, it's sad that even if they don't intend to rip people off,
> a business run by disabled folks is so incompetent.  They should get out of
> business anyway rather than giving us a bad name.
>
> Paul
>