It’s Just More Allegations Against It’s Just Lunch
October 25, 2007 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
(FranchisePick.Com) Hell hath no fury like a woman who paid $1500 and didn’t even get scorned. These seriously peeved New York women could inspire a whole new wave of reality shows: Flip These Desperate Housewives. Or Dog, The Booty Hunter. Maybe even No Sex in the City!
I’m speaking, of course, of the NY women who recently filed a civil lawsuit in Manhattan federal court claiming the high end dating franchise It’s Just Lunch promised them a veritable all-you-can-date smorgasbord, but didn’t deliver so much as an acceptable appetizer.
They’re still hungry… and they’re pissed.
According to an Oct. 22 story (“Cupid Shook Me Down” ) by the ABC News Law & Justice Unit, the court papers filed last week portray It’s Just Lunch – which has sold more than 100 matchmaking franchises in the U.S. and, um, abroad – as being a moneygrubbing organization focused solely on profits that regularly lies to clients to get into their pants (pockets).
“They lie every step of the way,” plaintiff lawyer John Balestriere told ABC News. “They lie to sign up the client. They lie in the initial interview and they lie about the prospective dates.”
John Balestriere claims that the company imposes monthly client sign-up quotas on their It’s Just Lunch franchise owners, who receive commissions when they sign clients up. According to the complaint, franchise owners “do not receive any compensation on their sales & unless the total number of sales equals or exceeds the monthly quota set by IJL.” Balestriere is seeking class action status for the case.
ABC News cites some of the humiliating lies the victimized women sustained:
One woman complained to the site that she specifically requested no Republicans or “religious types,” but her first two dates were with a Catholic Republican and a Seventh-day Adventist.
Another said a date with an art dealer turned out to be a guy who worked for a freight company. A landscaping executive turned out to be a man who mowed lawns, according to court records. Another woman said the blind date she met in a bar for an introductory drink turned out to be an alcoholic. Yet another said her setup was still legally married, a fact she said she was not made aware of by the company.
According to the It’s Just Lunch web site, IJL has more than 30,000 current clients worldwide. according to Hoover’s, the CA-based franchise company reported $35 million in sales for the 2005 fiscal year. The company was founded in 1992 by scorned woman Andrea McGinty, and built with the assistance of her CEO husband Daniel Dolan. They sold the business last year to a New York private equity firm Riverside Co.
According to a story in the New York Post, It’s Just Lunch had to pay $47,000 after NY state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office found that it was violating general business law by overcharging clients $500 a year.
Of course, FranchisePick.Com has been reporting on It’s Just Lunch since February, 2007 (see below).
WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOU HAD ANY DEALINGS WITH IT’S JUST LUNCH OR OTHER DATING SERVICES? SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS. LEAVE A MESSAGE.
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February 8th, 2007 It’s Just Lunch… Or Just a Franchise Scam?Mail-Order Bride Franchise:
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Best of luck with your cause.
It is your cause too. I should ignore it and let you deal with it should you find yourself single someday.
You have to know that it is not the law that bothers me but the type of American man who does not see any need to fight it.
The owners of “Its Just Lunch” have to know that they are next. Look at the woman who was just killed after answering a Craigslist ad in Minnesota. The local newspaper wasted no time in asking the public if they feel that men should be background checked before using Craigslist.
You would stand for this even being discussed in the halls of Congress?
That is scary.
Goodbye, Jim. Happy Halloween.