After a dating service came nowhere close to the dozen dates she contracted for, Sheri Burgoyne won a money judgment against Santa Barbara Singles in small claims court. Worse, the sole date the service arranged turned out to be "highly negative," she said, and clearly told her Santa Barbara Singles had not screened the man.
An approachable and self-assured individual during a phone interview, Burgoyne had signed up with Santa Barbara Singles to meet more people. She was promised that dates were only referred to her after an in-person and in-depth screening by the service. After the incredibly bad first date — she asked the Independent for privacy regarding the details, but suffice it to say that to call it "negative" is mild — Burgoyne asked for a refund, but Santa Barbara Singles would not consider it, she said. After the manager who had organized her profile quit in December 2017, she said she received no further matches. She called her subsequent dealings with the company "evasive."
Burgoyne said this had been her first experience using a dating service. She lives in Camarillo and had found Santa Barbara Singles through Facebook. The company declined to comment on the case, but this is not the first complaint against its representative in court, Shane Weisberg. Complaints have been filed against not only Santa Barbara Singles, but other matchmaking services he owns as well, including Colorado Springs Matchmakers and BC Matchmakers. All three of these businesses had their Better Business Bureau (BBB) accreditations revoked. Specifically, the BBB revoked the certification of the Colorado Springs Matchmakers service for failing to “embody integrity.”