SOMEHOW, in the four-tenths of a decade that the Haggler has been aiding consumers, no one with dating-service issues has written in. Until now.

Q. I’m an attractive, successful, busy and single mother of three, and dating stinks. So I thought it couldn’t hurt to sign up with It’s Just Lunch, a widely advertised matchmaking service. But it’s been a disaster.

I paid $1,000 for a three-month membership, during which the service was to set up dates from its database, take feedback from each person after the fact and use it to refine selections for subsequent rendezvous.

My first date didn’t really count as a date because the guy never showed. I was then set up with someone else, but we had zero chemistry. After your first date, according to company policy, you have a face-to-face meeting with a staff member. I was looking forward to visiting what I assumed was I.J.L.’s Midtown offices, and drove from Westchester County to Manhattan in the middle of a workday to meet Thelma. (For some reason, you rarely learn the last names of I.J.L.’s employees.) When I arrived at the given address, it was a bar on West 40th Street.