A man has been labelled "lonely" and "stingy" after he brought soft drinks to a blind date and refused to treat the lady to a restaurant meal.

Lianhe Wanbao reader, 37-year-old driver Wang Zhiwei, recounted his story to the paper.

On Dec. 11, 2019, Wang engaged the services of a Eunos matchmaking agency, where he was matched with a woman who was around his age. Both parties were to meet at a restaurant.

According to Wang, the lady had a very patronising attitude and didn't seem to be serious about the blind date. Instead she seemed to be more interested in the free meal.

When Wang told her that he would rather find a place to sit and chat (over soft drinks that he brought along with him), she accused him of having no poise and walked off.

Suspects the agency and lady to be in cahoots

Wang also told the paper that he suspected the blind date and the agency of being in cahoots to get a free meal and earn the matchmaking fee respectively.

On Dec. 29. 2019, Wang paid S$50 in fees to the agency, which then proceeded to schedule a date with the lady.

Only when Wang arrived at the venue, did he realised that it was a restaurant which charged over S$30 for a meal -- way above his budget.

He told the Chinese paper:

"I thought we were just going to have a chat, and only meet after we each had our dinners. The lady didn't even introduce herself when she arrived. She flipped the menu and insisted that I foot the bill. Each meal cost over S$30. It's too expensive. Fast food would have been more filling."

Insisted both parties go dutch

In response to queries by Lianhe Wanbao, a Miss Chen from the agency gave the lady's side of the story.

According to the lady, Wang wouldn't stop staring at her. Not only did he not refuse to pay for her share of the meal, he wouldn't even pay for a S$15 cocktail, and instead took out two bottles of soft drinks for her.

Feeling that Wang had no standard, she scolded him before leaving.

In response, Wang told the paper that while he admits that he is indeed stingy, he feels that people should go dutch on first dates.

Agency already closed for three years

What's perhaps stranger is that the agency is no longer in business. Wang suspects that it was an unlicensed agency.

And while the agency listed its location as Eunos, Wang initially found out that it had no physical store. Despite that, he chose to enlist its service because it was cheap.

Later he found out from Chen that while the matchmaking agency has already closed down, Chen was still matching profiles from her home because she had so many members' contact details.

Chen later told Lianhe Wanbao that the matchmaking business closed three years ago. Before that, it was running for more than 20 years.

She told the paper:

"I introduced to him my previous members. I did not expect him to be so stingy and can't even treat a lady to a S$15 drink."

While she admits that she is no longer running a legitimate business, she said that she was simply trying to help Wang out.

Top images via ABC and Tandoori-zone.