LegalZoom/Registered Agent
Unauthorized Charges to My Account

Registered Agent "service" scam. Legal Zoom has made an unauthorized charge to my bank account for $159. This is how the scam works: they sell you a service for which you agree to pay a stated price. You authorize Legal Zoom to debit your bank account for installments to cover the service you are purchasing. They do not offer you the option to just pay it out up front or if they do it is not readily noticeable. To complete your order you accept the terms & conditions by checking a box. You assume that the terms and conditions relate only to the service for which you have agreed to purchase but that is not the case. Mentioned somewhere in lengthy terms is an entirely separate service to act as the Registered Agent for the company you have formed. This service is $159 and is not included in the amount you agreed to. They wait until you have received your articles of incorporation at that time you will have made to installments on your agreement. They send an email notification reminding you when your upcoming installment payments are about to post to your account. They conveniently NEVER mention the $159 extra service fee for the registered agent service because then you may question and cancel it. You never receive an email about the impending charge. They simply debit your account for the full amount and wait for you to call to hear that it was not included and that when you accepted the terms and conditions you authorized payment for the service. The first person to take my call even said "we get a lot of these calls." It gets better: when you learn that all this service is for is "filtering" your junk mail they charge $49 to remove themselves as your registered agent. I was able to change my registered agent to myself with my state for $5 bucks. I am told that when they receive confirmation of my change they will prorate my "subscription" which in the end allows them to get at least 2 months ($26.50) payment for a so called service out of you that you would never have purchased otherwise add the $5.00 to make the change yourself (and that's only if I can get the proof before they bill again) and you have paid another $30.00 on top of what you agreed. I could have just paid a local attorney to draw up my papers for that less than that amount ($414.00). To stop unauthorized debits your bank will need to cancel your card altogether.

Company: LegalZoom/Registered Agent
Country: India

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