Prepaid Legal Services ripoff fraudulant & deceptive billing procedures. Purposely vague terms of defining their services. uncooperative customer relations representatives. Ada Oklahoma
I joined the Prepaid legal services for advice on wills & trusts. Their representative said I could cancel at any time.
I canceled by phone in October 2993 & they said they would send a form that I must SIGN & return in order to cancel. I signed no contract to join!! I returned it to them (which they say they never got!!!). They did not bill my credit cartd in October.
Then at their own option they billed me $26.00 in Dec & $26.00 in Jan. I called them AGAIN in January to protest but they said they could not stop the membership nor billing until they had the signed copy requesting cancvellation. SO they billed me again in Jan which I just got on my Mastercard bill this week. I have their letter dated Feb. 13, saying my membership is NOW cancelled.
Big deal. I'm out $56.00 which they refuse to credit to me & they are not easy nor nice to deal with.
I hope no one else gets caught in this. I used their so-called services to ask one question of a local attorney last October.
Thank you
Lenore
indianapolis, Indiana
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Aaron
Bremerton,Washington,
U.S.A.
Don't get services you don't want
#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, June 14, 2006
I'm sorry you had a difficult time cancelling your service. Many phone companies sign you contracts that last 6 months to 2 years. You can cancel at any time as long as you pay off the remainder of your contract.
As to your specific case. You call the service "so-called" even though you did use it. You provide little information on whether the information you received was incorrect or just not liked. You don't say how long you spoke with the attorney regarding this question.
Locally, a man was charged nearly $100 when his non-Prepaid Attorney called to change an appointment they had set up. Another case involved someone being charged $500 to have an attorney write an e-mail. Understand that this is Washington state. These prices are very real and standard when dealing with attorney's. This being the case, $56.00 was a steal.
It does sound like you bought the service for the sole purpose of asking one question then cancelling. No service is designed this way regardless of a policy allowing you to cancel at any time. You don't get phone service to make one call, get a credit card for one purchase or rent an appartment for one night.
If this is the case, I feel little pity for your situation as you are just as corrupt as any business. When you were notified by Prepaid Legal that they had not received the signed letter, YOU had the responsibility to resend it promptly. More likely than not, after you called about the letter you sent they suspended charging you for service in anticipation of a new letter then started it when they didn't get it.
Bottom Line: People are quick to blame others when they don't fulfill their own responsibilities. I myself have been guilty of this plenty of times. In this case, it is the responsibility of the member to follow the procedures of cancellation and to ensure the proper paperwork is sent and received. It is not unknown for letters to be delayed an lost so spending an extra few dollars on registered mail is never a bad idea. Next time you don't want a service, don't get it for you don't have to worry about cancelling it.