Complaint Review: Tax Resale Certificate

I needed to get a sales tax permit from the State of California.  These guys landed first in the search engine rankings, and they appeared to be from the State of California, so I went thru their sign-up, handing them all kinds of Personally Identifiable Information [PII] and agreed to pay them $198.00.

A few words of explanation... many government agencies in 2017 use totally legitimate subcontractors for the routine work of government.  Famously, pet licensing and traffic citation payment processing are often subcontracted out, etc.  So the appearance of a non-government URL is not an automatic give-away.  But I'm still personally embarassed I fell for this crap, since I usually don't.

When I clicked PAY, the response screen said I'd receive my document in 30 days, not immediately online, as I assumed I would.  I checked the company, and they have no physical address or phone listed, and no way to contact them aside from a web response form.

I immediately called my bank and began dispute proceedings [NEWS FLASH - despite being an international bank more than 130 years old - or possibly BECAUSE of it - their dispute questions are laughably out of date].  But, with some difficulty, I filed the report, and am expecting not to be charged.  I am less calm about my personally identifiable information.

I filed a polite complaint on their website, but am not expecting much.

ANALYSIS:  It is entirely legitimate to offer document filing services, as long as you disclose what you're doing and state clearly that you are not a government agency.  When I looked back at their site later, I found a disclaimer at the bottom of the first page, but it was clearly placed in such a way that they hoped you wouldn't find it, which in my view is automatically a scam.

Do they actually file for you?  Possibly... but it would take 30 days to find out.  Naturally, that's absurd on its face.

If they're legit, why no address / phone number?  [The bank thinks it's 502-595-4512, but that number did not answer].

So by virtue of near-invisibility, long delays, understated disclosure, and visual imitation of a government entity, they are a priori a scam, even if they deliver.

FYI, I actually went to the real California Board of Equalization site, filed, got my number, and paid zero.

I'd like to quote the Ricky Ricardo character from I Love Lucy and say they "have some 'splainin' to do", but I think it's beyond that.  If not guilty of actual crime, they are very close to the line, and are scam under any view.