Complaint Review: LegalZoom - Glendale California

We engaged legalzoom to help us form our new LLC.  Their service was extremely slow right from the beginning.  From the time our order was placed to the time we received anything was about 6 weeks.

What we received was a nicely formatted package (binder, stamp, documents all orderly) and the WRONG company name monogrammed on the side of the binder and in the stamp!  They incorporated the wrong company name, despite the fact we gave them the correct one.

We reported this, and were assured that they would file an ammendment to change the name to the correct one.  Great.  Except...  They wanted to charge us $170 to file the ammendment!  So I got in a fight with them and they reluctantly agreed to take responsibility for THEIR mistake and correct it on their dime.  Grinded teeth and high blood pressure not withstanding, they waived their fee.  Great.

A month goes by with no communication...

We call for a status update.

"Your ammendment is in progress and you should receive an updated packet in the mail within a week."

A week goes by, nothing.  Another week goes by, nothing.  Call again.

"Your ammendment is in progress and you should receive an updated packet in the mail within a week."

Within a week of the most recent call, we get a package in the mail.  It is nothing like the first, highly professional package with a nice binder with a monogrammed company name (albeit the wrong name) and stamp with orderly documents neatly sorted. This time is was merely one document that indicated the name had been changed.  We were still left with an incorrectly monogrammed binder and stamp.

So we call again and ask for a full package, not just a single document.  "You should receive an updated packet in the mail within a week."

You guessed it.  A week goes by, and nothing.  We call again.  We get the updated packet a week later, finally.

Now...  Some things that LegalZoom never told us that we found out the hard way.

1. When the company name was changed by the necessary ammendment filed, the federal tax ID number also changed, and we had a requirement to follow up with the IRS directly to ensure they had the name change properly in their records.  I have no idea why that was OUR responsibility, but LegalZoom would only do that for us for an additional fee.  Since we resolved to never give them another penny again for the rest of our lives, we said screw it, we'll do it ourselves.  It'll be faster and much cheaper.

2. The state in which we incorporated (Nevada) had an additional filing requirement after our business was successfully incorporated in that state.  The filing is a "list of managers" in your LLC and the cost of the filing is an additional $325 (one time fee).  We only found out about this requirement and fee AFTER incorporating in Nevada.  Legal Zoom takes no responsibility for making anyone aware of this.  Ok fine.  Would have been nice to get a heads up, but to be fair, they do disclaim all over the place that they don't give advice.  What it should say is "we don't give advice or customer service" but I digress.

Because of all the delays mentioned above, we COULDN'T make the additional required filing with the state of Nevada until 5 MONTHS after we started this process. This delay caused the state of Nevada to impose another $175 in late fees on us, which after much negotiation, the state refused to waive.

In retrospect, if I had gone to the Nevada secretary of state website, I could have done this all myself with a one week turnaround for one quarter of the price.  LegalZoom is a complete and total ripoff.