Prepaid Legal Services Took my money and provided no Lawyer!! ripoff Ada Oklahoma

Called the number on the business card that I got from one of their people to sign up.

Said I would have to pay an additional fee since the incident happen prior to membership.

Well, that was ok. So, I get signed up and find that I have to pay $375, because my charge wasn't covered.

Then, my lawyer represents me in court and I somehow get found guilty on everything. So, that's $550 more in fines.

Then, he's nowhere to be found so that I could appeal. Etc..

Now my CDL is suspended for something I didn't even do.

Prepaid legal services is a legal plan that covers certain legal issues depending on what state you are from. For instance, if you are from New Jersey, the $10.95/month plan that PPL offers includes Unlimited Legal Consultation and Advice, Unlimited Letters and Phone Calls on Your Behalf, Unlimited Contract and Document Review up to 10 pages (more than 10 pages - 25% discount), Will Preparation and Yearly Updates, Legal Shield, and 25% discount on all other issues.

Other states have higher monthly fees with more plan features. This person who filed a complain about Prepaid Legal Services just happened to have a legal issue that was not covered by the plan she had. It was covered by the 25% discount.

Let's be realistic here. Prepaid Legal Services is trying its best to make affordable legal access to the most common legal issues we face on a daily basis. It won't be affordable anymore if they would have to include every legal issue in the plan.

Note: If you are not satisfied with the service, Prepaid Legal's customer service does a pretty good job in correcting the problems with lawyers. The customer service number is 1-800-654-7757.

Abe, Independent Associate

I spent a few minutes at Prepaid Legals website looking for their written services and benefits.

What you were asking for IS NOT covered under their services.

They give a one phone call consultation and one letter written for each situation. Their plan does not give continuous consultation, court appearances or letters for the same situation.

My impression is that the sales rep who sold you on the service didn't explain this to you, or you didn't explain what you were going to use the service for.


This is the benefits and exclusions page.
https://www.prepaidlegal.com/Multisite/JSP/corp/corpregsel.jsp

Sometimes when people call a service a ripoff it means that they didn't understand what they were buying in the first place and/or they don't value the service as much as they thought they would after buying the service.

In this case, I believe that this person didn't understand Prepaid Legal's offering to start off with, or had much higher expectations for the service than she should have.

Yes, there are alot of PPL rebuttals and complaints. But, as an above poster stated, the ratio of complaints to consumers is rather low.

Here's the skinny on PPL: The practice of law can basically be broken down into various opposing skills. The most prominent is "litigation vs. transaction" (i.e. a certain percentage of lawyers represent people or business entitites in transactions, and a certain percent are "courtroom argument" lawyers.) Another is "advisory vs. representative."

The issue with PPL is that most consumers, especially those that lodge complaints, are expecting representation. But the reality is that PPL provides primarily advisory services.

What this means, basically, is that PPL is great for avoiding trouble, but it is not so great when it comes to getting out of trouble.

So I neither endorse nor criticize PPL as a service. I do have a problem with the manner in which it is marketed. In my opinion, the majority of PPL associates lack the requisite familiarility with their own product to market it effectively and honestly. Truth be told, it's not a matter of "honesty," it's a matter of knowledge of your product.

So if you are looking for a good bargain on a service that may KEEP you out of trouble, maybe you want to give PPL a chance. If you are looking for a good bargain on a service that will GET you out of trouble, I would advise shopping around.

It's amazing how many Prepaid Legal complaints there are.

Dear mam,
If you would have read all the broucher you would have read that the $26 plan does not cover child custody cases or divorces but you get a 25% discount.

Dear mam,
If you would have read all the broucher you would have read that the $26 plan does not cover child custody cases or divorces but you get a 25% discount.

Dear mam,
If you would have read all the broucher you would have read that the $26 plan does not cover child custody cases or divorces but you get a 25% discount.

How come people complain when they don't get something for FREE even when their told it won't be FREE? Caren, read the info provided to you BEFORE you signed up and gave your $! Family law (what you wanted) is NOT a FREE service, they offer you a discount...& it's CLEARLY on their documents - they also don't represent you for a murder trial for FREE - how is it that you have the nerve to complain when you didn't even take a minute of time to know what you were buying. For those of you who don't know, the PPL services for $36. a month are what you'd expect, review documents, write a letter when needed, make a much needed demand phone call, a FREE will & POA - give me a break Caren!

I'm going to make this short and sweet. 290 complaints is excellent considering that the company has 1.5 million members. You should see Wal-Mart or McDonalds...lol. That's why Pre-Paid Legal has an excellent rating from the BBB and are members of the organization. The CEO, Harland Stonecipher is on the Board of Director for the US Chamber of Commerce.

Those are the facts. That's not fiction or spin or anything else. Also if you check more closely, you'll find its from generally the same parties and PPL has responded to all complaints and inquiries. The books are open at Pre-Paid Legal.



Now to address your original complaint. Its covered under title 4 which is a 25% discount because its a pre-existing condition. 1500 dollars to settle your issue PROPERLY is actually a very good deal and 25% is better than nothing.


Next time you have a legal issue, go to an attorney and have them quote a price and then ask him to take 25% off the price he quoted. I garrantee he'll laugh you out of his office.

1st, I am an Independent Associate of PPL, I have been one for over 2 years now. Before I would sign anybody up, for anything,I first used the services to see what it can do and what it couldn't. I also kept it for 1 full year so no one could say, "you didn't stick with it and give a far shot!" What I discovered was not pretty but also not horrible either.

I have the basic membership with identity theft all for $26.99, thats $323.88 a year or $204 a year with the regular membership+ 1 for picky people. Knowing this, I counted the cost, the average speeding ticket in our jurisdiction of washington runs about $90-140 even if you plead out no contest. The Lawfirm (no names mentioned)was excellent to which I was assigned to in tacoma wa. Top Notch, well informed and hard working. They managed to HELP me remove, key word people! help me remove 2 speeding tickets against myself, 1 on my daughter (younger) 1 negotiation for my other hard headed daughter (the best resolution possible in her case) 1 against my wife and 1 no brainer she committed that everyone commits but she finally got caught on. Overall savings? About $600 that year.

The next year, this year, not as hectic but still early, 1 traffic incident (daughter) even though its an open and shut case involving a dui driver, she will need representation due to the insurance comapany she is facing and their rep of not paying out claims for their drivers. Again no names mentioned.

Compared with other lawfirms in the area, I would have spent more money having them just give me advice or represent me. Those are the PROS: Summary: I saved about $300 extra in legal fees I would have paid out in 2006, Being an associate, Independant on my tax returns, help me right off more than $1450 equalling a return on that volumn about $525 that I normally would have not recieved. p.s..I signed up only 2 people that year and one quit, fyi only.

3. Its nice to have when you need quick firm legal advice and direction. By the way, the attorney lawfirm that representated my daughter in court was held 477 miles from where I live, she would have had to take 1 full dayoff from work to appear! The loss of wages at her rate would have been like $60 for that day, not a lot of money , but money just the same, ..round trip gase cost which I don't have to mention is ridicouls!! would have been about $48 in her suburu! she still would have lost, paying the fine if it did get reduce to about $125 if she was lucky! hopefully not being too upset she would it made it back home tired and worn out with no other infractions. Thats a $233 day for nothing but appearing. The ticket was $640, not worth paying not to attend! Heck, she had a lawyer appear in court for her, gave her blow by blow updates on the case and outcome in her best intrest! Overall due to the circumstances! Outstanding! yeah she still paid, but she would have paid 3 times the amount.

CONS: Like I said, I'm still testing, don't believe everything some associate or member phrews out of their little mouths to you, do your homework 1st, more are intrested in being salesmen and have lost touch of the whole program. Limitations: ever use AAA? Don't get in a jame , needing a tow and then try to get the service so that you don't have to pay for the tow hookup??!! it won't work, you could have had the membership for $70-80 bucks that would have covered you for the year, but now that you are in a jame and don't won't to pay the hookup fee to get towed wherever, it will equal the cost of your membership! for 1 year and you would have had 4 more tows left. PPL service works the same way, don't dare think otherwise. know that 1st before you join. Now if you are going to go forward anyway with legal counsel and then litigation, then count the cost of a lawfirm representing you and then their cost with a discount!!! sometimes its more than 25%, if you want the details,I can send you a real independant report I am currently working on.

4. Be an associate! not just a member, you get what you paid for, stay 1 year so that you can use the tax break benefit and get educated about it, ! go speak with a real CPA and use their advice, state to state can differ, what works for some may not work for you in your instense , no the facts before moving forward.

5. Count the cost! can you afford it, really afford having that amount taking out every month. I of course used my American express card to get my executive cash back percentage= 2 months free in dollars in cents. overall, use the discover cards , think like a business owner because that is what you are simulating some benefits from.

6. What the lawfirm assigned to YOU!! I know some suck! I have heard horror stories, but also , some are great, learn the process of removing them and having another takes its place, it won't hurt you to use another affiliate.
7. Stay informed but once a month is about good, avoid the so called get rich seminars if your not serious about making a business out of it, it won't help you at the member level. The associate level is another matter but you have to get involved! sitting on your butt , doing nothing will not help you, your not the CEO or Vice President. or that high up to do that yet., chances are , you will be far off for many years, work at it and it will work for you.
8. If you don't watch over the people you sign up, don't be alarmed when they LEAVE! alot of misinformation get circulated around and some members project resolutions into the program that do not exsist nor anyone tells them. due to the urgency of their personal matter. Unfortunately, some get lied to by dishonest associates and that we are all sorry for. That is why the charge back! is in place to help weed those individuals out! by the way.
9. If an associate believes in the pitch or product they are selling and get what I believe is almost a fair percentage, they should offer to pay for your start up cost! even if you are just signing up to be a member, If i believe you are going to be around for the full year because you will see the benefit of it, of course I will pay enrollment fee! besides I got involved in these thing to help others not harm them. If proven otherwise, I will leave. I can make more money in real estate!

10. You can contact me anytime! I am not afraid of taking on anybody, and if the organization I am affliated with is not up and up, I will fight them to. I've used the BBB many times with alot of satisfaction and other lawfirms before I even used PPL Services. I believe in using what gets the job done, period. I believe in the founder who started PPL and why he started it! that is the way it should remain. hopefully someone found this helpful.

Sincerly

Claude
Assocaite In Training
Bangor,WA Dept of Defense.

What is a low cost lawyer for your husbands child support? This is a very vague, and likely misleading, statement. Were you simply seeking legal advice? If this is the case I'd be surprised if you didn't receive advice for free under your $26 plan. The fact that you say the attorney wants $1500 implies that you seek litigation and full representation. You should know full well that you wouldn't receive such representation for $26 a month. You receive consultation for free, but representation comes at cost minus 25%.

I know what you're going to say; "I was lied to." Sorry, not buying it. While I've heard this many times it almost always comes down to one of two things. A quick decision made after two or three minutes in which case shame on you for not doing your homework. More often I find that the customer knows exactly what they're getting, seeing as every flyer, cd, dvd, audio cassette, etc. states consultation and not representation. After getting the service they attempt to wiggle their way into free representation then get upset when it fails. This seems more likely in your case as someone who researches BBB statistics is likely to be the kind of person who spends more than a few minutes investigating something before buying it.

Speaking of which, your mentioning of the BBB numbers shows that you're capable of research but you fail to put that information into the proper perspective. PPL has millions of customers but less than three hundred BBB complaints. That shows a rather strong track record of satisfaction as companies such as Wal-Mart receive far greater complaints very regularly. If you look you'll find that some companies get over 1,000 complaints on a monthly basis. PPL is over 30 years old and has experienced record growth for most of those years. Historically, no scam has ever lasted that long, with such growth, and earned as much money as PPL because the foundation of a scam makes it impossible to do so. The only way you can show it to be a scam would be to PROVE that you didn't receive a service that you were contractualy entitled to. Can you do that? I highly doubt it.

The grim reality is that it is you who are the scam artist in this scenario as you attempted to get free services that you are not entitled to. You ability for research implies an intelligent person, meaning you KNEW that you weren't entitled to this service for free. When this didn't work you complained about scams to try and draw sympothy for yourself. Unfortunately, I cannot sympothize with child support situation as you provide no facts other than a situation exists. Additionally, I cannot sympothize with your situation with PPL as I believe you knew full well what you were entitled to that you aren't truly surprised that wouldn't receive free representation. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I'm not a big fan of PPL. In fact, if you wanted to take the time, you could find many posts wherein I derided the company in one way or another.

But there is a benefit to PPL membership that, in my mind, is probably worth $26 a month. The problem lies in the fact that the associates (fancy word for "salesmen") are operating in what is basically a pyramid scheme operation.

Pyrmaid schemes and deceptive marketing practices go hand-in-hand. The "opportunity" is made out to be much more than what it actually is, and fledgling recruits must resort to inflated promises to make the kind of sales necessary to achieve the level of success they were promised on the front end.

So PPL associates sell the product as though it were an insurance policy. The consumer buys in, thinking that they now have the same kind of access to legal assistance that a medically insured indivdual has to health care. When a complicated legal matter arises, the member finds out all too late that the PPL policy is not what they thought it was.

PPL works great for document and contract review, letter writing, and general consultation. It is virtually useless, however, when it comes to representation, which is what most people think lawyers are there for.

The bottom line is that PPL is a good value for those consumers who make good use of it and take advantage of the services it DOES provide. But for individuals with complicated legal matters, who need actual representation and not just advice, PPL is of little to no value.

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS COMPANY!! I WAS TOLD I HAVE TO WAIT AT LEAST 60 DAYS TO SEE IF I CAN GET MY MONEY BACK!!! WHAT RIGHT DO THEY HAVE TO HOLD MY MONEY??

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS COMPANY!! I WAS TOLD I HAVE TO WAIT AT LEAST 60 DAYS TO SEE IF I CAN GET MY MONEY BACK!!! WHAT RIGHT DO THEY HAVE TO HOLD MY MONEY??

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS COMPANY!! I WAS TOLD I HAVE TO WAIT AT LEAST 60 DAYS TO SEE IF I CAN GET MY MONEY BACK!!! WHAT RIGHT DO THEY HAVE TO HOLD MY MONEY??

As an ex-employee of this company, I must say your comment about the (Many - but not all) associates telling you anything to get your money is accurate. Many of them are not truthful, which results in thousands of innocent people like you getting "ripped off".

When I worked there as a CSR, more than 3/4 of the calls we received were "I want to cancel" or "I wasn't told it didn't cover family law" or "Why are you still charging my credit card when I cancelled three months ago" or "What is this? I never signed up for this!" Many, many angry callers, day after day.

I can only encourage each person who signs up to READ THE FINE PRINT and question the associate thoroughly...This service offers VERY LITTLE once you weed out all the areas not covered!!!! I am sorry you were misled, but I know for a fact that you are one of thousands. I hope you cancelled your service and I wish you better luck in the future.

As an ex-employee of this company, I must say your comment about the (Many - but not all) associates telling you anything to get your money is accurate. Many of them are not truthful, which results in thousands of innocent people like you getting "ripped off".

When I worked there as a CSR, more than 3/4 of the calls we received were "I want to cancel" or "I wasn't told it didn't cover family law" or "Why are you still charging my credit card when I cancelled three months ago" or "What is this? I never signed up for this!" Many, many angry callers, day after day.

I can only encourage each person who signs up to READ THE FINE PRINT and question the associate thoroughly...This service offers VERY LITTLE once you weed out all the areas not covered!!!! I am sorry you were misled, but I know for a fact that you are one of thousands. I hope you cancelled your service and I wish you better luck in the future.

As an ex-employee of this company, I must say your comment about the (Many - but not all) associates telling you anything to get your money is accurate. Many of them are not truthful, which results in thousands of innocent people like you getting "ripped off".

When I worked there as a CSR, more than 3/4 of the calls we received were "I want to cancel" or "I wasn't told it didn't cover family law" or "Why are you still charging my credit card when I cancelled three months ago" or "What is this? I never signed up for this!" Many, many angry callers, day after day.

I can only encourage each person who signs up to READ THE FINE PRINT and question the associate thoroughly...This service offers VERY LITTLE once you weed out all the areas not covered!!!! I am sorry you were misled, but I know for a fact that you are one of thousands. I hope you cancelled your service and I wish you better luck in the future.

This Company needs to be stopped! They take your money and provide nothing and they refuse to give you your money back!

This is a scam! I don't care what anyone says! The associates are people trying to make a buck and will tell you anything to get you to sign up.

Hello Caren,

It's unfortunate that you had this problem. I am am not an employee of Prepaid Legal Services. I am however, an associate with Prepaid Legal Services. The difference is I create my own hours and can offer the service or not offer the service.

The first thing I should say is that Prepaid Legal is not a scam. What the company offers and what the attorneys can do, can be done. However, with that said, there are plenty of variables and communication is not always efficient as it should be. Some of this responsibility may fall on the attorney, some on Prepaid Legal, and the rest on the Independent Associate who sold you the membership.

You have a right to be angry. I suspect what happened with you is that the Associate who sold you the membership didn't tell everything he/she should have or just didn't know the membership. It does have its' limitations. And unfortunately, Family Law, is one of them in terms of cost. Yes they can help you but they are too expensive in this area. If a prospect tells me they have a divorce issue or child custody issue, child support, etc, I advise to look around. I had to find out the hard way. They are people, well meaning people in the PPL family that believes the membership can fill every need. It cannot. Especially under Title 5. Under Title 5, you do have pay what's called a retainer which is a projection of what your fees might be. You should have been told this when you signed up. Either the person didn't know (which is sometimes the case) or he/she was just greedy. Also, some associates start selling the memberships within a week after becoming an associate and their sponsor may only have been in the business a week or two longer. This means they are relying on what more experienced associates tell them and those experienced associates have been known to be wrong.

The membership does work when you know all the facts about it and understand it fully. My wife saved $1400 by using it. My mother sold the membership to one of her church members. A few months later, that person called and thanked my mother for selling her the membership. She said it was one of the best investments she's made.

On the other hand, a PPL attorney wanted to charge my inlaw $2000 for a simple divorce. He went elsewhere and got it done for $200 For a child support reduction case, PPL wanted a $5000 retainer fee. That person went elsewhere and got the services for $500 and the reduction was more than satisfactory.

What I'm trying to say is that PPL is a good service, but one should know their limitations before going in. And each case is different. I knew of most of the limations going in, but learned quite a few as I sold more memberships and that some of the people who tried to use the mmebership was unhappy. It changed my view about the company, the attorneys, and some of my fellow associates. Now when I sell the plan, I explain the strong side and the weak side. The customer knows fully what they should expect. I'll explain how my wife saved $1400 but I'll also explain about my inlaw who saved $1800 by going elsewhere to get service.

The same should have been done with you and the sad, unfortunate part is that it wasn't. The concept behind Prepaid Legal is a good one and does work. The inavoidable problem is, you have people involved and that creates problems. I'm sorry that this happened to you. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email at geraldghaynes@yahoo.com.

Best regards,