Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/19/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  After consulting with a paralegal I realized what a terrible mistake I made signing up for 3stepdivorce. This is the email I sent them regarding my account: "Hello, Cancel my account with you. Keep the first month's payment if needed but I revoke and do not allow you to charge the next three payments. After speaking to my new lawyer your website is pointless. Hundreds of paperwork that really I am required to do on my own. How is your service of any help? It's not. Cancel ASAP."This is their response: "Hello, Thank you for contacting us. We're sorry this was your experience. This is a DIY (Do It Yourself) service. The assistance you may expect to get from a lawyer isn't present with the company due to this fact. Your refund request has been forwarded to our accounting department for review. All refund requests are reviewed individually in the order they are received. There is no guarantee a refund will be granted. You will receive an email once your request has been reviewed." NOT A GUARANTEED REFUND IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE ANSWER.I signed on for 3stepdivorce with the impression it would be helpful in filing the many forms needed for divorce in my state. After paying the $84.00 which will be divided into 4 months, I found the website is essentially a "fill in the blank" for a couple of the forms and on a few (specifically the financial affidavit form which is very long and confusing) it gave no guidance on (not even fill in the blank), just a blank form to download and fill out yourself (the same as the form on the state website). The website is 100% misleading in what they say the offer. You are just as well off downloading the forms from your state website and filling them in yourself as the website offers zero help. I emailed the company requesting a refund, the response was not promising.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/03/2022

  We apologize for your experience with 3StepDivorce.The 3StepDivorce online divorce product is a tool that relies on significant research which allows the customer to understand the divorce process better. Our website states that we review all refund requests individually. If you would like us to review your request again, please send us an email or give our team a call.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/16/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On or about March 3, 2022, I signed up for Nolo's lead program which included as part of the promotion 5 free leads. After several issues on their end accepting payment (which charged me $1 each time), the full payment of $315 was made by my credit card on March 4. Shortly thereafter I started receiving leads which were outside my agreed upon practice area but when I went online to their portal to report it, I could not do so. After ********* ***** ********************************************** my point of contact at Nolo, acknowledged the issue I send numerous additional emails thereafter. I finally received a response on March 24 stating that they are still aware of the issue and that all of the credits would be applied, including my 5 free leads which were never given to me. On April 29, I sent another email to ******** and the Nolo Acct Managers ***************************************** stating that no credits have been received to date (which now exceeded $200), plus I was never given any of the free leads. I also demanded a refund of the full amount I paid if they cannot get the credits activated as promised. After receiving no response, on May 2, I followed up to both emails again. No response. On May 6 I sent another email since no one responded and also included the email *********************************************** on that email. I also demanded to speak with their legal counsel but again no response. All of these emails are attached hereto. Thereafter I made several attempts to call them but no one ever answers the phone. As of today, they have not returned a single dime of the $318.00 taken from me which I am again demanding be returned.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/14/2022

  We apologize for your experience with Nolo, and we have issued a refund in the amount of $318.00, that should appear in your account in 5-7 business days. Since your experience we have doubled the account management team, brought in new leadership, and have shifted to dedicated account managers. We made these changes to address issues such as yours to better support client issues in a timely manner and to allow us to work diligently with our customers to provide maximum program value. We deliver thousands of leads to attorneys each day, and many of them convert into clients. We have subscribing customers who've been successful using our leads for sometime and have built their firms with it, so we know our campaigns work for many firms. Your feedback is important and we value your insight, as it helps us continually improve.
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/12/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Date of the transaction: I signed up for Martindale-Nolo services on July 13th. I was charge $900 for the first month and then another $900 for the second month.What they committed: Since July 13th, I have received a total of 28 leads. I have disputed 18 of those leads due to the leads being out of the practice area I signed up for. I signed up only for probate leads. They have wrongly denied 8 of these disputes. In a probate case there needs to be a client looking for help from an attorney to file a petition to begin probate OR the client needs to already have a situation where probate has began and they want help with the process or to litigate.I ONLY disputed leads where there is absolutely no sign of an actual probate case (no one passed away, there is no estate, they do not need help with the probate process). I kept and paid for unresponsive leads from non-working phone numbers as per the policy.I have been denied for 8 of these clear and straight forward lead disputes where there is no sign of a real probate case.Amount: I would like a refund for my current balance (as of 8/12/2022) of $753.28. I would like a refund for wrongfully denied lead disputes that amount to $360 (8 leads * $45). I would like an immediate cancellation of my service. I will pay for leads that were real and unresponsive. I will pay for leads I attempted to follow up with. I am not trying to get back any money for any real services rendered. I refuse to pay for leads outside of my chosen subscribed practice area. And I refuse to leave money in the system to get more denied disputes and spend hours on the phone trying to deal with an absolutely unresponsive and unprepared customer service system. Nature of dispute: Martindale is wrongfully denying disputed leads. Tried to resolve: Called customer service 5x and emailed the denied dispute appeals team account/order/tracking - customer care # *******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/02/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We were to receive a certain amount of pre-screened leads from Martindale-Nolo for approx $700 per month. However, they would dump upwards of 50 leads on us at once on Saturdays, then automatically deduct $1200 from our bank account every three days or so. This happened in April/May and it happened again in June/July. They ended up taking almost $16,000 out of our account in total. We called both times and were told it was a "computer glitch". The first time we received a partial refund and a partial credit. Then at the first of July, 2022, I noticed the large amounts of money coming out of our account again. So I called and told them to terminate services, and refund us the entire amount. 2 weeks later we received a $6,000 refund. When I asked where the remaining $8400 was, I was told we would receive that as a "credit". As Im telling them yesterday (8/1/22) that we terminated services, dont need a credit and are requesting a refund of the remaining amount, my receptionist tells me leads were coming in again from them. I called immediately and canceled service again, asked to speak with *************************, the Manager who I was dealing with, and so far, I have not received a call back from him. We are a small firm with only one attorney. They took advantage of us not once, but twice and basically stole thousands of dollars from our account, and gave us way too many leads at once that we could not use, and the ones we did call were bad and useless. We received literally nothing for the thousands of dollars they took. A horrible company and we are going to file a civil law suit against them. They have hundreds of negative reviews online.