Complaintsforus-passports.org

• Initial Complaint

  04/12/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The company represents as a government agency for passport renewals. They asked for passport information, expeditated charges, social security information, and payment. When completing the information and email with link to a flagged website and warning. I called the US passport department and found out this was a scam. I called and emailed them requesting a refund, as the misrepresentation of what they needed with my passport information. I have found that they are unable to assist me in the renewing of my passport and any found money paid to them does not go to the renewal fees.

  Business response

  04/27/2024

  Dear *************************, 

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case #********, which we were notified of on April 13, 2024. 
  

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:
  

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the U.S. Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. 
  
  Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding U.S. **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, and although the services were correctly rendered, we confirm that the refund for our services fee was already processed and the full amount charged was returned on April 14th, 2024, to the same method of payment used, as per your request.
  
  
  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  04/11/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  March of 2024 I used this service under the assumption that they would file my passport online, that this was a government program. This site is specifically crafted to make the consumer think their service involves filing the passport forms. In actuality, they are filling the passport forms. They dont even say filling out in their description and it seems like this is possibly intentional to confuse the consumer. Fast forward 3 weeks and the passport office informs me that all sorts of companies are popping up to scam consumers like this. I paid this company close to $400 dollars including money for expedited service. All they do is fill the form out for you. Who would pay that much to have someone fill out forms for them? Im on hold on their 800 number right now and have been given no indication if anyone will ever pickup. I.e. no thank you for holding or your hold time is. Not just the money I paid to them but now this company has personal information that I thought I was providing to the US government.

  Business response

  04/24/2024

  Dear *****************************, 

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case #********, which we were notified of on April 12th, 2024. 

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the U.S. Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. 
  
  Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding U.S. **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  

  Notwithstanding the foregoing, and after reviewing your customer file, although our ******************** were well rendered, we confirm that the refund for our services fee was already processed and the full amount charged was returned on April 13th, 2024, to the same method of payment used, as per your request. 
  
  Finally, we confirm that an email has also been sent to the email address used to register, in response to your Data deletion request. 
  
  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have.

  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  04/05/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  When I completed an online search for renewing my passport, ****-passports was a top result. The website appears to be in association with the **** government, but is not. I thought I was paying for a renewed passport, but after paying realized I paid for someone to complete a document with my private information. I am greatly concerned about my identity being compromised and want to ensure my information remains private.

  Business response

  04/20/2024

  Dear *******************************, 
  

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case #********, which we were notified of on April 5th, 2024. 
  

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:
  

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the **** Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. 
  
  Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding U.S. **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, and although the services were well rendered, the refund request has been approved and, therefore, on April 20th, 2024, we proceeded to make a full refund of the charges made. Depending on your bank, the transaction can take up to ten (10) days to be received.
  
  Additionally, we would like to stress the fact that we offer qualified 24/7 customer service. In order to successfully reach our customer service, an email must be sent to the following email address: *********************. You can use our websites Contact ** section as well, to reach our customer service department. 
  
  Finally, we confirm that an email has also been sent to your email address ******************** in response to your Data deletion request. 
  
  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

  Customer response

  04/22/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

• Initial Complaint

  03/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  03/2024 FEE PAID: $168.85 ISSUE: Notice of fees NOT being associated with renewing a passport not being in a conspicuous place or made to be seen without searching.I looked up passport renewal and came to this website that had Passport Renewal DS-82 complete online. It was in a red box and clearly stood out. The disclosure did not stand out in a color box but imbedded toward the bottom half of the page. Upon paying the fees I saw the "fine print" on the bottom of my "Payment made successfully" labled printout. I have requested a refund but kept being told we are a private company in which I was hung up on.

  Business response

  04/04/2024

  Dear *************************, 
  

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case #********, which we were notified of on March 22, 2024. 
  

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:
  

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the **** Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. 
  
  Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding U.S. **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  
  After reviewing your customer file, although our ******************** were well rendered, we confirm that the full refund for our services fee was already processed on March 21, 2024, as per your request. 
  
  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  02/20/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Date of transaction is 2/20/2024. The payment in the amount of $108.95 went through and was billed to my card. The business is providing a service to complete forms for a passport renewal. It does lead you to believe that they do all the processing for the renewal. In addition, the false advertising is that you can reach this company via text or phone call or email. None of the options exist. The privacy policy notes ********************* but emails to this come back undeliverable. I have attached a section of the privacy policy off of the website. There is no phone number and no links that would allow you to contact this company. However, you do not know that until you complete the payment. I do not believe this company is legitimate. I do not trust this company enough to open their document they sent via email because this seems like a scam since you cannot contact them as noted in their privacy policy.

  Business response

  03/01/2024

  Dear ****,
  We are writing to you from Premium Op Services LLC  ***************** (hereinafter, our/the Company), owner and operator of the website www.*****************************. We hereby confirm receipt of your notice dated on January 23, 2023, with regard to the Consumer Complaint with ID ********. In this sense, we would like to point out the following:
  Firstly, we would like to clarify that Premium Op Services LLC  is a private company not affiliated, owned, or operated by any U.S. *************** or any government agency. As stated in our Terms and Conditions (Terms) as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of our website, the service that we offer is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following provided personalized instruction, before the corresponding U.S. ***************, in order to obtain their desired passport application. Therefore, at no time we do offer nor ***** our customers with their official passport applications as it is an exclusive competence of the corresponding U.S. ***************.
  Having said that, and after having thoroughly carried out the appropriate internal checks, we would like to stress the fact that the customer created and fulfilled a passport application form with us on February 20, 2024. On the same day, our agents (i) reviewed the online form in order to ensure it was correct and complete and (ii) sent the printable PDF form to the email provided by the customer, together with the personalized instructions on how to submit it to the corresponding U.S. ***************. 
  In this regard, and notwithstanding the foregoing, and although our professional services were correctly rendered, we would like to highlight we exceptionally decided to refund the complainant total amount paid ($108.95). The refund was made to the same method of payment used to pay our private fees. Please, be aware that the transaction can take up to 10 working days to be completed. 
  We remain at your disposal for further clarifications regarding this issue. 
  Yours faithfully,
  Customer Service Department 
  

  Customer response

  03/01/2024

  I did receive the refund as stated.  However, this company website email information does not work.  The email comes back as undeliverable.  The graphic of a phone/text on their website does not work. There is no way of contacting them.  On their website you only have the ability to enter a support request.  I entered a request to them to validate per their privacy policy "Furthermore, if you have provided us with your consent to process your personal data for specific purposes, note that you can withdraw said consent at any time. Upon receiving your withdrawal request, we will proceed to delete your personal data."  If upon my request for cancellation and refund if all my personal data had been deleted.  To date, I have not heard back from them.   Again, there is no way to contact this company and their website seems like a scam.  Them having my private information is my concern since all indications from their website seem like a scam.

  
  

  Business response

  03/12/2024

  Dear *****************************, 

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, case #********, which we were notified of on March 1st, 2024. 

  Regarding your last communication, we would like to confirm you the following:
  

  After carrying out the appropriate internal verifications, it has been observed that your Customer File is blocked due to that you have exercised your erasure data protection right.
  

  We confirm that our response to your erasure right request was sent to the email address ********************************* on March 2, 2024. 
  

  You may not have received our emails, since they may have been delivered to your spam inbox. We kindly request you to check your spam folder to find our response to your request.
  

  Therefore, we confirm that your erasure right request has been duly attended to in accordance with the requirements of the applicable data protection laws and regulations. 
  

  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

  Customer response

  03/12/2024

   
  Complaint: 21321678
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I understand that my information has been blocked in their information system.  However, I would like to know specifically what is the retention period as noted below?

  From March 2nd response:

  In response to your erasure right request, dated February 21, 2024, Premium Op Services LLC (hereinafter, the Company) as controller of your personal data, it hereby confirms that:
  
  I.-  Your personal data (those that you provided to us when you completed the corresponding passport form) have been excluded from all the processing activities carried out by the Company.This means that they have been blocked in our information systems, adopting the appropriate technical and organizational measures to restrict its use. 
  
  II.- Your personal data will be retained for the necessary period we need to keep them to comply with the Companys legal obligations and/or address possible claims or queries related to our professional assistance services. In this sense:
  during the retention period, your personal data will only be unblocked in the event of a legal claim or to meet information requests from judicial bodies or government agencies like data protection authorities.
  once the retention period elapses, your personal data will be securely deleted from our information systems, except if there is any legal reason to continue retaining them.

  Sincerely,
  *****************************

  Business response

  03/20/2024

  Dear *****************************, 

  Regarding your last communication, please note that according to applicable data protection regulations, data controllers are obliged to keep the personal data to comply with their legal obligations and/or address possible claims or queries related to the services offered. Therefore, your personal data will duly remain blocked for a retention period of five (5) years, once this period elapses, your personal data will be securely deleted from our databases.
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

  Customer response

  03/20/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************************

• Initial Complaint

  02/19/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 7, 8 and 9 January 2024 I submitted forms online to renew my, my wife and my son's passports with us-passports.org . They said it cost $108.95 per passport plus $19.95 to expedite my and my wife's passport. A total of $366.75. They sent us forms back and told us to mail it to a certain address with our old passports, which we did. It was sent back to us with a note that we did not include payment, but we already paid this company. When I queried them, they were beating around the **** and don't want to respond anything about the money I paid them to renew the passports. They never sent me a receipt and when I asked for the so-called reference number that was supposed to be on the receipt, they just ignored my request.

  Business response

  03/01/2024

  Dear **************************, 

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case  #********, which we were notified of on February 20, 2024. 
  

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:
  

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the **** Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. 
  
  Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding U.S. **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  

  Regarding your refund request, after reviewing your application, please be informed that since we have received a request to cancel your application from your financial institution as you have disputed the amount charged for our services fee, we can not process your refund request. 
  
  Bear in mind that this transaction runs beyond our control since it has been processed directly by your financial institution in accordance with its own rules, regulations, and processing times. In this sense, we recommend that you contact your bank for further information and assistance.
  
  Additionally, we would like to stress the fact that we offer qualified 24/7 customer service. In order to successfully reach our customer service, an email must be sent to the following email address: *********************. You can use our websites Contact ** section as well, to reach our customer service department. 
  
  Finally, please be informed that after carrying out the internal checks, we confirm that under your email address, there is only one application in our database. Therefore, to enable us to assist you with your wife and son's requests, we kindly request you to write us at the following email address to solve the inconvenience: *********************. We would like to ask you to specify in the request the name and surname of the applicant, as well as the Email address used to contract our services and the Application reference code received in the payment confirmation email. 
  
  

  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  02/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 2/6/24 I went to renew/name change my passport online. I googled "** passport renewal" and this was the first site listed and unfortunately it seemed legitimate. This site appears to be a legitimate passport processing website & I honestly thought I was going through the US government until I noticed too late that it was not a ".gov" site. Essentially, this business charges you to fill out *** forms that are completely free to fill out yourself. I immediately (within 5 minutes of submitting) contacted them regarding the transaction saying I realized my mistake, had not received the *** yet, and would like a refund or for this to be cancelled before any work is done on my behalf to complete these forms. I did not receive any sort of contact back, & instead received a "downloadable ***" about an hour later which I did not download due to concern now for computer viruses etc. The website is bannered in navy blue with white stenciled images of ******************** in the corner. It appears to have contact hours and information at the bottom, but when you look into contacting them there is no phone ******************* don't respond to email. Essentially, I lost $108 and now gave very personal information to a company that I am worried will sell my info or use it for nefarious purposes. I want my personal info deleted much more than I desire an actual refund. It seems there are many other websites right now performing this same scam based on BBB reviews of other sites.

  Business response

  02/20/2024

  Dear *************************, 

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case #********, which we were notified of on February 7th, 2024. 

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:
  

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the U.S. Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding U.S. **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, and although the services were well rendered we inform you that your refund request has been approved and, therefore, on February 7, 2024, we have already proceeded to make a full refund of the charges made, as per your request received through our customer service contact form. 
  
  Finally, our Privacy Policy is permanently available on our website for consultation by individuals at any time, in compliance with the regulations that apply to us.
  
  We confirm that your data erasure request has been duly attended, and the confirmation has been sent to your email address on February 20th, 2024. 
  
  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  01/29/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I used this website to pay for my ** passport renewal. The transaction went through and was billed to my card. I submitted my application (DS-82), but it was returned with reason of no payment. I have been trying to contact us-passports.org to ask how I am supposed to submit my payment, but they will not respond. The site seamed legit with a .org extension. I am beginning to think they are fraudulent. If they don't actually pay for your application fee, but instead charge you those same fees to print out a free form...this is fraud.Any help is appreciated. *************

  Business response

  02/03/2024

  Dear *******************************, 

  We are writing you regarding your consumer complaint lodged before the Better Business Bureau, with number case #********, which we were notified of on January 29, ****. 

  Regarding it, we hereby would like to state the following:

  Please be informed that we are a private company not linked to the **** Government that offers assistance in filling out passport application forms for a private fee. This information is duly indicated in our Terms and Conditions, as well as in the disclaimer which is always available on the top and the bottom of the homepage of our website, it is also indicated that the users can obtain the passport forms directly on the U.S. official Government Passport website without hiring our assistance services. 
  
  Our service is to facilitate passport application forms that the customer must submit by himself, by following the provided personalized instructions, before the corresponding **** **************** Therefore, we are completely upfront regarding our companys identity and professional services.
  
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, and although the services were well rendered we inform you that your refund request has been approved and, therefore, on February 3, ****, we have proceeded to make a full refund of the charges made. Depending on your bank, the transaction can take up to ten (10) days to be received.
  
  We trust the above has been of assistance, and we remain at your disposal for further clarifications you may have. 
  
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Customer Service Department
  

  
  

*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. ↩