ComplaintsforNational Paralegal & Notary

• Initial Complaint

  07/01/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The company NPN has not paid my notary fee for services rendered. Date of service - 1/10/2024 for $250.00

  Customer response

  07/01/2024

  Why is this not a valid complaint to let other consumers and notary professionals not to use National Paralegal & Notary?

  Business response

  07/17/2024

  We have responded to ******************** on multiple occasions.  She is very well aware of the situation.  The network of law firms that we contact with and who her work was performed on behalf of is involved in federal litigation and is not paying their vendors.  We are actively pursuing payment to be able to resolve this matter and will provide an update to ******************** when we have one.

• Initial Complaint

  08/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Delivery Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  This morning I woke up to a very unprofessional text message from *******************************, Logger with National Paralegal & Notary. ******* seems to be upset about a notary group post that I created detailing my experience with their low fee requests. Now is threatening to retaliate and still have not paid me for my services. The messages I have received from this agency is absolutely unprofessional, threatening, and harassing in nature. This is very concerning as they are now also talking about reporting me to ******** so that I also do no get anymore notary requests from other companies.

  Business response

  08/15/2023

  Hello,

  My name is ********************* and I am the *** of ***.  I have been made aware of the situation that occurred with *********************  ******************** took it upon himself to post inaccurate information about our company in multiple places on social media.  We are a document signing company and we contract with notaries nationally.  We had a signing that was assigned to a notary (not ********************).  The notary informed us that after speaking to the client, the client decided to not move forward with the signing.  As a courtesy for that notary's time and because they had already printed the documents to be signed, we agreed to pay the notary a $10 print fee. This is very standard practice in the industry. When the scheduler in our office adjusted the fee from the original full amount to the reduced $10 amount, the system somehow recognized the $10 as what we were offering for a notary to complete the signing. This information was then inadvertently sent out to notaries in the area by the scheduling system. I have been in this business for over 15 years and under no circumstance have we ever offered a notary $10 to complete a signing. Anyone in the industry knows that that is ridiculous and would never happen. Upon this information going out in the scheduling system, ******************** took it upon himself to post this information on ********* He did not contact our company to ask if there was an obvious error or to just be a friendly notary and inquire if there was some type of glitch. Instead, ******************** decided to take this information and post it to multiple ******** groups which were visible to thousands of notaries. 

  Our office was contacted by multiple notaries after ************************ posted this information to let us know what was going on. We quickly corrected the situation in the scheduling system. At that point a staff member reached out to ******************** to let him know that he was incorrect and that it was inappropriate for him to be posting this information on social media. While I would have encouraged the *** team member to respond in a more constructive way, they were very upset at the time based on the false information that ******************** was portraying online and in the aggressive and bullying fashion in which he was doing so.

  ******************** has done one signing with our company. This signing was completed in July. In none of the exchanges did anyone suggest that ******************** would not be paid for the signing that he has completed. ******************** will be paid for the July signing that was completed in accordance with our payment terms. This means that he will be issued a check at the end of August for the July signing.

  Regarding the other issues here, we have alerted our attorney of ************************ actions as far as posting false information on social media and portraying it as the truth, when it clearly was not. We will be pursuing this legally. As far as the text messages that ******************** has shared online, we will also be pursuing his actions legally. It is illegal in ************************ ******************** as well as in ****** (where *** is based) to share private text messages on a public social media groups without the sender's consent. And since the groups contain well over ****** individuals, we are considering his actions to be of a very defamatory nature. We will also be reporting ******************** to the *********** Secretary of ************** for the type of behavior he has demonstrated as a licensed notary. Additionally, I will be writing a detailed account of this experience in the scheduling platform that will be visible to hundreds of other companies that use the same platform to find notaries for signings.  I, as the *** of *** will certainly not be issuing ******************** any type of apology as he has requested. If ******************** would like to contact me directly at the email I have provided, I would be more than happy to have an email exchange with him regarding the matters at hand here and how we will be moving forward.  If ******************** would like to reconsider his actions here as far as removing his inaccurate information from social media, I will reconsider the steps my company will be taking involving *********************  If ******************** chooses to proceed with his defamation campaign against my company, we have no choice but to pursue the matter legally.

  Thank You,

  *********************

   

   

  Customer response

  08/16/2023

   
  Complaint: 20471732
  
  I am rejecting this response because: 

  NPN continues to threaten me in ways to try and make me loose my license and signing services as a ********************** which is retaliation. The *** response is threatening in nature with legal action for a freedom of speech post. Never did I defame or slander NPN, all I did was take a screenshot of a vague notary fee they offered on via ******** and said the fee is highly disrespectful. I also sent that message the to the order on ******** when I declined it. Never did NPN respond, email, or call me about there error.  Notary publics such as myself have been getting very odd signing fees that are unethically questionable and as a member of a notary group everyone discusses there experience with signing services such as NPN.  Everyone on these groups gives advice, opinions, share feedback, and sometimes have trainings. I am not the first to discuss NPN or any other companies on any of those notary groups. Recent reviews on NPNs ****** page also reflect the same behavior of retaliation and threatening to report us notaries when they get bad reviews. Reviews are part of every buisnesss no matter if on social media, ******, or word of mouth.  Never did I say NPN was not going to pay me either.  I just reminded them of my pending payment.  

  The text message was not private as it was sent to my company phone line. Additionally as the *** mentioned, her employee acted unprofessionally and this seems like the employee should be held responsible. I have a very good reputation in the community as well my professional work life and have never been attacked by an companys employee.  NPN keeps talking about defamation but that is exactly what they do when they rate us badly to signing services in hopes that we dont get any other work opportunity is unethical and unprofessional. 
  

  Even if it was on social media, we have the right to speak about our experiences as it is freedom of speech and the same can also be down via ****** which I have not done. I do not control the anyone elses opinions regarding a $10 fee. This is common in any business in that anyone can receive reviews for their experience in dealing with a company.
  

  Should this have been an internal mistake as the *** stated, they could have made more ethical approaches in contacting me. The employees messages That were sent to a company phone were hostile and very personal.  In fact the employee personally went out her way to find my company phone  number to write me threatening and hostile messages.  The post NPN is talking about was posted from my personal account not my business. As a professional I understand we all mistakes but the key things is to be ethical in response and provide accountability as a reputable company that NPN states they are. The text message received from the employee seemed very threatening and concerning. As a *** I would have expected a call about this as well.  A simple apology from the company for the misunderstanding would have sufficed.

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

  Business response

  08/17/2023

  Hello,

  Mr. ******** has not simply shared a review online.  If he refuses to take down the post on social media, we will be pursing the matter legally and will not be communicating further outside of our attorney.  Our attorney will reach out to ******************** directly.  He has until the end of business today to remove the post.

   

  Thank You,

  *********************

  Customer response

  08/17/2023

   
  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 should no frivolous legal action take place by NPN.

  It is unfortunate that a clerical error started a huge misunderstanding and a break in relationship with NPN and I hope this can be an opportunity to strengthen both of our approaches to client relationships and partnerships within the notary industry. Never did I  try to bad mouth NPN in a specific way and my originally post was to highlight the issue of low fees being offered to Notary Signing Agents. Prior to this misunderstanding, I was very excited to network with NPN and continue my collaboration. 

  Additionally my post on social media were removed the same day and no longer exist in the notary group.
  

  Despite any controversy, I recognized that some people were aggressive and can respond with hate speech toward others that does not include the topic presented in the notary groups and my post were removed that same day. There are no existing post from me that discusses NPN.

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

*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. ↩