Mrs Spinzone was in on the computer renewing our vehicle registrations this morning. She came back in and told me that at checkout, the $158.00 cost that was listed on the renewal notice, ended up being $308.00 due to the $150.00 in fees that they added on and screw that she was going to go by the tax collector's office on the way to work and renew them in person.

I went in and she was on etag.com and she mentioned that the process of pulling up the vehicle info was different from in the past. I dug around the internet and found the flhsmv.gov site where we ended up with $6.00 in fees. Apparently etag in a 3rd party site that will let you do the same things as the state site while charging you a bunch of money to do it. They have already been hit by the Fl state attorney for excessive fees.a

What really has me spun up is that she went to the website that was listed on the renewal notice we got from the Duval county tax collector, which, then redirected her to etag without notifying her. I am positive that the county is getting some form of kickback by sending people to etag instead of the state's .gov site. While she was filing the receipt she printed out from the .gov site, she pulled out the last one and they were both in the same format so last year the county's link was still sending people to the .gov site.

I'm really thinking about calling the local news about this.

That's odd that the county would be sending notices to use a third party for renewal, are you sure the notice isn't from that 3rd party but made to look like it came from the county?

I get all kinds of emails to use 3rd party for my wifes notary renewals as well as the company annual statement filing, they all come with big fees, it is a real problem.

The thing to remind your wife, or anyone, if you are dealing with a government transaction, the official web page will end in .gov, or .tax, our county is one of the .tax pages, otherwise it's not the official web page..

I am sure the state gets money back on this scam. States are doing this for renewal of professional licenses. You have to renew online and the third party gets a service fee. No more checks in envelopes.

Duvall county? if yes, then no point in calling the news. the grift is deep there. just ignore their scams and mail it in. make them process the check and send you back the tags and registration.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
That's odd that the county would be sending notices to use a third party for renewal, are you sure the notice isn't from that 3rd party but made to look like it came from the county

This was my first thought. There was a company doing this with Coast Guard documented vessels renewals. I did not see anything that looked off from an official county letterhead. But it is possible.

quote:

Originally posted by ltz400:
Duvall county? if yes, then no point in calling the news. the grift is deep there. just ignore their scams and mail it in. make them process the check and send you back the tags and registration.

You get how it is here.
We renewed on the state's .gov site with no issues.

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:

I'm really thinking about calling the local news about this.

You should, especially if one of the local news outlets has one of those consumer fraud reporters, be sure to wear your SF unitard and be strapped up LOL....

Ha! The local fraud reporter here is the black version of Less Nessman from WKRP.

My son and wife just got duped into signing up for some subscription from getting redirected to a third party pay site when trying to pay taxes/registration renewal.

After two calls to my credit card company it looks like I’m on the hook for about $13. But that includes an international transaction fee. Since they knowingly submitted the payment. Had my son cancel the “subscription” and actually pay the damned DMV finally.

I still think my card is compromised. Waiting to see if anything else pops up.