n2ize
11-19-2010, 04:16 PM
A month or two ago my Mom was trying to track down a birth certificate of a relative who lived in the New York area. She went to the NYC Dept. of Heath & Records website to inquire about how to order one. They said she could order on line. They referred her to a third party service called "VitalCheck". Apparently a lot of government agencies contract with Vitalcheck for ordering documentation electronically. The site appears quite legit, is a subsidiary of Lexis-Nexxus" and has a BBB endorsement on the front page. She proceeded to order and paid the fee (approx $35.00) by credit card. They requested that she fax a copy of her drivers license foto fullfill the ID requirement, which she did.
A few days later an email appeared saying that the faxed documents were illegible. At this point I took over. They suggested I enlarge them and darken them by 5-10%. I complied with their instructions and re-faxed the documents. Two days later I get an email stating that they never received the identification docs. Once again I re-fax them. Two days later I again get an email stating they did not receive the documents and suggested that I fax a drivers license. I wrote them a brief email asking them what is wrong and if they can help me. I got no response from them other than an automated response saying they got my message. I decided to try refaxing them again and I did so. Again they stated they did not receive them. Mind the fact that my fax software showed that the faxes were send and received fine, without error, and nobody else I have faxed things to is having this problem. Again I sent them an email asking what I should do, whether they received them, whether they are legible. A few days later they send me a message stating that they cancelled my order but, as per their policy, they are not refunding the money. They suggested I fax them the ID they require and upon receipt of the fax they will reinstate and reprocess the order. So , yet again I rescanned the documents, made sure they were properly enlarged and legible, and I re-faxed them for the umpteenth time. This time their fax machine spit back an error and would not accept the fax.
Attempts to email these people are futile. They refuse to respond. Attempts to call them result in a recorded message and then being placed on hold forever.
I did a few Google searches on Vitalcheck and it appears that large numbers of people are getting the exact same treatment and I am getting. People submit forms and get nothing from Vitalcheck in return. Emails, phone calls, etc. go unanswered.
What is pitiful is that government agencies are relying on these people to handle document transactions. This is a disgrace and Lexis-Nexis should be ashamed of itself to operate a subsidiary business like this that has such low down scam-full tactics.
I would advise being very wary of this company and avoid them at all costs. sadly people like this give online business a bad name. :(
A few days later an email appeared saying that the faxed documents were illegible. At this point I took over. They suggested I enlarge them and darken them by 5-10%. I complied with their instructions and re-faxed the documents. Two days later I get an email stating that they never received the identification docs. Once again I re-fax them. Two days later I again get an email stating they did not receive the documents and suggested that I fax a drivers license. I wrote them a brief email asking them what is wrong and if they can help me. I got no response from them other than an automated response saying they got my message. I decided to try refaxing them again and I did so. Again they stated they did not receive them. Mind the fact that my fax software showed that the faxes were send and received fine, without error, and nobody else I have faxed things to is having this problem. Again I sent them an email asking what I should do, whether they received them, whether they are legible. A few days later they send me a message stating that they cancelled my order but, as per their policy, they are not refunding the money. They suggested I fax them the ID they require and upon receipt of the fax they will reinstate and reprocess the order. So , yet again I rescanned the documents, made sure they were properly enlarged and legible, and I re-faxed them for the umpteenth time. This time their fax machine spit back an error and would not accept the fax.
Attempts to email these people are futile. They refuse to respond. Attempts to call them result in a recorded message and then being placed on hold forever.
I did a few Google searches on Vitalcheck and it appears that large numbers of people are getting the exact same treatment and I am getting. People submit forms and get nothing from Vitalcheck in return. Emails, phone calls, etc. go unanswered.
What is pitiful is that government agencies are relying on these people to handle document transactions. This is a disgrace and Lexis-Nexis should be ashamed of itself to operate a subsidiary business like this that has such low down scam-full tactics.
I would advise being very wary of this company and avoid them at all costs. sadly people like this give online business a bad name. :(