ZenBusiness

Myself and my husband turned to ZenBusiness to create our documents for our LLC and get an EIN number. I read everything carefully and made the purchase, and about 4 to 5 days later, I received my docs.

Now I fill this out, and my husband and I are the only 2 members. When the email notification came, I did not look at them until I got another email from my bank alerting me that ZenBusiness tried to charge me $348. What? So I called ZenBusiness.

They are so trained to give the same spiel in their defense: of course, you get sent to different reps. So the last one that I talked to told me the same thing, you ordered the registered agent before you submitted your payment. OK? I asked her if I ordered this, why was I not charged for it at checkout?

She went on to tell me that they do not charge until you receive your docs. I asked if she could show me the order form; of course, she said no. The thing is that I can't access it either. I was told there is nothing they can do about it.

Now I got another email from them telling me that if I don't pay, they are going to send this to the credit reporting agency. Wow, my business is brand new; I don't need that. My intentions, like I told them, are that I have two free amendments with them. So here soon, I was going to use it to add an agent because as of now, it's just me.

Here's the kicker: my invoice has $0.00 for the registered agent. I don't understand because now they said I have to go to the state and pay them to change this info, then upload the change I will now have to pay again for.

They'll keep trying to get their money. Can someone, anyone, give me some suggestions?

I would watch this business and all the extra charges they seem to get you on. I specifically stated during my initial call with them that I only needed help to obtain my LLC and would not want any further help with their services.

I was charged $199 for a yearly renewal that I specifically stated I did not want upon initiation of my account. When I called to dispute this charge, they refused to cancel it, stating it was a free service for the first year and an auto-renewal. I have never used any of their services, and they still refused to refund the money.

Clear business scam! I will never recommend this company.

I signed up for Zen Business after Mark Cuban recommended them. I'll have to have a talk with him about that :-)
When I signed up, it was my understanding that I was paying a $199 one time fee for the 'Pro Plan' to expedite my LLC creation with the State of North Carolina in addition to the pass through charges of $128 the State charges.
The initial setup did not go smoothly and they charged me the above fees before they provided me with my Federal EIN but not before I'm receiving voice mails from Zen Business stating they need me to contact them to 'review' my information.

This smelled of a sales call and I was correct in that assumption. My text message back to the sales person is that I'm in no mood to be upsold in additional services until Zen Business completes their initial contract obligation and provide me my EIN.
Finally, after threatening Zen Business Support with disputing the above charges with my credit card, they finally provided me my EIN the next day.
At this point I'm saying good riddance and made a mental note never to do business with them again, I'm getting emails from them about an upcoming $199 fee. I sent multiple emails to their support inbox stating that I've already paid them the one time $199 fee and that I've locked my card. They made multiple attempts to post the 2nd $199 charge and emailed them again to tell them the card is locked and I will not be paying them an additional $199.

There was no response other than their continued attempts to charge my credit card at least 2-3 times a day. I know because of the declined charge notifications I was receiving from Capital one.
My big mistake was contacting Capital One and that I had the misfortune of speaking with an inexperienced rep (I was so happy she was U.S based I assumed she knew what she was talking about) She recommended I cancel this card and have a new card re-issued and that will prevent them from attempting to charge the card as the card number would change. This makes perfect sense but that's not the way it works. What did happen is the minute the new card number was issued, the charge followed to the new card and posted even before I received or activated the card.
I opened up a dispute with Capital One about this which I ultimately lost because I missed some small disclaimer indicating that I signed up for an annual $199 fee for Zen Business to be my 'Authorized Agent'.

Upon reviewing my LLC documentation, they were indeed my authorized agent. Me being new to this, I'm asking 'What is an authorized agent and what exactly do they do that's worth $199/year?'
An authorized agent is a 3rd party that will forward any legal papers and forward them to you should someone want to sue you. That's it! Can I be my own authorized agent and cut them out?

Of course I can so I did in fact pay a $7 change fee with the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State to remove Zen Business as my authorized agent and change it to my LLC.
I then logged on to Zen Business and canceled my subscription less than 60 days after all this initiated and their response was that they will not continue to bill me the $199 fee to do absolutely nothing (they didn't say that of course) and that I should make other arrangements starting August 2025.
First of all, if someone is going to sue me, sue me for what?

I'm still in the process of setting up my business and haven't generated any revenue. Additionally, the point of establishing an LLC (Limited Liability Company is so that any litigator cannot come after your personal assets.
I have seen other reviews for unsuspecting people who were swindled by these bogus charge which is nothing but a money grab and not provide you any actual benefit so my advise is to proceed with caution if you are considering doing business with them.
Next time I'll work with Legal Zoom as there is no doubt that their fees are clearly disclosed.
On to the BBB website and any other consumer complaint board I can think of such as Google, Yelp and Trust Pilot.

Zen Business support has mad disingenuous attempts to resolve the issue by making ridiculous requests which have nothing to do with my dispute such as 'Please provide me your bank statement' or 'we need to check with our bank' I have asked several times for clarification and explained that I have since canceled my credit card with Capital One after 15 years due to this dispute not being settled in my favor which is a separate issue and to issue a refund check to the address I provided. I have attached receipts as well as documentation with the NC Department of the Secretary of State showing that I did submit 2 separate requests to remove Zen Business as my 'Agent of Record' for 2024 in addition to cancel the reoccurring the annual billing which I never wanted to begin with for them to charge exorbitant fees in exchange for essentially 0 value other than the privilege of having my business address listed in their database.

I am done trying to communicate with them and can only suggest to anyone reading this review to stay as far away from them as possible. I will proceed with posting this review on every other platform I mentioned in my initial complaint.

First of all, Im pissed right now. Today is the first day Ive been able to send an invoice since I signed up for zen business due to your page not being available for technical reason.

Then, today as Im typing up the damn invoice the page would just automatically refresh on me as Im almost done with the invoice, then, poof gone. Had to start all over AT LEAST 10 times in order to type fast enough for me to send and save it! Its been almost a month!, since I purchased and signed up with Zen business and the service has been nothing but terrible. Im not trying to pay for a service that is unavailable to me to use.

And I talked to a representative who told me Zen business would email me when it was up and running again, guess what?, never got an email! Im usually the nicest most humble guy, but you mess around with me not being able to get paid cause I cant send out an invoice and then the screen refresh thing testing my nerves?
I want to continue with zen business since everything is already situated (except the most important part) , but I need answers and I want reimbursed for the month I couldnt use the product for, its what?, 30$ a month.
Thank you kindly for your reply.

Im hoping to get some answers. -Matthew-Miller-