I received a renewal notice for my fictitious business name. At first glance it appeared to be from the government and had a California Business and Professionals Code and even a bar code at the bottom. Looked very official. The renewal form had all my business information already pre-filled in and for corrections if needed. My file date wasn’t until July but they were asking me to file by 2-1-10. I thought this a little strange, they have never in the past sent a renewal and so long as you file before it expires there has never been a problem. I was not surprised that fees had more than tripled, since our State/County is in such financial ruin at this moment, I figured they were trying to get extra money from businesses on any renewal of any kind and they were more than happy to remind you it was coming up and you owed it. It even said “Renew Your Fictitious Name with the Kern County Recorder Now”. However in reading the small fine print this letter was not sent from a government agency, but from a service company by the name of Fictitious Business Name Renewal Center. They were kind enough to mention in the small print that this service has not been approved or endorsed by any government agency. The fee for this service is not required to be paid by or to any government agency. They also mention it was not a bill, but a solicitation. Don’t ask me what a solicitation is, for it is not in any of my dictionaries. My guess is they meant solicitation. My warning to all of you is Stop, read the small print And listen to that little voice that tells you something isn’t right. I did and it saved us a lot of money and future headaches.

Paula Walke

Onyx