Signing Up...Almost

While I made the decision to sign up as an Independent Associate of Pre-Paid Legal a couple of weeks ago, I've been busy with work projects and have been waiting for a few things before I proceeded.

So I went to Mark's Pre-Paid Legal website and had to figure out what to do next. There are links on the right hand side of the page to:

"Family Legal Service Plans
Business Opportunity
Identity Theft Shield
Legal Forms iPlan
Insurance & Financial Professionals"

These pages provide additional info about Pre-Paid Legal and their services. Yet, I was looking to sign up, not get any additional info at this stage.

Down near the bottom of the page on the left hand side are two links:
"Become an Independent Sales Associate" and "Enroll Now", the latter of which is for enrolling as a member.

I clicked on the link for becoming an Independent Associate, filled out a couple of pages of forms (which I'll cover in later posts), and was greeted with a message indicating that my application was already in the system. This is the message I had received previously and so I was confused as to why I was getting it now, as I had attributed it to using FireFox instead of Internet Explorer. A phone number for Marketing Services was provided (580-436-7424) and I called up to try and figure out what was going on. I talked to a Ann Marie, who was very helpful and told me that I had gotten that particular message because I had previously signed up as an Independent Associate in 2002.

Huh? I knew that my mom had signed up back then, but couldn't recall my having done so, too. Turns out that I hadn't signed up for a membership plan and now I vaguely remember $15 being deducted from my bank account or something like that. Unfortunately, in order to reinstate my Independent Associate status I would have to fill out a hard copy form and mail it in. And while I could sign up for a Membership online, Ann Marie suggested sending both applications in at the same time.

So, later in the day I dropped by my mom's house and picked up a couple of forms (with lots of boxes to fill in) and brought them home. I'll fill them out and mail them in (when's the last time I used a postage stamp?) and once they arrive at Pre-Paid Legal it will take up to 48 hours to process them.