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Website charging Floridians ‘crazy service fees' to renew vehicle registrations

A 77-year-old St. Augustine woman said she was ripped off while trying to renew her vehicle registration.

Judy Stupalsky is not the only Floridian who claimed they were duped by a website that charges extra fees that drivers don’t really need to pay to renew their tags.

Stupalsky got a notice in the mail from the St. Johns County Tax Collector saying it was time to renew her registration. The notice said she could pay online at www.sjctax.us.

When she typed that website into Google, eTags.com was the first website to come up.

Stupalsky clicked on the link and wound up paying $106 for a two-year vehicle registration that should have cost about $70.

“Obviously, what they were charging me was way too much,” said Stupalsky.

What Stupalsky didn’t realize at the time is that eTags.com is not affiliated in any way with the Florida DMV or county tax collectors.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office confirmed it has an active consumer protection investigation into eTags.com.

Stupalsky and many other Floridians got charged what Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles spokesperson Beth Frady called “crazy service fees.”

Frady said eTags.com charges fees that the state doesn’t require for the same transaction.

Frady said eTags misleads customers who are in a hurry and don’t realize they’re on the wrong website.

“I think they’re scammers. In my opinion, that’s the way a scammer would do things. They would lead you to believe it was one thing and then sock you with all these fees,” said Stupalsky.

Action News Jax called eTags.com’s customer service line to get the company’s side of the story. After spending 10 minutes on hold, a customer service representative asked us to email its legal department.

The website’s legal department has not responded.

“I do have my registration and my little decal. But it shouldn’t have cost me that much to get it,” said Stupalsky.

Frady said any Florida customers who want to renew online can use www.GoRenew.com or download the MyFlorida app.