I think Gerard hit the nail on the head, at least on the legality. There's nothing to stop any Californian from *using* RON services, as long as the notary is located in another state. As for why Staples would bother advertising something that the customer can do from their home vs. something that would bring them into the store, I can only guess:
First, Rengel's comment about lots of the people in that area not being computer savvy could be part of it. If the store has PCs (or other devices) that can be used to access RON services, there's at least potentially someone there to walk the customer through the process.
Second guess (and most likely, IMO), would be if Staples has an agreement with Notarize. Staples could provide a link that sends customers to the Notarize website via their own portal, so any business referred is tracked - and they get a cut. If this is so, we could also see stores advertising to customers in-store via handouts given when they make other purchases, etc., etc... Sadly, I believe we're likely to see more and more of these types of arrangements.
|