Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Avalara Inc's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Avalara Inc

  255 S King St Ste 1200 Seattle, WA 98104-3317

  
• 

  Avalara Inc

  6465 Greenwood Plaza Blvd Ste 200 Centennial, CO 80111-4910

  
• 

  Avalara, Inc.

  512 S Mangum St STE 100 Durham, NC 27701

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/30/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. The company has refunded the transaction charges and is helping us find a work-around to the way transactions will be charged in the future. Special thanks to ****** for her help in getting this sorted out.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** Streetsrovides absolutely no services on our behalf related to those transactions.We did not know this until our credit card on file began getting automatically charged for the 3rd-party transactions without our knowledge or consent.We've now been charged $8,408.96 in transaction charges for processing fewer than 150 transactions through our website. We were also charged an additional $1,151.14 in upgrade fees when our plan was automatically upgraded to a higher-volume plan.In addition, once we exceeded ****** transactions, Avalara went from charging us $0.23 per transaction to $1.06 per transaction, which I had no knowledge of and no record of agreeing to.I have reached out to Avalara repeatedly for their help in resolving this and they insist my case is resolved without providing any answers. I have specifically asked for a copy of our pricing agreement (because I never received one and there is no information available via our account online), but have received no response.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/07/2023

  Mr. *******,
  

  Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and bring it to our attention.
  

  Upon receiving your BBB complaint, we researched your account and spoke with your account management team, who has been in direct communication with you. We understand that you were charged AvaTax transaction fees for transactions that you imported from your third-party marketplace sales,which also resulted in usage upgrades, all of which was unexpected. We apologize if pricing and expectations were not clearly set, and recognize how this would be frustrating.
  

  Your account management team is working with you directly for a refund of AvaTax usage and upgrade charges, as well as a go-forward plan for your account. Please continue to work with them, as well as our Customer Excellence team, who will be following up with you directly by early next week.They are in the best position to assist you.
  

  We strive to offer the best service possible for our customers and the billing frustrations youve experienced are not what we want.We are committed to working through this with you, and hope to continue to support your business moving forward.

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/29/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The check has been sent and received, this complaint needs no further action. Thank you!veral times and each time they say accounting will be reviewing it "soon". We're going on three months of them holding my money and I just want the refund I am supposed to receive.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/11/2023

  ****, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We understand that a replacement refund check was sent, though we apologize that our team did not properly communicate this to you prior to the complaint submission. Thank you for confirming that youve now received the refund check. We wish you and your business the best in the future.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/22/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We purchased a subscription with Avalara to manage our VAT matters last year and shortly thereafter discovered that we dont need the services. I contacted them to cancel all subscriptions and pay off any remaining balance per the contract and received confirmation from their support that all subscriptions had been canceled. They denied my request to pay off the remaining balance throughout the subscription term and insisted that the payments must be made monthly until the subscription period is ended. We have now been invoiced for several months beyond the subscription term and are being harassed by their accounts receivable department which is demanding payment for monthly invoices extending past the subscription term. I tried numerous times to resolve the issue by replying to their accounts receivable ******* asking for the contract and explaining that the service period should have expired by now and there should not be any remaining balances to be paid. However, they simply kept replying in the same email thread demanding payment without providing any of the information I requested or acknowledging having received my replies for that matter. I sent at least 3 reply emails regarding this issue that were not acknowledged to this day. I am demanding that the emails stop and any unresolved balances be cleared as the services have been canceled formally long ago. This company does not help you and it has been a nightmare from the very beginning. I strongly discourage anyone from entering a contract with them.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/01/2023

  ***********, thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention. We strive to offer the best service possible for our customers and the billing frustrations youve described are not what we want. We apologize for the error that took place in your cancellation and we understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting. Following your complaint, our team worked to identify the error and immediately canceled the invoices, as well as began the case to issue a refund for any funds incorrectly debited. To complete this process, please follow the instructions sent to by our collections team. Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/16/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

   
  Complaint: 20882504
  
  I am rejecting this response because no solution has been provided, Avalara is still running some internal investigation.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Regis Litrem Auto-upgrade to Overage is not possible outside a renewal About the point 1., the usage information in the portal are the only information available to us, if we can't rely on them we have no possibility of control, today our usage for the period is ******* documents still less than *******. About the point 2., it's incorrect, the Avalara Services Terms and conditions said that "At any time prior to exceeding the applicable usage tier, Customer may change the selected option." For these reasons, we're asking the auto-upgrade to be voided and our option changed from auto-upgrade to overage.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/27/2023

  *****, thank you for your patience as weve worked to identify the issues youve described here. Following your complaint, a Customer Excellence team reached out with an update that our engineers identified the issue on why we're seeing higher usage and are working to fix it. With respect to the holidays causing some delay last week, our team remains committed to continuing to support you and swiftly resolve these concerns. Please continue to follow up with the Customer Excellence manager directly for updates. 

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/07/2023

  *****, thank you for your patience as our team has worked to resolve this matter. As you were notified by our team, we had our reports updated and corrected to confirm that the usage transactions we currently see on your account is now correct. Our team also provided an estimate for the end usage you should expect to see by the 12/23/23 renewal. Our team is now working to issue a refund for the auto-upgrade cost, and will be sending over a downgrade that will need to be signed. Please follow up with the team directly so we can complete this process.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/12/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Regis Litre

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/07/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Avalara refuses to answer emails regarding why I'm billed after cancelling. Refuse to answer complaint filed with the BBB/Better Business Bureau. Refuse to answer a phone call, have been hold for over 2 hours with not 1 word from a human, with the phone number provided to me.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/15/2023

  Hi *****, thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention. We understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting, and so our team looked into the issue upon receiving your complaint before contacting you with an update. As mentioned by our Customer Excellence manager, it appears you signed up for a free trial in 2021 via online self-service. As outlined in the free trial contract, this service then rolled into a paid subscription in April 2023. At that time, our accounting department made multiple attempts at contacting you regarding this balance. There is no record of support case or cancellation that indicates your intention of stopping the service, but our team has decided in good faith to cancel the invoices so that you will no longer be responsible for the balance. Please follow up with the Customer Excellence manager directly with concerns or questions regarding this update. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/15/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/29/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Avalara has issued a credit for 30K just waiting for all the paperwork to process and the prior bill to be taken to zero.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/09/2023

  Hello ****, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting and we sincerely apologize for the sudden change when we migrated from TTR to ATR. Following your complaint, a member of our team reached out in hopes of finding a better solution for you, but we understand youve decided to cancel. Additionally, our team has agreed to issue a concession for the $30,000. Please continue to work with the Customer Excellence Manager directly to finalize the cancellation and for any questions regarding the concession.
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/30/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/07/2023

  *******, thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention. We understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting, and we apologize for the frustrations you experienced in attempting to cancel. It appears there were issues with the online cancellation form which caused a delay in us getting the request, but we have now submitted the request to concede all outstanding invoices in your account. We appreciate your patience as we worked to resolve these concerns and we wish your business the best in the future.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/25/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

   
  Complaint: 20521671
  
  I am rejecting this response because: we never received any check. The account is b&t events under ****************** name. The email is *************************

  Our mailing address is ***********************************************************

  Can you please issue another check?

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/28/2023

  ********, thank you for reaching out and giving us the opportunity to assist. In reviewing your complaint, we searched our records and were not able to find an account that is linked to the contact information you provided here. We did notice you may have indicated your company name as B&T Event Rentals'' in a lead form that was submitted on the same day as this complaint, which is an account we have access to. Unfortunately, because we cannot validate you as a verified contact to that account, we cannot share any identifiable details to the matter. However, we can confirm that the account was canceled and refunded in October of 2022 at the request of the account owner. The $399.00 refund check was issued and mailed on 10/28/2022 to the address on file with the account. If you are referencing a different account, please provide the correct details so that we can properly assist. Otherwise, we wish you and your business the best in the future.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/06/2023

  Hi- this is the correct business. Its under ************************** my partners email. No check was ever received. If you did actually send a check you can look back and see it was never cashed. Please issue a new one to our new address **********************************************************

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/11/2023

  Thank you for providing these details for us. We have confirmed that a replacement refund check for $399.00 was issued and mailed by our accounts payable team on 9/8/2023 to the address you provided. Please allow time for mailing. Thank you and we wish your business the best!

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/15/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have all the email communications that I had between myself and Avalara here is the last one that I sent ugh and just complete the questionnaire on my own out of frustration. On 6/3 received an email that my registration was complete found out later by that state it wasn't and was incorrect. on 6/29 I was billed $520.59 did not know why called Avalara and was told they couldn't tell me only the billing department could do that and they don't communicate by phone only by email but they would open a ticket for me. On 7/4 sent and email regarding my disappointment in customer service and never received the promised call back in ***** hours and needed to speak with someone. 7/6 2 days later I received a response to open a ticket at this point I was beyond frustrated the time I had spent calling, waiting on hold sending emails and never receiving any help was unacceptable paid so far $1115.78 so I called to cancel no one tried to help to keep my business they basically canceled and after that cancellation I received a bill for $1286.32 for a remainder of subscription until 3/ *****

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/25/2023

  *******, thank you for bringing this to our attention and giving us the opportunity to assist. We aim to provide the best support, and we are sorry to read you experienced otherwise. We sincerely apologize for the frustration in trying to get your concerns addressed. After receiving your complaint, a member of our Customer Excellence team reached out to provide support. We understand from your conversation with them that you requested credit for the final invoice. Our team has since submitted the refund request for $1,286.32 which is currently pending internal approval. Please follow up with the Customer Excellence Manager directly with further questions regarding this credit.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/30/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/09/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

   
  Complaint: 20447817
  
  I am rejecting this response because this is an unsatisfactory answer.  You can use whatever "excuse" you want but the bottom line is that we SHOULD NOT have been billed while your team was "figuring out" the accounting issue from 2020.  The simple fact that the issue existed in the first place was because your team did not do what they said they would in the first place way back in 2020.  That is a testament to the poor and unprofessional way your business is run.  
  

  NOW instead of working with a customer to create a satisfactory result that benefits both of us (as you promised me on the phone, which was absolutely a lie), you are instead providing me another "excuse" and focused on the fact that there is a balance due for services that were never received, rather than focusing on how to work with us and make this a positive outcome.  The way this case has been handled is an example of the culture at Avalara and the failure therein.  It is apparent that the culture is about "making money" more than "customer service" and I sincerely hope to see that Avalara fails and goes bankrupt - you will reap what you so and running your business in this unprofessional manner (focused on profits instead of people) will eventually catch up.  
  

  My hope for you personally is that you "figure it out" and "run far away" before the company implodes on itself.

  I should have know that you were not able to actually provide anything ********************* when you reached out last week.
  I put my faith in a process that did not exist instead of trusting the complaints and failures to resolve them that were already on the BBB website.

  I will as i said focus my efforts on making sure that EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS owner I know understands how you run your company and encourage them not to do business with you.
  Case in point, I had a conversation yesterday with a customer who recently signed up with you and I told them I would let them know how this goes.  I'm sure after I circle back, you will be losing TWO customers due to your inability to pull your head out of your **** and resolve an issue.

   

  As I said, nothing against you personally, I just hope you figure out that you are on a sinking ship sooner than later.

  As for the business at Avalara - I sincerely hope it fails!
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************************

  in. They try to "automate" everything so customer service is gone, as is support. It took until 4/17/23 to actually get a login to the portal but we received invoices anyway.When I reached out after the 5/4 invoice came stating "Why are we being billed? We have not even started using the service?". No reply. I followed up after the 6/3 invoice and again did not receive any reply. I was told by"*********************" (who is their only accounting person, apparently) that "you get billed from the day you sign up, regardless if you use the service". I again followed up on 6/7, 6/13, and 6/29 - with NO RESPONSE. I finally received a response on 7/6 indicating that I should "contact support" if I wasn't satisfied. I filed a support ticket that day, but received no response. I emailed on 7/21 asking for a phone call so we could discuss the situation and come up with a resolution (as I wanted to do business) and received a reply on 7/26. Today 8/9, they canceled my account. Crooks!

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/14/2023

  *****, thank you for giving us an opportunity to clarify the series of events. As mentioned in your complaint, we sold our service to you in February 2023 at a discounted rate and with waived activation fees. The initial approval delay youve cited here was caused by the overdue invoices associated with your account from 2020 when you originally signed up for our services and were canceled due to nonpayment. Understanding it was years ago, our team decided to waive the past due invoices in order to reactivate your account, though it took a round of approvals as it was an uncustomary decision. 
  
  Our implementation team contacted you on April 17 asking when youd like to begin and again on April 27 asking if you were ready to begin. We understand from your responses that you were experiencing a delay due to issues with your ERP ConnectWise, and so you were not yet ready for us to activate your services. However, as outlined in your signed agreement, your monthly billing begins at the start of your agreement and is not based on usage. Nevertheless, our team remained ready to support whenever you decided you were ready to begin implementation.

  We recognize that you attempted to contact our finance department on May 4 requesting an explanation for your invoice, and we apologize for the delay in response you experienced. Once our finance team did respond on June 6, they explained the billing terms and sent a copy of the agreement. We understand you were dissatisfied with the response and continued to demand further explanation from our finance team on June 7, June 13, and June 29 to which we sent additional responses on June 29 with more details of the same explanation we had previously issued. It was our understanding that despite your previous agreement to a monthly payment, you did not want to pay for a service you were not yet using, and so on July 6 our finance team directed you to contact support by providing a direct phone number and link to create a support case so that the appropriate team could assist you with your implementation if you were now ready. Though our finance department provided these resources and repeatedly explained they were unable to assist in subscription matters, you continued to insist they join a call. It was not until July 21 that we received a support case that our team began working. Additionally on July 21, our finance team once again received a request for phone conversation to which they obliged and provided you with their direct contact number within the same day. On July 26, Avalara support emailed you with an official case number and update. Recognizing this case was pending further internal review, our finance team also notified you on July 26 that they had in good faith extended the timeline for cancellation/suspension of your account so that the support case would not automatically close due to account cancellation, but your overdue payments were needed by August 4 to maintain the account in active status. We issued a last attempt courtesy reminder on August 9 to which you responded with a request for cancellation. Our team promptly closed the account for nonpayment within the same day.
  
  We are sorry that you were not able to get your services connected in a timely manner, despite our teams best efforts to support. We simply cannot continue to spend time and resources on an unpaid account. However, we wish you and your business the best in the future.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/24/2023

  So essentially "screw you?"

  My "case" now shows as "resolved" and I am unable to file a review so others know to stay far away from this company.
  That is a pretty sad way to do business, even for the BBB!