Customer ReviewsforAvalara Inc

My experience with Avalara is not a good one. Luckily, I am only out $349 bucks. I have plenty of documentation regarding what my experience has been like. I was told by many people in the company my refund is being issued and its been over 9 months, still no refund. I had my bank pull the charge back after many months, only to have Avalara recharge the card. I have had multiple case/ticket numbers and I have called their Support line at ************ only to get a recording that no one is available to help. At this point, all I want is my $349 back because they were not able to do the work I paid them to do. To take money and not do the work is wrong by any person or company. To lead customers to believe you will be issuing them a refund, when you are not is wrong. Because of the amount of documentation I do have and the exhausted hours I have put into this just to try to get the $349 back, I am at my **** end. Avalara told me back in July of 2023 they would refund me, and I am *********** my money back!!!! My case numbers are the following ******** and ********. The most recent is ********. My last most recent call was yesterday and no one can tell me why the refund has not been issued, but they can all tell me, yes, I am definitely supposed to get the refund. Someone was supposed to email me yesterday with an update and Im still waiting on that email. I am upset that Avalara has severed our relationship because I would have loved to been able to use them for our company needs. You must do better Avalara.

Hi *******, thank you for bringing this 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 incorrect charge and we understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting. Our team has submitted a refund to your account. Please follow up with the Customer Excellence team directly for updates regarding this credit. 

I bought the license guide in January. I never got a receipt and I've requested it 4 times, both by phone and emails that I was provided. In addition, I contacted by phone and two different emails to get a clarification if one of the forms was something they could do, or even if I needed it. I kept getting the runaround about what department and email address to use. I just want to get a receipt for my purchase!I don't even care about the form any more. I wouldn't trust them to do it or any other forms at this point.

Hi ****, thank you for bringing this to ** and giving us the opportunity to help. We apologize for the frustration in trying to acquire your receipt. After receiving your review, we had our team jump in to assist and we understand you were sent the copy of your receipt on February 14. Please reach out to the team directly for any follow up questions regarding your receipt.

This has to be the worst company I have ever done business with. I wish I could put negative stars. This has to be a SCAM. They were so quick to take my $499 but after they could not provide the service the way I wanted they are taking months to refund my money. They did not provide the service, they did not do the work because the account manager didn't seem like he knew what he was talking about so I canceled and requested a refund. I called them multiple times and sent multiple emails only to be told the same thing that they would provide an update to the financial **** after which I am left in the dark with no update as to what is going on. I even reached out to my so-called account managers and I got no response. This is a disgrace and I would not recommend this company.

****, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us and bring it to our attention. We have our team looking into your account and working towards a solution. You should expect to be contacted with an update soon.

We had talked to the Avalara team about helping us with VAT taxes. We are a small business (artists) and we have a small handful of collectors overseas. We sell less than $300 a year to ******, however because ** has stupid VAT laws we needed to register with ** to sell to **. We heard Avalara could help. After our meeting they quoted us a service fee of $2000 a year and we said no. A year later I received an invoice even though we never agreed to anything and we don't use their service. After several days of back and forth, they finally terminated the false contract... or so I thought. A year went by and I just received an email telling me that I ow them money. This company is predatory. I am currently fighting them on this charge. They don't have any billing info and my address is incorrect because (like I said before) I never signed up for anything with them. However, they keep sending me invoices via email.

******, thank you for taking the time to bring this to us. We apologize for the billing frustrations youve described and we understand how unexpected invoices would be upsetting. We were able to locate your account and refund the invoice so that you will no longer be billed. We wish you and your business the best in the future.

TOTAL SCAM!!! We used Avalara to help with getting a Transaction Privilege Tax License for a new business we would be opening. I thought by paying $349 I would be getting a tangible license at the end of the process. After 3 weeks I received an email with a form filled out with the information I provided stating sign and mail to the appropriate address. Oh yeah I had to pay another $62.00 for the license. Before I go any further, the only reason I used Avalara was Legal Zoom recommends them on their website and we used them to register our business.After doing further research the form is free on a website which I could have fill out myself and sent it in. It would have only cost $62.00. I emailed Avalara and requested a refund which I was denied. I asked for a breakdown of the charges and I never received a reply. I am disputing it with my credit card company. I would never recommend this company for anything business related.

Hi ****, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologize if pricing expectations were not clearly expressed and we understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting. Wed like to learn more about your experience to avoid any recurrences, as well as provide you with an explanation of the charges. Please reach out to us at *************************************** to continue this conversation. 

We've used Avalara for a few years and had nothing but problems. Billing is a NIGHTMARE. Every year I have billing issues. Trying to find someone to help is frustrating. Year after year they would bill me incorrectly, for returns and usage. The most recent hiccup is payments were remitted late incurring penalties and interest. They're telling me it's because the filing frequency was different, yet the state says that isn't the case at all.We once went months without collecting sales tax because the integration wasn't working and no one would take ownership. Finally, after being the squeaky wheel I managed to get someone who would take control and worked to get it resolved. IT still took another month or so.I have a feeling I will end up just having to pay the penalties as with each passing day interest is adding up.AVOID I'm moving to another company that costs more just to get away from Avalara. I've had as much as I can take in the 5 years we've used them.

***, thank you for bringing these issues to our attention. While we understand the issue may have already been resolved, we want to apologize for the frustration and the time in which it took to get a solution. We want to ensure you don't run into any unexpected costs so we've escalated your concerns internally and you should expect to be contacted soon with continued support.

Avalara over-promisED and under-deliveVS!The sales person made it sound like onboarding was easy-************ would handle everything but that's just not the case. They provided the most basic support needed to onboard their software (quite literally a spreadsheet of steps to take) and when things went wrong they said the issue was "was part of YOUR set-up." In other words, it was our fault but inevitably required a software engineer to resolve. The only training we received was on how to use their tax research database but they provided that so early in the process that by time we went live I couldn't recall how to use it. I requested new training but never got it. They won't provide you with any tax advice. They'll refer you to the tax research database. Someone wrote something to the effect "they change account managers like gloves" and that's true in our case. And our case managerS have been useless in most situations & either referred me to the tax research database or instructed me to open a "case."And you better understand the tax requirements in any SST states you begin reporting in because they're not going to provide you with any help. And understand that they will try to get you to sign up because THEY get a discount for every state they file an SST return. I'll give you an example, in one particular SST state once we started filing tax returns we found out we needed to start filing a flat-rate "delivery" tax return as well - a separate tax return Avalara did not tell us about but was happy to begin filing for us (for an additional fee). If you employee Avalara for tax reporting just understand that all they want to do is tap into your accounting system and consolidate your numbers so they can report your returns. Do NOT expect them to provide you any level of support other than the very basic needed and do NOT count on them to be tax experts - they are not tax exports, they are tax software experts capable of automating returns.

Hi ********, thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to us. We apologize for the frustration you've experienced with getting the software set up. We aim to provide the best support possible, and the concerns you've described here are not what we want. We'd like the opportunity to provide a better experience, please contact us at *************************************** so we can begin working towards a resolution.

The worst customer service! They change account managers like gloves. Noone knows what is happening with the account, impossible to get in touch with anyone in customer service. We have a case open for a month! Still not resolved! Frustrating! Waste of time and money!

*****, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience using Avalara. We strive to offer the best service possible and the frustrations youve described are not what we want. We've escalated your concerns internally and you should expect to be contacted soon.

I signed up for the business license service. It was advertised as less than **** days. It's now being estimated that it will take almost 20 days (possibly more)! Because of this, I will likely have to file for the licenses myself, and will need to know the status of each license. However, they have REALLY terrible customer service: I've called close to 15 times (as well as sent chat messages and emails) and they only answered once (it was their sales ***** of course). They ended up giving me the same number I'd been calling before (and getting no response even though I left messages). The cost of the services is $499. I uploaded my information 11 days ago and have no idea as to the progress of each license. This is an issue because I will now have to apply for some of them on my own, due to critical business time constraints, and I have no idea which ones they many have already submitted on my behalf (if any). Stay away from this service. Even if you get a refund, you will have already wasted one of your most valuable resources as a business...time.

*****, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We strive to offer the best service possible for our customers and the frustrations youve described are not what we want. Please reach out to us at *************************************** so we can provide expedited support.

Save yourself money and aggravation! The onboarding was a nightmare and never setup correctly. Support is a joke, 1st contact is clueless on basics and will escalate.which means more waiting. Next level is slightly better but will need to escalate to a developer..more waiting. **************** was down right rude. There are other solutions out there, please do your research!

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Were sorry to read youve experienced challenges in the implementation process, we understand its been frustrating, and wed like to address your concerns. Please reach out to us at *************************************** so we can learn more about your experience and work towards a solution for you.