They are the worst. Signed me up, power of attorney...took my money out of the bank to pay 4Q and did not pay it. I get a letter. Now they say it's 6-8 weeks to get back to me? I am appalled they are still in business DO NOT SIGN UP. I wish I saw all the reviews before I did. read more

I hired Avalara (Reference Project ID# PR-075204) for tax compliance and backfilling services, and the experience has been completely unacceptable. Despite paying over $3,500 upfront, they failed to render the agreed-upon services. They were unable to import my transaction data properly and eventually told me I would need to manually input thousands of line items myself, which defeats the purpose of paying for automation. In the 45 days I waited for them to figure it out, they filed only one tax return (Washington), which was done incorrectly, causing my business to accrue tax penalties. I eventually had to hire a different company, who was able to complete the exact same work in 12 hours that Avalara couldn't finish in 45 days. I formally requested a refund on December 9, 2025. It has been weeks, and their support team has completely stopped responding to my emails. They have taken my money, wasted my time, caused me legal tax penalties, and are now ghosting me regarding my refund. I strongly advise other business owners to look elsewhere. read more

Horrible company, I wish I would have read these reviews before engaging this entity. It is an archaic system with CSR and management who all only care about extracting as much money they can from you. Of course, now I see the company was acquired by private equity. That explains a lot. read more

Extremely disappointing experience with Avalara!! Despite clear requests made well before renewal, Avalara failed to process the agreed changes due to their own acknowledged internal error and still invoiced us incorrectly. Even after admitting the mistake was on their side, they refused to provide a solution. This lack of accountability is unacceptable. read more

Do not believe that they care or will follow up in a helpful manner. They only respond publicly to save face. We changed our login information so there's no way for them to pay the taxes on our behalf. The $15,913.79 they deducted from our account is nowhere to be found. Our new provider confirmed that the tax paperwork was filed but funds never paid. I have to front the cost for their mistake. Avoid this company completely read more

I signed up with Avalara at the end of 2025 for tax compliance and backfilling services, and the setup was a mess! My first account rep went on leave and i had to talk with a new rep (Shelly Machacek). The first rep (Judi Gee) said setup was usually $200, but it would be waived...the second rep said they don't do that, and I needed to show proof. And setup was now $299. They told be everything would be handled and was automated for State, City and HOT taxes. After I signed up, I tried to login and kept getting error messages the website. I did a zoom call with tech support, they could not fix it, then "escalated" a ticket, which I never heard back from. The rep also got on a zoom call with me and could not fix the error. We did all the things, cleared cookies, tried all browsers, even tried mobile. This took from 12/2/25 to 1/6/25 before I could actually login. Then I sent all the stuff they needed. Assuming all the connections were being done to automate the filings and make payments. In February I emailed the rep asking for a call to make sure everything was setup, and what were next steps. NEVER HEARD BACK. So I tried the contact us....NEVER HEARD BACK. Tried contacting rep and email again in April. NOTHING. Up to this point, no filings have been done, no one has reached out to me. As if today I cancelled the service and have requested a FULL REFUND because they have done NOTHING. Like other reviewers, they have also taken my money, wasted my time, caused me late tax penalties, and now i have to wait for someone to contact me because the person I spoke to on the phone said they needed to escalate the case. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SERVICE!! read more

I am so disappointed in this company. They sold me a service they never did. Signed up, power of attorney signed. Suppose to file Q4 and nothing. Paying my $27 a month. They took out $633 to pay it. Then I get a letter. Unpaid and now interest that goes up every month. I call, I write. 6-8 weeks to get back to me. WTF meanwhile interest is piling up. I'm freaking out. I am calling every day at 7 am to get answers. Day 3 and found this page to vent. Sooooo mad they can still be in business. read more

Overpriced, not great service and they took us for a significant amount they should not have taken in the VDA process. Would never recommend. read more

If you can avoid working with Avalara I strongly recommend finding an alternate solution. Worst company ever to deal with. They were acquired by a Private Equity firm a few years ago and service which was once very good has been driven straight into the ground. Avoid at all costs. read more

RUN No clear explanation as to why no one follows up nor explains why numerous withdraws are taken for your banking account... Actual data from back end shows clac tax totals which are more than half of what Avalara will say to charge you without any explanation? There fees continue to skyrocket in the abyss -zero small business support More like a shell game to extract as much money as possible from your account before you notice -no carry over of calc allotments when conventionally timed 1 month before renewal occurs at a much higher, undisclosed fee... RUN and RUN away FAST read more

Avalara - Here's 2 nearly back to charges for "upgrades" which no one will explain then another $571 due in a month? - Tax Services Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

Dont use avalara! If I could give them 0 stars, I would. Anytime of service is non-existant in the company. Account managers do absolutely nothing. Customer service will respond at some point. Then they will randomly close the case without any resolution. If you reply, a new CS rep will take over and have no clue of the situation. The cycle above repeats. Also be careful, they will sign you up for additional contracts outside of the contract you needed. read more

I tried Avalara for my small business and found it overpriced and confusing, with multiple hidden charges. The service didn't work properly, and support was not helpful -- they were supposed to help me seamlessly transition my Shopify orders into Avalara, but it never happened, and I ended up doing everything manually. That wasn't even the worst part -- Avalara failed to file my taxes twice, leaving me with state penalties. I'm not sure what went wrong or why my returns weren't filed automatically (as they were supposed to be), but the end result was very poor. I received nothing positive from working with this company -- only charges and poor communication. I canceled services back in January 2025 by contacting support and explaining my experience. They apologized but offered no remedies. I was never informed that my account wasn't deactivated or that I needed to take additional steps. I stopped receiving bills from Avalara and couldn't log into my account anymore, so I thought it was the end of the story. But they kept charging me. Recently I discovered they've still been billing me $19/month for a Shopify extractor I never used. No bills, no communication -- just hidden charges buried in Shopify. I've tried contacting them countless times with zero response. Completely unacceptable -- I'm still waiting for my refund. read more

To the Avalara Executive Leadership and Accounts Receivable Department, This correspondence serves as a formal notice of dispute regarding Case #26765117. I am writing to formally contest the outstanding balance of $70,000 currently attributed to my account for services that were never rendered, implemented, or finalized via a mutual meeting of the minds. Chronology of Disputed Events: * Initial Misrepresentation: Over twelve months ago, during the sales discovery phase, a verbal agreement was reached based on the understanding of a standard monthly fee structure. Contrary to these discussions, an invoice for $36,000 was issued. * Failure of Due Diligence: Upon immediate notification of this billing error, your sales representative acknowledged the "miscommunication" and committed to an internal review. This follow-up never occurred. * Constructive Negligence: Despite numerous attempts to resolve this through standard customer service channels, your team has consistently refused to provide contact information for the Accounts Receivable department, effectively blocking any path to a good-faith resolution. * Aggravated Billing: While the initial $36,000 dispute remained unresolved and the software remained zero-percent implemented, Avalara has now issued a second annual invoice, bringing the fraudulent total to $70,000. Notice of Intent: Be advised that I have begun the process of engaging legal counsel to investigate Avalara's billing practices, specifically regarding unjust enrichment and predatory renewal cycles on non-implemented accounts. Unless this matter is resolved and the balance is vacated within [Number, e.g., 5] business days, I am prepared to take the following actions: 1. Litigation: Filing a formal complaint to seek a declaratory judgment voiding any alleged contract. 2. Regulatory Reporting: Filing formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the State Attorney General's office for unfair and deceptive business practices. 3. Public Disclosure: Utilizing all available media and professional industry platforms to detail this experience as a cautionary case study regarding Avalara's ethical standards. I strongly suggest this matter be escalated to a supervisor with the authority to void these invoices immediately. read more

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COST. Reviews talk for themselves. Worst customer service. I had issue with Double billing that has not been resolved. AVOID , you will thank me later. read more

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY - in the beginning they were great to work with, had actual humans you could speak with on the phone if you had an issue, but after they were sold in 2022 things started to go downhill. I have worked with them for almost a decade and have now reached the point that I will be cancelling their service. You can no longer speak with anyone, but call center agents. They failed to report on multiple occasions and state tax jurisdictions began contacting my clients directly to threaten collections. When contacted about help resolving the issue I received only canned email responses saying to allow 6-8 weeks for the issue to be handled via a queue when the state jurisdictions take action after 14 days. Many calls and emails later I still cannot get any person on the phone who can do anything but direct me to the canned email responses. DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY. read more

If I could give zero stars, I would. My experience with Avalara has been nothing short of frustrating and disappointing. I signed up for their services to help manage my business's tax compliance, but instead of making things easier, they made it more stressful. From the start, their customer service was non-existent. I reached out multiple times for help with their platform, only to be ignored or told to open another support case. No one was available to assist me, and my requests for guidance were completely dismissed. How can a company that specializes in tax compliance not have proper customer support? To make matters worse, I purchased an extractor add-on, and despite waiting over 48 hours, I received no response about the activation. When I finally requested to cancel my service and receive a refund, Avalara ignored my request. It seems they are happy to take your money but refuse to provide the service you paid for or even acknowledge cancellation requests. I trusted Avalara to help with my business needs, but instead, they failed to deliver and left me with a useless service that I cannot even use due to their lack of support. As a small business owner and single mom, every dollar counts, and this experience has been a complete waste of time and money. I am now filing formal complaints with the BBB, FTC, and my State Attorney General's Office to report Avalara's deceptive business practices. If you are considering Avalara for tax compliance--RUN in the opposite direction. They will take your money, ignore your requests, and leave you to figure everything out on your own. Absolutely unacceptable! read more

This is a horrible company to work with. They literally charge 10 times what a normal account would do. They also FORCE you to get a connector to make their software work if you are on shopify. The contract is for one year so even if you wanted to cancel their services you are stuck with the fee for a connector. Stay FAR away from this company. Nothing but a scam. would have given zero starts but that was not an option. read more

Do not use this service or software. Setup is an absolute nightmare and their agents that are supposed to be knowledgeable on how this program integrates with other other programs are clueless. They managed to setup this up incorrectly multiple times. They double paid our taxes to the respective agencies as well. When there is an issue that they are responsible for they will not get back to you. read more

Our experience with Avalara Sales Cloud has been extremely disappointing. Their Support team lacks the knowledge to troubleshoot even basic Salesforce mapping issues. From the start, we were told the only way to resolve our issue was to upgrade to a Technical Account Manager--an extra monthly cost--yet this "premium" support is no better than the free package (which isn't saying much). I've had an open case for nearly a year, and their only repeated suggestion is to "upgrade the installed package," which has never resolved the problem. The installed package contains locked-down flows, Apex classes, and process builders that have errors, but cannot be modified by admins. I've escalated to both our Account Manager and Customer Success Manager, only to be sent back to the TAM team, creating a frustrating cycle with no real solutions. If you're looking for a partner who can actually troubleshoot and resolve Salesforce integration issues, look elsewhere. read more

Can't believe it's possible for Avalara to get worse, but I was finally able to get out of my year long contract and they STILL are taking money out of my account post cancellation. And on top of it they're not even filing the returns! Avalara is by far one of the most horrible, unscrupulous, disorganized companies I've ever dealt with. read more

This company prides itself on its deceptive trade practices. I made it very clear I was not renewing and they still charged my credit card and then are continuing to email me about paying more. After repeatedly communicating that I do not want their service they are insistent that I set up a new online account to complete all of their forms to cancel. If there was a rating below 1, they would be the company to receive it. read more

Our company inquired with Avalara and their services one time. I never gave out my personal cell phone number, but yet they have it and keep calling me every day after we told them we're not interested in their services. Starting to feel like harassment. read more

While their system does work. It would be better if their menu system was adequate. The pricing system is not clear and their support is abysmal. read more

I wouldn't recomend this company to my worst enemy. Hired them to do take care of our Nexus state filing. Months in a row the one state, did not sign the return - ended up with hundreds of dollars in penalties from that. The connector broke for the link of data, no auto notice or anyone telling me. Also - SEVERE privacy issues. Outsourced to India, on a call with set up and the background on the zoom blipped and there were three guys standing over the lady looking at our screens. read more

I've never encountered a company with such poor communication and customer support--especially one that claims to specialize in compliance. Avalara used to be reliable, but the experience has deteriorated drastically. We were never notified in advance about payment deadlines. Instead, they send "courtesy" past-due emails after the deadline has already passed--then penalize us with late fees. There's no proactive funding request or invoice sent before the deadline. When asked for clarity, responses are delayed by days or even weeks, and customer service hides behind boilerplate policy language instead of offering real solutions. Even worse, Avalara stopped auto-drafting from our bank account with no clear explanation, then blames us for "missed payments" without ever telling us we needed to manually wire funds. The portal is disorganized and offers no clear path to simply pay what's due. This is not acceptable for a company handling sensitive tax matters. If you're a business owner relying on automation and clarity, look elsewhere. This kind of confusion and lack of accountability can cost you real money. Disappointing and unprofessional. read more

To start, the company overpromised and underperforms consistently. We were promised easy install, hassle free tax compliance, audit help and others and the company has underperformed in each area. Setup was a nightmare. They promise to be your one-stop tax help but provide no real help. They forward you to their help software which only tells you "how" to do something. This company pretends to be a tax professional when they're romancing you but you will find out they are not tax professionals - they are software professionals who know virtually nothing about sales tax and work diligently at blaming the customer for any issues you might run into. And I promise you will have issues and they will blame you. read more

If I could give them zero stars, I would. When we were doing our research calls with Avalara, we were very clear on the systems that we used: Fishbowl Inventory for our order processing and Inventory management, and Quick Books for the financial/ accounting side of the process, including sales tax. Avalara assured us it would be a great match. We unfortunately signed up with them for a 1 year contract. After that we were on endless integration and training calls with a team who had no read world experience on how things work on a user level. No until we got to the end of the 1 year, did we all realize that Avalara would not work with how we are set up with Fishbowl and QB, which Avalara acknowledged. Also, we were not made aware that once established in your accounting system that you cannot reverse it back to how your system once was - long story short you are stuck with them. We attempted to cancel our auto debit to our account, but they said we missed the deadline. After several requests to have them reconsider since it would not work, they kept sending us a copy of our contract, stating that we would need to stay and keep paying for ONE MORE YEAR, even though we would NOT be using their software. So, we were continually debited every month for a product that we did not use. In summary, STAY AWAY from Avalara! They will take your money, give you the run around, and assign someone to you with no experience, who doesn't care about their job, or the customer. Horrible company. read more

Worst Company to deal with you get nowhere, they overcharge you for everything, and no support what so ever. example of a company ran in the ground! unreal!!!! read more

My Avalara subscription ran 3/31/24 - 3/30/25. In January 2025, I started the cancellation process, completed the form through their support website - sent it in - waited for a confirmation response, as their tax service was too expensive for our needs. The renewal charge was $10,724.39. On 2/28/25, I received a confirmation email from Shivangni Verma stating, "We would like to inform you that the services within complete Avalara account cancellation will be terminated on 3/30/25." After receiving the confirmation email, I naturally assumed that when my subscription ran out, we were done. On 4/30/25, I received a renewal invoice via email. Again, I reached out to Avalara customer service - attached the confirmation of account cancellation email to the response to the renewal invoice and stated that this account has been cancelled and that no renewal charge should hit my AMEX credit card and to please confirm account cancellation. I NEVER received a confirming email. On 5/1/25, the renewal amount did NOT hit my AMEX but instead was debited from my general checking account. To say that this is deceptive business practices is an understatement. This company is unbelievable. When you contact their support line, you get the BS statements that they'll create a ticket and send it to the right department and that this is all they can do. I'm in the process now of contacting our legal counsel as well as reporting this company to the BBB as well as the Secretary of State. If I can offer any advice at all, it would be to avoid this company at all costs. Hi Courtney W. - - I have contacted your customer service, your support group, as well as the Avatax support group (this last group I was transferred to from your support department). I have a ticket number - 25816992 - that you, yourself, can review and assist in getting a resolution which can only be the money deposited back into my account plus the applicable daily interest owed on money that was not owed to Avalara, was never yours to begin with, and that you never should have withdrawn. Considering how fast you posted a comment to this negative review, let's see how fast I get MY money returned. read more

0 STARS. This company is a scam. I added this app to my website through Wix, and instantly received an invoice for something they want me to implement. I never signed up or wanted this product that they are trying to charge me for. I have opened tickets and spoke to people for months, always giving me the run around and now telling me they won't cancel the invoice. For something I never even purchased or implemented in any way. Horrible customer service and a scam. If you have a Wix website, DO NOT add this app or this company to your business in any way. It is a huge headache and hassle. read more

Avalara's customer support, and willingness to work with clients is abysmal. The most recent debacle: their own personnel failed to process a request for a change in service level in Dec 23. When they attempted to ACH payment for the previous higher level, it was denied and we followed up with the sales rep. While they attempted to collect the higher amount, sales rep was attempting to clear up the problem. Finally in May 24 it seemed the problem was solved. Then in May 25 we received a severe collection notice. I forwarded all the correspondence from the previous year. A response was received apologizing for the inconvenience. Silly me, today I received a notice that service was suspended - including the entire thread proving that it was their error a year and a half ago. It seems a human never bothered to read any of it. If it wasn't our only integrated option with our ERP I would have dropped them several years ago. read more

ZERO STARS FOR THEIR ZERO SUPPORT!!!!!! Do Not Use this Company , unless you Like Loosing Money. Just recently switched from Sage 50 To QuickBooks. The process alone to try and get avalra to integrate from my old software into my new software was a feat on its own, but after a month of back and forth with their so called support. I am not integrated into my new software. I have now had a double return and payment made for April The only contact for Avalara is an AI Bot that can not answer any questions. Zero Support The Absolute Worst Customer Support. Actually I am writing a Review in hopes that one of them sees it and responds so I can actually get ahold of someone to rectify my account!!!!!!!!! read more

I wish we never signed up to work with Avalara. We signed up a few months ago after speaking with a sales agent. They made it seem like they would take care of all our sales tax needs as an online seller, which was a huge selling point for us as a small business. When our account was activated, we were supposed to be set-up with the Streamlined Sales Tax program. 2 Months into using their service, we still do not have SST set-up and had to pay for single state registrations. Their customer service is terrible. Either they take forever to respond, or you have to speak on the phone with someone who doesn't speak english well, which is concerning especially when the questions concern tax compliance. Also, once the sales person makes the sale, they don't answer any of your questions and connect you with someone else at Avalara that takes 10+ days to respond. We didn't know that we had a customer account manager until about 1.5 months into using the program. They haven't helped at all besides tell us that we have to pay more. Avalara also upped our transaction threshold without telling us or receiving our consent and have sent us a $1000 bill for it. We accidentally purchase a state registration that we won't be using, and they refuse to refund us. Overall, poor customer service, very misleading promises, and a horrible experience that has cost us countless hours and money. They refuse to cancel our services and give us a refund that we feel is 100% justified. Like another reviewer said, they are a great sales company, but terrible at taxes and customer service. They're extremely dismissive. If you're a small business owner, please don't fall into their sales trap! read more

This company is the most unorganized group I have ever worked with. From the start, their client portal didn't work. I repeatedly tried to add a card on file and update my billing information, but it would never update. I repeatedly told my sales contact and his boss that I could not update my info. They said they would get their IT department to look into it, but I never heard back from them, and they never fixed the problem. Then I started getting nasty emails stating that I had a past-due invoice. I'm like, "Are you friggin kidding me? I can't update my card in your portal to friggin pay you!" So then they have their accounting lady call me, and I pay over the phone. After paying, they still could not add my card to my account, and I had had enough. I told them that I was canceling my service as they were not holding up their end of the bargain. I think this is why they try to lock you into a year deal. It's just a scam to try and strong arm you into paying for their shitty service. Now, it has been months since I canceled, and even have an email from one of the managers, telling me my service had been canceled. I am about to sue these people for harassment. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY! You have been warned. read more

Don't contact this company under any circumstances unless you want to be spammed with calls and emails forever. I have told them so many times not to call me, I keep blocking their phone numbers, and they continue to call from different phone numbers. I will probably file a report with the FCC and BBB because of the continued harassment. Also, read their company reviews before you consider their services. Very bad company. read more

I was able to call Avalara and get someone to create an "expedited" ticket for me. Agent was nice and apologized. For 10 days I heard nothing and today I got a short email saying: "Thank you for your patience while our team reviewed your request. Unfortunately, they have advised that there isn't a way to cancel the e-deliveries. We understand this may be disappointing and we sincerely apologize for any additional work this may cause you. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience." I am now going to go spend the day with as many of my employees as I can gather to go one-by-one through our tens of thousands of tax payees to remove their email addresses so that they don't get re-emailed from Avalara. This is not a serious company, DO NOT USE. read more

I cannot recommend Avalara to anyone. If you are considering using their services, please read this review carefully to avoid the nightmare my small business has endured. Avalara provides sales tax compliance software--an essential, time-sensitive service for any business. In 2021, we upgraded to Shopify Plus specifically to use Avalara's Avatax at the recommendation of our CPA. This program promised unlimited transactions for $250/month. Now, Avalara claims this is false, asserting they can charge us per API call. They are changing their billing model midstream, despite having sold us something entirely different. Recently, they emailed us about discontinuing this program in April 2025, but they've already been finding ways to shirk their obligations for over a year. In 2021, Avalara also sold us a Netsuite license, claiming it was necessary to capture wholesale transactions on sales tax reports. We explicitly explained that Shopify orders were imported into Netsuite, but no tax transactions were needed for these orders--only our wholesale orders in Netsuite required reporting. Avalara assured us this was fine. We even paid for custom programming to ensure this integration only triggered actions for our 6-12 monthly wholesale orders. However, it turns out Avalara requires access to all Netsuite records if their software is installed, resulting in charges every time we edit, update, or change a record. This makes the setup they sold us impossible and has led to massive overbilling. Now, Avalara is trying to charge us over $8,000/year for tax compliance in just four states--16 to 53 times more than the tax liability we owe. This staggering overbilling stems from hidden fees, deceptive billing practices, and a shift to charging for every API call without properly disclosing this upfront. Despite notifying them multiple times, they continue to auto-bill our credit card without permission. Customer service is abysmal. We've spent over a year emailing Avalara to resolve billing issues caused by their software and have been ignored for months on end. When they do respond, their replies fail to address the substance of our concerns. Recently, they outsourced customer support to a team in India, further worsening communication. This team has admitted they lack the knowledge to resolve detailed technical issues, yet they act as though they are experts. In July 2023, we disabled the Netsuite license following Avalara's instructions. Despite this, API transactions are still being generated, leading to additional charges. We've repeatedly requested to cancel the Netsuite license entirely but cannot get a response. This month alone, Avalara has billed us $1,477.69 in ridiculous charges. We've documented our issues extensively, sent detailed timelines of Avalara's lack of responses, and asked for help over and over. Instead of addressing their failures, Avalara continues to ignore us, delay, or issue vague acknowledgments without solutions. This company has caused me nothing but pain, frustration, and financial harm. They market themselves as a solution for small businesses but have acted in bad faith at every step. Their pricing is extortionate--far exceeding the value they provide--and they've demonstrated no accountability for their errors. At this point, I believe their practices verge on fraudulent. To add insult to injury, Avalara recently suggested I hire an attorney to escalate my issues further. No small business owner should have to endure this level of mistreatment. Avoid Avalara at all costs. Their billing practices are opaque and predatory, and their customer service is nonexistent in my opinion. This company is a disaster & companies who treat customers like this deserve to go out of business in my opinion. If you value transparency, accountability, or fair pricing, I would not trust Avalara with your tax compliance needs. read more

Horrible employees, horrible service, horrible value for the dollar. Predatory business practices. They lie, mislead, and use any tactic to trap you in the contract. avoid at all costs! There are many significantly less expensive and better option s out there. read more

Should've trusted the one star reviews. Very unimpressed with the company-- they were GREAT at selling the product, we signed on the dotted line. Now none of it works like we were told, it's going to be tens of thousands of dollars to get it to work, AND I can't get ahold of anyone at the company. Thoroughly disappointed. read more

This company is very difficult to work with. The customer service is in India, they do not always understand the questions being asked due to language barrier. Definitely cost savings, but you need to know how sales and use taxes work, because they take no responsibility when things go wrong. Watch your contracts!!!!! Make sure you understand how they calculate your annual bill. They are sneaky and the prices keep going up! read more