Sales Tax Refunds at LuLaRoe
Many of you have bought LuLaRoe from someone. If your sales rep was following the direction of LuLaRoe, you were invoiced for your purchases through Audrey/Bless- LuLaRoe's proprietary software for billing customers. The big issue with Bless, as anyone can tell you- was the improper way it collected sales tax. I reside in Illinois, and the majority of my sales were done out of state. If I am shipping product to a customer outside of my state, I am not required to charge her sales tax. Bless calculated that in automatically. That is the first problem. The second problem is that tax was being calculated based on my location, so even states that had no sales tax for clothing purchases were still wrongfully being charged tax. Retailers that knew this was improper, such as myself, elected to break the rules and invoice via other methods including PayPal and Square. This was a direct violation of the P+P for LuLaRoe. In my mind, as well as the minds of other retailers I've spoken with- it was better to be guilty of breaking a rule with LuLaRoe than breaking the law. And so, I avoided being involved in that at all. Most of my transactions were done outside of Bless- though there were some that had been. I remember being contacted by a few people that were improperly charged tax by the system- and my very enlightening response- "I know that happened. I'm sorry, I have no control over what the system charges you." How can I "own my own business" when I don't have any say over what I charge people? Of course, I tried to rectify the issues as much as I could with my own creativity- offering free shipping the next time, and a promise that I'd simply invoice with PayPal going forward- or even free merchandise credit for the inconvenience. I could control that portion of their experience with me, so I tried to do my best to serve the customer and then I walked away from Bless entirely. I was not unique in that thought process- and many retailers were chastised for refusal to utilize the system- in spite of conflicting information being given about retailers having the ultimate choice in whatever system they chose to use. The requirements Mark outlined about the "whatever system" were so unattainable and laughable that even their own Bless system didn't meet them. In my opinion, it was a crafted response to eek him out of a corner in litigation, but was also very telling to those of us that wanted to be compliant. We weren't dumb enough to just go with the direction they gave without a further, deeper look. I terminated my agreement with LuLaRoe in Feb/March of 2017 and it was due to the demand and threats (yes, threats) from uplines that my contract would be terminated if I did not apply for the merchant agreement they had last-minute dropped on us. I remember (and still have the messages) being told I had until 4/1/17 to convert to the new Bless, run my credit (which I REFUSED to do), and accept the merchant agreement terms or my contract would be terminated. I was told I was being stupid because I was being stubborn and I was giving up a great opportunity with LuLaRoe. It was right then that I didn't want to walk away, I wanted to RUN. The merchant agreement assigns ownership of the funds you collect as payment for your merchandise to LuLaRoe. You swipe or enter a card, payment goes through, and the funds are deposited into a bank account owned by LuLaRoe. Not only was I running my credit and bringing risk unto myself, I was giving legal control of my money to LuLaRoe- the very same company that outlines in their contract that they reserve the right to withhold payments as punishment for violating their policies and procedures document. I was waiting patiently for someone to explain to me how they had any right to decide if they were going to compensate me for the sale of products that I was the rightful owner of, sold legally, and was entitled to collect profits from. No, LuLaRoe- you can not hold my money for me. Not even for a second. No. People were also noting that the "get paid" button would be inaccessible at times in the back office. Essentially, this button was what controlled the movement of your funds from LuLaRoe's bank account to a different account that was linked to the debit cards assigned to everyone. Once those funds were moved to the card, they were outside of LuLaRoe's control. If people couldn't access their money for any amount of time, it raised red flags to me- and it happened frequently enough for me to take note. The whole thing seemed convoluted and beyond accidental to me. Bank accounts are seen as assets. Cash deposits and large balances are assets. It seemed very clear to me that in holding the money from transactions through Bless until reps called it out and onto their debit cards, LuLaRoe could potentially be using that account to show assets that weren't actually theirs- and earning interest on other people's money. It felt wrong to me, and didn't seem accidental in the way this was structured. You can use my money to earn more money for yourself, represent it as your own money for the purpose of building credit, acquiring property, etc- and you could subject it to seizure should the federal government get involved. Any legal issue that involved potentially freezing or confiscating assets meant that my money (no matter how large or small the volume) was not mine, not safe, and it wasn't anything I was willing to risk. This issue, coupled with the sales tax debacle made me feel like I was watching people unwittingly participate in financial crimes. I wanted no part of it. Just a few days ago, I received an email from LuLaRoe advising me that I was improperly charged sales tax by a retailer and a refund in the amount of $2.11 was due to me. First, I've bought a metric ton of LuLa from all across the board, and before my card was compromised, I had no qualms about paying through Bless. I know damn well more than $2.11 was improperly charged to me. But considering the going joke about the $19.90 LuLaRoe still owes me for my damage credits, I'm not going to hold my breath for the rest of my tax. Looking into this email, they tell me that a company called Checkbook.io would send me a follow up email. I thought "Huh. Ok?" and went about my life. In the meantime, other people receiving that email were beginning to reach out to me. "Why do I have to enter my bank account information here?" Others that were sent this original email were also starting to get this follow up email- prompting them to enter their bank account information into this program to collect their money. There seems to be some concern about this being a legitimate program. From what I can find online, it checks out- with one site giving it an 81% safety rating (based on their own scoring criteria) however, I would be lying if I said that I'd be comfortable giving my bank account information to anyone involved with LuLaRoe ever again. Also, if these overpayments or incorrectly collected tax payments were charged to some form of debit card or credit card, why can't you guys just refund it that way? I'm concerned about the legality of issuing a check (essentially cash) on purchases that were made via credit card. Is there not some rule that stipulates that the funds must go back the same way they came in unless it was a debit- where cash can be issued? Point blank, what's with LuLaRoe and all this funkyness surrounding getting a check? Can't they write a check for my $2.11 and not inconvenience me or anyone else any further? I'm not interested in participating or enrolling with any other company or program to get a nominal amount of money that was illegally collected to begin with. The way I see it, I'm not sure I care if it costs them 42 cents to mail a check for $2.11 and pay 10 cents for the check and the ink to print it. But that's me, maybe. Either way, Bless has my credit card used to make the transaction, they can reverse a portion of the charge. They clearly have access to the transaction to be able to determine how much they think they owe me... send it back the way it came in, and quit adding more and more reasons for me to doubt you have any clue anymore. Adding insult to injury, I'm now hearing reports of people getting the wrong check on Checkbook.io, with the other individual's name and address on it. Yeah, no privacy violation there at all. What is this? A company owned by yet another cousin, ready to muck up every direction they move in? If you can't issue the check to the RIGHT person through this marvel of modern software, clearly you're not getting any more information from me that can accidentally be leaked anywhere else. For that, you can keep my $2.11 and I'll add it to your tab. You guys asked for my take on this nonsense- here it is. Let me know if you're one of those that are also getting incorrect amounts or someone else's check!