After employer.com Got the bankrupt accounting startup bench In a sale of fire last year, CEO Jesse Tinsley promised at LinkedIn and elsewhere to honor past customer payments.
“We honored all the prepaid services on the bench even though we would not have income from ourselves directly,” Tinsley said in an interview with the founder and investor Julian Weisser.
But some Bench customers say they will be charged to get books or tax return they have previously paid.
A lawsuit Filed on Tuesday by Bench Customer Qorum claimed that the Bench had asked it to pay to obtain the 2023 tax return, even though the service had already been paid under the former -owned Bench.
“Defendant Jesse Tinsley has made negligent misunderstandings when he says that Employer.com will respect the prepaid bench services,” the lawsuit of the lawsuit.
Another customer, who requested an anonymous, was surprised to find that they had to renew their subscription to complete accounting books when they paid for that service two years ago, according to a letter saw by Techcrunch.
When they asked this, a Bench representative told them that “Bench 2.0” was unrelated to previous obligations and that Employer.com could not take up unpaid work.
CMO Matt Charney Employer.com has strongly argued that the bench will charge for a previously paid job. “We are, and honored the initial paid services for our customers,” he said.
Charney also said it delivered that the 2023 tax returned to Qorum without the need for further payment. But Qorum founder Andrew Pietra told Techcrunch that he was required to continue his subscription to get the return in the first place.
Under its previously owner, the bench burned by $ 135 million and struggles to get AI to replace human bookkeepers. That leads to long delays and large piles of books that still need to be completed, according to former employees.
Multiple Bench customers Previously told the techcrunch that Employer.com also sent them notifications intended to click them on a permission button that they had previously refunded the prepaid services.
Many books and returns remained incomplete when the bench was suddenly shutd down on December 26th last year. Employer.com, a US company, announced plans To buy Canadian Fintech less than 72 hours later.
Employer.com Bench bought $ 9 million, Bankruptcy filings Submitted to the Canada show.
Fintech's sudden collapse was caused by a lack of liquidity after the main lender, the National Bank of Canada, refused to lend it an additional $ 7.7 million in December 2024. According to previous filing.
In particular, this is the news of Bench's sudden shutdown that led to its rescue. The company had previously returned itself but failed to find a serious buyer, the filings Remember.
