After accounting startup Bench It suddenly shut down Purchased in a fire-sale by Employer.com on December 27th. Bench customers are learning that their financial data can't simply be taken and walked away.
And some weren't too happy about it, three customers told TechCrunch.
To review: Bench, The Canada-based startup, which raised $113 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures and Shopify, shut down, leaving thousands of businesses without access to their accounting and tax documents. Days later, the Bench announced that it would. acquired. Undisclosed price from Employer.com for a last minute deal.
Employer.com, a San Francisco-based HR technology company, focuses on payroll and onboarding, as opposed to Bench, which specializes in accounting and tax.
On the surface, Employer.com appears to be a relatively new company: its CEO, Jesse Tinsley; The purchase was announced. About $450,000 of domain names in November. Tinsley has worked in HR, including Recruiter.com and BountyJobs. Behind many start-up and recruiting activities.
But digging deeper, TechCrunch learned. Employer.com It is for dba. Recruiting.com Ventures. Start Acquired Recruiter.com. According to Employer.com CMO Matt Charney, by 2023 it will be a Nasdaq-listed company and taken private. The business has been around since 2015, he said.
In its consent form, the Bench described Employer.com as “a highly successful and profitable entity with a proven track record of acquiring and operating companies over the past decade.” CMO Charney says the company is actually profitable. However, Employer.com's lack of accounting and tax expertise is concerning for some Bench users.
A Bench customer told TechCrunch that when he tried to access his records from the five years he was a Bench customer, he was forced to “press the consent button.”
“In the text of that page, they say, if you agree, you agree to a refund; That was so cool. I think it's a low case,” he added. The company later changed the page to remove the statement that refunds were not available.
Below is a screenshot of the original consent page before being updated by Employer.com.
The customer says he can contact his credit card company and get a refund for the two years of service he paid in advance. But still dissatisfied with the treatment.
“They speak highly of them and the customers have worked with them, so it's disappointing,” he said.
Another longtime user said Employer.com “displayed a message” on Bench, giving users an option to continue service and accept the updated terms or terminate service and download data. He chose last.
“A few days later, I got a message saying, 'You still have to accept the terms in order to export your data,'” he said. “In this case, I accepted just to continue dealing with this potential problem, but forcing users to do this in order to transfer their data is quite suspicious. By accepting these terms, I chose to continue using Bench services.”
In other words, Bench customers appear to have agreed to transfer their data to Employer.com in order to access that data.
Below are the views achieved by a customer who has been a Bench customer for 10 years.
Employer.com “Doesn't appear to actually run this business. He is reviewing his options for an alternative service provider.”
Another client, Michelle Gayle, who works as a business consultant for Core Insights Group, said she understood her company could download its data after agreeing to certain terms.
The company told TechCrunch that it has updated its consent page by removing the option to opt out of transfers to Employer.com. Below is a screenshot of the updated page.
“They hide the fact that this new 'authorization' is the same as the previous 'authorization' and back it up with an inadequate privacy policy for the financial services provided by Bench.com,” she said. They are offering discounts for recruitment services that seem tone-deaf and inappropriate in light of this situation.”
She went on to tell Employer.com. Privacy Policy As funny.
“This policy has absolutely nothing to do with protecting financial data and when I tried to email legal@employer.com about this inadequate policy, I got a bounced message,” she added.
The complaints above are echoed. A reddit thread Full of comments from disappointed former customers.
part of it; Employer.com says users can access their data by giving Employer.com permission to download their data.
“After authorization, users can manage their data on the platform, including downloading, deleting or continuing services,” Employer.com's Charney told TechCrunch. “Once consent is given, they can choose to continue with the same contract and price or cancel their service.”
For customers seeking refunds for advance payments that do not cover future services to be provided by the lapsed Bench; Charney said Bench Accounting Inc. Charney said he would need to contact the bankrupt or try to file a refund through Stripe.
After the release, Charney provided the following quote about the agreement regarding customer data: “Simply put, the only way they can have full access to their data is for another entity to choose to give Employer.com permission to access their data. Currently, that data is no longer there to begin with, and we are currently in bankruptcy proceedings. So if they don't agree to give Employer.com access, they absolutely have that right.” No. Bench This is the only way we can ensure that a customer will be able to access those records whether they choose to stay or not. Any user who chooses to opt out immediately after downloading the data will have all their data deleted and their information will not be retained.”
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