Elizabeth S.
Quality product, disastrous customer service — order through Amazon instead
Coolibar clothing is genuinely good — well-made, effective sun protection, and I've been a loyal customer for a few years. That's the only reason this isn't one star. However, after this experience I will not order directly from Coolibar again. My order was incorrectly charged $16.27 in sales tax on clothing. Clothing is exempt from sales tax in Minnesota under state law — for all consumers, not just nonprofits or tax-exempt organizations. This is not obscure; it is standard Minnesota tax law. What followed was 12 days of emails, repeated deflections claiming I needed nonprofit status to qualify for exemption (incorrect), an 8-day initial response lag, a broken customer service web form, and ultimately having to cite the specific Minnesota statute to get any action at all. Most customers would have given up. That appears to be the business model. When a partial refund was finally issued, Coolibar refunded only the state tax portion and refused to refund the local taxes — also legally incorrect, as local option taxes in Minnesota follow the same clothing exemption. They refused to correct this even after it was explained to them, in writing, with the applicable law. I am filing a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Revenue. Minnesota customers should be aware they may be affected by the same issue. Update: The remaining balance was refunded only after I gave their internal customer satisfaction survey a one-star rating and stated my intent to file a DOR complaint. It should not take that to get a legally correct outcome on a straightforward transaction. Amazon carries Coolibar products, offers free returns, and calculates tax correctly. Shop there instead.