The Challenges of Selling CBD

To my fans and supporters-

I wanted to let you know what’s been going on this week since we launched TLCBD.  We’ve been preparing for this launch for quite some time.  We went through all the right channels, got all the right certifications and approvals and jumped through a LOT of hoops to be ready to sell our product. 

Years of testing and optimizing the products was almost nothing compared to how hard it was to get approved to sell CBD online. Selling CBD is not like selling other products.  It is not well understood by the government and some people still see it as linked to THC and marijuana – but it’s not!  So we, and most businesses like ours, don’t have access to services the way non-CBD businesses do.

You may have noticed that when we first launched, we gave you several options to purchase – credit card, paypal, bitpay, etc.   We had our processing all lined up and ready to go, and with all the support you gave our product (for which I still can’t thank you enough), it brought a lot of attention to the site and then abruptly, with zero warning, we were cut off by PayPal (who is holding our money we had there by the way) and then bitpay closed our account.  We finally heard from our credit processing partner at the same time and they told us we were cut off because they had stopped supporting companies with CBD edibles (like gummies).  The bad news is it really caused a lot of issues for us and for you. The good news is your support was so strong that you caused our servers to go crazy which is most likely what caused the payment processing people to take notice.

We were willing to pull the gummies, you probably noticed we had to turn the stock off.  But then, the next day, they told us they wouldn’t allow processing of tinctures either!!  Which was the whole reason I started the company in the first place – to bring wellness products to the world and share what’s been helping me with my health and also help people heal and feel better.  Without tinctures, my team and I can’t meet our mission – and that doesn’t work for us.  So we knew we had to find another solution.   We started processing your orders via email manually – and we appreciated all of you who were patient while we went that route. 

You’re probably asking “Why won’t banks let you sell gummies?”  Because the FDA has said that CBD, even hemp-derived CBD is not officially a food and has not passed testing to be GRAS (which means Generally Regarded As Safe), so it is in a grey area when it comes to putting it in foods.  In some states, you can’t buy it in stores anymore.  In fact, some of our competitors had to pull their valuable stock off of their shelves with no way to sell it and earn back their investment.   

Our team found another card processor, and submitted our paperwork and they’re pushing it through for us.  We’re blessed that they know how good our product is and are helping us get it pushed through quickly.  But it’s still a process full of government background checks and approvals, so… it takes a while. 

So for right now, we’ve got a few options for you.

1)    Viabill – an amazing credit card processing program (you’ll need to create an account, similar to PayPal) AND it lets you decide to make payments over a few months.

2)    Send us a check.  We will wait for your check, process it and ship your order.

3)    Email us. You can email us at info@shoptlcbd.com and we will process your order manually and invoice you.  Yes,  you can pay via credit card this way too.

I wanted to thank you for your support and your patience.  I really wanted you to understand the whole process. Not everyone will tell you what’s happening, but I want you to know that there are people out there who don’t want us to provide these great wellness products and we’re not backing down. Like I always say – there’s money in medicine- and some doctors don’t want us to take natural products and some just don’t believe. But I KNOW what CBD has done for me and I will make this work!  In the meantime, we shifted, we pivoted and we’ve got you covered.

Happy shopping everyone!