Amazon retroactively adding sales tax to pre-orders?

trent82

CAGiversary!
Feedback
92 (100%)
I live in PA and Amazon started charging sales tax as of today, September 1st (also in CA). I noticed that my existing pre-order of The Last Of Us has had sales tax added to it. It seemed to happen once I applied a $5 gift card to it today even though the order was from June. This seems completely wrong to me, but I thought I would just give a heads up to any other PA and CA residents who pre-order a lot from Amazon.
 
[quote name='trent82']This seems completely wrong to me, but I thought I would just give a heads up to any other PA and CA residents who pre-order a lot from Amazon.[/QUOTE]

Why is it wrong?

Your purchase was charged at the time of shipment, during which the tax law became effective and thus, all of your pre-purchases would be taxed. And if even they didn't collect tax, you would have to pay use tax on it.

Get used to it, it's going to become law for all states, and all retailers sooner or later.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Why is it wrong?

Your purchase was charged at the time of shipment, during which the tax law became effective and thus, all of your pre-purchases would be taxed. And if even they didn't collect tax, you would have to pay use tax on it.

Get used to it, it's going to become law for all states, and all retailers sooner or later.[/QUOTE]

It seems wrong to me not because things on Amazon are going to start being taxed, but because you have to agree to an amount at the time you confirm your order. If they are going to add tax retroactively, they should be required to contact you and ask you to approve the change or cancel the order.
 
[quote name='trent82']It seems wrong to me not because things on Amazon are going to start being taxed, but because you have to agree to an amount at the time you confirm your order. If they are going to add tax retroactively, they should be required to contact you and ask you to approve the change or cancel the order.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure how many people pre-order things, but I can only imagine some of them will think to complain to Amazon and I bet Amazon pays the sales tax for them. You might as well try that.
 
[quote name='trent82']It seems wrong to me not because things on Amazon are going to start being taxed, but because you have to agree to an amount at the time you confirm your order. If they are going to add tax retroactively, they should be required to contact you and ask you to approve the change or cancel the order.[/QUOTE]

I see what you're saying but they didn't do anything wrong here.

You did agree to the amount they charged, even if it was a pre-purchase: item price plus tax, whether collected by the retailer or via use tax. Just because your sales order said 49.99 (or whatever), doesn't mean that's all you should intend to pay. They didn't retroactively add the tax, the tax was always there... regardless of whether or not you expected to pay it.

As for letting customers know, I don't think they're required to unless the law says they have to (which I'm guessing it didn't).

Regardless, I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of people pissed off about this and ready to blame Amazon and whatnot. Thanks for giving them a heads up...:lol:
 
[quote name='Viper187']I just canceled 3 game preorders at Amazon and ordered at NewEgg instead. From what I read, NewEgg told NY to fuck off when they tried this.[/QUOTE]


That link is 4 years old; Amazon was the most aggressive in fighting sales tax, but unlike NewEgg they were the big target of every state. After having to end affiliate programs in many states, and threaten to close warehouses they decided to change tactics last year.

Now when states pass laws requiring taxing transactions they negotiate a delay in the tax in return for building warehouses in those states. Although they eventually have to enforce the tax, like with PA, they also now have the ability to deliver a lot more stuff next day so all the B&M retailers that were whining about Amazon's tax advantage are still screwed.
 
[quote name='donkeydrop']That link is 4 years old; Amazon was the most aggressive in fighting sales tax, but unlike NewEgg they were the big target of every state. After having to end affiliate programs in many states, and threaten to close warehouses they decided to change tactics last year.

Now when states pass laws requiring taxing transactions they negotiate a delay in the tax in return for building warehouses in those states. Although they eventually have to enforce the tax, like with PA, they also now have the ability to deliver a lot more stuff next day so all the B&M retailers that were whining about Amazon's tax advantage are still screwed.[/QUOTE]

Whatever the case, NewEgg isn't charging it yet and they have no warehouses in PA, so I'd like to assume we're safe with them for now. If everyone starts charging tax, I'd be temped to start importing more blu-rays and/or games just on principle.
 
Like Donkeydrop said Amazon is very upfront that tax is estimated. A pre-order is a commitment to send you a game in the future, not a sale itself. When the sale happens they have to follow current law. While it would be nice to send you a note, this would affect more than pre-orders. Literally they weren't collecting sales tax one day and they were the next. So, all the orders from the previous day that didn't get shipped are in the same boat. That is alot of emails, plus they would have to delay a bunch of orders to get confirmation which is likely to cause worse customer service.
 
[quote name='Viper187']Whatever the case, NewEgg isn't charging it yet and they have no warehouses in PA, so I'd like to assume we're safe with them for now. If everyone starts charging tax, I'd be temped to start importing more blu-rays and/or games just on principle.[/QUOTE]

The principal that you don't want to support schools, roads, infrastructure, or US jobs?
 
[quote name='smallsharkbigbite']The principal that you don't want to support schools, roads, infrastructure, or US jobs?[/QUOTE]

Pretty much. School is bullshit, and the roads here are never getting fixed.
 
[quote name='Viper187']Pretty much. School is bullshit, and the roads here are never getting fixed.[/QUOTE]

Well I guess at least some people are happy saving a buck on a new game while our country continues our slow (soon to be accelerating) descent into 3rd world country status.
 
well unless Amazon lowers their prices I'm going to have to cancel some pre-orders if its the same price would rather get it at GS or BB immediately when it's available instead of waiting for it in the mail
 
[quote name='smallsharkbigbite']Well I guess at least some people are happy saving a buck on a new game while our country continues our slow (soon to be accelerating) descent into 3rd world country status.[/QUOTE]

Nothing is going to stop that at this point. It's pretty much inevitable because our country is forever run by idiots that more or less allowed the state of the economy to rest with a handful of greedy fuckin bankers. Had we stayed on the gold standard, we'd probably be fine right now.
 
[quote name='Viper187']Nothing is going to stop that at this point. It's pretty much inevitable because our country is forever run by idiots that more or less allowed the state of the economy to rest with a handful of greedy fuckin bankers. Had we stayed on the gold standard, we'd probably be fine right now.[/QUOTE]

Well how do you expect roads to be fixed if you don't pay the tax to get it done? How do you expect our country to not be full of idiots if you don't want to pay for schools for people?

Do you vote? I'd place the blame much more with congress than bankers. Congress has overspent our $ for a bunch of years without the revenues. The Post Office has been going broke for a couple of years now and there was an article a couple of weeks ago about how all congress does is pass resolutions to name post offices instead of anything to save them.

The mortgage crisis was pushed by congress making a bunch of laws that made it easy for low income people to get loans and restricted the information that Fannie and Freddie needed to get them approved. You want to blame that on the banks fine, but the problems are much bigger than the banks. It's merely a misdirect so you don't look and see how congress set up alot of the dominos to fall. The banks are actually propping us up more now than is being realized.

Is it really that easy to call someone else greedy when you are following the same principles by refusing to follow the law so you can save a buck? Isn't that the definition of greed?
 
[quote name='smallsharkbigbite']Well how do you expect roads to be fixed if you don't pay the tax to get it done? How do you expect our country to not be full of idiots if you don't want to pay for schools for people?

Do you vote? I'd place the blame much more with congress than bankers. Congress has overspent our $ for a bunch of years without the revenues. The Post Office has been going broke for a couple of years now and there was an article a couple of weeks ago about how all congress does is pass resolutions to name post offices instead of anything to save them.

The mortgage crisis was pushed by congress making a bunch of laws that made it easy for low income people to get loans and restricted the information that Fannie and Freddie needed to get them approved. You want to blame that on the banks fine, but the problems are much bigger than the banks. It's merely a misdirect so you don't look and see how congress set up alot of the dominos to fall. The banks are actually propping us up more now than is being realized.

Is it really that easy to call someone else greedy when you are following the same principles by refusing to follow the law so you can save a buck? Isn't that the definition of greed?[/QUOTE]

99% of what schools teach is a complete waste and not at all pertinent to life and careers to begin with. That's why I quit college. I went for Networking and the bitch running the 2nd year Networking class was making questions on the exams about the AT&T monoply worth 16 fuckin points. Yes, that's really relevant to a goddamn Networking job or anything I might do in life. Moreover, I already had a goddamn history class. You're supposed to be teaching me about networking now.

No, I'm not registered to vote. I could care less. It's like Lewis Black apparently said one time. "You're taking two bowls of shit and voting on which one stinks less." Personally, I like the old Wesley Snipes quote: "I think Washington is drowning in a sea of its own bullshit." Nothing will ever change the way our country is run. It's just that simple.

Greedy? The oil companies making billions every quarter are greedy. The idiot politicians blowing billions on their campaign shit are greedy. But you want to get your panties in a bunch over the fact people are used to NOT paying tax online and prefer it stays that way? The richest people in the world get all the tax breaks and hire accountants to rig their shit every which way possible to avoid paying taxes, and you want to bitch about people buying a few movies tax free? There are people out there working 2 jobs trying to scrape by and that sales tax just fucks them harder when they go to spend a little something on themselves.
 
Most of school is trying to teach you critical thinking and problem solving abilities. Nothing in life is cookie cutter. There's not a 5 point checklist you always do when to do when a network goes down. You look at the problems and start diagnosis the possible causes one by one. As school progresses, the harder the problems become. Sometime it directly affects your professional life like getting a certification, other times it indirectly affects it by giving you tools to solve problems that no one has solved before.

I'm not sure what the AT&T question was on your exam, but most colleges will try to give you some business background on what your doing so you can understand the history of networking (since I doubt your "history" class taught you that) and give you the possibility to expand into some type of entrepreneurial opportunities. Either way it's relevant, because I'm sure there are alot of things you do on your job just because your boss says to do it. So it would have taught you workethic had you actually answered the question.

I'm glad you get your political advice comes from comedians. But you are actually alot more involved in change than you realize. You have helped New York get tax from Amazon and you're currently working to help them get tax from Newegg. You also let them know that their aren't quite enough laws on the books because if there is a way around a law you'll abuse the loophole. And you're helping companies realize that the quickest way to make money from you is to outsource things to a foreign country. You're quite busy these days.

Okay, you don't have billions of dollars to spend. But 99% of the population avoiding taxes makes a huge dent. And while I sympathize with people that have to work 2 full time jobs they aren't the issue here. They aren't buying games and dvds on amazon because they can't afford those luxeries. They are buying groceries and paying rent which are tax free. Of course they are paying tax on utilities and energy but I'm unaware of how you can buy those online yet and avoid paying those taxes. Really your doing them the disservice. I'm not the one throwing out f-bombs every other sentence. You are very clearly upset that Amazon has added tax. Your attitude shows companies that hey, if we can make a product in China for $59 that is currently made in the US for $60, people will snap it up like candy. That leads to real job losses and sends more families to 2 full time jobs (if they can get them) and the cycle worsens.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='smallsharkbigbite']Most of school is trying to teach you critical thinking and problem solving abilities. Nothing in life is cookie cutter. There's not a 5 point checklist you always do when to do when a network goes down. You look at the problems and start diagnosis the possible causes one by one. As school progresses, the harder the problems become. Sometime it directly affects your professional life like getting a certification, other times it indirectly affects it by giving you tools to solve problems that no one has solved before.

I'm not sure what the AT&T question was on your exam, but most colleges will try to give you some business background on what your doing so you can understand the history of networking (since I doubt your "history" class taught you that) and give you the possibility to expand into some type of entrepreneurial opportunities. Either way it's relevant, because I'm sure there are alot of things you do on your job just because your boss says to do it. So it would have taught you workethic had you actually answered the question.

I'm glad you get your political advice comes from comedians. But you are actually alot more involved in change than you realize. You have helped New York get tax from Amazon and you're currently working to help them get tax from Newegg. You also let them know that their aren't quite enough laws on the books because if there is a way around a law you'll abuse the loophole. And you're helping companies realize that the quickest way to make money from you is to outsource things to a foreign country. You're quite busy these days.

Okay, you don't have billions of dollars to spend. But 99% of the population avoiding taxes makes a huge dent. And while I sympathize with people that have to work 2 full time jobs they aren't the issue here. They aren't buying games and dvds on amazon because they can't afford those luxeries. They are buying groceries and paying rent which are tax free. Of course they are paying tax on utilities and energy but I'm unaware of how you can buy those online yet and avoid paying those taxes. Really your doing them the disservice. I'm not the one throwing out f-bombs every other sentence. You are very clearly upset that Amazon has added tax. Your attitude shows companies that hey, if we can make a product in China for $59 that is currently made in the US for $60, people will snap it up like candy. That leads to real job losses and sends more families to 2 full time jobs (if they can get them) and the cycle worsens.[/QUOTE]

It was to list 6 benefits of the AT&T monopoly for 2 points each. Complete BS. Like I said, the real history class I had was a lot more interesting. I couldn't get broadband at home back then, so I downloaded porn during class the whole first year of Networking and still aced every exam. You can see how being expected to study more stupid shit I'll never need to know again would annoy me.

There are plenty of BS laws on the books that have no business being there. Carlin made the best example with prostitution: "Selling is legal. fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal?" Cause some goddamn bible thumper felt the need to outlaw it despite more or less shitting on the constitution to do so. I'd laugh my ass off if Amazon came up with a loophole that allowed them to do all the billing through their Canadian/foreign office and still ship domestically without charging sales tax.

If they can maintain product quality, I could care less where they make it. There should still be plenty of jobs with or without factories. If anything, unions are half the reason things cost more to make here. There's a reason we have labor laws nowadays. Unions were formed to deal with terrible conditions and unfair shit long before those laws existed. Now, unions need to go the fuck away and stop constantly threatening to strike if they don't get more money. I've actually seen non-union grocery stores here get more or less picketed out of business by UFCW assholes. I know a guy over in Allentown that works his ass off, but they refuse to give him full time hours despite constantly hiring more people. The guy got 12 hours last week. How the fuck is he supposed to pay his rent on that?

You mentioned the post office somewhere. The idiots at the local post office here take an hour and a half lunch. An HOUR and a HALF for some jackoff that sells stamps all day!?!? Doctors don't even take lunches that long! The postal service is utterly broken. That's one point we seem agree on, perhaps in different ways.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Was the AT&T question worth 12 or 16 points?

"There should still be plenty of jobs with or without factories." It's not just factories either. Many service jobs have moved over sees, I've even seen management teams centralized overseas. With the connectivity, political stability, and foreign infrastructure, almost anything can be outsourced. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on where these future jobs are going to come from and where the tax revenue is going to be made up in your outsourced future.

Union jobs are only 12% of the US job market. It's just another talking point to place blame on those greedy American workers ironically enough. Don't worry the downward pressure on salary will eventually hit your job.

Lol, wait until the changes in the healthcare law come where doctors aren't paid on volume. Then maybe we'll see them take 1.5 hour breaks.

You mention that you could care less if an item is made in China. But isn't that a 180 from your original viewpoint that large companies making huge profits are bad and consumers not being able to support their families is bad? The reason companies outsource is to increase profits at the expense of American workers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I preordered Michael Jackson Bad 25th anniversary Deluxe Edition set back in May, it comes out tuesday and just got shipped saturday. To my dismay I was charged tax. This has nothing to do with the prospect of Amazon charging tax, its about orders saying they are a certain amount, then Amazon just adds on more money for tax without any notification to anyone. They could've just sent an email out to everyone talking about how taxes will be charged starting a certain time to warn those with pre orders, but they obviously are too scared and dont want to lose business so they want the customer to just have the charge with no notification.
 
Ah, thanks for sharing. I will have to keep an eye on my preorders. If they try to charge me tax I will cancel and get them elsewhere. I would even happily pay more if it meant not paying sales tax for reasons I wont get into here.
 
[quote name='musha666']Ah, thanks for sharing. I will have to keep an eye on my preorders. If they try to charge me tax I will cancel and get them elsewhere. I would even happily pay more if it meant not paying sales tax for reasons I wont get into here.[/QUOTE]

Problem is you cant cancel because the tax wont show up till they ship it and by that point it's too late and you are already charged. Im in California fyi. The customer service people told me there was nothing they could do about it and refused to refund the tax. They usually have great customer service but guess they cant budge on this. The fact that Amazon has had generally bad deals in regards to videogames as of the past year combined with the sales tax just makes me want to go to B&M stores like Bestbuy more. Id rather go and buy something in person if it's going to be the same price anyways, that way I dont have to wait around for shipping.
 
[quote name='Nesboy43']Problem is you cant cancel because the tax wont show up till they ship it and by that point it's too late and you are already charged. Im in California fyi. The customer service people told me there was nothing they could do about it and refused to refund the tax. They usually have great customer service but guess they cant budge on this. The fact that Amazon has had generally bad deals in regards to videogames as of the past year combined with the sales tax just makes me want to go to B&M stores like Bestbuy more. Id rather go and buy something in person if it's going to be the same price anyways, that way I dont have to wait around for shipping.[/QUOTE]

NewEgg FTW :)
 
[quote name='smallsharkbigbite']Was the AT&T question worth 12 or 16 points?

[/QUOTE]


[quote name='yourlefthand']Yep. S/He didn't need college at all...[/QUOTE]


12, wise ass. I've got 2 screens side by side playing Xbox while I check forums. Excuse me, if I made a typo somewhere. My point was that one dumbass history question, which has no relevance to a career in networking, was the difference between an A and B on said exam.
 
[quote name='Viper187']12, wise ass. I've got 2 screens side by side playing Xbox while I check forums. Excuse me, if I made a typo somewhere. My point was that one dumbass history question, which has no relevance to a career in networking, was the difference between an A and B on said exam.[/QUOTE]

If you really think that understanding the history of how networking protocols and corporations came do be has no relevance to a career in networking, I suggest that the issue is not the school, but you.

Also, whether or not you think it is relevant, the professor obviously does. Their game, their rules.
 
[quote name='yourlefthand']If you really think that understanding the history of how networking protocols and corporations came do be has no relevance to a career in networking, I suggest that the issue is not the school, but you.

Also, whether or not you think it is relevant, the professor obviously does. Their game, their rules.[/QUOTE]

I don't need to know dick about AS&S to wire and configure a router and setup networks, something I had very little interest in to begin with. I'm a programmer.
 
I just noticed this too on my Resident Evil 6 pre-order. If they are going

I have pre-orders for Blops2 and Halo 4 but those haven't been updated with tax yet. I'm guessing they don't update this information until the item is close to release?

Anyone else seeing this?
 
bread's done
Back
Top