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What a Freakin Joke!

Retro Stereo

Retro Stereo

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Subscriber
There is a pair of new/opened/old stock Klipsch Heresy's at the Audiogon site that I would have loved to buy and they are less than 75 miles from where I live. He wants $599 for them, so I e-mail him this message:

"Hi,
I'm interested in your Heresy's and can actually do
a pick-up (I'm just south of Minneapolis/St. Paul)
and I'll pay with cash. Does this get me any kind of
a discount from your $599 price tag?"


And I get this message back:


"Well I could offer you a 2% cash discount...I'd have
to collect 5.5% sales tax if you take delivery at our
store...from a $ standpoint; it's probably not worth
the trip...call Jim@920-494-6329 10a-6p CST.
Thanks."


So, if I get them delivered 75 freakin miles, it will cost me an arm and a leg. If I pick them up, he charges me 5.5% sales tax and gives me a 2% cash discount.

:wtf:

I mean, he couldn't take em home and sell them to me out of his freakin garage??? Hell, I would have drove up there tonight and picked them up!

And my final message back to him:

"Jim or Phil,
What a joke. No thanks.

Greg"

This, in my opinion, is why people go out of business. They have absolutely no clue how to treat a potential customer. Now, these idiots are on my "do not buy from" list.

RS
 
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Once again the concept of customer service has eluded another seller! A 2% discount,give me a break!! That works out to a $11.98 discount off of $599.
Obviously the boy wanted to ship them and make some more bucks with the shipping.
If there is any consolation,Retro,I commend you for sticking to your principles in this situation.
In 60 yrs historians will study the concept of customer service and how it affected the marketplace.

Alan
 
So let me get this right. He has a pair of speakers that cost 1200.00 new. He claims they are brand new. If indeed they are mahagony then that would make these rather rare and worth considerably more then 6 bills.

Next he has a store that you want him to sell outside of to avoid taxes which last I looked was against the law. Next he offered a discount of $13.00 off of the $32.00 in tax. So the whole fuss is over 19.00 ?

Hey I hate paying tax as much as the next guy but when I go to the grocery store I dont demand that they sell me my food out the back door and then slam that store for not doing what I wanted...
 
Hey Grumps,
I take it you went to Audiogon and checked them out. So why didn't you buy them? I forgot to mention that this guy is in western Wisconsin, still only about 75 miles from me. They may be rare and new/old stock in the box, but what kind of a warranty am I going to get on them? If you guessed none, you're right. I didn't see any pictures of them. Illegal schmeegle! They're open-box new/old stock, like I said, he could take them home tonight and sell them to me out of his garage. I guess it's a matter of principle, I thought I would save him the hassle of having to ship them and pay cash so there wouldn't be any record of a tax transaction even taking place! When someone offers me cash and a pick up, I roll out the damn red carpet!!!

Retro
 
Cuz I dont like Klipsh newer then 1960's.
 
He has a store but he is selling the things on audiogon, so I don't think the store thing applies. It does just seem he wants to make money on the shipping.
 
state sales tax issue

whatever state he is in probably has the same sales tax rules as NJ, in other words, if he ships the product out, he does not have to charge sales tax because it is an out of state sale. if you pick it up at his store, his business is responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax to the state (is an in state sale).
in regards to selling them from his garage, if he did it once in a while, he could get away with it, but if he sells alot online and does the cash sale at the house gag too often, there is a slim, but possible chance an investigator can tag him for it and cause an audit (sucks ass, even for the most honest person) .:cry:


I do concur that the "2.2%" cash deduction if it stood alone would sound like an insult to me
 
Retro,

I see the seller's point, he needs to show that the item was sold and shipped to a purchaser outside of his State but obviously he is a uncreative moron.

Why it is imperative to have a 3rd party do the pick-up and delivery is beyond me. You should be allowed to choose whatever shipping service you want, including yourself.

Tell him that he can pick up the money at your place when he delivers the item to you and in so doing avoid the shipping charges on you personally delivering the money, the cost of a 150 mile drive. This will solve his tax issue that he apparently is letting crimp his ability to do business.

Rob
 
Rob I don't think our American cousins are quite as adept at avoiding taxes as we are. Of course we HAVE to be or else we'd all be eating government cheese. I have to chuckle when I hear the Americans complain about taxes. Come live in Ontario for a while and you'll be begging for your US tax rates.

Mike
 
Mike,

I would never encourage anyone to break the law.

I was not suggesting anyone avoid paying any taxes that were legally owing. Out of State customers do not have to pay the State Sales Tax imposed by the State where the item is being sold. We have the same rule in Canada. Ontario Sales Tax does not have to be paid by someone in Manitoba who buys something from an Ontario vendor and has it shipped to Manitoba for example.

Rob
 
Reminds me of the time I was in New York state with a couple of co-workers attending a training class for six weeks. One weekend we went to NY city as one of the guys wanted to buy a voom lens at one of the famous camera places on 47th or 49th street, one of those huge discount mail order places.

Anyway the deal was they sold him the lens and a few smaller cheap things he also wanted and then told him that if he let them ship one of the small items to his Calif. home address that they could avoid having to charge him sales tax on the whole order.

So even the big time guys know how to a play the system if they want to.

Seems that sales taxes avoidness via internet sales has many states real upset and they are continuing to push the gov on more laws to make it more risky for those firms that don't collect sales taxes even though they might have a physical presence in the buyers state. Out of state mail order does not always mean that sales tax is not due.

Lefty
 
Maine has a "usage" tax I think they call it, that you do when you file your State income tax, to cover you for all your mail order, and online, and out of state purchases. If you can't remember the exact amount you've spent you can use a table that bases it on your income, still is pretty cheap I think mine was like $10 or so.
 
I don't think the seller is trying to make money from shipping. He is doing his business and you have to follow his rules. If you don't like them then say "bye" but it apparently is no freakin joke to me! You are assuming that everyone on Audiogon is doing business from a garage ....

When I sell something on Ebay/Audiogon I hate dealing with people who think they are doing me a favor by picking the items up from my house and asking for a discount! That is a true freakin joke.
 
Gee, I'm sorry I don't live up to your standards Don, I'll bet hardly anyone does...... Boy, if I could be more like you, I surely would.

No, that's how I would rather spend a few hours out of my day, buying packing material, packing the speakers up and hauling them down to the local FedEX or UPS. Makes perfect sense to me why he wouldn't give a discount, or you wouldn't either......

Once again, thanks for your positive spin for a guy who does sometimes does deal out of his garage, but first and foremost, is a die-hard collector of vintage audio gear.

Retro
 
Come on there is not need for insults !
 
Grumps,
You're right, I got on the defensive and I'm sorry, but if you read his post, I was insulted first by asking for a simple discount for a pick-up. Don certainly could have refrained also and sent me a PM instead too.

Retro
 
retro...I think one area where a problem may come into play for the gentleman is that he probably bought these speakers "thru" his business...showing it as an expense...therefor...no matter where he sells them from he must either show that he has sold them...or he can fudge the numbers. He can easily do this...but why take a risk?

I would also suspect that he can get creative to save you some state sales tax money...it's certainly his choice if he wants to or not...but, of course it's your choice if you want to buy from him or not too.


As for the speakers...If I had some extra money I would definitely ask him to send me some pics of the actual speakers...seems like they're priced right...(if that's what you want.)


oh well...I suppose it's on to the next set of speakers for you...should be fun, eh?
 
GF,
Thanks for the THOUGHTFUL reply and I already have decided to move on when I started this post. I realize that if records are being kept, that taxes and such need to be accounted for and that really wasn't my major gripe on the whole ordeal. It was the fact that I was saving this guy (at my expense) from having to pack and ship some very heavy speakers. I also offered to pay with cash. I could have paid with PayPal and he would have lost 3.5% right there, so for him to offer me a 2% discount and charge me 5.5% sales tax was a slap in the face.

Retro
 
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