10 reasons not to buy from Amazon

I kind of wish Amazon did charge sales tax.

A few years back I got nabbed by the California State Borard of Equalization for not paying taxes on my out of state purchases, which were mostly from Amazon.

The bottom line is that we are all supposed to pay this tax, and here in CA there is a line on the tax return to report it. That said, my guess is that hardly anybody does. The state went after me because they labeled me a 'qualified purchaser' and a new law passed in 2009 requires qualified purchasers to report and pay taxes on these out of state purchases.

I have no problem with that, as it really creates a level playing field. Even with the use tax, Amazon's prices are still generally lower than most. What I was objected to is that they made me pay for the previous 3 years and said they reserved the right to go back even further. Of course they said that they have the right to do an audit to verify the accuracy of my reporting.

This ended up costing me many thousands of dollars. Once again, I'm not against the tax, but was against them springing the back tax bill on me. Of course they were quick to point out that the 'use' tax is not new, but the efforts to collect it are. Let's face it. The state is claiming to be broke and looking under every rock and stone to generate income.

Last year, I paid again, but I knew going in that I would have to. In light of this, it would be much easier for me to pay it at the time of the sale.

 

Right on. And tell me the name of any bick and mortar store that will let you return a phonograph cartridge you've tried out!

 

I disagree with every single one of those points, so I will continue to shop at Amazon.com.

 

The "top 10" anti-Amazon list the OP posted is mostly incitement of class warfare and class division at it's finest.

Pass.

 

Ditto. The ONLY thing Amazon did (once) to tick me off is to simply CANCEL and order that I placed.

Poof! Gone! No email! No records! No explanation!

Apparantly they didn't want to give me the price advertised, so they just tried to fix it like it never even HAPPENED..

 

The laws on the books are geared towards certain people or entities getting advantages others can't have.

 

That's the only issue I've had with them as well.

 

Amazon does not seem to be that bad of an employer.

http://www.amazon.com/Benefits-Careers-Homepage/b?ie=UTF8&node=239369011

 

We can only blame the voters for that.

 

Apparently so, but I guess they can afford to be with their tax skirting.

 

More appropriately I'd say you could blame the people that choose not to vote in elections for those laws.

 

Dave, are you saying that Amazon are not paying taxes or just using normal business practice in employing CPAs to minimize their liability?

Or something else?

 

What tax skirting. They simply do not collect sales tax from the buyer (who is responsible for the tax) and pass it along to the state. It is not Amazon's tax liability to begin with. If people are so concerned about this, then claim it on your state tax form and pay the darn tax.

 

Reason #4: Amazon.com Founder Jeff Bezos and His Family Donated $150,000 to Defeat an Income Tax In Washington State in 2010

That is a reason to not shop Amazon? That is one thing that would help everyone out from the bottom to the top.
Texas does not have a state income tax, last time I checked, "they are doing just fine".

 

As a resident of the state of Washington, that's a great reason to shop at Amazon. The proposal that we voted down was backed by Bill Gates, Sr., and was supposedly aimed at "high income" people only. Most people figured that if it was passed, it was only a matter of time until it filtered down to everybody.

 

As someone from 'elsewhere' originally, I see that the inability to resolve this issue will remain.. as it involves the mechanisms between states and quite frankly each state officially hates the other 49, probably a little more than it hates the Federal Gov (who at least send each state some funds).

Gonna have to live with that one.

 

This is exactly what I do. It's not Amazon's issue. I already mentioned I wish Amazon had the mechanism to collect and pay these use taxes on our behalf, but that would likely create another level of bureaucracy and possibly cause their prices to rise. I'm not thrilled about paying the tax but I think it is fair.

Of course when I talked to the State Borad of Equalization here, they said that over 90% of the out of state 'use tax' reciepts are from Amazon sales.

I should add that I used to use my resale certificate to buy many items and pay the tax after they were sold. About 10 years ago I changed my policy and decided to pay tax on the front end. Many of my suppliers thought this was odd, as most of their sales were wholesale to dealers, but now I understand many others have also decided to pay the tax up front. It sure makes things easier when the year end taxes are due.

 

Not true except during college football season.

 

For selection and browsing, yes, but they also charge full list price on almost everything. Frequently I'll be browsing there, find something I want, check the price on Amazon using my phone while standing in the aisle, and have the item delivered 2 days later for 2/3 (or less) of the Powell's price.

 

None of those 10 points make any difference to me as they describe every corporation.

 

Agreed - I don't see any smoking gun, here. Are some of these questionable? Absolutely. But show me any large corporation and you'll find questionable decisions. They are a business and are out to make money - that's how it works.

Many have stated their excellent customer service, and I would agree with that statement as well. I recently received a warped LP and their return process couldn't have been simpler. So you take the good with the bad.

One thing not listed in that blog was the Kindle, which I find very odd. Their entire e-book strategy is completely built around locking out competition. Now only can you not use their Kindle ebooks on other devices, but it's illegal to even try to remove the DRM except in very limited ways. Other retailers like Kobo and Sony use ADE, so there's least there's some competition there - but not so on the Kindle. And Amazon refuses to support EPUB, and that's not by accident.

Considering their MP3 offerings for audio and then comparing that to their ebook store, you can see a very clear difference.

 

No, we can blame ourselves AND all the money from lobbyists influencing policies but that's another story...

 

Who is Trevor Griffey?

How does he make a living?

Why should I assume that his blog is based on fact?

 

That's a terrible article. The norm for the PI. Sorry but "so and so says this...so so and so is bad" isn't enough to sell me on your ideas. Amazon.com is a bad corporate citizen because the founder donated to an anti-income tax initiative? Please.

 

The PI's not even a real paper any more. Just a bunch of blogs and other paper's stories.