Tax Tantrum

[xaenon]

The Plot:
Today I stopped at a Radio Shack to buy a couple of cable assemblies to hook up a DVD player. I got my cables and went to the sales counter to pay, but the employee there was already dealing with a woman, who looked to be in her forties. I wasn't really paying much attention to the conversation until I heard her voice suddenly turn harsh.

The Cast:
IW: Idiot Woman
BE: Beleaguered Employee

Lights! Camera! Action!
IW: What do you MEAN $74.xx? It's advertised for $69.99!
BE: Yes, ma'am, plus tax.
IW: The ad didn't say anything about tax!
BE: (glances over at me like WTF?!) Sales tax is mandatory in Ohio.
IW: Look, it says right on the shelf tag. $69.99
BE: Tax is applied to all purchases. That's not my rule, it's not Radio Shack's rule, that's state law.
IW: Well, I don't live in this state, so I'm not paying sales tax.
BE: Ma'am, I cannot process this transaction without sales tax.
IW: (entering shrieking idiot mode) I just told you, I AM NOT PAYING TAXXXXXsssss!!!

The conversation continued in this manner, generally repeating this little snippet over and over, for probably another ten minutes, during which she became increasingly agitated.

In the end, BE stood his ground, and when she entered "raving lunatic" mode, he told her to leave. This of course triggered the usual empty customer threats (Your manager will hear of THIS! I'll contact the Better Business Bureau! I'm never shopping here AGAIN! Etc, etc). She SPIT on the counter and stalked out, then put on a spectacular display of idiocy, nearly striking a pedestrian with her car as she went roaring off the parking lot.

Commentary:
Seriously, how stupid can a person be? How is it even POSSIBLE for a person to live 40-odd years and not know about sales tax? Shouldn't people this incredibly dense be used as landfill or something? And to go tearing out of a parking lot like that, just because you didn't get your assinine way, is just plain stupid. I'm not kidding, she came within a couple of feet of seriously injuring, or possibly even killing, somone with her little motorized tantrum.

Epilogue:
I'm in this particular Shack all the time. BE is a pretty nice fellow, polite, knowledgeable, and helpful. You got a problem that involves electronics, he'll do his best to help you out - within reason, of course. I deal with him a LOT. So, I left my cell number with him just in case Idiot Woman decided to call his higher-ups with some half-baked, cockamamie story, and because I know how managers can be. So far, nobody's tried to call.

[MoonChild2007]

People have a "Me, me, me, me" attitude that just would not go AWAY!

[otakuneko]

What a douchewaffle!

[the lawsmeister]

I second the douchewaflle motion.

Just curious though. Why are prices in the US quoted without tax. Is it so people can compare the base price across different states without having to calculate what portion is tax?
In Aus all prices are listed including tax. Then again our tax is the same across the whole country regardless of which state you're in.

[Dreamstalker]

I think the reason (or a reason) is that most ads are run nationally and each state/county/city (in some cases) have different sales tax. Oregon being the exception I believe. Targeting TV/print ads to each market would waste too much time and money.

But yes, advertising something at "$XX.99!" is dumb. I read somewhere that that is a mind-game tactic to make people think they're spending less than if they buy something priced at an even dollar amount.

[xaenon]

I second the douchewaflle motion.

Just curious though. Why are prices in the US quoted without tax. Is it so people can compare the base price across different states without having to calculate what portion is tax?
In Aus all prices are listed including tax. Then again our tax is the same across the whole country regardless of which state you're in.

I think it has to do with the manufacturers. A car, for example, should cost the same base price regardless of whether it is sold in California or Texas or Illinois, but most states have very different sales tax structures, it means that advertising and so forth would have to be adjusted for each state. Factor into that other things like delivery and title fees (for cars and the like), and it could quickly become an advertising nightmare if they had to account for all these things in the ads. Costs less to do it once, and let the customers deal with the state/local fees and taxes.

To make matters worse, different counties and local governments in each state get their own piece of the action, which is tacked onto the sales tax. Depending on where I buy it, the same $1.39 bottle of coke can have three different totals because where I live and where I work are in two different counties, one of which has two local governments with different local tax structures. Go fig.

[xaenon]

I think the reason (or a reason) is that most ads are run nationally and each state/county/city (in some cases) have different sales tax. Oregon being the exception I believe. Targeting TV/print ads to each market would waste too much time and money.

But yes, advertising something at "$XX.99!" is dumb. I read somewhere that that is a mind-game tactic to make people think they're spending less than if they buy something priced at an even dollar amount.

That is correct. Remember that customers have selective memory. They see something advertised at $11.99 and the only thing that registers (usually) is the $11
part.

It makes life a little easier for advertisers, too, because they can claim their product
retails for 'less than $100', when in fact the retail price is $99.97 or something like
that - legal because it's true, though only in a hair-splitting fashion.

[Cats]

We get a lot of customers who blank at tax for a moment sometimes, because they forget they're shopping in MA and not NH (it's less than a 20 min drive there for anyone in town, so people are there frequently). No one raises a fuss like this though!

[chainedbarista]

IW: (entering shrieking idiot mode) I just told you, I AM NOT PAYING TAXXXXXsssss!!!

then i am not completing the saaaallleee!

she SPIT on the counter? time for an escort by security off the property followed by a banning.

wow...all around fail.

[marasbaras]

The OP must have some kind of patience. After a couple minutes of her whining about taxes, I would've told her to STFU and told the sales guy to ring me up.

[SteeleDragon78]

IIRC there are 2 or 3 states with out state/city/county sales tax, i cannot recall which ones dont. but i have had a similar argument with someone (ironicly while working for radioshack) concerning taxes, though mine was durring a refund inwhich the refunded amount was less than the price with OK tax applied.

[PepperElf]

I'll contact the Better Business Bureau!

Good, they need a laugh once in a while.

[alphaboi]

I second the douchewaflle motion.

Just curious though. Why are prices in the US quoted without tax. Is it so people can compare the base price across different states without having to calculate what portion is tax?
In Aus all prices are listed including tax. Then again our tax is the same across the whole country regardless of which state you're in.

Your taxes are uniform. In the US not only do taxes rates vary by state they can also vary by county or town within a state. Plus each state decides what's taxable and what's not taxable on it's own. Some states (Deleware for example) don't even have a sales tax (in which case the price on the tag really is the price you pay).

[smileyeagle1021]

Your taxes are uniform. In the US not only do taxes rates vary by state they can also vary by county or town within a state. Plus each state decides what's taxable and what's not taxable on it's own. Some states (Deleware for example) don't even have a sales tax (in which case the price on the tag really is the price you pay).

yeah, ditto what she said... our tax laws are so convoluted... for example in Reno buying a fountain drink you have to pay tax but you buy a bottle of soda and it's tax free... in Salt Lake you pay tax on both, in Portland (i think) you pay tax on neither. And the places that charge tax are at different rates... so what price should 7-11 post? The simple answer is post the base price and hope people are smart enough to figure out the tax.

[JustADude]

In Aus all prices are listed including tax. Then again our tax is the same across the whole country regardless of which state you're in.

Simply (okay, not really) put, the United States of America is a landmass roughly (give or take a few hundred thousand kilometers*) equal to that of the entire E.U. Each of our 50 states is of a size equivalent to a European country, and has the right to legislate as it sees fit, subservient only to Federal and Constitutional law. Within each state there are Counties, which in turn can legislate and tax as they see fit within the bounds set by the higher realms, then individual Towns and Cities get their go.

That means, as others have said, tax amounts can vary wildly from place to place. The practice of having pre-tax prices displayed not only saves a world of headaches for national chains, but allows the small guys to avoid having to replace all their signage every time there's a tax change.



*Half the size if you adjust for the amount that's sparsely inhabited due to being Desert, Tundra, etc... but still...