Salty
Touchdown! Greaser!
Not really. It's more complicated than that, but let me tell the story. I'm going to leave the vendors name out because, as you'll see, it's not straightforward their fault. Those that know me already know who it is anyway.
So, I've been trying to buy avionics for my CJ since November. Been working with the vendor to make sure I get everything I need to really bling it out. A large screen for front AND back, remote controllable everything, autopilot, you name it.
Problem one started pretty quickly and continued the entire experience. After the first consult I got crickets for weeks. No answers to emails. This happened a couple times in the 8 month journey. And each time we had to start over to some degree to remember where we were. Always I had asked a bunch of questions that never got answered, but I'd have forgotten why I even asked the questions by then. This went on until a month ago where we finally finalized the invoice. I agreed to pay and then things went quiet again for a couple weeks.
Then I get an email from an unknown person with the title "order" and "Can you send me your shipping address?". That's it. No signature, no company name, nothing. I had to click on the sent email address to see the @vendor.com to know who the heck it was. This did not impress me.
Another week and I get an email saying they are ready for payment, send payment for the invoice and they will call later for a CC for shipping charges. I have to ask for information on how to pay, then when I got it, I immediately paid. At this point I was not happy that I still had to pay for shipping which was never mentioned prior to this.
Another week goes by and I get a call saying they are ready to ship and need a credit card for the shipping. Shipping was over $200, which seems a bit ridiculous to me. Then, she says, "oh and $15 for sales tax on the shipping".
I argue and bit, and she says she''ll triple check and call me back. Calls back and says yup, we were audited and we now have to charge tax on shipping to Florida.
At this point, I'm fed up beyond belief with all the delays and unexpected costs, and I'm convinced Florida does not require tax on shipping. So I say "I'll make this simple. Figure out another way to reduce my price by $15 or cancel my order. I'm not going to pay it. Give me a discount on a cable, or something.
Rather than taking this as a simple way out of the problem (to my thinking 15 bucks on 23,000 is nothing, and I had not negotiated any sort of discount prior to this. Didn't ask for a buck off anything, or to waive a price on anything. I paid the full invoice as presented to me, they could simply give me a $15 discount and everyone is happy and we don't have to argue about state tax law.), they decided to die on the hill and simply agreed to send me my money back.
Now, I'm not unhappy with that as long as they give it all back. But I'm a bit shocked. I have another plane I'm about to order avionics for and talk to a lot of people about it. They lost a lot more than a $23k sale.
As for whether or not the tax is legit, I can't find an authoritative source that I trust on the matter. It seems it's possible they are correct. But, that's not the point of the story. Don't keep pushing your customer. At some point they will have had enough.
So, I've been trying to buy avionics for my CJ since November. Been working with the vendor to make sure I get everything I need to really bling it out. A large screen for front AND back, remote controllable everything, autopilot, you name it.
Problem one started pretty quickly and continued the entire experience. After the first consult I got crickets for weeks. No answers to emails. This happened a couple times in the 8 month journey. And each time we had to start over to some degree to remember where we were. Always I had asked a bunch of questions that never got answered, but I'd have forgotten why I even asked the questions by then. This went on until a month ago where we finally finalized the invoice. I agreed to pay and then things went quiet again for a couple weeks.
Then I get an email from an unknown person with the title "order" and "Can you send me your shipping address?". That's it. No signature, no company name, nothing. I had to click on the sent email address to see the @vendor.com to know who the heck it was. This did not impress me.
Another week and I get an email saying they are ready for payment, send payment for the invoice and they will call later for a CC for shipping charges. I have to ask for information on how to pay, then when I got it, I immediately paid. At this point I was not happy that I still had to pay for shipping which was never mentioned prior to this.
Another week goes by and I get a call saying they are ready to ship and need a credit card for the shipping. Shipping was over $200, which seems a bit ridiculous to me. Then, she says, "oh and $15 for sales tax on the shipping".
I argue and bit, and she says she''ll triple check and call me back. Calls back and says yup, we were audited and we now have to charge tax on shipping to Florida.
At this point, I'm fed up beyond belief with all the delays and unexpected costs, and I'm convinced Florida does not require tax on shipping. So I say "I'll make this simple. Figure out another way to reduce my price by $15 or cancel my order. I'm not going to pay it. Give me a discount on a cable, or something.
Rather than taking this as a simple way out of the problem (to my thinking 15 bucks on 23,000 is nothing, and I had not negotiated any sort of discount prior to this. Didn't ask for a buck off anything, or to waive a price on anything. I paid the full invoice as presented to me, they could simply give me a $15 discount and everyone is happy and we don't have to argue about state tax law.), they decided to die on the hill and simply agreed to send me my money back.
Now, I'm not unhappy with that as long as they give it all back. But I'm a bit shocked. I have another plane I'm about to order avionics for and talk to a lot of people about it. They lost a lot more than a $23k sale.
As for whether or not the tax is legit, I can't find an authoritative source that I trust on the matter. It seems it's possible they are correct. But, that's not the point of the story. Don't keep pushing your customer. At some point they will have had enough.
