161–170 of 321 posts
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I'm not sure if you've used Amazon's return system before, but it's absolutely immaculate. In my opinion, this is more an issue of perception than reality - in many ways it's easier to return things to Amazon than to your local store.
Except for the times they charge you $8 for return shipping on a $5 item.
A business is required to pay sales tax, not collect. Like some other businesses, Amazon can just include the tax in the price. For instance, bars will include the taxes in the drink tax because if they show you how much tax is in a glass of beer you'd be very surprised, it's something like 40%. It's an mental game though. Do you get people "through the door" with an item at $19.99 and hope they don't close the tab w…
Businesses don't pay sales tax on purchases for resale. Sales tax is paid by the consumer, but collected by the business.
In most states, there is an exception afforded to food/liquor businesses that allows them to advertise prices tax-included.
Otherwise, the state laws usually look like this one: http://dor.wa.gov/Content/GetAFormOrPublication/PublicationB...
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Amazon has an absolutely amazing return policy. I've only returned an item once, but it was a $400 USB video adapter that didn't work with my monitors. I just printed out a UPS label, and returned it to the closest UPS store for free, and I got an instant refund.
"Amazon has an absolutely amazing return policy." Watch out of Amazon Marketplace though. I bought a copy of The Wire through there that ended up being pirated (and terrible quality), and Amazon would neither refund the purchase nor shut down the vendor, even after we got a letter from HBO confirming that it was a pirated copy.
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When Zappos first came out I thought they'd tank. I purchase new basketball/running shoes every 6months, and never ever make a new purchase without trying it on. Playing basketball or running with an even slightly uncomfortable shoe can lead to blistering, back problems, ankle sprains, etc. But my gf at the time thought it was brilliant. What I learned was that a lot of women's shoes are purchased based on anything e…
I see multiple comments from men here about how women they know buy impractical clothing and shoes that are poorly made and don't last well. I'm happy to report that whatever the general pattern is, there are happy exceptions. Some women I know (for example my wife) and some girls I know (for example my daughter) seek out clothing and shoes that are well made and hold up to heavy use in outdoor exercise. Just the oth…
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Why wOuld I feel the need to inspect a book before buying it? I am working under the assumption that no pages will be missing. It's worked out fine thus far. You do realize that purchasing items over the Internet has been working well for some time now, right?
Purchasing from the Internet works fine until you have problems. Here in Romania you can't inspect the contents of the package until you sign for its delivery. Then if it's broken you get to keep the pieces, unless the merchant is nice. Of course, there's also the option of arguing with them, but it doesn't guarantee anything. I bought a couple of years ago an LCD monitors from today's Romanian Amazon wanna-be and th…
(Disclosure: Slate participates in Amazon Associates, an "affiliate" advertising plan that rewards websites for sending customers to the online store. This means that if you click on an Amazon link from Slate—including a link in this story—and you end up buying something, Amazon will send Slate a percentage of your final purchase price.) Do they really think that they'll get more affiliate conversions by being the ho…
also, FTC rules:
http://mashable.com/2009/10/05/ftc-blogger-endorsements/
http://business.ftc.gov/advertising-and-marketing/endorsemen...
Here's the original Financial Times article that this one was mostly taken from (nb: this link avoids their paywall via google's url redirection): http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9...
Then, can we have evacuated tubes that connect our homes to all of the retail outlets, or homes to homes maybe also, and then they could have like 5 minute delivery, or however long it takes the picking robot to get it and then for it to travel at hypersonic speed through the tube?
Maybe we should all live within a few hundred yards of the warehouses. Then upgrade the picking robots and streamline the warehouses and tubes so they can deliver items in less than a minute.
Then we can all have robots that pull the items out of the tube, open the packaging and hand it to us on our couches/beds.
I would totally buy a giant plastic jug of cheeseballs right now if it could arrive in less than a minute and be delivered to my hands.
Amazon failed to collect/remit ~270M in sales tax in Texas and has owed millions for years. So what did the state of Texas do about it? They struck a deal to erase the 270M owed, as long as Amazon starts collecting sales tax starting 7/1, create 2000 jobs and invest 200M in Texas. They were likely already planning more infrastructure in Texas, but threatened to reverse course and pull out of the state entirely. The w…
Companies are only required to pay state sales tax if they have a physical presence in that state. Amazon wasn't bluffing, Texas was. We went through the same thing in California. Amazon agreed to pay the sales tax, but only after it had decided to open distribution centers in the state.
Distribution center operated in Irving, TX from 2005 through 2011. Woot, in Carrollton, TX was acquired in 2010.