Beware of Paying Sales Tax at Mercata

[KaptianKid]

I bought the ReplayTV 30-Hour Personal Video Recorder with the discounts and this is the invoice I just recieved by email. Beware of charges you didn't expect such as Tax.

1) If you ship to Washington, Arkansas, or Pennsylvania you pay sales tax. This is not mentioned anywhere that I saw when placing the order. It also was not mentioned when they emailed me a confirmation of my Powerbuy bid.:|

2) They charged me tax based on the original $499.99 not the price I paid $492.17.

3) On the plus side the MSN rebate was calculated on the dicount amount plus the tax and shipping. So I thank Microsoft for paying 20% of the Tax and Shipping for me.

Subtotal: $492.17
Discounts: $0.00
Tax: $35.00
Shipping: $7.91
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Total: $535.08
MSN Wallet Discount: $ 87.33
Mercata$ Applied: $98.44
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Total Charges: $349.31

 

[youmamaisugly]

phew, louisiana here

 

[broadwayblue]

well...at least tax on $7 shouldn't be that bad.

 

[Shotgun]

Hehe, did you use a real credit card? (and not one of those crappy check cards with the nice 'you have absolutely no protection' clause) You could talk to your CC company and say "uh no, I did not authorize $349.31 to be charged to my card, I authorized $321.32 (after the real math)."

 

[Lost Pup]

Just a follow-up in regard to sales tax in PA. I talked to a CSR and per the company controller Mercata applies tax as follows:

Final Bid Price + shipping = taxable amount. Yes shipping is taxed but as stated in thread above the MSN 20% discount includes the tax and shipping charged.

I expressed that this tax calc should be stated on the web site clearly and that the email receipt should reflect this correctly. Tax is 7% here in Phila. Confusing but the math does work once you know Mercata's method.

FYI

Mercata Paste Below:
Subtotal: $338.44
Discounts: $0.00
Tax: $24.14
Shipping: $6.33
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Total: $368.91
MSN Wallet Discount: $ 73.78
Mercata$ Applied: $0.00
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Total Charges: $295.13