So I've been using TOO BUSY as the excuse for not blogging lately but honestly, I've been suffering from a severe case of the Winter Doldrums and adopted the motto "If you don't have anything nice to say... DON'T BLOG." Seriously, I don't want people creeping around Salvage Chic scared to do anything besides browse for fear of the Evil Shop Owner lambasting them on her Blog. But this one is kind of harmless and happens a LOT so I thought I'd share an anecdote of things that frost me on a daily basis.
A gentleman walked up to the counter with an item, I can't even remember what it was but it was $8 and I took it from him, proceeded to wrap & bag it and then punched into the cash register $8 and announced the total, "with tax that comes to $8.50." He did a double-triple-quadruple take and then barked SALES TAX! while reaching into his pocket for the extra 50 cents like now he was going to have to cancel Christmas. I understand it's kind of frustrating to pay sales tax on used goods which have ALREADY had sales tax paid on them when they were new, but you know... I'm not running a yard sale here. It's not like I am pocketing the extra 6.25% and laughing all the way to an offshore account where I hide my unreported income. What Uncle Sam wants, Uncle Sam gets!
While I'm on the subject of Sales Tax (here I go!) the other thing that drives me nuts is people who have a Reseller's Tax ID who assume this means they are exempt from paying Sales Tax on ANYTHING. If you're a Dealer there's this Massachusetts Reseller's form you fill out whereby you swear whatever you are buying is for Resale Purposes, so you're exempt from paying Sales Tax because it's eventually going to get paid by the End Buyer. All well and good. But if you walk up to the counter with say, a Salvage Chic CANDLE... I'm pretty sure you're not reselling that. A "TAX-22" situation, to say the least!
On a related note, I went to CVS this week and was purchasing just 1 item; when the cashier rang me up I acted all chagrined and exclaimed SALES TAX!! ...she didn't have sympathy for me either, LOL.
3 comments:
I have similar woes with on-line selling and shipping. I often try to make sure I can price heavier items cheaply and I once had a woman who wrote about a 4 lb item and said "I just can't bring myself to pay $12 to ship a $24 item!" Ok, for one thing, the shipping is not relevant to the cost, it is relevant to the WEIGHT and DISTANCE, got it? You live 3000 miles away, well, you can pick it up and I WON'T EVEN CHARGE SHIPPING! How's that for a deal? Better yet, you can just go buy this item that you really want in that shop next door to your house, go ahead. I'm SURE they have it. Don't get me wrong, I just once again refused to bid on an item on eBay that I knew would cost about $4 to ship to me from Canada and the guy wanted $18.90 to ship! See ya! I don't play that way. But in my shop, where I only charge the actual cost to ship, and, often don't effectively cover my boxes, envelopes, labels, tape, printing, etc...etc... Puh-lease don't complain!
I'm like you - if you can't say something nice don't blog. So, I'm just going to use YOUR blog to rant. Your readers are hardier than mine. Plus, did I mention I'm sick? Sniffle sniffle cough
Post a Comment