| Discussion Forum: Thread 317978 |
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| | | Author: | DanialR  | | Posted: | Mar 4, 2022 03:02 | | Subject: | Some "Sales" are funny and can be costly | | Viewed: | 204 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In the past few weeks, I have run into some fun things people do when they are
having a sale.
Last week the price was $10.
Over the weekend a 27.85% off sale and the price is $10.32.
Today there is no sale going on and the price is $10.
In more than one state in the US it is a violation of consumer laws. You cannot
raise prices, then advertise a sale that results in the price being the same
or higher than the pre or after sale prices. Fines can be in the thousands of
dollars.
Personally, I don't care if you do this type of pricing. I price track Lego
items over $5-7 that I am going to buy and have a list of stores that won't
get my business no matter how big a sale they are having because I know they
game their pricing.
I point it out as a warning that it not just sales tax laws that we have to follow
if we are selling on a marketplace platform. The consumer laws in your State/County/City
have to be followed or your business could become quite costly.
I have a friend who was selling craft items on an online platform. One of their
customers was not happy with an order and didn't like PayPal's resolution
so they filed a complaint with the county they did business in. It cost them
over $5,000 when the county/state was done. Multiple years in business without
a business license, B&O taxes for 3 years + fines for not having paid the B&O
taxes.
It wasn't just the federal government that pushed for the $600 IRS reporting
rules.
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| | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Mar 4, 2022 03:11 | | Subject: | Re: Some "Sales" are funny and can be costly | | Viewed: | 71 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| Least favourite the store. And if they advertise fake sales on the forums use
the ignore function so you don't see any further threads they start.
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| | | | | Author: | Rob_and_Shelagh | | Posted: | Mar 4, 2022 03:25 | | Subject: | Re: Some "Sales" are funny and can be costly | | Viewed: | 103 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, DanialR writes:
| | In the past few weeks, I have run into some fun things people do when they are
having a sale.
Last week the price was $10.
Over the weekend a 27.85% off sale and the price is $10.32.
Today there is no sale going on and the price is $10.
In more than one state in the US it is a violation of consumer laws. You cannot
raise prices, then advertise a sale that results in the price being the same
or higher than the pre or after sale prices. Fines can be in the thousands of
dollars.
Personally, I don't care if you do this type of pricing. I price track Lego
items over $5-7 that I am going to buy and have a list of stores that won't
get my business no matter how big a sale they are having because I know they
game their pricing.
I point it out as a warning that it not just sales tax laws that we have to follow
if we are selling on a marketplace platform. The consumer laws in your State/County/City
have to be followed or your business could become quite costly.
I have a friend who was selling craft items on an online platform. One of their
customers was not happy with an order and didn't like PayPal's resolution
so they filed a complaint with the county they did business in. It cost them
over $5,000 when the county/state was done. Multiple years in business without
a business license, B&O taxes for 3 years + fines for not having paid the B&O
taxes.
It wasn't just the federal government that pushed for the $600 IRS reporting
rules.
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Some here believe rules of business do not apply to them or that they are not
even businesses despite purposefully buying goods for resale. Fake sales and
pricing games are just one aspect. Illegal store terms are more of a problem
IMO. If it was not possible to get a refund via Paypal for non-receipt for example
I think a number of these sellers would have had the authorities investigating.
Check sellers' terms carefully, check feedback before buying and pay using
a protected method. Fortunately rogue sellers are a minority here though but
I think BL could do more to remove obvious abusers.
Robert
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| | | | | | | Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Mar 4, 2022 07:50 | | Subject: | Re: Some "Sales" are funny and can be costly | | Viewed: | 77 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, Rob_and_Shelagh writes:
| | Some here believe rules of business do not apply to them or that they are not
even businesses despite purposefully buying goods for resale. Fake sales and
pricing games are just one aspect. Illegal store terms are more of a problem
IMO. If it was not possible to get a refund via Paypal for non-receipt for example
I think a number of these sellers would have had the authorities investigating.
Check sellers' terms carefully, check feedback before buying and pay using
a protected method. Fortunately rogue sellers are a minority here though but
I think BL could do more to remove obvious abusers.
Robert
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What is missing from all this is a List of Best Practices. The presumed list
varies by seller, by culture, and can be based on past selling experiences. You
cannot begin to sanction people with the entirety of the group agreeing on how
things should be done.
If nothing else, it should be a list of N salient points (possibly 10) and each
seller has to publicly indicate they agree/disagree with each point. That doesn't
mean they cannot sell here, but it does clear the air on what a buyer can expect.
Nita Rae
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | DanialR | | Posted: | Mar 4, 2022 12:23 | | Subject: | Re: Some "Sales" are funny and can be costly | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| I agree with everyone's points.
I'd bet it is a fraction of a percentage of sellers being creative
in how and what they list for sale. It isn't too difficult to spot them
and like Yorbrick pointed out it's easy to Least Favorite them
and move on.
The intent is to let sellers know, you can be doing everything right but still
get caught off-guard if you don't know the e-commerce and marketplace rules
that apply to your place of business. A simple mistake can wipe-out months of
profits.
In my friend's case, what started out as a few small items became a legitimate
side business making over $10,000 a year. He never thought about the taxes imlications
or business requirements.
Government entities are realizing people can make a significant income via ebay,
etsy, and other marketplaces. They are trying to figure out how to regulate it
while shady characters are taking advantage of people. The impacting to their
tax base and citizens they represent has them scrambling to put rules in place.
I read a report by the US Chamber of Commerce. They estimate 12.4% of all sales
occurred with online retailers. Imagine if you lost 12.4% of your income. It
makes sense why governments around the world have put rules in place to tax sales
on the marketplaces.
Enough rambling . . . 
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USA, Washington
United Kingdom, England
