Adorama issues anyone? Ever try to return a product?

[neuroanatomist]

- Next thing I realized, for NJ, you pay sales tax! That's like another extra $400, bam, right there it hit me.

Ummm...you do realize that you're legally obligated to pay the NJ Sales and Use Tax on those Amazon purchases, right?  From NJ Pub ANJ-7: "Out-of-State Purchases Delivered to New Jersey. When taxable goods and services are purchased in another state and delivered to New Jersey for use in New Jersey, no credit is allowed for sales tax paid to the other state. Use tax is due at the rate of 7% of the purchase price, including delivery charges." 

You're supposed to declare such purchases and remit the tax to the State, either separetely within 20 days or on your state income tax return.  Bam, right there.  Just sayin'.

[skitron]

If I bought the camera from you and if it had an issue, I would have to go to UPS, pay for shipping, pay for insurance, and worry about the shipment and loose sleep over if the box made it safely to your warehouse.

Despite the language of their policy, that was not my actual experience with them when I had a legit problem with a 5D2 I bought from them. When I informed them of the problem they did not push back at all and emailed me a shipping label without me even asking for one. So apparently the language is meant to hedge against abuses and they take care of good customers with legit issues. Not to say that the language isn't a turn off for some people, because clearly it turned you off.

[skitron]

- Next thing I realized, for NJ, you pay sales tax! That's like another extra $400, bam, right there it hit me.

Ummm...you do realize that you're legally obligated to pay the NJ Sales and Use Tax on those Amazon purchases, right?  From NJ Pub ANJ-7: "Out-of-State Purchases Delivered to New Jersey. When taxable goods and services are purchased in another state and delivered to New Jersey for use in New Jersey, no credit is allowed for sales tax paid to the other state. Use tax is due at the rate of 7% of the purchase price, including delivery charges." 

You're supposed to declare such purchases and remit the tax to the State, either separetely within 20 days or on your state income tax return.  Bam, right there.  Just sayin'.

Also, I think Amazon recently agreed to begin collecting sales taxes in all 50 states since all states have similar laws from what I read.

[Helen Oster]

Not to say that the language isn't a turn off for some people, because clearly it turned you off.

You got it, EXACTLY!

[Helen Oster]

Ummm...you do realize that you're legally obligated to pay the NJ Sales and Use Tax on those Amazon purchases, right?   

You're supposed to declare such purchases and remit the tax to the State, either separetely within 20 days or on your state income tax return.  Bam, right there.  Just sayin'.

Because we have our Distribution Center in NJ we have to collect the tax on yor behalf, which I guess should actually be more convenient as it saves you the time dealing with it in retrospect.

[bdunbar79]

- Next thing I realized, for NJ, you pay sales tax! That's like another extra $400, bam, right there it hit me.

Ummm...you do realize that you're legally obligated to pay the NJ Sales and Use Tax on those Amazon purchases, right?  From NJ Pub ANJ-7: "Out-of-State Purchases Delivered to New Jersey. When taxable goods and services are purchased in another state and delivered to New Jersey for use in New Jersey, no credit is allowed for sales tax paid to the other state. Use tax is due at the rate of 7% of the purchase price, including delivery charges." 

You're supposed to declare such purchases and remit the tax to the State, either separetely within 20 days or on your state income tax return.  Bam, right there.  Just sayin'.

Nah uhhhhh!!! I don't gotta pay no sales tax on the internet!

[tphillips63]

Nah uhhhhh!!! I don't gotta pay no sales tax on the internet!


Those days are numbered, it is all coming to an end, very soon.

[DerStig]

Helen,

The problem is that your competitors, Amazon to be exact, does not have such strict and unpopular rules. I hope Adorama management realizes that.

Hand on heart I have never thought of Amazon as a competitor.


Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is the world's largest online retailer with headquarters in Seattle.

It has separate retail websites for USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and China. There are 12 fulfilment centers in the US; 3 in Canada; 7 across China and Japan; 12 in the UK; plus 11 across the rest of Europe.



Adorama is a family business, a specialist photographic retailer with many staff who are photographers themselves - with our office above a single store in NYC, and one warehouse in New Jersey......

Helen,

I symphatize, that's why I took the time and trouble to register and post this. If I didn't care, I wouldn't bother.

Unless you guys start selling everything with a discount, you will have this issue. It doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure this out.

In business, companies that fail to adapt don't survive. Its unfortunate but true, blockbuster, aol, etc are a few. What Adorama can do is to follow Amazon model where Amazon provides this Prime service for $75/year. You could ask people to pay a premium, say $100/year, and those people don't pay for return shipping, or don't need to return an item first before a replacement arrives. Furthermore, you could flag abusive users and kick them out. It's not really hard.

Anyways, its your store, your business. I just wanted to post this here so that maybe you can relay the message to the right people who can do something about it.

[TexasBadger]

I have used Adorama for many years and swear by them.  If on the rare occasion, I find a legitimate lower price elsewhere, I call them up and they match it!  I preordered a 5D3 in early March and it was shipped the day the camera was released.  That is quite different than the horror stories from people who ordered from Amazon and B&H.  B&H is normally my second choice, but when they close for over a week for the holidays it is a real pain.  I know about use tax but comeon, let's be realistic.  The sales tax on the 5D3 alone would ave been ~$300.  Please note that I also drive over the speed limit on occasion.  Adorama rocks!

[unfocused]

With Texas Badger's positive comment, I think it is now time for the administrators to lock this thread down. It is going nowhere.

I applaud Helen's patience, but a extended debate over one company's business model vs. another company's business model doesn't seem all that productive.

It's more than a bit ironic that this thread started out as a screed against a company's customer service (with no details as to what the issue supposedly was) and now it has degenerated into a lecture on why companies with brick and mortar stores and real employees and who already compete aggressively on pricing ought to be offering free return shipping just because a company whose business model is built on avoiding taxes, avoiding infrastructure investment and avoiding investment in human capital does so. Frankly, as a customer, I don't want to subsidize the whims of other customers who order products they don't want and then think that their fickleness ought to be subsidized by responsible and reliable customers.

Or maybe the point is that companies that sell used equipment ought to be offering higher prices to sellers of used equipment, regardless of whether or not those prices would allow them to make a profit. It's gotten a little hard to tell exactly what the complaint is, if there is one.

I share TexasBadger's enthusiasm for Adorama and have been in that camp for more than 30 years. It's fine if others disagree, but must we continue this pointless debate?

Time to shut this one down.