On line with West Marine

[dcobbett]

Earlier today, I did a "buy it now" on ebay and bought a propeller from West Marine. Checking out, they added a sales tax to the purchase price that was more than the rate for the state I live in (MA) I called to find out why a tax (purchase was made throught California), plus what the precentage was that they were using. I was told they had to add tax because West had stores in MA , and the tax rate was 5% (correct for MA), since it included the shipping charges because FedEX also does business in MA.
Anyone else ever run into this situation?

[Bigshrimpin]

Not with west marine, but I did buy the wife a IPOD Bose Deal for Christmas and they added CA 7.75% sales tax.

[dcobbett]

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to pick on West Marine. I (we) don't do a lot of shopping on the internet except around the holidays, so I was surprised by the tax in general, and especially by a tax on shipping charges.

[ScottM]

You can't tax a shipping charge because it is considered a service. I would contest that one.

[RUSTYNTABATHA]

HTIS IS KINDA LATE ON THIS POST BUT IM JUST GETTING BACK ONLINE FROM THE WILD HOLIDAY SEASON. YOU SHOULD DEFINATLY CHECK WITH A LOCAL WEST MARINE ; THEY USUALY DONT HAVE A SHIPPING CHARGE THE ITEM YOU PURCHASED MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A AUTHORIZED WEST MARINE SALE.
GOOD LUCK
RUSTY