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June 30, 2005
[OT] Electronic Arts is Stealing from Customers!
Electronic Arts is overcharging on taxes slipping in an extra 25 cents or more on the cost of your video game purchase!
A very good friend of mine recently purchased Battlefield 2 from Electronic Arts directly and realized that they charged him too much on tax.
California state law says (paraphrasing) "when an item is purchased online but from within the same state that the taxes paid is based on the purchaser’s address and not the sellers". However, Electronic Arts is refusing to credit him the 25 cents they overcharged him as they charged him their districts tax rate which is higher then his. They are offering to refund his purchase if he returns it but he no longer has the original packaging which means he would have to pay for shipping.
To clarify, California State Tax is 7.25% and then each county / district adds their own tax on top of that. San Francisco Bay Area is 1% while Orange County is only .5% which makes Orange Country’s total tax rate 7.75% and the San Francisco Bay Area 8.25%. If the item was purchased in Orange County but was shipped from San Francisco only Orange County’s tax rate of 7.75% would apply.
Granted, 25 cents isn’t much but say that 100,000 people where over charged. That total comes out to EA making an extra $25,000 from “taxes” that they are not held liable for (and I wonder where that money goes). Bottom line, what EA is saying is that he either has to deal with losing 25 cents or he has to cough up the shipping charges. Which is very unethical and a deceiving business practice.
I would think that a company as large as EA would act more responsibly to their customers, know how the tax laws work and have better customer service training (or at least have their reps read each others responses). As you’ll see in the support incident below some responses from EA reps are completely inaccurate and contradict what the other rep had just said or what they themselves had said in a previous response.
Support incident below. Names, emails addresses and other private information have been edited out:
EA Online Support
Customer 06/22/2005 06:28 PM
Dear EA Support,
I was charged too much tax on my Batllefield 2 purchase. I was charge 8.25% and tax here in Orange County (CA) is 7.75%
Thanks,
[Customer]
Response ([EA Rep 1].) 06/24/2005 04:29 PM
Hi [Customer]
Thanks for contacting EA Online Support.
Please be informed that following is the sales tax that applies to California: CA - 8.25%
Also, tax will be assessed based on customer's shipping address. We will collect tax on the subtotal amount of the order.
If there is anything else we can do to help, please let us know.
Thanks for your interest in EA.
Take care,
[EA Rep 1]
Customer 06/26/2005 03:51 PM
8.25% is not the standard sales tax rate for all of California. In fact in some counties they have a tax rate of 8.75%. I live in Orange County, so my tax rate is 7.75%
CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA SALES TAX RATES:
http://www.biz2bizonline.com/13ge2_02.htm
please send me a check for a tax refund.
Thanks,
[Customer]
Response ([EA Rep 2].) 06/28/2005 11:00 AM
Greetings,
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.
Tax is charged based on the location of the EA Office in the State, not the shipping location. Our office is located in the Bay Area so that is the tax rate that is charged for any orders within California.
If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this email. Our Quality Service Representatives are available Monday-Friday 8:00 am to 5:00pm PST.
Thank you,
EA.Com The Place to Play
Customer 06/28/2005 01:53 PM
Dear EA:
California State tax law says that sales tax will be charge according to where the resident lives not where the item purchased was shipped from. (http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub44.pdf)
A good example of this is set when an individual lives outside the county or city. State sales tax is only 7.25% county tax is added to the resident for which he or she resides in. The BAY area adds 1% tax for sales to residents in their county. Orange County only adds .50% sales tax. So the total tax should have been 7.75%
It would be best for EA.com to try to resolve the issue with a single customer before this becomes a statewide class action.
Please forward this to your management
[Customer]
Response ([EA Rep 2].) 06/29/2005 05:03 PM
Greetings,
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.
What I listed is how I believe it works however it may be different. The Item was not shipped from our location in California so it is not charging you based on the shipping location where it was sent from.
We can not submit a Credit Request for the Tax listed, however if you would like a refund please return the package to UPS and ask them to return it to the sender. Once we receive it the Charges will be returned to the card used to order . You can then re-order it or get it from a local retailer that has your standard tax rate.
So given EA Rep 2's latest response where did this magic 8.25% tax rate come from? 8.25% would be the tax rate for SF Bay area as he had stated in an earlier response. However, his latest response now says that the tax rate was not based on where the item was shipped from and there is not much he can do.
Unfortunately for EA they have no way of issuing a refund for an over tax so they must bare the burden of having all that extra cash.
-erik
Posted by erikbianchi at 05:14 AM | Comments (53)
June 21, 2005
[Site Launch] Nestea Ice
Today Juxt Interactive Launched NesteaIce.com:
The NesteaICE.com site was created to build awareness for a new Tea product from Nestea called NESTEA ICE. This unique beverage has a freezing agent, which cools your mouth when you drink it. The drink is being dubbed as ³Absurdly Cold² which was our cue to create this somewhat absurd interactive experience. The site features lots of fun content, including, some ridiculous videos and a custom tee shirt designer.
Don't miss the site's audio or the 3 videos (one of which features a cameo from yours truly) =)
-erik
Posted by erikbianchi at 06:24 PM | Comments (3)
[Jobs] Work for Juxt
Juxt Interactive (www.juxtinteractive.com) is currently seeking world class Flash Designers and Art Directors. Have a gander at the requirements and if you’ve got the skillz send us a shout!
-erik
Posted by erikbianchi at 06:14 PM | Comments (132)
June 10, 2005
[Jobs] ActionScript Developer Job Op in Orange County
Vara Stream www.varastream.com (located in sunny Orang County southern California) is seeking a couple of serious advanced ActionScript Developers. If you are a designer, animator, graphic artist or only dabble in AS this job is NOT for you (sorry).
Requirements ActionScript 1.0 / 2.0, severside ActionScript / Flashcom, OOP, design patterns, framework development, server integration, heavy UI coding / integration.
If you're interested and meet the above criteria please send a copy of your resume to:
Mehdi Asgari mehdi@varastream.com
Serious ActionScript Developers only please.
Let Mehdi know you saw my post! =)
-erik
Posted by erikbianchi at 10:26 PM | Comments (222)
June 06, 2005
[OT] FIOS is FAST!!! (must see pic)
So I just got my Verizon FIOS broadband connection installed at my home office. To say the least, it is FREAKING FAST! Check out my results:
The following image is the actual result of my bandwidth test off of CNET.com and has not be doctored in anyway (aside from being cropped). The page was not cached and I did not interfere with the testing process (clicking refresh, back, next, etc).
In yet another test I downloaded a 10MB file off a friend's server in less then one second! (To be fair his ping was under 100 and has an extremly high upload).
All that bandwidth for just $49 a month!
-erik
Posted by erikbianchi at 11:48 PM | Comments (8)