Newegg Premier vs. Tax Exempt

[HCHTech]

We maintain a Newegg Premier (free expedited shipping for somewhere around $50/yr) account as a last-resort vendor when we need something that isn't carried by our other vendors. In December, we got an email that effective 1/1, sales tax would be charged unless we filed an updated tax exemption certificate.

Ok, no problem, we sent them a copy of our reseller information and got on with our lives. A couple of weeks ago, we needed some RAM that was out of stock at our normal vendors but in stock @ Newegg. I was surprised to see that tax was charged on the sale, so started a string of support emails. They found our submitted tax certificate, but enlightened me that....

"Please also be advised it is our internal tax policy that both Premier membership and tax exempt cannot be coexisted under one account. Therefore, your Premier membership will be deactivated before the tax exemption application is processed. The other option is to register a new account on our website and you can apply tax exempt status to the new account and keep your Premier account as it is."

WTF, Newegg? So I have to choose between discounted shipping or paying tax for a wholesale purchase? Yet another reason to not shop there. Even with expedited shipping, I've noticed it often takes things 24-48 hours to ship after you order, so you're STILL looking at 4 or 5 days to get an item in hand.

We only had about 18 orders from them last year, so which is the bigger headache, tracking the damned pre-paid tax item-by-item so I don't double-pay the state, or adding a day or two to their already abysmal delivery times?

 

[sapphirescales]

Newegg sucks. We tend to get 99% of our stuff that we don't routinely stock from Microcenter. They'll match Newegg's pricing, you don't have to pay for shipping, and you can get it same day if you need to. Just had a stock trader whose system took a dump. He wanted us to build a new system, but the catch was he needed it within 24 hours. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but he wanted really high end components that we just don't stock. It would take us forever to sell a 1600 watt power supply and a $550 motherboard and $1,700 worth of RAM. Not to mention the graphics card fiasco. Thankfully our local Microcenter had it all in stock and we were able to get the system built for him on the same day.

On about half of the components were LESS than Newegg or ANYWHERE else online (even Amazon Business!). The other half they were a little more, but we price matched to Newegg and everything was golden. We saved about $170 vs. buying the stuff from Newegg. Even if they hadn't price matched, we still would've come out ahead because on the other half of the components they were only overpriced by about $70.

You've gotta love Microcenter.

 

[vickie thivierge]

In spite of all the Tax changes, I still use New Egg as one of my primary vendors as well as Microcenter. I don't use them as much as I could but the tax issue isn't a valid reason not to use them.

Don't know what your sales tax laws are but at the end of my quarter I simply deduct my "tax paid to vendors" from my tax owned. Now I'm here in CA...so we get hit pretty hard on the sales taxes but for us it all adjusts out at the end of the year. Not sure about PA but you should be able to write off the tax paid as well. Check with your accountant on this. Also if you're using QuickBooks, this is already pre-set to deduct your vendor tax from the tax owed. It's really not a big deal here guys.

 

[HCHTech]

In PA, it's called TPPR (Taxes Paid, Purchases Resold). Of course it's deductible. It's just a pain to track it (especially when some of your purchases are pre-tax and some are not) and you're giving the money to the state before it's due. I would just as soon have all my purchases be pre-tax. It feels like the *right* way to do it, and the right way always gets my vote.

 

[timeshifter]

I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon with my Prime account. They keep recommending that I get a business account. I'm afraid they'll treat it differently - i.e. no free same day shipping, etc.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon with my Prime account. They keep recommending that I get a business account. I'm afraid they'll treat it differently - i.e. no free same day shipping, etc.

We have prime on our business account and it's treated the same as a standard account, but we aren't close enough to one of their warehouses for one day shipping. We get two day. The business account gets us tax exemption.

 

[timeshifter]

We have prime on our business account and it's treated the same as a standard account, but we aren't close enough to one of their warehouses for one day shipping. We get two day. The business account gets us tax exemption.

How much is Prime for the business account. Any other benefits to using the business account besides tax exemption and keeping your books separate.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

How much is Prime for the business account. Any other benefits to using the business account besides tax exemption and keeping your books separate.

I believe it's $99 per year. With the business account you have the ability to approve orders if you set it up so multiple people can go on Amazon and "place an order", but you have to go in and approve it for it to complete. I'm sure there are other group benefits, but we don't use them since I do all of the ordering.

 

[vickie thivierge]

Here is another thought for process when using Amazon. "Warranty's" Not all manufactures will honor the warranties of items sold on Amazon or Ebay.

I've run into this a couple of times on items I purchased on amazon. Once I tell them that I purchased it through Amazon all bets are off.....they won't cover warranties on items sold via Amazon or Ebay. How crazy is that. This was a big ticket item so I was pretty piss off about it. So....be selective about what you order guys. I love Amazon for the great pricing, the fast deliver times and of course the return policy but other than that, I'm ordering my big ticket items directly from the approve vendor/manufacture to insure my warranties.

Now back to the Tax issue.....REALLY HCHTech. As I mentioned, Quickbooks keeps track it for you, "items for resale, shipping cost and tax paid to vendors" all right their on the ledger page.....and..... I get to deduct the amount I've paid on the bottom line when I pay my quarterly sales tax which means I'm writing a check for about 1/2 my sales tax owed because I've already pre paid it. The bottom line, either pay now, or pay later.....but at some point we're all going to pay!

 

[timeshifter]

Here is another thought for process when using Amazon. "Warranty's" Not all manufactures will honor the warranties of items sold on Amazon or Ebay.

I've run into this a couple of times on items I purchased on amazon. Once I tell them that I purchased it through Amazon all bets are off.....they won't cover warranties on items sold via Amazon or Ebay. How crazy is that. This was a big ticket item so I was pretty piss off about it. So....be selective about what you order guys. I love Amazon for the great pricing, the fast deliver times and of course the return policy but other than that, I'm ordering my big ticket items directly from the approve vendor/manufacture to insure my warranties.

What were you denied warranty coverage on? Was the item sold by Amazon or a third party on Amazon?

 

[vickie thivierge]

The last one was some high end stereo equipment we ordered for a customer, CT Sounds. I'm also a reseller for CT sounds, or I was a reseller until this happened. I saw that the manufacture was selling his equipment for less on Amazon Direct than I could buy it wholesale from my distributor and I made a sizable purchase for a customer.

Now I have an amplifier that came back in for a warranty issues and guess what?

I purchased a Del laptop "New" from amazon because I needed a fast deliver for a customer. It arrived like a new Dell in the original box with all the paperwork but six months later the customer brought it in for a warranty issue and we found out it was registered to someone else but may have been returned back to Amazon. No one would step up to take responsibility so we ate the repair.

I also ordered display equipment that fell apart after a few months and the manufacture wouldn't honor the warranty unless I had ordered it from an approved vendor. I do understand why some manufactures won't honor the warranties but the CT Sound people....who are a Amazon Direct Reseller...should have. When you purchase from Amazon & Ebay, you really don't know where this stuff is coming from or how old it really is. All though we've been fortunate in getting things resolved, its time consuming and frustrating to the customers. To avoid having these issues we tend to buy from vendors who we have the least amount of problems with and less on lowest price.

....and I never order electronics from EBAY.

 

[sapphirescales]

....and I never order electronics from EBAY.

Heh, more for me then! eBay is an EXCELLENT place to find contacts. I just bought 10 barcode scanners for a larger client of mine. They were about $800 direct from the manufacturer. I got them for $325 new, sealed in the box from an eBay seller. If one goes bad, who cares? I'll bite it. I made over $5,000 on that deal. If one of them fails, I'll buy a cheap refurb off eBay to replace it. By then they'll probably be $100 to $200 refurbished.

It all depends on how much you save buying through "unofficial" channels. Ask yourself if you could bite it and still make out. If the answer is yes, then by all means go for it. It's not worth it if you're only making an extra $30, but if you're able to get it for half off or less, or if you're able to repair/replace any that go bad for a reasonable price and still make out then you'd be a fool not to jump on it.

 

[timeshifter]

I purchased a Del laptop "New" from amazon because I needed a fast deliver for a customer.

Was it "ships and sold by Amazon" or was it "Sold by AmazingTechStore and Fulfilled by Amazon" (insert any of the millions of 3rd party sellers in place of AmazingTechStore)??

 

[HCHTech]

As I mentioned, Quickbooks keeps track it for you,

Yes it does - IF you enter it in the first place. When I buy stuff tax-exempt, I don't have to enter it. One less thing, really that's all it is - call me lazy.

 

[Your PCMD]

You've gotta love Microcenter.

Yes, yes I do.

I drive 60 miles to Microcenter every Sunday to restock OR on an as needed basis for clients IF they need it that day or the next day and I don't have it in stock (S&H charges apply ). I have a tax exempt account with them. I do so much business with them that Zac (one of the managers) there calls me when they have a crazy deal or an open box deal for me.

I just got 3 ASRock H110M-ITX/ac boards from them that normally cost $75 for $21/ea. as they were open box. Everything was in the box and they all work flawlessly when bench testing. I also bought 5 Toshiba 1TB drives for a cool $12/ea because the box was opened but they were still sealed in the bag. I just toss the box and sell the drive as an OEM instead of retail.

The only thing that sucks, is that not everyone has a Microcenter to go to and Frys can't touch MC. For CPU's and some SSD's MC has a limit of 1 per customer, however, I purchase multiple's because I do so much business there and Zac or any managers there at the time approves it.