TomTom renewal Ripoff?????

[snoking]

I renewed my 4 maps a year deal the other day for $39.80. Stop the train, got charged.
$38.90 Maps
$3.26 Sales Tax
$1.29 by Credit Card company for a foreign transaction.

Called TomTom: Yes Mr. D you got charged Washington State Sales Tax.
ME: But you do not have a store front in the State of Washington. Silence on the other end.
ME: Hello you still there?
Yes
ME: So my money went to the Netherlands, and you charged me Washington State Sales Tax?

I think I will call the state later this morning and see if they are receiving sales tax from a Netherlands based Company called TomTom!

I know that the State is trying to get out of state online retailers to collect sales tax and "give" it to the State of Washington, BUT! Why would a company in the Netherlands volunteer to do this, with my money?

Snoking

 

[snoking]

Customer Service?

So today I get this in an email from TomTom:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the 72 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed the status of your question to SOLVED.

AND I have not received anything else from them!

Chris

 

[Arno]

So today I get this in an email from TomTom:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the 72 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed the status of your question to SOLVED.

That is an annoying automatic reaction from TomTom.
To keep things alive demand an eMail confirmation that they are still working on the problem.
Even after such a reply has been received, that automatic 72 hour notice will arrive.

It took over half a year to have a problem settled but I knew it would take that time as they had informed that the solution would not happen until after the release of a second new map.
Having that eMail in my Inbox allowed me to ignore subsequent 72 hour Resolved notices.

 

[snoking]

Washington State Department of Revenue

I have an email into the Washington State Department of Revenue questioning them on the issue. Should there be Washington State Sales Tax on a foriegn transaction (this would be a new first) and if so have they received money from Tomtom???

Chris

 

[snoking]

Shipped to address - NOT

I have been reading more on this and it involves ship to address agreement between 18 States. Stop the train. They did not ship anything to me. This is an online map update service. I might be in Arizona or Canada when I download the next map update. I have a Washington State billing address on my credit card, but there was no shipping address involved. Tomtom are you reading this???? Give my money back or start shipping the map updates to me on a CD. Most likely would not take 4 hours to load a new map that way!!!!!

And when did the Netherlands become a State???

 

[bhl62]

I had a long email discussion with TT service about why they issue invoices from the US office but insist on charging credit cards from the Netherlands, since it gives the credit card companies an excuse to nickel and dime customers. They beat around the bush and tried to say that the credit card company is at fault before finally admitting that they were charging credit cards from their European server.

As a matter of principal I chose not to buy a LIVE subscription when my trial ran out until they started charging us from the US. I have a 1 year map subscription that made my credit card company richer, and that's the end of the line as far as online purchases from TT are concerned. I'm not optimistic they'll ever fix this issue, so I'm hoping there's a good alternative in a few years time when my 740 gets long in the tooth, from a company that's serious about the US market.

 

[gatorguy]

You can blame their new outside cash management company for the payments funneling thru the Netherlands. There were very good reasons for TomTom to make the change, but it was a business decision by TomTom and no mistake by the credit card companies. Don't expect it to change any time soon.

 

[bhl62]

That's what I figured based on what I heard so I'm gradually familiarizing myself with Garmin's alphabet soup of model numbers and feature sets for whenever I need a replacement. That will probably be sometime after my map subscription runs out and the last map becomes unreliable.

I figure that gives Garmin at least a couple of years to catch up with TT features. Maybe even less since TT is moving backwards with their bluetooth support and dropping feaures at the higher end. It will be a shame to see TT going the way of Betamax!! (For those not familiar with the videotape wars, the lower quality VHS format beat Sony's higher quality Betamax purely because of market acceptance driven by cost and availability.)

 

[c4791p]

You can blame their new outside cash management company for the payments funneling thru the Netherlands. There were very good reasons for TomTom to make the change, but it was a business decision by TomTom and no mistake by the credit card companies. Don't expect it to change any time soon.

As I was doing my "due dilligence" (MBA-Speak) wrt Live Subscriptions (My TT740TM Live comes with lifetime Traffic and Maps but only 90day intro Live services) I noted a caveat via TT Home (I am almost 98% sure that's where I saw the note) as I contemplated pricing for the various LIVE renewal options. That note essentially reminded that purchase was being made from NL and would vary because of conversion rates and CC Company charges for international transactions. I didn't see any reminder they would collect sales taxes.

But at least, in my mind, TT was up front about the majority of charges I would see. Whether those charges and fees are reasonable are going to factor into my purchase decision since they increase the bottom line cost of the subscription. I just have to make sure the amount of value received is at least equal to value paid. My upcoming road trip will let me confirm value.

Now wrt sales taxes collected, if TT or their processing company is indeed collecting them they had better be rebating them to the various states. There is big political stink arising as several states start to realize they are seeing nothing in return for all the increasing internet sales even though many companies are indeed collecting the sales taxes. So not only do they not see tax revenue (not all companies collect and those that do aren't sending it to the states) brick and mortar stores are going away so they get hit triple. Here in NV I hear a lot of talk about legal action in concert with a large collection of states.

Of course, all us good guys who buy via the internet properly file our annual State Use Tax declaration each April and send in our payment for all the items we buy out of state tax free from people with no store front in our home state, don't we

Chuck