WTF????!!!

I got my email today....now there is alot of my order that is on backorder status. I have one of the SE 5 packs, and 3 of the nightwatch packs that are shipping.

Shipping: 24.10
Tax: 17.94 (17.9% of the total of what is shipping this time)

I just got off the phone with TRU customer service....get this:
"When the beginning of an order is in stock and ready to ship....you pay the shipping and tax for the WHOLE ORDER....then when the other items come in, you only get charged the price of the item when they ship."

Guess this is how they encourage you to not cancel items on a partial shipment.

Actually, if the store has a retail presence in your state, they are supposed to charge sales tax.

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I can confirm the TRU tax thing. They charge FULL tax on everything you order and just send the items as they become available. Same thing happened to me. I ordered all those TRU exclusives and was charged $13 tax but am only receiving the two 5 packs ($50 value) first. That would be over 20% tax.

If your order has items not yet available, you get charged tax and shipping for everything in your order and they send out what ever they have on hand and send the rest out when they get it and you don't get charged more shipping or taxes. Happened to me last year, when they had Star Wars fig's on sale.

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So what happens when something you ordered inevitably gets cancelled? Do they refund the appropriate amount of tax and shipping?

This doesn't seem legal. How can they charge you tax and shipping on something you technically haven't bought yet? It would be like walking into a TRU, buying a comic pack for 10 bucks and paying tax for three comic packs - cause they know you will be back to buy two more later on and this just saves them the trouble of figuring it out later.

I could understand it more if it operated like BBTS's Pile O' Loot, where you pay at time of order but dictate when you want everything shipped - and have the option to cancel items that are delayed without charge.

Here is how it works...
Each state charges a sales tax amount. If the retailer has any presence or property in the state then they must charge that sales tax amount. There is no national sales tax. Some politicians are trying for one but it is of course not popular. I'm not sure how it will work in Canada.
I do get charged tax on Hasbro Toy Shop. Apparently they have something in Illinois.

I had ordered some of those Vintage style Star Wars figures on TRU.com last year. This was around the same time HTS had started a sale. I planned on cancelling my order with TRU because Hasbro's price was better. Unfortunately I couldn't reach any sort of customer service at the time. The only thing I could get was a confirmation on my order. So I decided I would just return it to the store when I got it. To my dismay all I got was STORE CREDIT! It wasn't all that bad since I did find some 25th Joes. However I really do not care for any store credit.

I'm sure this overcharge will not go unnoticed. If I were you guys I would demand to speak with a manager.

I would rather pay it all in one lump some then have them charge me each time something becomes available. I bought all 7 TRU exclusives (4 5-packs and 3 rankng sets) and was charged $13 tax and $10 shipping. They are mailing just the first 2 5-packs to me now, that alone would probably be $10 shipping. So if they charged me for every SEPARATE shipment, I would pay roughly that each time. It would be far worse to charge out separately. If half the sets get cancelled, then they would refund tax or do a store credit.

So what happens if the tax rate changes between you being charged and it being sent?

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Nothing. The tax rate at the time of purchase is all that would matter.

But they're charging me for the MSRP at the time they ship it, not when I made the order. I would think the gubmint would care about when the money changed hands more than when the agreement to do so happened.

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Nope, it goes by when you place the order. It wouldn't be right if the price went up on the item while it was backordered, and TRU charged you for the higher price when it did come back in stock, instead of the price you ordered it at, right? Same thing for the taxes.

Not to mention by already charging you for taxes and shipping, they have already accepted (partial) payment for the item. You are just paying the remaining amount off when the backordered items ship. It would be like if the tax rate went up while you had items in layaway. They wouldn't be affected.

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