The neverending story continues…

We thought this story was over last week when Wal-Mart fessed up to charging illegal sales tax in Connecticut. We were wrong.

The Hartford Courant is reporting that, despite acknowledging the wrongdoing and vowing to change its ways when it comes to double-charging sales tax, the message has yet to filter down to, you know, the people that matter. Namely, employees. The following is an excerpt from a letter submitted to the Courant:

I find it absolutely incredible that no salesperson knew the “corrected” policy. I hope the assistant manager refunded my sales tax because she really knew it was the right thing to do, or if she just did it to please the customer.  In any case, I’m happy I got my money back. Of course, it’s not the money, it was the principal of the whole thing. I’m still amazed at the whole thing and it has “tainted” my thoughts of their store and my willingness to continue shopping there.

I’d say this was a one-time deal, and we’ll never read about these sales tax shenanigans again. But…

The Courant has forwarded the complaint to the Connecticut Consumer Protection Commission.

Despite promise of reform, Wal-Mart still violating Connecticut tax laws [Hartford Courant]

One would think that after Wal-Mart was finally forced to concede it is violating state tax laws by charging a second tax on even exchanges, it would actually change its ways.

But read what happened to the aValley family when they went shopping last week at the Cromwell Wal-Mart store. I send their complaint to state Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr:

Sent Friday:

“I cannot believe what I’m about to tell you. My husband went to Wal-mart today to do an EVEN exchange of a shower hose (he bought one 2 days ago, it was broken, so he went to exchange it for the exact same one!).  He couldn’t find his receipt but figured he didn’t need it since it was a completely even exchange.

Well, he just told me that they made him pay the sales tax on the item upon exchanging it because he didn’t have a receipt.  I am furious!  He didn’t read your article about this last week and thus was not aware of what had happened.  But I did.

However, my husband said he knew it didn’t seem right.  So he asked for a manager.  The manager told him that it was their store policy.  My husband tried to argue with him, but had my sick son with him and thus could not really spend the time pressing the issue.  He paid the sales tax on the item and left.

This has infuriated me so that I had to pull up your article to read right away (it’s midnight as I right this!) to make sure I wasn’t crazy and write an email to you.  I’m a stickler for rules, and since Wal-mart recently fessed up to illegally charging sales tax on exchanged items, and then charged my husband sales tax on his exchanged item, I’m so mad.

Second email:

I went back to Wal-mart on Friday to get the sales tax refund, with your article in hand.  The first salesperson was clueless - would have refunded the tax to me if she knew how, but didn’t, so she asked for assistance.  The 2nd person and a nearby 3rd person both told me no - that it was Wal-mart’s policy to charge the 2nd sales tax if exchanging without a receipt.  I pulled out the article and showed them the relevant paragraphs.  They didn’t care.  I told them that I wanted to speak with a manager, and if he/she was not available, I was going to call the district manager (his phone number is on a poster behind the Returns desk), and if that didn’t work, I was going to continue up the chain of command from there.  So while fetching the manager, the 3rd salesperson tried explaining to me their policy.  But when she realized that I had an exactly even exchange, she then agreed with me and said I should not have paid the sales tax again and should be refunded (but didn’t take any action to do so).  Meanwhile, the 2nd salesperson pointed out to me what was written on their receipt - the part about State law not allowing them to refund sales tax without a receipt.  I said, “This was not a refund, it was an even exchange.” She continued to tell me it was store policy, despite the fact that I was showing her that their “policy” violated state law.  Finally, the assistant manager showed up.  When I explained the situation, she immediately refunded me the sales tax and told salesperson #2 that I was right.

I find it absolutely incredible that no salesperson knew the “corrected” policy.  I hope the assistant manager refunded my sales tax because she really knew it was the right thing to do, or if she just did it to please the customer.  In any case, I’m happy I got my money back.  Of course, it’s not the money, it was the principal of the whole thing.  I’m still amazed at the whole thing and it has “tainted” my thoughts of their store and my willingness to continue shopping there.  I’m very curious to know if anyone else is still paying a 2nd sales tax on even exchanges.  I’m sure they are…

Again, I’m happy to provide you with my address and phone number - just wondering what you need it for.

Thanks!

Kim LaValley
At this point, what recourse do we have?  I suppose I could print your article, bring it into the store to show the manager, and demand the $1.19 back.  We do have the receipt showing that there was an even exchange and that sales tax was paid.  That should be enough, I hope.

I thought you would be interested in knowing this happened.  Even after Wal-mart fesses up and say they are going to refund customers who can show they were charged a second tax, they still clearly do not feel that they are violating state laws and have not changed their practices one bit!!!  I’d be very interested in knowing if there are others out there who are STILL paying a 2nd sales tax.  Anything you can do?

Thanks for your time,
Kim LaValley

Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, December 15, 2008

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