Has Amazon.com ever done this to you?

Has Amazon.com ever done this to you?

In the last couple of months, we’ve purchased a number of things from Amazon. As we usually do, once we complete our transaction, we print a copy of the invoice for our records and write the amount in our register. But out of the last half-dozen purchases, half were modified before being charged!

Three transactions had the “estimated tax” adjusted. One increased by $0.55, one was up $0.12, and one had actually gone down $0.31. When we first noticed it, it was driving us nuts, and we had to confirm each time that we had actually written it down correctly — it agreed with our printed invoice — but the amount NOW showing on our Amazon account was the new dollar amount, the one they actually charged us for.

We called Amazon and asked about this and was basically told that this is normal, that depending on what the actual delivery address was, the actual tax might have to be adjusted to match the local rates and that it was also possible for tax rates to change from the time an item was ordered to the time it was shipped and charged to us.

I find these answers very difficult to accept. The first one is just plain ridiculous, as our orders were shipped to the same address specified when we ordered them. So there was no change of delivery address and no need to “recalculate” the amount of tax on the item.

The second explanation is equally laughable, since we are talking about three orders placed weeks apart from one another, I find it very hard to swallow that State or municipal tax rates would change multiple times during that period!

There is no valid explanation for these invoice modifications. In all cases sales tax is based on a TAX TABLE for the DELIVERY ADDRESS and NEITHER ONE CHANGED between the time we ordered our items and the time they were shipped.

Further, once a transaction is complete, a method of payment offered and a receipt issued (by way of their confirmation email), we have a binding sales contract. You can’t simply change the terms of a contract without prior notification and approval.

No matter how I look at this, Amazon stole from us. Not only is it theft, but it was done in such a way, under the guise of “taxes,” that I’m quite sure the state AG would be interested in.

Admittedly, I’m only talking about less than a dollar, all told. But we’re only one family. How many sales transactions did Amazon take, fulfill, and bill during this last holiday season? If this sort of “error” happened even for a small percentage of those, they still walked away with a big fat chuck of change at their customer’s expense.

We were on the fence before, but we may actually be done with using Amazon, now.
 
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Wake Up, Rosetta!

EU spacecraft Rosetta wakes up at 5am EST (10am GMT) after 957 days of hibernation. Once the craft completes its wake-up checklist, it will finally begin its mission of orbiting and and mapping the surface of comet 67P (Churyumov-Gerasimenko) before also sending down a lander for an “in person” investigation. This is the first time in history an Earth craft has made rendezvous with a comet, and the first time we’ve ever escorted one past its closest approach to the Sun.

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Link: ift.tt/1kKpTAH
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Yahoo confirms theft of 450K unencrypted passwords: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229066/Y…

Yahoo confirms theft of 450K unencrypted passwords:www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229066/Yahoo_confirms_theft_of_450K_unencrypted_passwordsYahoo! claims that only 5% of the 450,000 stolen account names had valid passwords.  But that’s still 22,500 more accounts than I’m comfortable with … especially since they say approximately 100,000 of the 450K accounts included Gmail addresses and more than 55,000 contained Hotmail addresses.Although the article doesn’t specifically rule it out, I’m concerned other Yahoo properties too, like Yahoo Groups — especially if you happen to use the same account-name for both Yahoo! and Yahoo Groups.My suggestion is, if you have a Yahoo Groups or other Yahoo! property account, that you change the password as soon as you can — this goes double if you have an actual Yahoo! account.  Also, if you happened to use the same password for Yahoo! as you do for your email account, change your email password too!Better safe, than sorry.
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Yahoo confirms theft of 450K unencrypted passwords: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229066/Y…

Yahoo confirms theft of 450K unencrypted passwords:www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229066/Yahoo_confirms_theft_of_450K_unencrypted_passwordsYahoo! claims that only 5% of the 450,000 stolen account names had valid passwords.  But that’s still 22,500 more accounts than I’m comfortable with … especially since they say approximately 100,000 of the 450K accounts included Gmail addresses and more than 55,000 contained Hotmail addresses.Although the article doesn’t specifically rule it out, I’m concerned other Yahoo properties too, like Yahoo Groups — especially if you happen to use the same account-name for both Yahoo! and Yahoo Groups.My suggestion is, if you have a Yahoo Groups or other Yahoo! property account, that you change the password as soon as you can — this goes double if you have an actual Yahoo! account.  Also, if you happened to use the same password for Yahoo! as you do for your email account, change your email password too!Better safe, than sorry.
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