Would you pay extra at costco vs. amazon (tv)?

[LoveTrains]

Sales tax? Is the savings really only $20?

For $20 I would probably buy from Costco b/c their return policy is better, but I'm not sure.

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2012 12:00:29 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Sales tax? Is the savings really only $20?

For $20 I would probably buy from Costco b/c their return policy is better, but I'm not sure.

this and I would upgrade my membership so I get the 2% back

[Deleted]

I would probably buy from Costco because returns, if necessary, would be much, much easier.

But Costco only takes Amex, right? I'd definitely use Amex instead of paying with cash to get the free extended warranty protection.

[ssmjlm]

Oct 9, 2012 12:00:29 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Sales tax? Is the savings really only $20?

For $20 I would probably buy from Costco b/c their return policy is better, but I'm not sure.

This. If something happens you can just put it back in the car and take it to Costco.

[womet]

Oct 9, 2012 12:19:04 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Oct 9, 2012 12:00:29 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Sales tax? Is the savings really only $20?

For $20 I would probably buy from Costco b/c their return policy is better, but I'm not sure.

This. If something happens you can just put it back in the car and take it to Costco.

If something were wrong with it, that $20 would be worth it to be able to return it to the store.

[rikki]

You can't just take TVs back to Costco. I think the normal return policy is 90 days for electronics. They do give you a free second year warranty though. I had to use mine last year. They sent Sony to my house and replaced the TV for free after owning it for 1 year and 11 months. I bought my latest TV from them just for that reason.

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2012 12:28:42 GMT -5 rikki said:

You can't just take TVs back to Costco. I think the normal return policy is 90 days for electronics. They do give you a free second year warranty though. I had to use mine last year. They sent Sony to my house and replaced the TV for free after owning it for 1 year and 11 months. I bought my latest TV from them just for that reason.

FYI, Amex will do that too (if the warranty is a year, they'll double it to two years), regardless of where you make your purchase.

[LoveTrains]

Oct 9, 2012 12:05:36 GMT -5 Stan said:

Oct 9, 2012 12:01:45 GMT -5 vigurl said:

this and I would upgrade my membership so I get the 2% back

That's what we did. And I always claim all my Amazon purchases on my state returns so I pay taxes on them anyway. I may be the only person in the world who does this.

ETA: We also paid with our cash back rewards AMEX, so we got another 1% back.

My state has a sales/use tax "safe harbor" thing. You pay a certain amount, based on your AGI, and it is supposed to cover you for all items purchased out of state. I always pay for the safe harbor b/c I am too lazy to add up all my receipts for the sales/use tax I should actually pay.

ETA: It would actually be pretty hard for me to actually pay an exact figure, because I live right at the state border and buys tons of stuff in a neighboring state. I pay that states 6.25% sales tax, but theoretically when I bring it home, I should pay the extra 0.75% sales tax to my state. It would really just be sooo much paperwork, so that is why I just do the safe harbor.

[Deleted]

Lovetrains, I would *love* an arrangement like that. I do get charged sales tax on Amazon purchases, but I also live about 500 feet from NJ (which has much nicer sales tax rules) and I do so much shopping online (most of which is at places with NY locations so I get charged tax right away, but some of which is not) that it would be extremely cumbersome to figure out what our real liability is.

[suburbanzookeeper]

I try to buy my TVs at Costco for the ability to return/warranty protection with them + Amex. Amex went over my full Costco warranty (two years) so when my TV blew 2 years & a month after purchase, Amex took care of it completely.

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2012 14:48:16 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

Oct 9, 2012 12:28:42 GMT -5 rikki said:

You can't just take TVs back to Costco. I think the normal return policy is 90 days for electronics. They do give you a free second year warranty though. I had to use mine last year. They sent Sony to my house and replaced the TV for free after owning it for 1 year and 11 months. I bought my latest TV from them just for that reason.

I think pp meant that it is worth the $20 not to have to deal with getting the TV back to Amazon during the normal return period - if it dies within 90 days, it's way easier to drive it back to Costco. But I don't know how Amazon deals with return shipping if there is something wrong with the product.

They're really good about things like that, but even if the returns are free, they can be a PITA. Particularly if you've thrown out the box and don't have appropriate packing materials around, or live in a place where you'd have to wait around for UPS or whoever to pick it up from you. We order stuff like that online because where we live, returning via car is a PITA anyway, but returns are always way more annoying than they would be if we had bought at a b&m store and lived in an easily drivable area where we had an easily accessible car and parking lot and big box stores and such.

[isabel]

CostCo just seems so much easier to deal with for something like this. I'm all about saving money, but $20 wouldn't be enough to sway me.

[GailGoldie]

costco is amazing with returns- i'd rather buy with costco.... and i get 2% back.

[jena]

I paid $30 extra to get our very large bedroom rug from costco vs. overstock. I have trouble returning shoes by mail, there's no way I'm going to send back anything large that way.