On Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:22:04 -0700, sms wrote:

I went to buy chlorine today. I had been paying $20 for 8 gallons of 12%
($2.50/gallon), today the price jumped to $30 ($3.75/gallon).

Hi Steve,

I tried to tell you about this before it happened since they told
me they were going to do that.

They told me HASA stopped the deal where The Pool Guys, in
Saratoga, would sell 8 gallons of pool chlorine for the price
of 4 gallons.

Now it's just 8 gallons for the price of 6 gallons.

What irked me was that they charged you the tax on the full price
of the second (free) set of 4 gallons - but - if you paid them
cash - they didn't ring it up ever.

So, they were charging YOU the tax, but they were keeping it for
themselves (and not giving it to the feds).

I don't mind them not giving it to the feds, but, they shouldn't
charge us for that tax if they're pocketing it for themselves.

Anyway, they're still pocketing the "tax" if you pay cash, but,
what they're doing now is selling you 8 gallons for the price
of 6, so, they're only cheating you out of two gallons worth
of tax.

Plus, they use the chlorine for pool work, so, checking their
inventories against receipts won't work, so it's free money
to them. Again, I don't care - but they shouldn't charge me
for a tax that they themselves are clearly not paying.

Lot's of companies in the Silicon Valley do this; you'd think
the franchise tax board would just go around buying stuff with
cash and noticing that it's not rung up on the register.

I complained but they still do it. I don't care if they're
not paying tax but they shouldn't charge me if they're not
(Vito's New York Style Pizza off of Lawrence does the same
thing.)