Did Everyone hear the PA woman won her fight against Tax on Toilet Paper?
By Dr. Ann
@drannhh (15219)
United States
November 30, 2007 5:28pm CST
When Mary Bach filed a complaint against K-Mart for repeatedly charging her tax on a non-taxable item, she did not expect to have to go to court over the matter. However, K-Mart officials would not settle out of court with her unless she signed a confidentiality agreement. Mary wanted other customers to know their rights, too, and refused to hide the matter. K-Mart which is now owned by Sears has announced they will not appeal.
Do you respect this woman's courage in standing up for what she believed to be right even though it seems like a small matter? If a store collects sales tax on items that are non-taxable, do you think they turn that money over to the state or keep it for themselves?
Do you think that if ten thousand people are incorrectly charged, that someone ends up with quite a bit of money?
Have you heard of any other cases like this? Does this sort of thing happen in countries other than the US? Are consumer protection laws beginning to emerge in place that have not had them before?
1 person likes this
9 responses
@hillock (749)
• Qatar
2 Dec 07
i read something like these in the newspaper before. but like her, he sue big time companies with his less than ten dollars product! It was different but the spirit is the same! Its good to know that Mary filed a complaint and won! Sometimes the value doesnt matter maybe but charging you of something you shouldnt be charged is still a big deal! And its your hard earn money where you poured sweat and for some instances where your brain cells were stressed out! LOL! we all hate when we feel being cheated! Go Girl!
1 person likes this
@riveream (111)
• Philippines
1 Dec 07
Nope. I didn't hear her case either in television or newspaper. I live in the Philippines. But it is good thing for her that she won against K-mart and that she fights on what she believes is right. As we all know here, K-Mart is a big company.
For now, I dont see or known any supermarket here that charged tax on non-tax item. When I or my family buy something on a supermarket, we always ask for receipt. And they always categorize the things that have tax and does not have tax. USually all the tax item are placed above and the non-tax item below with the headings NON-TAX ITEM or something. And we always compute if he payment for tax and non-tax are correct. And so far, it is correct.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
1 Dec 07
But how do you calculate the tax? I know it is a % times the total - here in my neck of CA it is 7.75% but I dont' know what is and is not taxable other than food, and then you have to manually go back and add things up? I would like to know exactly how she figured this out!
@lbinkley (1075)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I heard about that earlier today actually, and I commend her for doing that! First of all I really didn't know that toilet paper wasn't supposed to be taxed. I wonder how many times I have had to pay tax on that and I shouldn't have? Crazy! I definitely respect her courage and I thank her for it as well, because now I know. I doubt that Kmart was actually giving the money to the state, just the fact that they wanted her to sign a confidentiality agreement over that tells me that they knew they were wrong, but they wanted to keep doing it to other people who didn't know any better. I'll bet they were really making a pretty penny off of doing that as well. I am glad she went to court over this, and I hope it makes businesses realize that doing dishonest things like this will only come back to bite them in the butt eventually!
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@miltonyoung (29)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I probably wouldn't care that much, and go somewhere else to shop if it bothered me that much.
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@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I saw that on TV and I saw - GOOD FOR HER! She won over their big time lawyers! That in itself is an accomplishmnet. But it didn't say how she knew they charged her tax on the toilet paper. I'd like to know that. I find that stores iwth their "no price on the item" just on the shelf and athen a scan, half the time the shelf price is not what is scanned, but htey do it so fast, that if you aren't paying attention, you won't catch it. once home, most won't drive back about it.I was in Kmart the other day and bought some clothes and eye drops and they didn't put the drops in my bag and I noticed it once home and had to drive all the way back ge them, cause the checker didn't bother to do her job.
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I always watch the computer screen they have for customers to view as the prices are being keyed in, but at some stores, not just K-Mart, they get turned around so you can't read them. Hubby and I shop together and he often steps inbetween me and the screen, so I'm always shoving him aside, which is not easy given that he's quit a bit bigger than me.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I know! I hate it when that little screen is way over there and hardly readable from where I am. If it is at all within my reach, I pull it around so i can see it, or tell them to tell me the as it rings up and I will even hold on to things beofre putting them on the counter till I can see the price of things as they are rung up. I have caught so many "mistakes" this way.
1 person likes this
@zigzagbuddha (4601)
• United States
1 Dec 07
It has recently come to my attention that there is no such thing as 'no' in this universe. That your attention to a thing attracts it to you whether the words you're saying are 'yes' or 'no'.
Therefore I have been practicing as best as I can only putting my attention on what I want. I so want to experience joy every day of my life that becoming embroiled with k-mart because they were taxing my TP would be counter-productive to my purpose in life. That's all I have to say on the matter.
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@drannhh (15219)
• United States
1 Dec 07
That is what Mr. Disc (below) said when I told him thank you but I really don't need a certain gift item he has been making for me with his two bear claws: that my NO was the same as a YES. We could have some great fun with this one. But seriously, I know exactly what you mean. We have to pick our battles carefully, lol.
1 person likes this
@happythoughts (4109)
• United States
10 Dec 07
Good for her. I didnt know that there were no taxed items. It must not be where I live. I think every penny adds up and she could have saved a lot of people money that they needed. We all need toilet paper no matter how much we money we have.
@spiderlizard22 (3444)
• United States
1 Dec 07
I am glad she did what was right. Thanks to her the other customers don't have to pay taxes for non-taxable items. The store probably just keep the money off of the tax from non-taxable items.
1 person likes this
@girlgonefishing (2174)
• United States
3 Dec 07
Wow. I never heard this before. Good for her! I think she was right in suing them. If I had the money for a lawyer, I would have done the same thing she did. She actually spent more money on lawyers to sue K-Mart than K-Mart could have ever ripped her off in taxes. I'm sure that her actions helped others and I'm sure that must have been why she did it.
@girlgonefishing (2174)
• United States
3 Dec 07
I'm sure that no matter what, she felt good about winning.
