Here is my review of Google Experss, the online shopping facility provided by Google. It may also be referred to as Google Shopping. I strongly recommend against using Google Express!
When you use Google to search for an item you want to purchase, the first results are usually something marketed by Google itself. The results do indicate they are “sponsored,” that is, an advertisement. But you may be tempted to view all the companies selling the item, and the prices they charge in one convenient table, sorted by price.
However if you click a link for a particular company, you are taken not to that company’s website, but to a Google Express page. Suppose you see one seller, XYZ, Inc., that quotes a low price. It also indicates free shipping and no tax. If you click the button to “visit site,” you are taken to a Google Express page. The “site” in “view site” implies the seller’s site, but it’s not. Although you think you are dealing with XYZ, Inc., you are actually dealing with Google as an intermediary, or broker on the transaction. You see, XYZ, Inc. pays Google a kickback for order flow, or the privilege of advertising on Google Express. They may also offer a slightly lower price to you, than what you get if you shopped at the XYZ, Inc. site directly.
Here’s the kicker: Google Express entices you to click the link to get free shipping and no tax. Actually, Google Express will charge tax, even though XYZ, Inc. would not charge it. It’s strange. Google is effectively a broker in the deal. They are not purchasing, warehousing, selling or shipping the merchandise, yet they collect taxes as if the merchandise was theirs. I wonder if Google actually pays those taxes to the jurisdictions on whose behalf they are being collected.
Perhaps Google is charging my credit card to get funds they in turn use to purchase from XYZ, Inc. and Google has it shipped to me. In that case, although Google doesn’t pay sales tax, they still charge it. It’s like asking your neighbor to buy groceries for you. Although the grocery store does not charge him sales tax, he wants to be reimbursed for the cost of groceries plus sales tax. If Google is purchasing the merchandise and re-selling it to me, then they should sell it as used merchandise.
I was tricked to believe I was dealing with XYZ, Inc. and using Google Express only as a payment processor, like PayPal. To pull this off Google Express provides only an “estimated” payment amount, never the “final” total. They give a confusing explanation that estimated amounts will be adjusted if they don’t apply to you. So even though I clicked the link that said free shipping, no tax, Google Express included estimated taxes and indicated they would be adjusted later.
This is another part of the deception. What they really mean will be adjusted later are handling fees, which may be included in the estimated tax amount. They are not talking about taxes when they say estimated taxes will be adjusted. You will pay the tax shown. There is nothing estimated about it. And, the tax shown will not be adjusted or eliminated later, even if the seller does not collect tax.
The deception continued. Apparently taxes can vary depending on whether the seller has a physical store, in which case you pay the taxes where the store is located. I’m not familiar with any case in the history of online retailing, where you pay the tax rate where the store is located if you are not a resident of that state or jurisdiction. It’s always been residents of so-and-so must pay the applicable tax, while residents of other states are exempt. If the seller is online only, you pay taxes based on your shipping address. In my case XYZ, Inc. wouldn’t have charged me tax and so I believed, wrongly, Google Express would adjust the “estimated taxes.”
There are a few other sales tactics, or tricks to deceive you. The Google Express price may be lower than the price you would pay at the seller’s website. The seller and Google are in cahoots. Google Express may also entice you with $20 off your first order. In many cases, both those incentives result in a higher price than if you buy directly from the seller.
So don’t be deceived by incentives, estimated amounts, and promises of adjustments. The “estimated” price you see on Google Express is the final price you pay. Don’t believe the rhetoric about adjustments. It’s designed to deceive. Deal with the seller directly. Lesson learned.