{"id":257,"date":"2019-02-02T16:08:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T22:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/?p=257"},"modified":"2019-02-03T10:13:22","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T16:13:22","slug":"beware-google-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/02\/beware-google-express\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware: Google Express"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/em><\/strong> using Google Express!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nyou use Google to search for an item you want to purchase, the first\nresults are usually something marketed by Google itself. The results\ndo indicate they are \u201csponsored,\u201d that is, an advertisement. But\nyou may be tempted to view all the companies selling the item, and\nthe prices they charge in one convenient table, sorted by price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

However\nif you click a link for a particular company, you are taken not to\nthat company\u2019s website, but to a Google Express page. Suppose you\nsee one seller, XYZ, Inc., that quotes a low price. It also\nindicates free shipping and no tax. If you click the button to\n\u201cvisit site,\u201d you are taken to a Google Express page. The \u201csite\u201d\nin \u201cview site\u201d implies the seller\u2019s site, but it\u2019s not. \nAlthough you think you are dealing with XYZ, Inc., you are actually\ndealing with Google as an intermediary, or broker on the transaction.\n You see, XYZ, Inc. pays Google a kickback for order flow, or the\nprivilege of advertising on Google Express. They may also offer a\nslightly lower price to you, than what you get if you shopped at the\nXYZ, Inc. site directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Google<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s\nthe kicker: Google Express entices you to click the link to get free\nshipping and no tax. Actually, Google Express will charge tax, even\nthough XYZ, Inc. would not charge it. It\u2019s strange. Google is\neffectively a broker in the deal. They are not purchasing,\nwarehousing, selling or shipping the merchandise, yet they collect\ntaxes as if the merchandise was theirs. I wonder if Google actually\npays those taxes to the jurisdictions on whose behalf they are being\ncollected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps\nGoogle is charging my credit card to get funds they in turn use to\npurchase from XYZ, Inc. and Google has it shipped to me. In that\ncase, although Google doesn\u2019t pay sales tax, they still charge it. \nIt\u2019s like asking your neighbor to buy groceries for you. Although\nthe grocery store does not charge him sales tax, he wants to be\nreimbursed for the cost of groceries plus sales tax. If Google is\npurchasing the merchandise and re-selling it to me, then they should\nsell it as used merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cestimated\u201d payment amount, never the “final” total. They give a confusing explanation that estimated amounts will be adjusted if they don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis another part of the deception. What they really mean will be\nadjusted later are handling fees<\/em>, which may<\/em> be included\nin the estimated tax amount. They are not talking about taxes when\nthey say estimated taxes will be adjusted. You will pay the tax\nshown. There is nothing estimated about it. And, the tax shown will\nnot be adjusted or eliminated later, even if the seller does not\ncollect tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019m 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\u2019s 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\u2019t have charged me tax and so I believed, wrongly, Google Express would adjust the \u201cestimated taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\ndon\u2019t be deceived by incentives, estimated amounts, and promises of\nadjustments. The \u201cestimated\u201d price you see on Google Express is\nthe final price you pay. Don\u2019t believe the rhetoric about\nadjustments. It\u2019s designed to deceive. Deal with the seller\ndirectly. Lesson learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Beware: Google Express”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,14],"tags":[33,34],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","category-scams","tag-google","tag-google-express"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.iseeancestors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}