New York announced that it will impose a tax called the “Amazon Tax”, which urges online and out of state e-tailers to charge New York city sales tax. This even if the out of state online company doesn’t have any locations or outlets within New York, but if there is even a small website or a blog sending them business through an affiliate link, then there you go.

I guess looking at the immensely successful taxing practices of Canada (Nooot!) seemed attractive to the genius that came up with this idea. “Hey the economy is bad, let’s generate some more revenue by taxing out of state online businesses.”

I will say one thing to you New York, “Buckle your seat belts and keep your arms and legs inside the state at all times…” I smell a backlash coming, or is that the smell of carbon from all the icebergs melting in Canada?

Hey, this is just my opinion ok? if you don’t like it, go to New York, order a book from Amazon and pay the taxes.

I had acquired my prior car from Mercedes of Laguna Niguel. Of course it came with the customary full tank of gas. When we bought my wife’s car from Lexus of Glendale, full tank of gas. When we bought my son’s Toyota Camry (only $22,000) Full-tank-of-gas!!! But when I got my new $60,000 car, 5/8 of a tank.

I complained, the salesman was gracious enough to say, “Let’s go to the gas station and fill it up…” He was going to do it using his own money. That was dedication, but I felt the company had to do that, not the poor salesman. This is why we are having problems with companies surviving in this country. This myopic vision that leads to, “We only care about the bottom line, so we can enhance shareholder profits and show our bosses that we can squeeze another dime out of the product ….” attitude hurts them in the long run.

I have advice for you Rusnak Mercedes of Arcadia–SELL THE CAR TO ME FOR $60,020, and fill up the tank with gas!!! Keep the customer happy. Go to school and take Marketing 101, Organizational Behavior 101, and most importantly Customer relationship 101.

So I figured, the dealership doesn’t care, but the parent company, Daimler-Chrysler, should. Wrong, once I got the survey, you know the one that says:

“Thank you for purchasing a car from us… How was the experience?”
Me! >> TERRIBLE, Couldn’t you fill up my tank with gas?
Mercedes USA >> We’re happy to hear that. Will you recommend us to your friend(s)
Me! >> NOOO!
Mercedes USA >> That’s great thank you. Please use the space below to send us comments.
Me! >> You should be ashamed of yourselves. (I proceed, of course, with a civilized conversational description, give my phone number and email with the hopes of some response).
Mercedes USA >> Thank you for your comments, one of our staff will get back to you soon.

I looked up “Soon” in the dictionary (In case I didn’t know the meaning), it said the definition of soon is:

  – within a short period
  – before long
  – in the near future
  – promptly or quickly

So I wonder how long (in Man Months) that would be? I’ve been waiting 6 months, still no response. Maybe they still think I’m happy. You know Mercedes, It’s not the $20, I can afford that (Hey I’ve been driving the car for 6-months and have not defaulted on any loans yet:-) but it’s like I rent a Tuxedo from you to go to the prom, and you give me one shoe. There are other stores that will give me both shoes. Maybe next time I’ll go there. Oh, yeah I forgot, I will also tell my friend, and they’ll tell their friends and so on, and so on, and so on.

Too bad it’s such a sweet car though! 🙂

Microsoft retracts the bid it had made on Feb 1 to buy Yahoo! It seems like “Playing hard to get” worked to break Microsoft. However, is this a good thing for Yahoo! in the long term? What do you think? Give me your comments below.

My view is this decision is good for Microsoft in the short term. Although this would have given Microsoft a shortcut to achieving some much needed headway in getting a chance to catch up to Google. Now they can concentrate on their own business and figure out how genuine Microsoft creativity can compete fairly.

As far as Yahoo! is concerned, I hope the perception that they won doesn’t end up being a “Pyrrhic Victory”. Perhaps this reminds you of something you were selling and didn’t take an offer and ended up regretting it. Well, time will tell.

One thing that Microsoft might have realized is, the field has 4 candidates, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and yes Ask.com. So if they buy Yahoo to eliminate them, they will pay a huge price for it. Maybe if they give Yahoo! enough rope they might hang themselves. Then the “Mission Accomplished” banner can go up again. (Sorry couldn’t resist 🙂

I welcome your comments.