Smoke's advantage NO ADVANTAGE *REBUTTAL
Smoke's advantage advertises with a flyer that is inserted in the Sunday Star Ledger of NJ. They advertise low prices on mail order cigarettes. Their disclaimer is that purchaser may be responsible for their own state taxes if applicable. What they do not mention is the Cooperative Interstate Tax Enforcement Group that they must submit a monthly report to that the State of New Jersey levies additional (previously undisclosed by smokes advantage) excise taxes on consumers.
If you purchase a carton of cigarettes from smoke's advantage at up to 27.99, they do not mention that NJ will levy an 8.00 per carton excise tax in addition to NJ state tax of 6%, therefore the purchaser not only does not save monies, but he/she is responsible for unexpected state tax liabilities.
Smokes advantage advertising appears to me to be grossly deceptive and consumers should be made aware of these "excise" taxes that the state governments will impose.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
...sales tax, as you live in New Jersey, wouldn't you know about that?
#20
Thu, March 29, 2001
This email is a rebuttal to RipOff #2133.
It was sent by TK at swoophigh@hotmail.com.
Smoke's advantage NO ADVANTAGE (#2133)
They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:
Their email: swoophigh@hotmail.com
Their name: TK
Their relationship to the company: Supporter
Rebuttal:
You state that "consumers should be made aware of these 'excise' taxes that the state governments will impose", which clearly is meant to be interpreted as "this information was not made available to me".
But all I had to do was a simple keyword web search on "state taxes" "cigarettes", and "New Jersey" to find references to any number of pages that spelled out what my obligation would be to the state if I ordered.
One such site:
http://ash.org/cigtaxfacts.html
This site clearly spelled out the .80/pack charge for New Jersey. With respect to sales tax, as you live in New Jersey, wouldn't you know about that?
When a company prints a disclaimer such as the one that you clearly saw in the relevant ad, it's your job as a consumer to do your own research to see if this is, to use their exact word, "APPLICABLE" to you.