At least once a month Max gets a question from an eBay user regarding where we are, from whence our products ship, and why they got charged sales tax [theft].

It's a conundrum with which we've wrestled from day one.

Let's start with where Manatee Max is.  Max is based in the little town of Port Salerno, Florida. However, his address has a Stuart zip code, so, eBay thinks we're in Stuart. Because each of our products can ship from multiple US locations, eBay gives us the choice of one of two options regarding our items' locations.

Using our zip code, eBay says Stuart, Florida.... OR, we can subvert that and put "Multiple US Locations" in that field.

As people who prefer honesty, we initially chose the latter. After all, our products ship from multiple US locations. What we discovered, however is, that this creates three major problems. eBay's algorithms favor sellers who list their specific business location. Secondly, customers have a negative perspective of sellers who don't say where they are. They have a mental image of fly by night con artists selling cheap junk they won't back after the sale. Thirdly, Florida buyers didn't like paying Florida Sales Theft on products which, from their perspective, had no connection to Florida.

As much as we didn't like it, because it felt somewhat deceitful to us, we changed our listing to Stuart, FL. After all, that's where we are, and why we're forced to be the State of Florida's accomplice. We also put a very explicit disclaimer in big type plainly visible on our listings which says:

Manatee Max has partnered with leading companies to offer the best products and service possible. This allows us to have multiple US shipping locations. The location listed above is our main office and customer service center. We always do our best to ship from the closest warehouse with stock. Since we are based in FL, we must collect sales tax on all FL orders. Most orders are processed in 1-2 business days. The Free Economy shipping may ship via USPS, FedEx SmartPost, or UPS Mail Innovations. Transit times are typically 4-7 business days depending on your location. If you'd prefer guaranteed UPS Ground shipping, please select the $5.00 UPS Ground option at checkout.

Problem solved. right?

Well, no. 

We still get people who don't read or heed the disclaimer, and think that because eBay says Florida, their purchase will get to them in less time than the disclaimer states, and then get disappointed when it ships from California, Iowa or New Jersey, even though it still gets to them within the estimated time in the ad. We also still get people who wonder why a product which came from out of Florida has Florida Sales Theft on it. 

Trust me when I say, we don't like it either. Not only do we personally believe taxation is theft, but the charging sales tax is, like anything with government involved, much more complex than it needs to be. We have to submit tax forms which we have to hire someone else to prepare, (to make sure we don't screw up and get fined). It prevents Max from being as competitively priced in Florida since the tax automatically makes us 6% higher here.

Lastly, it's only going to get worse. A lot of states have realized they're losing victims due to on-line purchases made out of their borders. Tax legislation is being rewritten to try to force out of state retailers to charge State Sales Theft to those states' residents, and/or jump through regulatory hoops to get exemptions.

Max apologizes most profusely for all of this. Our goal is to honestly provide high quality goods and service at the lowest prices possible, and still keep food in the fridge and a roof over our heads. 

Once we pay our suppliers, our taxes, eBay fees, PayPal, our service providers, shipping, etc....... on average, Manatee Max's profit margin is only about 4%. We could charge more, but that's not who we want to be. We're doing our best to try to treat our customers how we would want to be treated at a fair price. We are not infallible, and we have a lot of work to do and room for improvement. But, our success so far tells us that we've struck a pretty good balance and we're in the right channel.

We hope you understand.

Max , Pearl and Coral