Washington State and AliExpress

[darsmith]

So, I guess as resident of Washington state, I can't purchase from Ali Express due to some tax law in my wonderful(?) state. Has anyone found a way around this or do you have it shipped to an out of state address? I'm pretty close to Idaho and my brother lives across the line about 25 miles away.

 

[Del Boy]

You could buy from milkisbad?

 

[darsmith]

I was really wanting to check out the new Dahua 4MP cams. I did find out that my wife has ordered from AliExpress before and had it shipped to friends across the line in Idaho. I guess we need to communicate more often.

 

[Bradmph]

This is new to me, being in Washington. It really doesn't surprise me that something like this is in effect, though I have not experienced it yet. Not being a native Washtonian, I find this state has some weird politics. I still can't figure why my car registration is twice as much because I live in city limits, but 3 blocks over where it is considered county are paying hardly anything. City limits need to be expanded if the city has grown past the county line, lol. Bastages. Road repair taxes are a friggin scam here also, roads here are so trashed and you never see anyone repairing squat.

 

[Larebear]

Road repair taxes are a friggin scam here also, roads here are so trashed and you never see anyone repairing squat.

You got that right. Spokane has some of the worst roads in the country and are seldom repaired.

 

[badmop]

If you damage your vehicle from public road potholes, you can file a claim and the state is responsible to pay for the damage. Atleast that's how it is here, which I'd imagine is the same, especially if you've notified them of the exact location of the pothole before and they've failed to fix it in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Larebear]

That may be true in Washington state too, but not sure. I've never had a problem with the potholes damaging my Tacoma. It's a tough ole truck.

 

[Bradmph]

lol, where you get that ani image, funny!
One time I was parked and watching traffic and one of them 6 inch drain covers had popped off its mounting and was sitting in the hole at an angle \ like this. As I watched, I said to myself if someone hits that thing it could hurt. Wasn't the next car that came by, ran it over and it flipped under their car and sounded like it made 3-4 holes in the car, lol.
As for filing a claim, I can imagine that they make you jump through so many hoops to recover. I would take photos and measurements and also have a mechanic document that this caused the damage. If filing a claim is anything like the crooked courts and cops in this state, it might be a battle.

 

[Tacoman]

I am curious did Ali Express refuse to sell it to you? I am not sure how the state would even know that you made the purchase. If you follow washington state law you are supposed to pay sales tax even on stuff you buy out of state over the internet when it enters the state. I am guessing no one has actually written them a check. If you buy a car out of state they will make you pay the sales tax prior to getting washington registration if the car is less than a year or two old. There are a lot of vendors on amazon and ebay who do not charge washington state sales tax. The state of washington and a handful of other states have reciprocal agreements to collect each others sales tax.

 

[darsmith]

It wasn't so much a tax issue. Ali Express uses an escrow service to conduct transactions and WA state wants a fee for them to operate in WA state. They refused to pay. So when I tried to purchase on Ali Express I got part way through the transaction and got a response that Ali Express cannot do business in WA state and they cancelled the transaction. I guess others have found a way around it by concealing the WA state shipping address in some way until the transaction is further along. My wife purchased once in the past by having the items shipped to my brother's address in Idaho.

 

[Tacoman]

I have never heard of needing an escrow service. Must be something to do with the way they do their billing. Two suggestions: Moscow, Idaho and Portland, OR.

 

[darsmith]

I think that there is an escrow service that holds your funds until the transaction is complete to your satisfaction and then releases it to the seller. This escrow entity is what WA state wants money from in order to operate in the state and they refuse to give in to the state. So, we suffer the effects of that little feud. I actually live only a few miles from the Idaho border and my brother is about an hour away, so I guess I can just use his address (with his consent). Seems like a hassle and I'm not sure how this might make things a little complicated if a deal went south.

 

[Lebeter]

So this is still in effect I take it.

 

[darsmith]

As far as I know.

 

[aliman]

so you can now order from aliexpress they no longer have the restriction on the state of WA ive ordered 3 times in the last week and my items have arrived and have had no issues.

 

[darsmith]

Yesssss! Thanks for the heads up.