Anybody get the call from Minimax that I got this morning?

Mark Rios

Member
Messages
797
Location
Central CA
I got a call from a lady from Minimax this morning. She said that due to a policy change somehow relating to a new management they were calling past customers (only in CA?) and telling them that Minimax was going to send them out a bill for the sales tax on their equipment purchases.

How is it legal for them to, almost a year and a half later in my case, decide to charge us more? When I was given the final price I believed it to include all extra charges. What was charged on my card was the bill. Now they want to come back and charge me for something that they decided to on a whim?

Has anyone else gotten this call or notification? What's the flimflamdingdang deal here? Are they going to call up Steve Clardy and ask for money from him on the MM16 that they gave him when his roof collapsed? Sheeeeesh!
 
They are high. They need to eat that as a cost of doing business. If the rules changed after the sale that is not your problem. I sympathize that the amount compunded by the number of sales may be painful to them but you made your deal and settled up, you're done.

I would notify your card to deny any charges that you do not authorize. LOML is still going around over a Rx that was charged without her consent. You can't return medicines so they don't want to refund it. She reversed the charge with her card but did not lock them out. They put the charge right back on.
 
Sounds like a scam to me. I'll bet MM sold a customer list and someone is trying to get people to say "ok, here's my charge card" and they go from there. Maybe I'm wrong. But I sure am skeptical at best.
 
Mark,

sounds pretty odd. If this were legit, the web would be exploding in indignation and fury! But I can only find two threads about it: this and another. I think if I were you I would call the minmax number listed on their official website, just to confirm that it really is them. If they confirm that they're actually trying to do this, they're suicidal from a business perspective... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Sounds fishy to me, and generally in life if something looks like a fish, smells like a fish, and acts like a fish...its probably fishy.

I am wondering...out loud here as I type...if maybe Minimax got plagued by that same Firewall Breach as the Hannaford Stores. That is a local food store here in Maine that had 4 million debit card numbers stolen that were stored inside their computer network. Perhaps a hacker got the Mininmax list and is soliciting customers?:dunno::dunno::dunno:

If you wanted to, I am sure you could file a grievance with the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General Office of your state, and other consumer advocates as I am certain there are laws protecting you from such nonsense. In my opinion though, I would not waste to much time worrying about this. I think its a scam. Rather then go on the offensive and go after Minimax, who is more then likely a victim of this as well, I think you would be better off defending your good name...and your good credit...by warning your banks and credit institution that potential fraudulent charges might arise. Let their freud unit proceed on your behalf. I think they have better resources and experience in dealing with issues like this.

Again, something smells fishy here...
 
I'd be very surprised if this is not a scam. Call MiniMax, preferably someone you know, and get their take on it. And if it's not a scam, tell them to pound sand.
 
It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to locate Minimax tool gloats on various WW forums then figure out what state they were in. Then locating phone numbers from there and making bogus calls. However, if this were happening by scammers I think they'd be trying to get CC numbers from the callee and doing the scam over the phone. What makes me think this is coming from Minimax is that the caller said they would be mailing a bill. This would be showing up on Minimax invoices with MM business envelopes, return addresses, and TX postmarks - hardly something that would be available to scammers. I'm wondering if CA is trying to somehow use sellers presence at WW shows as a "physical" presence in their state and pressuring MM to collect state sales tax??
 
Sounds like a scam to me. I'll bet MM sold a customer list and someone is trying to get people to say "ok, here's my charge card" and they go from there. Maybe I'm wrong. But I sure am skeptical at best.

Tend to agree with you..............There has been millions
of credit cards numbers stolen.............over 100,000 on the news in the last month..................
 
I can tell you for certain that Dain Kirkpatrick is with the Mini-Max we are all knowledgeable about. I've talked with him and my have some email from him.
 
I googled the phone number that came up on my phone and it was listed as SMC Group out of Georgia. I've PM'd Sam Blasco hoping to get some sort of info on this issue.



It is interesting that no one else, so far, has gotten the same call.........
 
If this is legitmate and you do actually recieve a bill from them in regards to this I would be contacting the better business bureau and file a complaint. I still would send the company a choice letter as well explaining why you are not going to send them any extra money. Maybe suggest that they send you the rebait that you think you are due as you believe that they have over charged you.
 
Smells scamy to me. But, if it comes on MM company stationary, it is legit. May be wrong, but legit. This is after the fact. Personally, I would file a complaint with the state Attorney General. They are trying to cover their mistake at your expense.
 
If it is legit I'd be rather cautious about filing any complaints with state agencies. I'd be leery of calling attention to myself in case they decide to make an example of you for not claiming Use Tax on your state return.
 
I don't know of you other guys, but In Kentucky, on our tax forms it asks for all the purchases you made out of state and has provisions for you to pay (Ha Ha Ha) that tax directly to the state revenue service. I would assume other states have that same provision.

The Pounding Salt statement seems to best fit this situation. If they were laxed in recovering the tax monies, they get to eat it. This is more than likely a stab at getting you to Pony up for them and cover their error.
 
Wow, that's very interesting, Greg. So...if I fail to collect sales tax from my customers, and get audited, it now becomes my customers' responsibility to bail me out? Including customers from over a year ago? That's messed up.

Granted, we should indeed be paying sales tax on the various things we purchase out-of-state, but that's between me and my state government, not me and the out-of-state vendors. Lacking any additional info, I think I'd still tell MM to either eat their own mistake, or come pick up their bandsaw from my shop and refund my full purchase price.
 
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