Yesterday I bumped into this deal for an all-in-one inkjet printer that was selling for $19.99. I must admit, the impulsiveness due to the very low price was convincing me to take action as I was considering purchasing another inkjet printer. On top of that, there was a free shipping deal going on which made the whole value seem even better.
I actually did start to checkout the item and was prepared to confirm everything until I noticed that the total was over $30 which didn’t seem right even after taxes. Upon looking closer, there was a fee that had the acronym “ADSâ€.
Upon further reading, it was a program called an “Advanced Disposal Surcharge†that has been implemented to cover costs in disposing electronic products. The levy has been implemented for online orders apparently back in August 1st 2007 yet the funny thing was I bought products from online retailers since then and this was the first time I saw it.
Understandable charge I guess, but looking at how the fee was almost half the price of the actual printer it kind of killed the deal from buying it online. Things like these may make online purchases less attractive.