So I was reading this, and the more I read, the more pissed off I got. Particularly

RETAILER complaints that online shoppers are avoiding GST have prompted a government inquiry… Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said the government would conduct a compliance campaign to ensure GST and customs duty concession for imports worth $1000 or less were not being abused or exploited. “It’s important people follow the rules and not try to rort the system,” he said.

From a very young age, I found sales people quite annoying. Not so much in Australia I guess, but in Singapore, all those promoter aunties follow me around like bloody stalkers. it’s crazy. However, in Australia there’s a little bit of both the extremes. There are the personnels that can never be found anywhere, or there are those who are constantly trying to help you but can’t answer any questions you might have. =.=; the worst is when you ask them a legitimate question, they might not know the answer but they roll their eyes at you anyways (++++ aggro)

So, when I discovered the beauty of ebay in 1999 (other earlier shopping sites did not ship to Singapore), I was instantly hooked. I didn’t have to abide by shopping hours, I can be utterly naked, there’s no crazy sales person trying to recommend you the entire store when you just want to buy ONE thing.

and there’s massive varieties of whatever you want.

At that point in time, there were many things that weren’t cheaper than Singapore either, but the sheer amount of varieties, uniqueness, stuff that I simply can not buy in Singapore because they were just not feasible to sell there… well I found it all on ebay, victoriassecret.com (ahem, those lingerie you saw? bought circa 2000 oops) and blah. it was great.

Fast forward to 2010, I know some friends and I buy online for various reasons. most of them have similar thoughts to me: no hassle, easy purchasing with a large variety. The added bonus of cheaper products definitely help – but it has NOTHING to do with avoiding the taxes. I am sure at some point it lingered in some of their mines, but the cheaper part wasn’t so much the taxes but the crazy prices the local market decides to charge us!

take for example, the latest ice skates (and part of the reason I don’t skate nor blade no more), it’s about $499-$599 on various ice hockey shop sites from the states. Some of them have exorbitant shipping rates, true… but guess how much it is in-store here?

like $1100.

how fucking annoying is that? Why are we paying double the price? wait, why should we pay double the price when I can just simply go online, pay the shipping at whatever price I can easily find and just wait for it to bob here? even with the 10% GST, I am looking at like… $750? $250.. I know what I can spend it on.

But retailers simply can’t accept the fact that consumers are no longer caged up fools. They want us to “support” them despite the 400000% mark-ups they put up. Or the ridiculous mark-ups they have prior to christmas, masking it as the “chrismas sale”. like HELL it’s a chrismas sale, but it’s really last year’s unsold shit that’s been retagged, renamed and re-priced to high heavens. Why the hell would people do that to themselves if they know better?

Knowledge is power, and damn those retailers are afraid.

*stabs*

Current Mood:  annoyed

Dear Parents,

hi, my sister is 21, and can barely talk/type full sentences. I do love and care for her, but it does not extend to DOING HER HOMEWORK for her. As I have mentioned before, Dad, the reason why I stopped writing full blown essays for your school work as well is that if there’s any one point in time you (or my sister in this case) goes out to work in the new job that your certificate brings you to, you won’t be able to hold fort. I won’t be there 24 7 in your jobs to help you for the rest of your life.

Not to mention, anyone who has met my sister would know her language capacity. Suddenly being able to produce work of… a different capacity is not only going to show the vast disparity between her abilities and mine, but is most likely to result in her failing. and, if I am correct, the essays will only hold a 20% of her final assessment. SHE WILL NOT PASS.

you cannot force someone who is unable to do something to do something. You cannot make her fulfil your failed dreams, or even just dreams. you have to firstly face it, and then plan her life as she CAN. you cannot plan for her failure. besides her inabilities, you have consistently BATTERED her ego and setting her up for failure.

this is not only wasting money and precious time that she does not have, but also hurting her in the long run. it is NOT funny.

Not only have you, as parents, failed to use the knowledge you now know to help her, you are STILL setting her up for failure because you REFUSE to see reason and just think that TIME can cure it. sorry, but TIME hasn’t CURED it, but time WILL slip away and soon you will have worse problems to consider. infact, by walking the path you just decided, you have already let everything slipped.

you are a bunch of morons and now I don’t know where to start to help her in the future.

*exasperated*

oh and btw mother? this is beyond stupid. oh yes, don’t argue. I can see you now, telling my sister what a great manager she would be, how she’s smart now and would be able to support dad and you when she graduates and become a bank/finance/wtfever manager.

I would hate to see the 5 grand go down the drain, but I wonder how you would look when you see that big failure happen.

and don’t anyone dare lecture me on “they are your parents, respect them and blah” because I have more than given my dues.