Why does Microsoft not show you the final price when you buy Minecraft for Windows?

I definitely agree with your reasoning and microsoft should definitely give the full total amount, the “+ applicable taxes” i believe is there since it depends on where you live to have more or less in specified tax payments, but they have a great/expansive company that should be able to realize that many people wouldn't like to make sketchy purchases .

Hey there,

Just to make sure this thread stays relevant, I have full intent to reply to your post, I am simply waiting for a reply from my teams so that I may give a fully comprehensive answer to your sentiment expressed here. I appreciate any patience you afford me here.

Best Regards,

Hi,

Thanks for the lengthy reply, I really do appreciate it.

It wouldn't be as big of a deal if the taxes ended up being 0 (they weren't). Though even then, they should just not show '+ applicable taxes'. Every other place I've purchased from online has figured this out - even the small businesses - there's no reason Microsoft/Minecraft can't also.

Truth be told, while I was going through the purchasing process for 'minecraft for windows 10', I kept expecting that the "+ applicable taxes" would either turn into an actual number, or be removed altogether if there weren't any taxes. When I had made it all the way through the 'you've actually been charged for the product now' stage and the tax still hadn't been turned into a number, I was hoping that it meant there was 0 tax, but feared that there had been tax and they just hadn't told us how much it was. When I checked my order history on the Microsoft site, I found that there had indeed been tax. The final amount charged was 29.51. The amount before tax was 26.99, so there was 2.52 charged in tax.

While this might seem silly to complain about such a small amount, my primary objections are:

• It's the principle of the thing. We were charged an amount of extra money that was not disclaimed until after the fact. I don't care if it's $0.01 or $100 - this is wrong and just shady business.
  
• When you click the next button during the ordering process, hoping the next screen will show the actual total amount, there's no indication of which screen is final, especially when they never tell you the total amount; none of the screens seem truly final without that important information. The expectation is that the final screen, the final confirm/purchase/next button will tell you the total amount to be charged. But it never does. It's misleading and just poor UX to boot.
  
• This behavior sets a dangerous precedent. Imagine the collective trouble society will get into if it becomes commonplace for reputable businesses to not advertise what the extra costs are. If companies stop showing the shipping cost. Handling cost. Taxes. Other fees. Before you know it, it becomes a device by which to reap extra profits from the consumer. Microsoft should be a leader in the tech industry - it us shameful for such a reputable successful company to have such poor user experience.
  
• I could have not had enough in the account used to pay for the full price. Imagine I had used a debit card linked to a side account I only use for entertainment expenditures (I actually did used to do this to help manage my finances). Imagine I had transferred $27 into said account for the purpose of purchasing minecraft. Imagine I had overdraft protection enabled. The charge would execute, and my account would be put into the negatives, resulting in a $30 overdraft fee. All because Microsoft didn't want to take the time to do what every other decent online business does and show the final amount, in clarity, and with no obfuscation.
  
• Lastly, the purchase was actually on behalf of my daughter. We try to teach our kids about managing their money and how to set goals and save for what they want. We were not able to determine the taxes for the purchase beforehand and with other users such as yourself saying they paid no tax for minecraft, we were hoping that "+ applicable taxes" would end up translating to $0. She saved up the $26.99 and I helped her make the purchase online. What was I supposed to tell her when we found out that one of the worlds foremost tech companies charged her an amount of money that they had not disclaimed to us beforehand? She was heartbroken and admitted to feeling like she had been tricked into paying more than was disclaimed. This isn't just an empty rant. This is a plea for Microsoft to change. For all our sakes.
  

The payment system doesn’t check your address until it’s creating the transaction with your credit card company. Your state/municipality have their own sales taxes you can easily look up. For example in my state it’s 6%, so just multiply the price by 1.06 and you get the final price

Hello,

For transparency I have moved your thread to the proper category.

To be clear, had an initial post, but after looking into some details I have changed it. If you were charged more than 26.99 USD for Minecraft and it shows in your order history at account.microsoft.com/orders, you do have the right to request a refund if you'd like. If you would like to request a refund you can do so here: http://xbox.com/refund.

You are correct, I did purchase a game to see if this occurred and it does say Price + Applicable taxes. However, on my end I do not live in a location that charges for digital products and services. So, what information I had here earlier is no longer relevant and does not solve your issue.





I did some additional research on states that have taxes on digital goods. They are:

• Alabama
  
• Arizona
  
• Arkansas
  
• Colorado
  
• Connecticut
  
• Florida
  
• Hawaii
  
• Idaho
  
• Indiana
  
• Iowa
  
• Kentucky
  
• Louisiana
  
• Maine
  
• Minnesota
  
• Mississippi
  
• Nebraska
  
• New Jersey
  
• New Mexico
  
• North Carolina
  
• Ohio
  
• Pennsylvania
  
• Rhode Island
  
• South Dakota
  
• Tennessee
  
• Texas
  
• Utah
  
• Vermont
  
• Washington
  
• Wisconsin
  
• Wyoming
  
• Washinton DC
  

I personally don't live in any of these states, so I cannot truthfully repro the issue since I do not have any payment methods within the states listed here. if you are in these states, you can be subject to the tax rate of these states on digital purchases. So, if you were charged more than the 26.99 USD then the additional charge is from the state sales tax. I will ask my team about this but if you wish to leave feedback, please go to Contact us | Xbox Support.

I hope this helps in some way.

Best Regards