Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

My wife was doing some shopping at Victoria's Secret.com today. She couldn't remember my account information, so she left her shopping cart until I was available. When we got back to it a couple of hours later her shopping cart had been discarded.

Frustrated at having wasted her time, she set out to reselect the items. Once she had done that, she proceeded to the checkout, receiving the following purchase summary:

Merchandise Subtotal	$172.95
Shipping and handling	$20.95
Subtotal	$193.90
Tax	$59.23
Total	$253.13

Now I've never seen shipping and handling included in the taxable subtotal of a purchase before, but the really strange part is the tax, which at $59.23, is over 30% of the merchandise + shipping subtotal, and over 34% of the merchandise subtotal.

Now taxes are high in Canada, but 14%, not 30%+, and they don't generally include shipping. What should have been a simple transaction was made inordinately painful by a poor website.

So the website that should have reduced the requirement for higher cost telephone interaction, is forcing me to call to straighten this out. And we get to waste even more of our time. Concern for the customer is clearly not in evidence here, especially given the higher average shopping cart value associated with such premium products.