Comments on: Costco Membership Renewal Lawsuit Settlement

By: Natalie

Natalie — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:53:56 +0000

My membership expired 12.31.11. I’ve put off shopping at Costco in ’12 until today as I wasn’t sure that membership is worth it anymore as I do agree, one can get better or comparable prices on laptops, printers and TVs — as I learned this year after buying same at Costco. I do think that Costco has good prices on drugs for membership though as I recently learned.

I dropped Executive Membership when I got my Executive Membership Reward Check several months ago — always, for some reason, this check is received months ahead of the expiration of annual membership. I dropped Executive Membership because I had not earned enough extra to justify $50 premium for Executive Membership. Beside not spending enough to justify Executive Membership, I’ve always wondered why this Executive Membership check comes months before the end of my renewal date, therefore, shorting me of Executive Membership reward benefits?

Furthermore, when I got to the register to check out, even though I told them I wanted to revert back to standard membership, the register could only ring me up for the $100 renewal. As a result, I had to get out of line, leave my merchandise, and walk over to membership to renew, then get back in line to purchase. Not a great customer service experience for myself or others in line behind me.

At that time of renewal today, I asked to have my renewal start today, February 5, 2012, rather than January 1, 2012; however, they would not accomodate me and the manager was less than satisfactory in her response, even though another woman who was helping me in membership at least understood what point I was making. I explained to both that I have not purchased anything since expiration on 12.31.11 as if I had, membership would have automatically rung up at time of purchase, as it has been for years — and explained I did not see why I should pay for something I had not used. Finally, I left the counter in frustration.

I’m tempted to cancel membership for many reasons.

By: Janet

Janet — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:50:07 +0000

The date should start when you renew!! If you choose not to renew for months after your last date of membership that has nothing to do with when you start your new membership. i work in membership at costco and told management this was not right. Why should you be shorted months of membership simply because you chose to start a NEW membership at a later date. ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP!!! From the MONTH you pay until next year at the time your membership expires. Legally AND ethically this is correct.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:01:53 +0000

I shopped at the Santa Clara, CA COSTCO today (10/30/2010) and the clerk notified me at checkout that my card expired in July and asked me if I wanted to renew. I hadn’t shopped there since June. I said yes to renew it, then I asked what date does the new renewal period starts. He said “July”. I told him I thought that there was a lawsuit about renewal dates. He asked some other COSTCO employee standing by (manager?) and was told July. They were either oblivious to the “renewal policy” to update the renewal date, or they do not conform to the terms of the settlement, or the policy has changed.

By: Jack Baker

Jack Baker — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:08:32 +0000

This morning I went to the Santa Cruz, Ca. Costco and asked them about moving my one year expiration date to the end of May, when I renewed it two months ago. It had expired in March. During the two months of non-membership time, I didn’t go to Costco. I think I’ve renewed at the counter every spring, at least 6 weeks after the March expiry date and sometimes up to 3 months later—for at least 8 years. I’ve always paid for the new membership the first time I’ve been informed, at the checkout. At the Santa Cruz Costco the impression was given that it should be done when informed; but I never tried to slide out of it with any excuse. I’m sure one or two times I hesitated in going to Costco because I knew I owed the membership fee and didn’t have an extra 45 dollars to pay for it with my purchases. So, I waited another few weeks or so before going with my extra membership money in hand.
I think it’s great that they have the new policy now, thanks to the class action lawsuit. One assistant manager, at first, refused to change my card to the new expiration date in May. Another manager was called and he refused at first, until I mentioned “class action lawsuit”. He called the desk right back and said, O.K, change it, and tell the manager at the membership counter that you do not need my authorization anymore to change the yearly expiration dates immediately in the computer as soon as requested. So, I helped them get this new policy going this morning, and the counter guy thanked me while we chuckled about it a little. The yearly membership fees have slowly increased over my eight years from about 30 to 50 bucks, for my class of membership. So why not get your full money’s worth ??

By: Jerry

Jerry — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:51:52 +0000

To Serapio. I think what a few people on here are saying is that the option to shop was not taken away from members that did not renew. It was a very common occurance to have a person come through my line with an expired card. Usually more than a couple of months. They would promise to renew next time or would claim to have already paid. Costco’s managers and supervisors would allow them to shop and if and when they chose to renew they would complain about us not rolling their renewal date. Costco CAN see the shopping history and could tell that shopping had been done while it was expired. They were not being cheated out of anything. What if a person purchased a membership in Jan and then shopped in Feb and Mar but then bought too much and didn’t need to go again until June. They went June, July and Augusst but did not go in Sept. Then they go every month for the rest of the year. Should that person be refunded for three months? Should Costco start charging a monthly membership fee? When they are sued by a person who felt they were being cheated by weeks should they start charging weekly. Maybe daily and then if that person spends less than a couple of hours they can complain they were cheated out of minutes. Maybe Costco shopuld just become retail and then the price will go up and the quality down.

By: Dash

Dash — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:42:49 +0000

It is 100% true that the lawyers are making a killing in this case, as they usually do in lawsuits like this one. Instead of complaining about it, let us do what we can do. Let's opt-out. Just follow the OPT-OUT procedure in the settlement document and well, at least you have the pleasure of knowing that you were not a part of something like this.

By: boiscout

boiscout — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:08:01 +0000

Tonyy
I have been a Costco employee for 5 years. Part of my job is to do comparison shopping with other stores close to our wharehouse. IE- Sams, Kroeger, Randalls, Walmart etc. Our prices are consistantly lower than any one else around. I suggest you purchase a calculator, and get correct information before getting on your soapbox in Zellars. FYI- we sell them at Costco.

By: Serapio

Serapio — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:47:28 +0000

Chuck???
I’m wondering if you are the brain dead person here. We’ve just come out of 8 YEARS of the Bush administration and you have the nerve to say this : “This is exactly why America is hurting economically.” That’s just insulting!

Jane!
Going by your scenario with the credit cards one would have the option to use the credit card or not.
The lawsuit is for people who didn’t have the option of using their Costco card but where charged for the time the didn’t have an active membership.
There in lies the problem, they didn’t have the option of use.
It’s simple you get charged for a year you should have use for a year regardless of renewal date.
“If it weren’t for the money generated by the membership fees, Costco would not be able to offer such low prices.”.

You might want to start doing some comparison shopping, not everything is a deal at Costco.
They did have a time when they had an exceptional clothing person who was buying very nice articles of clothing that the prices just couldn’t be touched, but that has since passed and the new buying person has some affinity with some very poorly designed apparel.

By: Tyson

Tyson — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:40:53 +0000

I will say that I am one of the customers/members that doesn’t renew on time, I only go to the store (my wife and I), probably 3 -4 times a year, so yea I try to extend my membership to closer to a 15month deal since I don’t go that often, I will admit if I went there more I would renew on the day, but I only go once every 3 or sometimes more months,so is it worthwhile for me? no, and in reality I’m not costing them any money, I’m not buying things during that time.

$.02

By: Suzy

Suzy — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:13:11 +0000

I just saw how much the lawyers are getting out of this and it is shameful to say the least. Over $5 million and we get how much? $3 or $4. This is truly scandalous, truly, truly scandalous. Yeah, these lawyers went to school and probably will be paying back school loans for years to come, but this is just one case that will help them do that out of many that they do every week.

As a Costco member that takes advantage of the executive membership because it pays for itself, I really recommend it as the best option. I’m not a huge Costco spender, but for the $100 investment and the savings I get, and there really are savings, cos I’ve done my homework and I’m a very astute shopper, I get back an average $86 at the end of the year. I know what I save is worth way more than the $14 deficit. I challenge anyone to prove differently, that Costco doesn’t save you money. At the pharmacy alone I pay $250 for my Advair, yet I paid over $300 at Walgreens and Rite Aid. That alone makes it worth $600 or more a year.