Comments on: Return Policy Abuse at Costco

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:37:53 +0000

Geez people get over it! Yes people are going to take advantage, people do it all the time in many different ways. That is life, it amazes me that so many of you are so nosey for one and sitting there complaining saying ” I just cant let it go” REALLY!!! Do you have nothing better in life that you are going to sit and lament over some strangers lack of charecter?
I for one am glad for this policy, I bought a bluetooth less then a week ago and the dang thing just stopped working, unfortunatly the guy i work with took it upon himslef to thrown the box away and I was scared they would not exchange it. Yes people take advantage but the policy is there for a reason and not everyone lacks in the morals department. So drop it and get on with life, there are much more beautiful things to focus on anyway. : )

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:44:45 +0000

JMSCE,

(clap, clap, clap) Thanks! That was wonderful. And thanks for not burdening us with your life story.

By: kate

kate — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:58:35 +0000

back to the vitamix, i got stage 3 cancer, then my mom had cancer again, then died, and after the motor kept overheating and then the blender part of the vitamix broke right off, i am sorry, but i think there is nothing wrong with returning a brand new whole vitamix unopened, (i had bought two cuz i had thought it was good product and wanted to share with family….i always respected costo research on products)…. when i start getting my act back together again, especially since in a normal year i spend 19,000 at costco. dont be so negative and all knowing, these posts are not all very nice or knowledgeable. or even helpful. 8-(

By: JMSCE

JMSCE — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:18:12 +0000

You have got to be kidding to think that returns don’t hurt Costco’s bottom line. It is negotiated in the contracts with the suppliers how long Costco has to return a product for a refund and after that time frame if the product gets returned Costco eats that money. The supplier negotiates on and agrees to a time frame and if they don’t agree they have the choice to either try to negotiate a time frame that is agreeable to both parties or not to do business with Costco so it isn’t like they are the only ones losing anything or like they are being held at gunpoint. Costco has several manufactures that are no longer in business, not because of Costco as Costco is certainly not their only customers, just because it happens and anytime any of those products are returned it is Costco that is paying that bill and not the supplier as there is no supplier to collect from so to think that you should return anything and everything at any time just because it doesn’t hurt Costco or because you can is absurd.

I honestly can’t fathom why you would want to abuse a policy that is there for you if needed to the point where it can no longer be used. (electronics for example) Use it, be happy and enjoy it but when you abuse it, you will lose it. It is inevitable that with the thinking of the people from some of these posts that Costco will not have their wonderful return policy for long and the only ones that will suffer are the people that aren’t abusing it because those that are abusing it will most likely cancel their memberships and move to another company to destroy and be rude and abusive to.

The sense of entitlement in some of these posts is astonishing. Do you really think your petty $55 membership fee covers the cost of a $3000 television return simply because you want an upgrade? A first-grade math student knows that doesn’t add up. Everyone wants better products, lower prices, more stores in their area and more membership perks but there is no possible way to make all of that happen and still have garbage like this going on. If you ran a business would you want customers who scream at you to return something that they purchased from you 8 years ago? No? Didn’t think so. How about a customer that returns an empty container because they didn’t care for the product even though it has been completely consumed? You would tell them to take their $55 and go elsewhere because no amount of money that they spend each year will make up for those kinds of stupid returns, the waste it creates or the loss of business it would create due to the need to amend policies such a return policy.

Either you love Costco and will continue to shop their without using it as a rental facility or you don’t and should cancel your membership. I speak on behalf of all of the members at Costco in saying that we don’t want customers like you shopping in our stores and ruining our chances at having the ability to return a product within a reasonable amount of time. If you don’t care for Costco and their policies then the answer is simple, cancel your membership and get your membership fee returned to you and move on because not only do we as consumers not want you abusing our stores to the point that we can no longer shop there but I am sure the Costco employees don’t want to deal with your complaining and abuse either.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:23:09 +0000

Patrick – Guess you didn’t really read that. It was a DVD that I had bought two of and the one I returned wasn’t even opened at all and was not even a year old but more like 6 months old. Plastic and sticker still on it. And I don’t really think that compares to returning a violin that my kid had played for over a year and now decided that they didn’t want to play anymore. A brand new $10 DVD in all packaging versus a musical instrument that probably cost more than $200 and has been dragged around for over a year and looked like it, are not the same. And a cheap DVD isn’t the same as a ping pong table left out in the rain, or a television that is just out of date because it is a couple of years old, or any of the other silly things that people try to return.

I’m still disgusted by this story and it’s been a couple of years now since I even wrote the post. It has nothing to do with Costco knowing what they are doing or not. It’s about all of the ignorant people who think they should use Costco as their own Rent-a-Center. To me that is unethical and smacks of a sense of entitlement and those people should be ashamed of themselves.

By: patrick

patrick — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:07:43 +0000

so a valid reason FOR YOU is that you bought a DVD that you decided not to watch, so are returning it almost a year later later. There was nothing wrong with it. You weren’t “dissatisfied” with it. You just didn’t want to keep it on your DVD shelf anymore just in case you did want to watch it.

You don’t have to worry about costco. They know what they are doing. They don’t have this policy because they are losing money from it.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:02:50 +0000

Yeah, but they don’t want to take back your old junk that you are just sick of having in your house or have decided that you want to upgrade.

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:15:29 +0000

I was told that I could not return a vitamix that was unopened but the one that overheated a lot and the pusher broke, was okay to return. They WANT to take back broken items.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:36 +0000

@Dublin – Did you even read the post? I say that I return things when I have a valid reason to do so. A valid reason is not that my kid decided that they didn’t want to continue playing the violin after more than a year. I’m not saying returning items is so horrible, it’s more the people that abuse the policy (as the name of the post suggests), by returning something they’ve broken or misused or just gotten sick of or is not the latest technology so they want an upgrade, that disgust me.

By: dublin

dublin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:37:45 +0000

thats why people pay big membership fees! am sure the blog writer must have returned many things herself/himself before posing that its shameful! comeon.. confess man !