(Expired) Costco - The Secret of Return Policy

It costs a membership fee ($50/year) to shop at Costco, but they offer an awesome return policy.

The return policy at Costco is 100% with or without a receipt as long as you have the same membership. The only exception are computers which must be returned within 6 months of purchase.

For example, say you buy a HDTV today and it stops working 3 years from now, Costco will take the return. In some extreme cases, we have seen people return diapers and bananas.

Note : We don't recommend purchasing with the intention to return (or abuse the system), but as for a free extended warranty or if you are really not satisfied with the product.

my blender broke, took it back. my iPod got outdated, took it back. dontcha LOVE costco?!

Yeah, however this shouldn't be mass advertised, because eventually they will alter this policy.

Costco used to install tires from the internet for $7 a wheel, so you could get the good prices from the internet and have them installed there. They also backed the internet tires with their full warranty (lifetime rotation, balancing, and flat repair). This policy has recently been changed so you now have to buy the tires there, and installation is $10 a wheel.

The same will eventually happen with the return policy.

My sister bought Diamond ring for about $1,500 4 months later came back to costco without receipt and got the full $1,500 and no question ask
gotta love costco!

without receipt!??! so technically, if i bought my PSP from elsewhere, and i wanted the white one, i could, per say, go to costco and return it?!

they took down my driver's license info when i returned some shoes at costco w/o a receipt. a lot of stores do that now too. i dunno what they will do with that info.

Rockstar said:

without receipt!??! so technically, if i bought my PSP from elsewhere, and i wanted the white one, i could, per say, go to costco and return it?!

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They scan your Costco card to see if you have it in your record. Also if you don't have a receipt (my Costco anyways) can only give you Costco credit.

I also believe Costco's video game consoles usually comes in some sort of packages, never comes in console only.

i got a dvd burner that cost 200 dollars as a gift from my parents and they returned it 8 months later with the receipt and one costco refused to take it back because it didnt have the install cd in the box...they went to another costco and they took it back no problem but they only got half of what it cost them back....seemed fair at the time....after hearing these stories i want the other 100 lol

So basically it's OK to abuse this policy to your benefit by returning goods that are "outdated" or well used but otherwise in working condition?
That's not ethical.

Erik said:

Yeah, however this shouldn't be mass advertised, because eventually they will alter this policy.

Costco used to install tires from the internet for $7 a wheel, so you could get the good prices from the internet and have them installed there. They also backed the internet tires with their full warranty (lifetime rotation, balancing, and flat repair). This policy has recently been changed so you now have to buy the tires there, and installation is $10 a wheel.

The same will eventually happen with the return policy.

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exactly - costco is not customer focused anymore - they are not about value anymore either.

waltgerris said:

exactly - costco is not customer focused anymore - they are not about value anymore either.

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i wouldn't call them not "customer focused"- their profit margin is so low that they can't afford to be ripped off.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/166680_costco29.html

Costco makes about 1.7 cents for every dollar in sales. Rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the operator of warehouse chain Sam's Club, makes about 3.3 cents for every dollar in sales.

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you should read the article- it talks about how Costco treats their employees and customers better than their investors. my sister used to work in the "hot dog stand"- before they had the whole food court- and she made almost 8 bucks an hour-- that was back when min. wage was still 4.50, plus she had health benefits!!

i, too, was disappointed to find that they wouldn't even rotate my tires on my new car because i hadn't bought them there, but i understand they can't guarantee tires they themselves didn't sell. when you think about it, it only makes sense.

with all my kids, costco is basically my grocery store- most of the employees know me by name..LOL.. and i've been shopping there so long (with my parents when i was a kid even) that it feels like a family- the customer service is always A+... oh and i DID buy a fruit tray once and when i got home, i found the melons to be bad, so i returned it the following day and they gave me my money back.

i guess the moral is: treat others (including giant wholesale/retail stores) the way you want to be treated.

crisplinen said:

they took down my driver's license info when i returned some shoes at costco w/o a receipt. a lot of stores do that now too. i dunno what they will do with that info.

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There is a data base stores now use to track people
Who are professional return scammers and if you
Show a score in that data base of a high rate
Of returns per month the stores who are members
Of this service will refuse to accept returns from
You. this is what they do with that info

Rockstar said:

without receipt!??! so technically, if i bought my PSP from elsewhere, and i wanted the white one, i could, per say, go to costco and return it?!

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The goods are specially packaged for Costco since Costco is not like an authorized dealer/seller but buys a onetime consignment on most items. If they are authorized sellers, like on Dell now i think, the manufacturer's warranty stands. Same with most TVs now.

has anyone had any success on returns without the original packaging? I threw out the box for a set of pans that have worn out.

I have mixed emotions about Costco. Their prices simply aren't that compelling on most items, partly because they pay their employees relatively high wages and benefits. I have an expired membership card in my wallet as a result.

I am one of those people who believe there are some jobs that simply cannot be expected to pay liveable wages with benefits and retail slave is one of them. Management yeah but not cashiers, etc. There are checkout people in L.A. grocery stores that get $50 per hour working on Sundays and they have better health insurance than I do. That's why they are battling Wal-Mart. They don't want the competition.

On the other hand, I don't abuse the privilege by abusing the return policy.

"Yeah, however this shouldn't be mass advertised, because eventually they will alter this policy."

It's been on message boards for year, but they are still doing it. You do have to pay that $40 a year for this benefit. Also, computer items are restricted to 6 months.

Some stores are putting in signs saying things must be returned within 30 days....

psychedelicateg said:

So basically it's OK to abuse this policy to your benefit by returning goods that are "outdated" or well used but otherwise in working condition?
That's not ethical.

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Absolutely right. I agree with you 100% . . . Here we are with a good store, a place that has fair policies, and Spoofee is promoting it like it is some kind of "Godsend for Cheats." Wow. What a highly ethical site this is (sarcasm intended). Will Costco continue with fair policies while sites like this mass advertise something that they offer to members as a courtesy? Long live the Costco's of the world, and their customers who treat THEM fairly.

The timing of this thread is funny. I've been a Costco member for years (I barely buy enough to justify the membership fee and every year I almost quit), and I've never returned anything after 30 days because I didn't know about the "secret" return policy until just last week.

Since I was investigating HDTVs and someone told me about this too-good-to-be-true policy, I went into Costco last week to ask about it because Costco's price on the same TV WITHOUT an extended warranty was the same as another major store's price WITH a 5 year on-site warranty. (They wouldn't pricematch either because the TV had a special Costco-only model # even though it was feature-for-feature identical, same brand, same size, same type, same specs, etc. The Costco guy said avoiding pricematching was precisely the reason why the model # was different on the same TV.)

So I asked if I would effectively have the equivalent of a 5 year warranty if I bought from Costco, and I was told "probably, but we don't promise anything after 30 days". Plus it would be a refund warranty rather than an on-site repair. Then the manager said the return policy was changing on January 1st 2006 so it would be a moot point anyway. I said what about purchases before January 1st? I was told they'd probably be grandfathered in.

I knew when I found about this seemingly too-good-to-be-true policy that it wouldn't last long, and sure enough it's going to be over soon. I'm always the last one to the door just as the party ends.

Needless to say, after this conversation and getting a bunch of "probablys" and "maybes" about the return policy if I bought the TV at Costco, I decided I'd rather buy the TV for the same price somewhere else with an outright warranty than hope Costco will take care of any problems in 5 years. Just my opinions.

We apologize for making some of you guys upset on this topic and I did make a notice on the front page to not abuse the system.

We don't recommend purchasing with the intention to return (or abuse the system), but as for extended warranty purposes or if you are not satisfied with the product.

As morriefisher stated, this has been known and talked about in many other sites.

This is what Costco advertises and this may be why some members join for $40/year.

From Costco :
Costco guarantees your satisfaction with the merchandise you purchase from us.

Returning Bananas

Spoofee said:

In some extreme cases, we have seen people return diapers and bananas.

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I am one who has returned bananas and thought there was nothing "extreme" about it. It's not like they were "used" or anything. The damned things are picked green; this particular batch never ripened. If I was the type to simply write off the dollar I spent, I wouldn't be the type to frequent the Spoofee site.

Now diapers, on the other hand . . .

--
Joe