Costco and their generous return policy
 

I see lots of things getting returned to Costco. Usually, large tvs and folding tables right after Superbowl, and tents, tables and chairs after graduation season. However, last night, someone was returning an inflatable boat. Other people in line were just looking at it and it was pretty trashed. It looked like it had a few hard years on her. I was walking out the door, so I do not know the outcome. IMHO, returning a boat you have used hard, for a long time is ridiculous.

It looked like this.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....AC_SL1500_.jpg

Maybe it was defective? I agree though, people will definitely abuse a generous return policy.

Costco is not eating the returns, the vendor's who get to sell their stuff at Costco need to take it back as part of their contract. Still, vendors will kill themselves to get to sell at Costco, because it is such a large retailer.

Generally, they will have a look at your history before taking returns, if you are a high roller and/or your rate of returns is low, they are very generous in what they take back. Like most anywhere in our society, it is the honor system and some people abuse such.

Personally, I like to shop at Costco for this reason. I sometimes bring stuff back that is a couple years old, if it has seen little use and fails on me. There are never any questions asked. And I do feel it is fair.

G

My dumb ass BIL worked at Macy's for a bit when he came over from Canada. He told people would go to their car, take out the Thermos and come right back with an empty box claiming there was nothing in it and demand their money back. The store manager would give in due to whatever dumb excuse or law they have to stick to. Yep, dishonest people suck. I think we should have law like they have in some foreign countries, you buy it, its yours. Pound sand if that makes your day.

Do they have such policy in the UK Germany or Japan? Now, I am curious.

Not in Germany. Very strict return policies there. NFW will you bring anything back a year + later. But the honor system isn't working well in some areas of German society. Let's just say their rate of abuse would not be manageable with a generous return policy.

Let me see, that population isn't PC to talk about?

My sister is the queen of returning siht. Me, never. Can't stand the return lines unless its really broken or cost thousands. I normally just ask for another. My wife is pretty good too. She tells me people return half rack of ribs at costo after they have eaten the other half. I shake my head in disbelieve. Sad.

I watch Paolo in Tokyo on YouTube and he has mentioned that in Japan returns are very uncommon. The major retailers yes, but most stores give people plenty of time to try things on, etc because once you bought it, it's yours.

No, it is pretty widespread across the country. Many people will cheat on petty stuff. Tax evasion too. It is almost a national sport. For example telling the lady at the buffet your 6 foot 15 YO kid is really 12 and needs the child pricing. Don't even blush. :rolleyes:

I heard someone complain that they were in line at a Costco, and some other customer in front of them was successfully returning a Christmas tree...in January.

Well, I tell pretty girls that I am only 27 daily and don't even blush and its all true.

My oldest son worked at Costco for years. His last role was managing the returns area. Yes, there are some crazy stories. They do track people pretty closely so the serial abusers are flagged and dealt with. No, you can't return partially eaten food normally. Some people have no shame. Nordstroms and REI are both PNW headquartered companies that were famous for their generous return policies for years. They cut back on those a few years ago. Too many people returning 20 year old NorthFace jackets that were clearly well used. If you try and do something nice for folks, someone will always find a way to ruin it.

people who abuse return policies are even worse than people who dont return shopping carts.

Generous return policies are not some charitable thing that businesses do for the benefit of their customers. It is a strategic decision; that people will buy more knowing that they can return it and most will not. And they will. Once upon a time, maybe 25 years ago, I bought most of my clothes at The Gap. They would take absolutely anything back in return with no questions asked and I bought more stuff with the idea that I could return it if I changed my mind.

I've never shopped at a Costco, I joined last year because I had to in order to return/exchange a car battery, (actually two), and haven't made my maiden voyage into the place yet. It looks like a level of hell that I haven't experienced yet and do not want to...I don't need to stock up for picnic for 300 people and the lines and general crush of humanity is not my cup of tea. Some day I will check it out, now that the pandemic is basically over here. Probably catch TB in the place, lol. :)

I returned a dock ladder after 2 years.
After the 1st year all the stainless bolts were rusting. I called the manufacturer and and they basically said I was bull#hitting them, but will send me new bolts.
The 2nd set of bolts rusted too so I just returned it.
At least I scraped off all the zebra mussels before taking it back to the store.
It wasn't cheap.

We returned a gas grill to Costco, after about a year, heavily used. New model had stainless grates, and ours were rusting. Tried to get update from manufacturer, no help. Costco actually told us to bring it back and buy the new one.

Also returned a laptop, screen went black and mfg(sony) had a charge for warranty repair.

I forgot to mention that Amazon has had an extremely generous return policy but may be tightening it up. They are about as far from a charitable organization as you can get.

I do not return shopping carts and people are usually surprised by my reason: Gathering carts is somebody's job. They get paid. I put the cart in the cart corral and leave it there. I do this to support the guy who has that job.

Denis, our Costco stores are clean. Check-out is remarkably fast. They carry only good quality products. These are the features of their business model which have caused their success. I buy everything I can from Costco. I can rely on the quality, and the quantities work for me also. I am not a recreational shopper. I want to minimize my time doing that. I buy toilet paper perhaps once per year and that is because I live with a female. On my own, I'd probably buy TP once every three years. About $30. That's $10/year. And I don't have to think about it for another three years. Their meat section is very good, as is their bakery.

I almost never return anything. Ever. My time and peace of mind are more valuable to me than money. To a degree.

I put the carts in the cart corrals as well.

What people mean is the jackasses that just leave them in random parking spaces.

My company sells to Costco. As part of the pricing agreement, we give Costco a 1.4% discount on all sales which is called a spoilage allowance. This is to cover returns for any reason. If actual returns exceed the 1.4%, Costco charges us. If returns are less than 1.4%, Costco keeps the change.

By returning carts I mean to the corral. I know very few people who bring them back to the store, it is actually a bit awkward in most places to do so especially if they are sanitizing them.


I have love hate with costco. Its a madhouse around here. There food is generally very good though. Especially their meat and frozen foods.

I always return the carts and I'm usually parked the furthest away I can. This is a form of exercise and my car does not have any dings (call me selfish)

As far as job creation....I don't support excessive minimum wage increases as that seems to eliminate jobs. As an employer, I have seen our company automate as much as possible to combat high wages.

You should.

Certain days and times of the week will be worse than others but that's with most things.

You don't need to buy bulk and a lot of the stuff that is bulk, none perishables, makes sense to buy.

We go once a month, works for us.

Their meats are outstanding both in quality and value.

Their Kirkland branded products are all first rate, their Extra Virgin Olive Oil is one of the few actual Virgin Olive Oils, most of your popular "big brands" don't really qualify as they are cut with other cheaper oils.

About the only thing that really annoys us is you get hooked on a product and one day "poof" they just stop carrying it for seemingly no good reason.

We used to buy bags of their Kirkland oriental rice cracker mix. Then one day, no more.

Odd because it was / is so popular entire websites dedicated to finding it, or a reasonable replacement, sprung up.

My weekends usually start with the Saturday morning ritual, the Costco run. I can blaze through there in no time whereas the Wife likes to go up and down all the aisles.

My list is usually the same although some items bought in bulk (like eggs, TP) can last us a month. I usually get baguettes of bread, 3 rotisserie chickens (for the dog, don't ask), Pepsi, meats and cheeses and water.

On Saturdays Costco opens at 9:30 but if you're there at 9 they usually open by 9:15 and I'm out by 9:35.

They did used to carry cases of Techron injector cleaner but i haven't seen it in over a year.

The clothing section is my wifes Achilles heal.

Never shopped Costco - we don't have one close by.

I have returned items to Amazon but only when they failed to perform - except one item I ordered but right afterwards realized it was too large for me (a canopy enclosure). It was less than 1 hour later when I hit the "cancel order" button. Message back was it was too late - already sent to ship mode. The kicker was - the expected arrival time was over 2 weeks away, so I didn't understand why the order couldn't be cancelled. I let it ship anyway but left it in it's box here. Still couldn't figure out how I could use it so went through the "return" process and they wanted to charge a fee. I called customer service and the rep took care of everything for me - no charge. I apologized and explained to him I tried to cancel the order - and he said he saw that. Also said I was a very good customer and was happy to take care of this. So I guess they do have an internal rating system for customers.

What's nice about Amazon returns is you just drop the item off at your local UPS store and they take are of the rest. Doesn't even have to be wrapped or packaged. You do have to bring with you the return paperwork with the bar code for UPS to scan, but that's no biggie.

I have another story I will share later.

If it's from a 3rd party seller things aren't as easy. And it's not always easy to see if what you are buying thru Amazon is coming from a 3rd party or not. However, I have never had much of a problem with refunds from A if the shipment is more than 3 days late or there is something obviously wrong with it. I even cancelled an order and got a refund from a 3rd party pet supply when I found the exact thing for 25% less on a search 2 days later and it was Prime with free shipping. The 3rd party nicked me for return shipping so I'm even more cautious about 3rd parties. I still came out a couple days ahead on delivery AND price.

For that there is eBay. The advantage is always in the buyer's court on the flea.

Shame.

My favorite Costco purchase.

Picked up 6 of them at $50 a pop, they all fit in the back of the Tahoe.

That was 8 years ago.

They are majestic 30 footers now and still going strong.

Going to miss them when I move.

If I could take them with me I would.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1623871883.jpg

We have Amazon prime and I know that my wife has returned things many times that weren’t what she expected. She drops it off at UPS (don’t even need the box it came in), shows UPS some return code on her phone and account is credited immediately.

One of our daughters and her family buy EVERYTHING from COSTCO (remember when it was called Price Club)? Anyway we got a dog and named him Bosco and their 6 year old son thought his name was Costco!

You do that too? My dogs love Costco chicken, or Sam's chicken. One is particular and only eats it when it is fresh, won't eat leftovers.

Here's what you'll be missing. Mine were planted at least 50 years ago:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1623874852.jpg

Very nice, Scott! Those are very cool trees!!!

We have those here too at various wholesale nurseries, which I am able to shop from.

For example, I just checked and can get these for $29 each. They are in 7 gallon pots and around 5' in height:

https://www.plantant.com/supplierima...1497942180.jpg

It's odd, Cypress are not uncommon here but none of the nurseries carry them.

Our pup (Choco Lab) had a cold/ cough so I told the Wife to warm up some chicken broth for him. Fixed him right up.

Next weekend she hands me the Costco list and it has 2 chickens on it. I asked what we were having and she said "He liked the broth so much I gave him some chicken at 11:00 and now he expects it everyday".

So, at 11 everyday he bugs me or her for his chicken. At $5 a bird (it's their "loss leader") I figure it's no big deal, he's a good boy!

The "Chickenmeister"....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1623878107.jpg

I saw quite a few wholesale nurseries in my search who carried them, but Texas is so big, maybe those just aren't in your area.

Still, it's a legitimate landscape tree and seems like they would be available throughout the state, as they are here, as well.

This is one of the reasons I'm happy to be out of the business. Getting material was always a challenge. Not only certain species but in decent condition. It's not like going to the store and grabbing a gallon of milk off the shelf!

Awww....love that pic, Craigster!

I give my girl chicken as well but just not Costco. Along with rice. Supplements her regular kibble diet. :)