CostCo Buckles Down on Returns
- February 28th, 2007
- 2 Comments
Long “celebrated” by consumers for its lenient return policies, CostCo has begun to feel burned by its nice guy persona. Customers have taken advantage of the policy to an unfair degree, returning ancient items in exchange for newer, fancier devices. Great for the customer, bad for business.
In response, CostCo is cutting its open-ended return policy back to 90 days—which is still pretty damn good. It will also be extending the warranties on TVs and PCs for total of two years. And it will start a technical support hotline in order to provide assistance to frustrated consumers.
While it sucks to see this go away, I really can’t complain. For starters, we don’t have CostCo in Louisiana, so it’s irrelevant to me. But, speaking reasonably, that return policy was shenanigans. A total money pit for the company and wholly unnecessary.
Costco tightens return policy on electronics [MSNBC]
Johnal (Who am I?)
1 year ago
I noticed this a couple days when browsing their site (during my lunch of course). What I’m curious about is if it affects Televisions purchased going forward from the day the policy changed was announced, or if it affects all television purchases?
I needed a replacement TV early January and when I went to my local Costco they didn’t have any of the units I was interested in in stock. I asked one of the workers there when they would have some in and HE suggested I just purchase one of the other monitors to “hold me over” and then return it when they had the TV i wanted.
Well, I took the advice of the Costco rep and even E-mailed Costco’s customer service center to verify the return policy. They sent me an e-mail assuring me that the only items that were not covered by their full 100% satisfaction program was computers and I think…Cigarettes?
So, does that make me exempt or do i only have a month left to return the TV? After all, if I was not constantly checking Costco’s website or checking up on CG, how would i even know any different?
Oh well… it’s about time they changed their policy.
nobody (Who am I?)
1 year ago
As an honest Costco member, I appaud Costco’s change of policy. I have heard about customers returning used TV after 3 years because a new model is released. To those bozos, Costco offers limitless free rentals. This kind of abuse put unnecessary expense on the company. The average Costco members eventally get hurt because all business shift their cost to the consumers.