Returning an Item to Costco....

Legume

‘bout time

YukonRon

I have returned items purchased from Costco, that were defective, and items we bought for a specific Idea or use, to find that it was not a great fit for what we wanted to do for the home.
A couple items we have worn out and easily got our money's worth we have simply disposed of, recycled or donated to charity.
We too, also bought a artificial LED lighted tree from Costco, that after 8 years, the lights gave out. 
We just removed the lighting and still use it with the typical holiday lighting sold inexpensively at any store.
When those lights go out, we have replaced them as well.
We are down to less than $20.00/year in the investment, and may entertain the thought of replacement, with a new one in the coming years, from Costco. If it is defective, we will certainly return it, after we dispose of the Holiday tree we have now, in some manner.
We are not the Clark Griswolds of the holiday season, so the holiday decor is somewhat more subtle, laid back, without flair. We do not have matching holiday apparel either.
Obviously, I am not the person you should ever seek advice from regarding anything with regards to holiday celebratory decor.
I am just the guy that brings the boxes up from the basement, hangs or places stuff where My Beautiful Wife suggests, and takes said items down, and returns boxes to the basement.
Oh yeah,
Merry Christmas.

Legume

YukonRon said:

We do not have matching holiday apparel either.

I don’t know if I should call BS or just accept this, and be sad.  #imageshattered

Acn

stlcharcoal said:

Woodchunk said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-membership-canceled-return-policy-2018-8

I didn't read the whole thing, but I noticed it mentioned LL Bean.  I remember reading on another business website how one of the executives/owners had one of his old shirts he had donated to charity come back through the returns with his initials embroidered on it!!  That was their tip off that people were going to goodwill to buy LL Bean clothes just so they could swap them for new ones.

Yeah, I grew up in Maine and I knew of several people who would scour any yard sale/goodwill/salvation army for Bean’s products.

GATraveller

Acn said:

stlcharcoal said:

Woodchunk said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-membership-canceled-return-policy-2018-8

I didn't read the whole thing, but I noticed it mentioned LL Bean.  I remember reading on another business website how one of the executives/owners had one of his old shirts he had donated to charity come back through the returns with his initials embroidered on it!!  That was their tip off that people were going to goodwill to buy LL Bean clothes just so they could swap them for new ones.

Yeah, I grew up in Maine and I knew of several people who would scour any yard sale/goodwill/salvation army for Bean’s products.

I would do that just for the items themselves.....not to return.  Not many companies around making cloths with that quality anymore.

alaskanassasin

I am unclear about Costco’s return policy but it almost sounds like satisfaction guarantee not a lifetime warranty. 
 After 8 years of using a electronic device I would say I am satisfied with its service life.
 Put it on your homeowners insurance.

Legume

alaskanassasin said:

 Put it on your homeowners insurance.

 

stlcharcoal

alaskanassasin said:

I am unclear about Costco’s return policy but it almost sounds like satisfaction guarantee not a lifetime warranty. 
 After 8 years of using a electronic device I would say I am satisfied with its service life.
 Put it on your homeowners insurance.

Satisfaction guarantee is better than a lifetime warranty.  Doesn't have to break for you not to be satisfied with it.

Costco has time limits on returns of electronics, batteries, and a few other items though.  They do in most cases double the manufacturer's warranty on electronics and you go through them for the replacement.

TEXASBGE2018

alaskanassasin said:

I am unclear about Costco’s return policy but it almost sounds like satisfaction guarantee not a lifetime warranty. 
 After 8 years of using a electronic device I would say I am satisfied with its service life.
 Put it on your homeowners insurance.

I can just picture my agent answering "You want to file a claim for what?" hahaha

johnnyp

I regard it as my responsibility to watch out for the interests of businesses that I enjoy interacting with.  A small example would be not taking too many ketchup sauce packets, napkins or straws than I'll use, lest the establishment start charging and/or increase their pricing to cover excessive losses. 

Does returning the tree mean you're taking advantage of the system?  Open for interpretation.  But, as a consumer, I would be disappointed if Costco's return policy became more stringent and, therefore, model my behavior not to make unreasonable returns....even if they would allow me to (for now).

Just my $0.02.  Live yo' life.

TEXASBGE2018

Good point @johnnyp, but where is the line? Who determines what is unreasonable? Lets say I use the example of my $300 Blendtec Blender that I just bought at Costco. What is an unreasonable timeframe and reason for me returning it? If I use it a couple times a week for 30 seconds at a time,clean it spotless after each use and it craps out after 1 year because of nothing that I did, is that unreasonable? Sure it has a warranty but lets just say that after a year of use I'm just not "satisfied" with its results, can I not return it?

This is why I asked the question in the 1st place. To get a larger pool of opinions than my own. Costco's policy is great but It's a slippery slope. I too don't want to see them eliminate or change their policy but I also don't "abuse" their system either as I have never returned anything there before. So throwing my situation in with people who return large dollar items multiple times a month or year is a bit different in my opinion. This is a great discussion.

Plutonium

In respect to this discussion, I thought this was interesting:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-stores-do-with-90-billion-in-merchandise-returns-1518777000

OshawaDave

JohnnyTarheel said:

I hear you.. I just sort of look at it as if I got reasonable use out of it I got what I paid for it. They do have a lenient return policy... and like anything some returns are legit and some not..

There was a guy in front of me a month ago that returned a cooked roast....he said it was tough - they took it back. (I kid you not)

fishlessman

Acn said:

stlcharcoal said:

Woodchunk said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-membership-canceled-return-policy-2018-8

I didn't read the whole thing, but I noticed it mentioned LL Bean.  I remember reading on another business website how one of the executives/owners had one of his old shirts he had donated to charity come back through the returns with his initials embroidered on it!!  That was their tip off that people were going to goodwill to buy LL Bean clothes just so they could swap them for new ones.

Yeah, I grew up in Maine and I knew of several people who would scour any yard sale/goodwill/salvation army for Bean’s products.

the return isle at beans got out of control, between the yard sale returns and the stuff discounted in the seconds shops being returned there were more cashiers taking returns than selling. its really gotten to be a clothing shop, have not been for years

69shovelhead

Hmm, about 2 months of use, per year, for 5 years puts that at about 10 months, use give or take. 10 months use for something that cost $300 doesn't sound like "you got your use out of it" to me.

alaskanassasin

TEXASBGE2018 said:

I know you folks on here swear by Costco and their return policy. I have a question. What's the longest you've had something that you returned to Costco? My reason for asking this is that my wife and I bought a Prelit Christmas Tree from Costco that Only worked 5 times. Rather than trying to return it I've kept it and just added new lights the last couple years. If I don't have a receipt would they have a history of it anywhere and also would they take this back? It was around $300 when we bought it and if I can take advantage of Costco's supposed lifetime guarantee I will before shelling out another $300 for another tree. Any thoughts?

TEXASBGE2018

69shovelhead said:

Hmm, about 2 months of use, per year, for 5 years puts that at about 10 months, use give or take. 10 months use for something that cost $300 doesn't sound like "you got your use out of it" to me.

This is what I was trying to explain. It's not something that I used every day for 5 years and then once it "Wore Out" I decided to stiff Costco. I used it in my opinion very little. Granted what went out is the lights and as YukonRon suggested what I have been doing the last couple years is just leaving the burned out lights unplugged and re-wrapping the entire tree in new strands but its time consuming and annoying. The tree itself still looks fine. Its just my annoyance at the lights. They aren't LED's so eventually they will go out and I just felt that as you said less than 1 year of "total" usage to me, I didn't feel that it was very reliable.

TEXASBGE2018

Well I just spoke with my local Costco on the phone and according to them, Yes even without a receipt they can look it up based on my Membership ID. Also, Yes they will in fact take it back and either exchange it for me or give me my money back. So now the moral dilemma of whether I should in fact lug it up there to exchange it. So far it seems the reply's are 50/50. What to do.....

fishlessman

ive sent back plenty of broken fly fishing rods under warranty....never felt guilty getting it replaced.   you do know theres free trees behind the grammar school at the start of xmas break

NorthPilot06

I haven't gotten the impression that you're that short on cash, but make your own decision.

dmchicago

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Well I just spoke with my local Costco on the phone and according to them, Yes even without a receipt they can look it up based on my Membership ID. Also, Yes they will in fact take it back and either exchange it for me or give me my money back. So now the moral dilemma of whether I should in fact lug it up there to exchange it. So far it seems the reply's are 50/50. What to do.....

Tex,

You know what you want to do. You're just looking for approval to do it.

As someone upthread said, Live yo life.

TEXASBGE2018

dmchicago said:

TEXASBGE2018 said:

Well I just spoke with my local Costco on the phone and according to them, Yes even without a receipt they can look it up based on my Membership ID. Also, Yes they will in fact take it back and either exchange it for me or give me my money back. So now the moral dilemma of whether I should in fact lug it up there to exchange it. So far it seems the reply's are 50/50. What to do.....

Tex,

You know what you want to do. You're just looking for approval to do it.

As someone upthread said, Live yo life.

I think what I'm going to try 1st is to see if I can actually find a dang fuse box on these lights and if so try changing the fuses. If I don't have any luck with that then i'll think about what to do next. I've already looked for the fuse boxes once and couldn't find anything but they have to be somewhere.

RiverRatSkier

Sometimes the fuses are right in the plug.  A little sliding door or something.  If they are normal (not LED) bulbs, and one has gone out, some styles will kill the whole string.

DoubleEgger

They advertise satisfaction guaranteed and they said you could bring it back. I’d go get a new tree and buy a prime subprimal while you’re there. Grab a handle on your way home. Beef and liquor will help ease any guilt you may have. 

Cornholio

If I had a tree for 7 years and it wasn’t working properly I’d move on.  Regarding the “only used 2 months” argument, I see the point but at the same time things put away and not used for long intervals tend to have issues.  Kind of like letting your car sit too long and only firing it up occasionally.  

It’s a Chinese made prelit Christmas tree though, not exactly an item I’d be looking for a lifetime warranty/guarantee on.  If you weren’t satisfied the first year then why’d you keep using it?  How about year two, three, four?  

Carolina Q

One of the links above in this thread talks about Costco canceling the memberships of people who return too many things. If that's not you, and it sure doesn't sound like it is, I think I'd return it. I would think that something like that should last longer than five years at a few hours a day for a couple of weeks a year.

As an aside, I recall a story about Nordstrom's from years ago. Apparently, their policy was/is returns accepted for anything, at any time, for any reason. So one day this guy shows up with a couple of worn out snow tires looking for a refund! TIRES! At Nordy's. They gave him the refund! Probably urban legend, but still...

alaskanassasin

 I love the average life span of a food thread is 340 views and 15 comments, however returning a Christmas tree to Costco thread accumulates 5,600 views and 90 comments (my own included) in less that 24hrs

DoubleEgger

alaskanassasin said:

 I love the average life span of a food thread is 340 views and 15 comments, however returning a Christmas tree to Costco thread accumulates 5,600 views and 90 comments (my own included) in less that 24hrs

Yeah this forum is going down the sh!tter... 

HeavyG

alaskanassasin said:

 I love the average life span of a food thread is 340 views and 15 comments, however returning a Christmas tree to Costco thread accumulates 5,600 views and 90 comments (my own included) in less that 24hrs

I'm surprised this thread hasn't caused anyone to "peace out" yet since this is a BGE forum after all.

Also...when he returns the tree we'll need "pics or it didn't happen".

TEXASBGE2018

Ya, I woke up this morning and saw 3K+ views and about 30 missed comments and I thought some kinda algorithm was running or something that caused multiple views every 2 seconds. To be fair, I did put it in the "Off-Topic" Category