Again, I never even took it out of the box or used it once. Personally, I am asking Costco to immediately amend their return policy and stop misguiding people to think they can return anything (excluding 90 day exception categories). Doughroller.net does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. And aside from that, you are missing two very important points here: one, that nowhere does it say “lifetime” return policy in the segment of the policy you quoted, so you have no concrete reason to expect it to be a lifetime guarantee, and two, they said they guarantee your satisfaction. It’s funny reading about all of these small issues. To me there are two issues with this tale: 1. I think this business knows what they are doing. Clearly, the fact that you kept the product for two years and used it throughout that time indicates that you were satisfied with your purchase, which is all that Costco’s return policy guarantees you. Perhaps this account was just one of the unlucky ones. It would be disingenuous to claim a lack of satisfaction in this case. This was unused, and still in the sealed box. The only reason why I would advocate this is because of the way they phrase their return policy. Great roasted chickens and gas prices. This is a good advertising stategy and is what the membership fee is for. At the beginning of your statement you said your son did not want the piano any longer….it had nothing to do with not being satisfied with your purchase. The Costco policy states that you will be satisfied with the product or they will refund. I have 2 sister in laws that work at Costco. Be particularly cautious of pop-up solicitations, job-finding sites, and opportunities to win Costco Shop Cards. Sometimes it has worked out, sometimes it hasn’t, but either way, it’s a great incentive. The Costco representative tells me that returns older than 2 years are not accepted. What a crock. They only tell you that to make their lives easier because most of the time people will believe it and let things go. For those that want to unsubscribe, a respect your conviction and wish you well. As the vendor’s return rates go up, the vendor has to adjust the prices to cover the losses from returns. It is why there is a membership fee. -continued- if you get no or a negative response from your letter then I’d sue them. It means satisfied. They may also ask you to purchase something that may or may not be delivered to you. 6. That was a Friday. 55-inch 4K UHD smart TV It's probably the LG 55UJ6540, a recommended model that sells for about $600. Diamonds: When returning items containing a 1.00 ct diamond or larger, Costco warehouses will require additional time to verify the diamond, in which case a refund will be approved upon positive verification. So if Costco decided to leave our shores (unlikely seeing they are making huge profits through overpricing and customers falsely believing that buying in bulk means buying cheaper), I would not shed a tear. It’s satisfaction guaranteed, not upgrades guaranteed. October 7, 2017. Alc. The following must be returned within 90 days of purchase for a refund: televisions, projectors, computers, cameras, camcorders, iPOD / MP3 players and cellular phones. When customers believe they essentially should be given something for nothing, that is wrong. When exactly do people think the cut off should be? 750 ml. Our members have extended a trust to Costco by virtue of paying a fee to shop with us. Frankly, I was stunned that they had such a liberal policy, but impressed at the same time. I think this big corporations lying and making money at little people’s cost and injury typifies one of the ills of capitalism, not that capitalism doesn’t do any good. The return policy they state they need to enforce – not a different one. Why would a company advertise (in stores) an unreasonable policy? Not only that, but you then planned to spend your undeserved refund somewhere else! It does not make sence that Costco would offer a Life time satisfaction guarantee and now say it is up for interpretation. !” To that matter, I 100% expect the same in return! What a great company! They seem to want the best of both worlds. ... 2014 Chateau Potelle The Illegitimate California Red Blend. There isn’t a lot of available details about window vacs so I found this extremely valuable. They are a huge corporation, not some mom and pop shop, and the piano return was rejected as part of some internal return assessment procedure that they just haven’t made public for some reason. Costco made its arguments concerning the admissibility of evidence and its weight in the course of the trial. I’d like to return it, not because I just changed my mind and want a new vacuum, but because it does not work as advertised (automatically adjusting to all carpet types). I decided to get a much less expensive vacuum at Walmart, and my intention was to return the Dyson to Costco. what about 2 of the exact same dell laptops bought at the same time a little over 1 yrs ago that now both have the exact same issues? What can I add that hasn’t been said already, only my own personal experience from 6/1/14. Disappointing and shameful that you would want to return a working item that you have been *using* for ~2 years. Just sharing this to warn you about Costco and TEAC and their dodgy and confusing warranty schemes. It was only after a bought a new piano the next day that they contacted me to refuse the return. If your son’s piano had stopped working after 6 months, Costco (unlike every other business) would have taken it back. Otherwise they would spell out the time limit for returns. The other thing is that Costco,Sams,Home Depot, Lowes ,Walmarts ,etc,etc do not put up capital to purchase these items. Keeping our customers' personal information secure and confidential is one of Costco Wholesale's highest priorities. I too ran into the off the record Costco return policies and found it quite disappointing. It reminds me of the Credit card companies portraying themselves as heroes when you do not recognize a charge. If after a reasonable discussion you find yourself still in possession of a piano, you then write a letter to ” W. Craig Jelinek – President and COO”, demanding that they honor their return policy because by not doing so they are in violation of several ca laws, such as provisions pertaining to unfair business practices, consumer protections contracts, etc. But what does surprise me is that nobody is frustrated with (1) Costco’s acceptance of the return followed by an e-mail rejecting the return, or (2) that Costco won’t abide by its own published return policy. I have not done anything with it yet. But we even bought another copy of the TV, which I’m watching now, 5 years later. Your comment proves the point, as you say that returns over 3 years old are up to the manager’s discretion. The message does not come from a costco.com domain, Repeated language, multiple links to the same location, Hovering over a link shows a non-Costco url, Fake address, disclaimer, and opt-out gives appearance of legitimacy. I think this is deception by Costco. In other words, I had what I was told by the Costco store rep as being a ‘covered item’. A week, it’s calles owning and running a business. Costco needs to specify exactly what their return policy is like any other store. They could easily change the written policy to two years and allow exceptions, and yet they do not. If anything, your son, and you, are trying to abuse a very generous system. ps3 won’t eject game anymore after 8 months of use. As I had purchased a couple of boxes of Kleenex Aloe Vera boxes at my local Aldi Supermarket, I knew that the Aldi price was just $1.90 per box. The girl at the counter said she would, ” be doing be a favor” if she gave me store credit? ... 2017 Andrew Rich 'Volcanic' Pinot Noir 93 pts Vinous; Rated 4 out of 5 stars based on 8 reviews. That is the contract between the member and Costco. What am I teaching my son? If, until now, you have been satisfied with the product, they have met their commitment and you can not return the item in good faith. If you were unsatisfied you should of returned it two years ago. Lifetime satisfaction includes the duration of a lifetime, not just a segement. Later that day we ordered his new electric piano from Amazon. I have worked refunds at Costco for close to 20 years now and they have never claimed or published having a lifetime return policy, It’s never been published anywhere by Costco that the return policy is lifetime. One of these days, Costco could get a class action and FTC sanction if they start giving customers a hard time about return things after they have promised unconditional no time returns. . Not to mention, the only reason you want to return it is lack of compatibility with your computer, which presumably you purchased after the piano. You will be instructed to immediately send a payment, in the form of a second personal check, wire transfer, or similar, to some third party to cover taxes, processing fees, administrative costs, or some similarly vague expense. We could return the piano, get the cash, and apply it to a new grand piano. Costco posted its return policy at the time of the transaction, and he asked them to abide by it. I live in Australia and yesterday, an employee at the local Costco store tried to justify an overpriced printer by saying that Costco offered a superior warranty. I agree that Costco is a great store with great customer service — I’ve held a membership there for many years and plan to continue to do so. Costco is not some local business, it is a giant corporation that makes a ton of money and is very successful. When I call Costco, the representative tells me I need to reply to the email I received denying the return. Interestingly, I visited an electronics retailer who is selling this particular printer at a regular price of $169.00. I returned after many months clothes the ripped, and clothes I used but did not like. For an immediate refund (including shipping and handling), simply return your purchase at any one of our Costco warehouses worldwide. morning one of the Costco Sr VPs in Washington called me & we spoke for 1/2 hr. The little known secret is Costco is not the hero. They even printed a report of items that I had purchased and returned in last eight year. Forget “class action” suits – they really only benefit the lawyers involved, and will have WAY too much out of pocket expense. I always thought that Costco had two year warranty on all electronics. Some knows the policies well and some thinks they own the business personally. The answer to that question would fill another entire article, but part of the answer is because we didn’t learn of Costco’s lifetime return policy until about a year after we purchased the piano. Here’s what I’d do, If I were in your sitch. the whole 2 yr coverage by costco coicernage is crap…i have been on the phone with them so many times.for both open cases and i am really not happy with costco. If I were you, I’d call the corporate headquarters. I take return policies the same way. Just like your scenario, I stood just two feet away from their very large return policy sign which indicated there would be no problem. It is an unfortunate fact of the Internet that at any given time there are numerous illegitimate pop-up ads, surveys, websites, emails, social media posts and advertisements that purport to be from or authorized by Costco. I went to Costco twice this past Sunday. I can tell you for sure that Costco is NOT living up to their “ mission statement” as it pertains to their return policy! So now I know the rules and I am happy to participate in the game on that basis. The item functioned as expected for two years and now can be resold as used to someone who will appreciate it. ), They shouldn’t make a policy they don’t intent to fully keep. Again, I’m asking Costco to immediately amend their return policy to resemble their competitions such as Amazon and Walmart so people will know what they’re getting into when they buy from Costco. 14.5% . One thing I could make out from this post is, few like OP want to game the system and try to justify their action. It was a parent trying to return it to but the kid what they wanted.. not an issue with the product. This is false advertisement. In fact, what I find ethically wrong is a company that publishes a lifetime return policy but then refuses to honor it. Then again, there is no way I would have ever spent $2000+ on a TV, so I could imagine considering the purchase knowing I would never have to pay for another one. It is abusive and yes unethical to try to turn in a good product in for a more advanced product. After another year in bottle, The Illegitimate Cuvée Non-Autorisée is a brilliant 2017, ready to enjoy now, with loads of built-in pleasure, but capable of gaining a ton of complexity in bottle over time. Citibank, one of the worst players in the industry? They put that policy in place in case something really happens to the purchased item for ex. When i read these posts about what is unethical i have to say that they ar posted by people hired by the company to say these things. What are you teaching your kid??? And my other issue really, the whole idea of them controlling credit cards is crazy. Price at Costco is $14.99 which is less than anywhere else I found online while researching it. She looked it up and found that it was 7 years old. 3) Ethics. She let my son play for a few minutes, and then asked my wife if she was interested in buying one of the very expensive grand pianos. World is changing and customer wants more flexibility and lots of customers buy lots of extra stuff due to lenient policies but if Costco just upfront and clear with their return policies, i dont think then lots of customer wont be misleading in any way. Let me see if I have this straight, your son used a electric piano for two years and then decided he wanted a different one. My managers policy was take back everything and anything no matter what, I sincerely believe that a class action lawsuit needs to be filed against costco for the fact that they falsely advertise this return policy and do not honor it, and exactly as stated by previous comments, it is based on managers whim. If they ever remove this policy or flat out deny to honor it with me, I will promptly be returning over $100k of stuff on the premise of their broken agreement and the fact I would never have purchased there if this agreement hadn’t existed. I’m sorry. When you return something unnecessarily so you can use it for free for a while, its the rest of us that have to pay the price….. literally! The sad part is you knowingly walked out with unpaid merchandise and failed to make it right. Were all about customer satisfaction and i dont know how a store can tell you that you cannot return something when we turn tons of items daily at my store. No time limit is established in their policy. If they think that’s too costly, here’s a simple solution: DON’T OFFER A LIFETIME RETURN POLICY. It cost about $1,300. As I said, I do it to the letter of the law, what THEY THEMSELVES wrote. We buy everything we can there because of their awesome return policy. They attracted all customers thanks to their lifetime policy, they used it as a bite and now they’re backing away. I had recently found out that one of the brands they sell was found to be adulterated with cheaper oils and was not in fact what they advertised, so I wanted to return the one remaining unopened bottle I had (after I had already used many other bottles of fraudulently labeled oil which I will never get the money for). A similar but low-tech scam circulates occasionally, in the form of a check, purportedly from Costco, and instructions to deposit it right away, usually in order to receive the balance of a larger sum you have "won" or that has otherwise come to you unexpectedly. We had a lady get mad over a meat lovers pizza not having enough meat, and was not happy with the way the warehouse manager dealt with it and so she called corporate and got 3 free meat lover pizzas that they had to put triple toppings on. If a person is not satisfied for ANY reason, including his son not liking his piano after a year and a half, if falls under Costco’s return policy. I never had to worry about a return. if you dont like it change your policy!! Find out the revenue, expenses and profit or loss over the last fiscal year. Costco gives an unlimited satisfaction guarantee to encourage customers to buy things they really may not need or want, with the assurance that they can return these items at anytime. I do not need to leave my house and if I do not like it in 30 days I usually get free shipping back to the on-line vendor. It would be different if the piano didn’t work correctly. Knowing the truth, you intentionally deceived Costco in order to avoid paying for those goods. She also spent time poring over my account history in its entirety (20 year member). But the kid just wanted a new piano.. nothing was wrong with the one from Costco. Don’t just go returning the product because you need the money or want the newer version on someone else’s dime. 5.97 is possible. Most people felt he did the wrong thing, myself included. Furthermore, they have the power at their sole discretion to cancel your membership. I think this is a fair point, but we need to look at a complete picture, not just one transaction. But first let’s review. With regards to electronics purchased before the 2007 lifetime satisfaction was still in place, how they could not honor that guarantee is so deceiving. if companies are allowed to not follow policies set by themselves, what trust can we still have in those companies? She finally got approval and typed in notes on my account in the system telling me that from now on, I am banned from returning anything to Costco without a receipt. Also what you’ve done is now spread this to all your readers, so the not-so-ethical readers, and perhaps their non-ethical acquaintances will try and do the same thing. If the piano didn’t perform 2 years later then you can be unsatisfied. i worked as a vendor in costco and was appalled at some of the returns . Period. The poor merchant is charged in full by the credit card company and in many cases has to wait weeks to get their money, even if the dispute is resolved. This wine was received as a sample for the purpose of writing this review. had a fight with their spouse that morning or is hung over or whatever”. So the next day I called back to start the return process. • On Merchandise: We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell, and will refund your purchase price, with the following exceptions: There is nothing ambiguous about the wording. Yes people like you abuse the policy. “IF you are not satisfied…”. There is, however, something really wrong with walking out without paying for merchandise. I had some unpleasant experiences in returning stuff to Costco too. Why would you think you can return a roll from 4 years ago or anything from that long . I bought a small appliance (about $150) for a relative. As mentioned previously, Costco doesn’t mention or advertise a “lifetime return” policy. So instead I call back the number used for returns. Totally not unethical. This valuation system makes it SEEM unethical to return old items, and it certainly WOULD BE unethical for stores with rational return policies, but not for Costco. All Costco stores must follow the corporate policy. Weve ran it by our manager but we are tokd just to take it back. are without merit. Popular. I ordered the new unit from Costco.com, (it arrived the next day) a week later after installing the new unit, we made our bi-weekly Costco run, I stopped at the returns desk and told the girl there what was wrong with it. Where’s the fairness in that? We also agree that if I want a bigger TV, I pay the difference. Jennifer, the same thing happened to me over olive oil that costed under $20. But that’s not the problem. I just have to weigh in on this even though I know it’s a very old discussion. Schaumburg IL Costco refused return, the returns mgr berated & mocked us and accused us of running some scam. Never respond to emails that cannot be verified. Is it 90 days as stated by Home Depot? Amazon is great because of their customer service and I can see Costco completely going down. Furthermore, we don’t accept PayPal as a payment method in our warehouses or on Costco.com. Getting two TVs (or 20 years of use) brings it more in line to what I am willing to spend (and did, buying a $600 40″ Vizio LCD TV some 5 years or more ago). Technically, “full refund”, but while I agree Costco’s satisfaction guarantee is a come-on and needs revision, it’s a really good deal for you to get new tech for no additional cost after 9 years, especially since you don’t share the reason for return. Here is what Costco should do: put a time limit and/or a price limit on their policy or simply state exactly how they currently accept returns: on a case by case basis! false advertising… You can take them to court for that. In the meantime we are looking the Costco replacement. They are currently advertising a little hp printer with a regular price of $214.99 for $199.99. Online complaints may be filed with the FTC at. I told the warehouse manager that I would take this to the corporate level, and from there I would go the “class action lawsuit” route if I needed to. When I returned the vacuum, it was broke so they reimbursed me, but when I returned the steamer they had to get a manager’s approval. I used to work returns and we took back products that didnt exist. Period. We went to exchange it at Issaquah so we could perhaps get a non-defective copy of the exact same TV. I think Costco SHOULD be allowed to make a judgment call about whether or not returns are valid — it has a well-earned reputation for accepting returned merchandise, but that’s no reason to treat them like suckers. Any decent person would say an attempt to do so is a scam. Their return policy says ZERO about control over your next electronic purchase. Don’t tell them the rest of your story, and don’t mention when you purchased it. How would you “feel” if Walmart denied your return after two days of usage, and everyone jumped on your case for trying to return an item after you have gotten “two good days of usage,” despite Walmart offering to accept returns 30 days after purchase?