<p>I couldn’t agree more with the general sentiment in these posts. Costco is great – wonderful product quality, great prices, terrific service and you just can’t find a better return policy anywhere. They also treat their employees well, which tells me a lot about the company’s culture. I give them as much business as I can, including just about all of my major household purchases.</p>
<p>I heard Costco’s CEO speak 5-8 years ago at a security analyst conference when Wall Street analysts were down on the stock because they felt the company was leaving too much money ‘on the table’ and should raise prices because they were too low. The CEO laid out their pricing policy as targeting an 11-14% gross margin on products, while holding overhead to 7%. He personally has to approve any price that falls outside of this band. At that time, he was appoligizing for raising the price of store-baked muffins because ingredient prices had risen. </p>
<p>He also told Wall Street to back off, as they felt members (customers) and employees ranked above shareholders in terms of who they were looking to please. It was a breathe of fresh air when most CEOs bow down to Wall Street. I was sold and have been a happy member (& shareholder) since then!</p>
<p>I saw a documentary of sorts about their CEO, several years ago when we were still members of Sam’s.</p>
<p>Absolutely made me want to switch my membership over to Costco, which we did, and I have not regretted it a second (well, other than the fact that Sam’s is perhaps a couple of miles closer, but our Sam’s does not offer gas).</p>
<p>A coworker of mine actually tested the limits of Costco’s generous policies. He is a plasma TV aficianado, and can go on endlessly about the different characteristics. Anyway, he’ll get a TV, keep it awhile, then decide he doesn’t really like it and bring it back.</p>
<p>He did this multiple times, keeping TV’s up to a year at a time. So one day, his wife went into Costco to return something minor, and they informed her that their account was flagged and they wouldn’t be able to make any more returns.</p>
<p>She had a friend with her at the time and was extremely embarassed, to say the least. He is also the type to buy tools for a home improvement project and return them when he’s done.</p>
<p>I don’t work for Costco but I believe they enter an agreement with a potential vendor wanting to sell Costco that they must allow returns if their customers are unhappy or a product is defective, even after the normal warranty periods expire. </p>
<p>Now the one gripe I have with Costco, and I know this may sound strange, are their money-saving COUPONS. In the past, you always knew you were getting their lowest price when you purchased something. Now, I always wonder IF a coupon will be arriving in my mail after I am already am paying their regular price on an item. Even their Kirkland brand items are not exempt from sweeter coupon deals from time to time. That’s why I like shopping for groceries at Trader Joe’s … the price is always the price…</p>
<p>Oh, I agree with you about their coupons. Before I went to the store the other day, I grabbed what I thought was the new coupon book from our mail pile. I didn’t look at it until I pulled into the parking lot and was very unhappy to see it was a booklet for Costco.com - their on-line store. When I went in, I saw people had the correct booklet, and I kicked myself for not looking more closely. Oh, well, a small thing…</p>
<p>On the coupons, I hate the way they always arrive a day or so before I planned to go to Costco, but are not valid for another week. I live 45 minutes from Costco and if I have a coupon booklet, I want to use it, not wait a week!</p>
<p>Re. coupons – if you forget to bring them, which I do monthly, just ask for another booklet at customer service. And, you only need to redeem one coupon from the book for all coupons within that book to be applied.</p>
<p>Actually it depends on the store as to whether you have to pull out the individual coupons or not. My regular store will just scan one coupon and all the others will apply. Another Costco I go to occasionally makes you pull out each coupon. I didn’t have them torn out ahead of time as I didn’t know and felt bad I held up the line.</p>
<p>Has anyone actually used the Costco concierge service for laptops? How does it work – do we mail the laptop in or can we take it to the store? There is a Costco within a couple miles of S2’s college, but we were unable to add him to our Costco account as a member (two people is the limit). How dos he get in the store to deal with a warranty problem?</p>
<p>There should be a number for the concierge service. I would call them first.</p>
<p>We have purchased our laptops & computers largely at Costco because they allow you to return for 90 days with no questions asked. If it’s beyond that, for the 1st year (or sometimes 2), you have the manufacturer’s warranty. Then, you have a year of Costco Concierge service, where they ship you a box & have someone try to repair for you at no charge–they even pay postage. If you used your Costco AmEx credit card, you get your manufacturer’s warranty doubled, for up to an extra year, so we in effect had two & three year warranties on our kids’ computers. </p>
<p>Both died within that time period & we got 100% refund, including all costs by the manufacturer & others to evaluate the computer as to whether it was worth repairing, recredited back to our AmEx Costco card!</p>
<p>They are getting stricter about having you bring back ALL the parts of things you buy from them, including mounting plate, cords, CDs, etc., so try to keep them all together, especially for GPS, which has been known to die.</p>
<p>We bought a pair of flashlights & one died & the other is no where to be found, so they wouldn’t take it back since it was one of a pair. 
That’s one of the few times we couldn’t get a refund.</p>
<p>I worship the ground that Costco walks on!!!</p>
<p>Also love Nordstrom----I heard you can return a set of tires there without the blink of an eye. They seriously will take anything back…from anywhere.</p>
<p>Costco is even happy to take back purchases you made in other states; if you don’t have the receipt but can tell them approximately when you purchased the item, they will look it up for you. My SIL gave us a calendar from SF Costco once & they couldn’t find it but still allowed us to return it, since it was obviously purchased at a Costco.</p>
<p>Haven’t had much experience with Nordstrom, since much of their stuff is above my preferred price range. I did once buy lingerine there & found it MUCH cheaper elsewhere (Macy’s, Nordstrom’s Rack & Ross). They were fine with me returning everything for a full refund.</p>
<p>Bumping this thread back up because we had a very positive customer service experience with Costco today.</p>
<p>They called our house and left a message that some eggs I’d bought a few weeks ago were now included in the national recall and if we still had those eggs, to throw them out and come back into the store to get a refund. </p>
<p>I’d sort of heard in passing about an egg recall, but hadn’t paid much attention, and certainly hadn’t checked out the ones in our frig. Wouldn’t have known about these being part of the recall without their phone call to us today.</p>
<p>That Costco Egg phone call is an amazing example of customer service. I am tempted to make some bad jokes here, like they can’t be beat, or that was eggceptional, but I will restrain myself.</p>