Costco raising membership fees another 10%

[ponyo]

WTF! Those greedy, corporate bastards! Where is my sign? I'm marching today!

The last Costco membership raise was back in 2006 so I can understand where they're coming from. This was done strictly for Wall St since they keep wanting higher profit and majority of Costco's net profit comes from membership fees. But raising fees in this environment to appease Wall Street can be tricky and can backfire like Netflix found out.

I usually get back couple hundred dollars a year from 2% Costco Executive rebate. This year the rebate was down to little less than $200 since I moved some of my grocery shopping to TJ's and SuperTarget. I'm also buying more on the Internet. If I sign up for Amazon Prime, I'll likely move more shopping to Amazon to take advantage of the tax savings and to justify Prime cost.

If enough people downgrade or even worse cancel their Costco membership, this move could backfire like it did for Netflix. My loyalty to Costco wasn't because of the absolute savings. Costco certainly isn't the lowest price for majority of the items. Sam's Club is almost always cheaper than Costco on identical items and I know that since I had membership at both places for many years. Sam's also has better hours, cheaper membership, and is more pro small business than Costco. It's all about perception. I need to feel like I'm getting a good deal even though it might not be the best deal. Even though the math says I benefit from keeping my Executive membership, I might still cancel if I perceive less value. Yes, it doesn't make sense from numbers point of view to make a big deal over immaterial small dollar amount but emotions play a big role in shopping. People say $5 or $10 is nothing and they're correct. But is it worth to Costco to lose customer goodwill and favorable perception by trying to institute small membership fee increase that could backfire on them in this environment? Judging by the responses in this thread, Costco has nothing to worry.

 

[Evadman]

not enough information. what was it you were returning?

a 30 pack of pizza that you ate 29 of?
a bag of bones after you ate all the meat from their cooked chicken?
a box of burnt out/used batteries?

you may have a valid claim but there are 2 sides to every story.

I know quite a few folks that return stuff that is empty. Like a sheet cake with one or 2 little squares left because "it didn't taste good" and they were refunded. A friend of mine used to return his phone every few months for a new one, just because. I hate people who do that sh!t, even if Costco allowed it at the time. In fact, their return policy basically states now 'return anything except electronics whenever you want for a complete refund'. It doesn't say 'must be complete' or 'in original box' or any of that. If I am paying $100 for a membership, then I expect the company to follow their own rules.

Considering how much I spent there never returned a single thing, I don't care if it was an empty pizza box. If I return something, to anywhere, there is something majorly wrong with the product that I can't fix myself. When I told them to cancel my membership, another manager came over, looked up my account and saw how much I spent, and (I think) tried to tell the store manager to refund it. (I couldn't hear the whole conversation). I contacted CostCo's corporate office, and they apologized profusely, because I was well within the return policy, and the management of the store made a mistake, and CostCo asked me to come back. I told them I didn't want to do business with a company who's management doesn't follow their own rules. If it was some random associate who didn't know better it would be different. but when the entire store management is standing in front of you and goes against company policy, I won't go back, because I don't know what will happen next time. At least if I buy something at "Joes house of cheap crap" I know what to expect.

 

[Miramonti]

I know quite a few folks that return stuff that is empty. Like a sheet cake with one or 2 little squares left because "it didn't taste good" and they were refunded. A friend of mine used to return his phone every few months for a new one, just because. I hate people who do that sh!t, even if Costco allowed it at the time. In fact, their return policy basically states now 'return anything except electronics whenever you want for a complete refund'. It doesn't say 'must be complete' or 'in original box' or any of that. If I am paying $100 for a membership, then I expect the company to follow their own rules.

Considering how much I spent there never returned a single thing, I don't care if it was an empty pizza box. If I return something, to anywhere, there is something majorly wrong with the product that I can't fix myself. When I told them to cancel my membership, another manager came over, looked up my account and saw how much I spent, and (I think) tried to tell the store manager to refund it. (I couldn't hear the whole conversation). I contacted CostCo's corporate office, and they apologized profusely, because I was well within the return policy, and the management of the store made a mistake, and CostCo asked me to come back. I told them I didn't want to do business with a company who's management doesn't follow their own rules. If it was some random associate who didn't know better it would be different. but when the entire store management is standing in front of you and goes against company policy, I won't go back, because I don't know what will happen next time. At least if I buy something at "Joes house of cheap crap" I know what to expect.

I'm surprised you had that experience, but you did the right thing going to corporate. I don't know if that instance would have been enough to change my decision to ever shop there, but I would have been pissed too.

Their return policy (when they stand by it of course, and I've never had a problem) is a major benefit...something I don't abuse but if something tastes crappy or not fresh, I will return it (99% uneaten.) I will also return things in a reasonable amount of time that I decided not to use. Instead of 'keeping my money on a shelf', I return it. Their return policy has made it much easier to 'take a risk' on purchases that I wouldn't otherwise buy there or elsewhere.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

In my entire life, I had exactly 1 return and it was denied, even when I asked the store manager. They lost me as a customer over roughly $3.

Very VERY surprised. I've seen, heard of, and firsthand experienced them returning stuff that for all purposes should've been denied.


Just the other day my ~8 year old eureka boss was destroyed by my houseclean girl.. When carrying it down the stairs the front popped off and bag came loose. She ran it with no bag (it no filtration except for motor filter). I took it apart and cleaned it but it never ran correctly

Took it to costco, explained exactly what happened and they gave me $170 cash for another vacuum.

Bought frozen chicken, tried a few and they were gross. Waited until 2 months AFTER expiration and returned no problem.

Weight bench, bought 4-5 years previous.. Friend took it back because he didn't use it. All money returned.

Twin mattress, ~8 years old on costco account that's 3 numbers previous. Dad returned with no issue.




....These are probably the tamer ones too.

 

[RossMAN]

Edit: Oops wrong thread, disregard.

 

[MrSquished]

Did you take the garbage bags back to Costco? The Costco refund policy is top-notch.

It really is. My mother had some sort of clothing type item she bought and never opened. She had it a loooong time, long enough that Costco stopped carrying it. Their customer service rep said it was no longer carried but then looked the product up and processed a return anyway in the form of a gift card. I can't think of any other store that would do that.