petitefrancaise

I've mentioned before that costco has an amazingly generous returns policy. Today, though, they surpassed themselves.

4 years ago when we first arrived in the USA, amongst many other items I bought an HP printer. No probs in 4 years.

For the last 3 years and 10 months, I bought HP ink cartridges. I know... then last month decided to get the colour ink cartridges refilled at costco. Worked fine. Friday am this week got a notification that black was low, so I whipped out the black cartridge and instead of paying $75 for 2 black cartridges, the lovely lady filled mine up for $10, along with my spare colour ones for another $14.
Trouble is, the black didn't work. I went back, she changed the chip. Still didn't work. I bought a new HP cartridge and now that didn't work. Took the whole lot back to costco. They refunded everything. all the refills, the new ink cartridges and the printer which now appeared to be not working. They couldn't find a record of me buying the printer there but because they sold that model, they refunded.
Now I know, that dodgy black cartridge probably messed it all up in the first place but I really don't think that any other store would have refunded everything.

I know costco may not be the absolute cheapest place to buy stuff but that returns policy makes up for it on the electronics etc.

Jerseygirl

Oh yes...it is exactly what I’ve said on here over the years.

If I can buy it from Costco I will because of their exceptional returns policy...plus I like the way they treat their staff. They have an extremely low staff turnover.

Englishmum

I love Costco too....and not just because they sell the ‘made in the UK’ buckets of Maltesers!

We’ve just been to Hawaii (the islands of Maui and Oahu) and rented cars through Costco on both islands.

There is no extra charge for an additional driver on Costco car rentals and we got an upgraded car on Oahu at a cheaper rate than a regular car.

My only gripe is that in the US they no longer take Amex (we collect the points and like the 90 day extra insurance coverage with Amex....my spouse is good at leaving electronic items on planes and trains lol!).

Jerseygirl

I miss the Costco Amex card. In Canada it’s been replaced by Capital One...who are absolutely hopeless. I have closed my Cap One account and complained to Costco about their service.

Weeze

We spend so much less now that they don’t take Amex. For the first year ever we didn’t meet our premium membership cost thingimijig.

scrubbedexpat091

Just keep in mind they have a pretty standard 90 day return on most electronics and large appliances, although printers don't seem to be included, but TV's are.

We buy mostly perishables at Costco, for other things they simply lack the selection for my needs.

Although I like they no longer accept Amex, having switched to Capital One it opened the card to a larger customer base as Amex tends to be more difficult to obtain.

I can get a Capital One card no issues, but not Amex.

Steerpike

They are amazing. I'm almost embarrassed to say, I took a piece of luggage back that had a broken wheel. The darned thing was VERY old - 10, 15 years maybe? I had no receipt, and they didn't know how much I paid for it, but it was Kirkland brand so they just looked up the price of the current model and gave me that amount in cash! I immediately bought a new one and will do so forever more I did buy a camera from them recently, and it experienced problems after the 30 or 90 day period, and they did refuse to refund, which is fair enough (that's their new policy on electronics). I pursued the matter with the vendor and they repaired the device.

Jerseygirl

On electronics Costco usually offer an extra 1 year’s warranty on top of the manufacturer’s warranty. With the old AMEX card you got a further year...3 year warranty in total. Hubby had a laptop that died a few days before the 3 year purchase date...he got a full refund from Costco.

mrken30

The new Costco visa card gives an extra 2 years warranty on goods over $100, AMEX was just a year. It also covers good not bought from costco and manufacturer refurbished items.

Tarkak9

I admit I'm a sucker for the hotdog combo .... can't go to Costco w/o buying a hotdog. Damn them.

Doesn't y(our) Costco membership overhere also work in the UK?

Jerseygirl

Yes you can use it anywhere.

dc koop

For the quantity and sizes Costco offers on their merchandise they are definitely cheaper than anywhere else.

I love their lamb shanks they're currently selling.

Only gripes. Find where anything's at yourself. Aisles not marked, only numbered and employees hard to find except at the checkout. They will keep changing the locations of many of their items also. Bit of a challenge sometimes when shopping in a building that's twice as big as a passenger jet hangar

scrubbedexpat091

Always break the price down, for instance they sell eggs by the 24 at my local store, the cost per egg breaks down to 24 cents per egg, a 12 pack of eggs at the grocery store next to me comes to 21 cents per egg.

Toilet paper is the same, per roll costs more at Costco.

Laundry detergent as well tends to cost more per pod then other stores.

Costco likes people to assume bigger quantity = better prices but many times Costco is actually higher cost per unit.

Rete

Yes, buying in bulk is not always cost effective. For instance, I buy laundry detergent when it is on sale, BOGO, at the local market. However, buying appliances and high end items does make membership worthwhile just for the return policy alone.

mrken30

I have found that the appliances are a minimum of 20% more expensive at Costco, sometimes as much as 50%. Appliances at the big box stores are almost always on sale.