Costco
reviews and complaints

I bought some GEF Flooring (Bamboo) from Costco. The flooring arrived here in Vancouver in damaged boxes. I contacted the manufacturer via email, no response. I called and they gave me the run around for a few months. They finally sent me the flooring but charged me for shipping...I installed remaining the flooring it cracked over the past 2 months. Tried to contact them again and they told me to go through their other online company floortarget.com? What the hell does that have to do with anything? The main company has 3 names, supexbond, mga group canada and golden elite wood floors. Probably to hide behind many aliases in order to avoid fixing a claim. I have consulted an attorney regarding my disastrous floors and the manufacturers negligence to acknowledge the problem. Stay away from this bloody crap!

The seller of the sewing machine I agreed to buy after seeing it online went through costco.com online services for the transaction. I had several inquiries prior to transferring the agreed upon price of $1200, which were answered immediately by the Costco customer support representative. I have an invoice and tracking number. After transmitting the money via a Western Union money transfer and sending confirmation of payment to Costco, I have not heard a word. I sent numerous emails both to Costco.com and the original seller. No response has been forthcoming. Have I been scammed?
The website seemed straightforward and legitimate. The Costco service was to provide both the seller and myself with a third party to see that the transaction went smoothly. The seller had agreed to pay the escrow fee. Now he doesn't answer my emails either. What is going on? Any similar experiences or thoughts on where to go from here?

After seeing over 50 recent complaints about costco here at CB, I see that I am not the only long term, soon-to-be-ex-Customer who costco tramples on. I have been an executive member since 1996. Years ago, costco actually CARED about the Customers who keep them open. That is obviously over for good! The warehouse in Jacksonville, FL has management who are astounding rude.

This year, I bought several bags of the kirkland fruit and nut mix, which has increased in price over 30% in the past 2 years. I would eat this once in awhile. Oddly, on some days this year, I would be stricken with stomach cramps and severe diarrhea, and have to hit the bathroom 10-12 times per day. I could not figure out why I was getting an intermittent diarrhea problem all year. So I started keeping a "food diary."

One day after eating this trail mix, I had the severe runs and cramps again. I looked at my diary and saw that I had eaten the trail mix the night before. I waited a week, and ate it again. You guessed it! I had severe cramps and diarrhea all the next day with over 11 trips to the bathroom. I looked at the ingredients and saw that costco puts sulfur dioxide in their dry fruits as a preservative. Here is what the noted Cleveland Clinic says about that:

>>>"Many dried fruits, unless they are organic, are preserved with sulfites or sulfur dioxide, a gas that prevents discoloration and growth of mold and other microorganisms. Yet sulfur dioxide may cause diarrhea and respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing, difficulty breathing and asthma, in sulfite sensitive people, according to the Cleveland Clinic."

After seeing over 50 recent complaints about costco here at CB, I see that I am not the only long term, soon-to-be-ex-Customer who costco tramples on. I have been an executive member since 1996. Years ago, costco actually CARED about the Customers who keep them open. That is obviously over for good! The warehouse in Jacksonville, FL has management who are astounding rude.

This year, I bought several bags of the kirkland fruit and nut mix, (which has increased in price over 30% in the past 2 years). I would eat this once in awhile. Oddly, on some days this year, I would be stricken with stomach cramps and severe diarrhea, and have to hit the bathroom 10-12 times per day. I could not figure out why I was getting an intermittent diarrhea problem all year. So I started keeping a "food diary."

One day after eating this trail mix, I had the severe runs and cramps again. I looked at my diary and saw that I had eaten the trail mix the night before. I waited a week, and ate it again. You guessed it! I had severe cramps and diarrhea all the next day with over 11 trips to the bathroom. I looked at the ingredients and saw that costco puts sulfur dioxide in their dry fruits as a preservative. Here is what the noted Cleveland Clinic says about that:

>>>"Many dried fruits, unless they are organic, are preserved with sulfites or sulfur dioxide, a gas that prevents discoloration and growth of mold and other microorganisms. Yet sulfur dioxide may cause diarrhea and respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing, difficulty breathing and asthma, in sulfite sensitive people, according to the Cleveland Clinic."

After seeing over 50 recent complaints about costco here at CB, I see that I am not the only long term, soon-to-be-ex-Customer who costco tramples on. I have been an executive member since 1996. Years ago, costco actually CARED about the Customers who keep them open. That is obviously over for good! The warehouse in Jacksonville, FL has management who are astounding rude.

This year, I bought several bags of the kirkland fruit and nut mix, which has increased in price over 30% in the past 2 years. I would eat this once in awhile. Oddly, on some days this year, I would be stricken with stomach cramps and severe diarrhea, and have to hit the bathroom 10-12 times per day. I could not figure out why I was getting an intermittent diarrhea problem all year. So I started keeping a "food diary."

One day after eating this trail mix, I had the severe runs and cramps again. I looked at my diary and saw that I had eaten the trail mix the night before. I waited a week, and ate it again. You guessed it! I had severe cramps and diarrhea all the next day with over 11 trips to the bathroom. I looked at the ingredients and saw that costco puts sulfur dioxide in their dry fruits as a preservative. Here is what the noted Cleveland Clinic says about that:

>>>"Many dried fruits, unless they are organic, are preserved with sulfites or sulfur dioxide, a gas that prevents discoloration and growth of mold and other microorganisms. Yet sulfur dioxide may cause diarrhea and respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing, difficulty breathing and asthma, in sulfite sensitive people, according to the Cleveland Clinic."

I am from Avon. I went to Mayfield Heights Costco because they had the last of an item I needed. First GARY yelled at me when I went in the back door as they said they could hold it for me and I tried to explain it. He said I don't give a flip. Then this guy Fred just watched and didn't help me as I struggled with my table. NEVER AGAIN! I'll STICK TO AVON OR TO SAMS!

Costco has always had it’s challenges, busy parking lots, isles that sometimes needed traffic control, checkout lines that were at times long enough that there was time to make friends with those around you…. BUT always a shopper could count on a fair price with quality products and consistent product packaging, especially from the “Kirkland” brands.

Costco has been unlike the other “chain” or “discounters” and like most banks today their images and brand has blurred so much as to effectively serve to image them as clones, indistinguishable from one another save the sign on their store front.

But then, my confidence in the “C” store alas took a hit when the last 36 count bag of “Bath Tissue” was opened to reveal that they are no longer (since 1985) individually wrapped as we have grown so accustomed to but packed in internal packages of nine. My first reaction was to of course “over react” and immediately check the roll sheet count which to my relief was (at least listed) the same as the previous individually wrapped rolls.

Could it be that Costco and their Kirkland brand has been the victim of a revolution and have been taken over by the accountants? Those rows after rows of men and women dressed in white shirts and bow ties with glasses and sharp pencils auditing endless ledgers of numbers looking for a place to save a penny here and there. Of course their job has nothing to do with customer satisfaction… something that seems to have taken a lower priority across the board most everywhere.

Hopefully this is but just a bump in an otherwise smooth road for Costco as it would be a shame to “color them the same” as the others.

No one cares...Yes they returned my money - they always do - i don't return very much - however the chicken salad wrap (Which i always enjoyed eating was made very poorly) and it had a bone in it!
I stopped eating and returned the other 3...Spoke to every one
In a managerial position but since they returned my money
They felt their responsibilities stopped! - not with a bone
In the chicken salad it doesn't - shame on this company which
Get thousands of dollars from me each year! Am rethinking it now!

We got this MAXENT Plasma, because the Daytek 48" plasma was defective and COSTCO .."only" refunds you a "cash card" to buy for them and no one else. So we got this Maxent, and now it is having problems...and NO local service for it...COSTCO doesn't carry it, and
they and there Customer Service really suck. No callback with in 48hours and now we ...wonder what to do. Even the "better Business Bureau" lists them as not a member ...BEWARE buying anything like what we did from COSTCO... It is a ripoff.

Ground beef is always mixed with the unfresh ground meat. Store employees try to hide dark color meat inside of fresh one to make illusion of fresh ground meat.
When I told them they said that the meat gets dark color quickly. This is not true. When I buy ground meat in the other stores, the meat is all fresh and right red color. Please see the pictures

Costco is keeping track of everything you return!
If they think it is excessive they are revoking membership based on the back of the membership card that states " we can revoke membership at antime without cause". After that you cannot even have a tire rotated, you have no warranty on tires or return anything or cash your cash rebate because they are all based on being a member!

I am an Executive member at the Costco in Fort Oglethorpe, GA. I was in there a few days ago with my mother. I forgot my coupon book at home and asked my mother to go to the front of the store real quick and ask for another coupon book. Well when she comes back she has the coupon book, and goes into telling me that she went to one of the registers and they told her they didnt have them at the registers that she needed to go over to the customer service desk. When she got over to the customer service desk she ask the lady if she could get a coupon book. the lady then tells my mother "You need to keep your Costco coupon books in your car because we dont have enough to be passing them out the ones that we have on hand our for new members." What in the world do we pay for? We are all paying members and this is rediculous to be treated this way. We pay to shop...Is giving someone a coupon book really going to hurt their pockets? We wont be renewing our membership I kow that for sure. I called their number on the receipt and the guy on the line said that he was sorry that we were treated the way we were and that there shouldnt have been a problem with us getting another coupon book. But I would have to say he was probably feeding me a line of bull because their are other people on here complaining about the same thing so its something Costco is trying to get their employees to enforce. I cant believe some of the complaints about this company. I sure wish I had read about all this before I went off and wasted money on paying a company to shop at their store. How stupid was I? Not to bright huh? But I have learned a lesson and will NEVER renew/buy another membership through Costco.

We went to shop at costco this afternoon when we are already a fan of costco.
However, we met this cashier woman, rowene, who treated us very impolitely.
(actually, not only us, but also two old ladies in front of us!)
Maybe she is trying to be the "queen" of the cashier department, but she doesn't have good customer service skills.

Hopefully, we won, t see her there anymore, or we rather have no more costco shopping!

I purchased a 60 inch television at costco and with the purchase there was a rebate for a costco card valued $180 for new customers who signed up with direct tv, i was told the rebate card was gonna be mailed to my home and expect a wait of up to 6 wks, its now been more than 8 weeks so i called direct tv and they told me to submit this complaint and i would be contacted anywhere from 24-48hrs, please call me and notify me of any delays or any additional steps nessesary for me to receive this rebate

Complaint: We needed a new bed mattress and decided to go with one at costco. It was our first costco experience so we joined. They day my wife wanted to pick up the bed I was out of town. She loaded the trailer and headed to costco. She immediately asked how she should go about getting the bed mattress, king size, and was told to get a cart and someone would meet her on the isle. She asked if anyone could load it and was told no but they would put it on the cart for her and roll it to the front while she finished her shopping. 30 minutes later she finally rounded up someone to get the mattress from the shelf and load her cart. The original request for help never showed. The guy loaded the cart and started to walk off. My wife asked if he was going to take it up front and he said 'No, just roll it to the front, its easy', something to that nature. By the time she reached the front of the store w/ a cart loaded down with a king size mattress slight damage most likely had been done to products that hit the floor as the mattress scraped down the isles, as one would expect. After her purchase at the front she asks for help loading and waited again. Finally someone walked out to the truck and trailer with her and helped her load the king size mattress on the trailer then proceeded to leave. She asked if they were going to secure it in any way and they replied that it's not Costco's policy. They are not allowed to secure anything, only load, for liability. Now, this is my biggest complaint aside from the lack of help and customer service. Never have I ever shopped anywhere that needed something secured that had such a policy, nor the horrible customer service. Lowes, Sears... I've never heard of such! If Costco wants my money, then provide some customer service. If your not going to do this then why sale such large items at your stores, stick to the internet / e-commerce! Anyway, my wife tried for a long time to get help in the parking lot to strapping the mattress down. She had her straps and was ready but needed one single hand to hold the hook on one side while she cranked down the other side. In this area, where people have more money than heart, people just walked by and starred. She then went to ask for help just to hold down the strap and they wouldnt have to play any other part in securing the product to our trailer and they said they could not. By this time over 2 hours have passed since she entered Costco with the only shopping being this one item. She called me on the phone crying because she didnt know what to do. I told her to go in and have them come get the mattress, give us our money and membership back, and go home. Then I called Costco myself from out of town. I asked them about all this and why they could not just at least hold down one end of the strap with one finger? They said they could probably do that and put me on hold. I eventually hung up after several minutes of waiting. Shortly after someone exited the store and approached my wife with a document stating their policy on not helping their customers secure merchandise purchased from Costco, then went back inside. If this would have been me I would backed my trailer thru the front door of Costco and pushed the mattress off and made a big scene. The end of the story ends shortly after a family member comes to the store to help my wife because by this time she was not in a state to go back in the store or deal w/ returning it. She just wanted to be done and let me take it back when I could. I have so many issues complaints about the first experience with Costco but my biggest is their policy and customer service. I never thought I'd see the day where businesses that want your money have this attitude. What happened to customer service. It Costco understood what customer service means, they would not even have such a policy and train their employees at it as well. So, someone sued Costco or something happened along the way w/ an employee not securing merchandise properly at some point? Most likely. I have to assume they wouldn't have this policy going into the business. It's part of doing business. If you can't provide customer service and way for your customers to get their merchandise home, then why are you selling it? So does Costco deliver items you purchase in the store? No. Your on your own unless you shop online. I'll never purchase another item from Costco and I will be spreading this like a disease as the internet marketer that I am. Thanks Costco!

Two years ago, I tried to replace 4 COSTCO tires at etobicoke COSTCO Tire centre but they refused the service because my rims are aftrmarket and they didn't have special tools also they did not touch any aftermarket rims. But I didn't giveup. I went to Missisauga COSTCO TireCentre, They replaced my 4 tires to COSTCO Tires with "no problem". I don't know how to appliciate thier great service.

Six month ago, I tried to get tire rotate my COSTCO Tire as COSTCO service manual (10, 000km) at Etobicoke COSTCO Tire Centre. They said my tires are worn out only 1mm and ask me visit them again when next oil change.

Yesterday (Jan. 7. 2011), I tried to get tire rotation and engin oil change. They only changed engin oil but refused tire rotation service because my rims are aftrmarket and they didn't have special tools also they did not touch aftermarket rims as COSTCO POLICY. Also They said Mississauga COSTCO got against COSTCO Policy (It was illigal), they SHOULD NOT HAVE that kind of tools and SOULD NOT TOUCH aftermarket Rims as the COSTCO POLICY. Also when they explained the situation, There was ONLY Thier ASSERT, Sound like "We do not carry out of your car anymore at ETOBICOKE Tire CENTER". Also, I ask them "Even small car repair shop can rotate my tires, why you can't ", Here was their attitude "hey, hey, hey, LISTEN...brabrabra, Understand my english"

" If you want to get tire rotation, bring your car to Mississauga Costco" "That's it, Do not ask me again". I really wonder whether if I got a big mistake for my right (customer service) as COSTCO Member or not.

On Jan.11. 2011, I went to small car repair shop for tire rotation, I got a such great service which the big company Etobicke

COSTCO has not. It took 10 minutes and I paid 25$. I could not go to MISSISSAUGA COSTCO for free tire rotation, because it is far from my home.

I GOT NIGHTMARE with THIER TERRIBLE SERVICE at ETOBICOKE COSTCO TIRE CENTRE. I will share this information to everywhere, make known publicly.

This was another poor experience buying furniture from Costco. I disaster. I am very good with tools, have even done contractor work and this is just terrible. The chairs do not go together at all, it took tie downs to BEND the rib frame in a way that you can TRY to get a screw in the hole.

I am so furious, I am planning on going to Costco tomorrow and cutting up my card and handing it to the store manager.

I am also just going to dispute the charge on my credit card and send them certified letter that they have 7 days to retrieve the merchandise before I dispose.

I am beyond furious with another terrible experience buying furniture from Costco. I won't even get into the previous experience that took 4 months to get a credit, have damaged office furniture still. Many days were disrupted over this.

Apparently I did not learn.

My boyfriend's perscription was shorted 20 out of 70 pills at Costco Pharmacy in Issaquah; they even stored it in a smaller bottle. I was right beside him when we counted it. Costco claims to have "recounted 3 times" and refuses to admit any fault, which can only mean ONE thing; my boyfriend's medicine (which, by the way, is the strength of morphine) was STOLEN by someone in a white coat, someone we should have been able to trust. My boyfriend is unable to get the proper care he needs and is now lying in bed, pale, cold, sweating, SUFFERING, because a Costco Pharmacist stole his medicine. Pick up your medicine here if you like, but I would advise counting your pills out right in front of the cashier. Who cares if they think it's 'annoying'? This is your health we're talking about here. Don't let Costco Pharmacy abuse you.

And, YES, Costco, I'm going to post this review everywhere I can find! What you have done to my boyfriend is disgusting, and I will fight to the end for this.