Costco
reviews and complaints

Let's all start a class action suit against Costco. I ordered some over the count drugs my wife takes on March 16th. On March 21st Costco informed me my membership expired on February 29th and my order was canceled. I spent the next day trying to renew my membership on line with no success. Their web site is so screwed up! I finally talked to a customer service rep that renewed my membership on the phone. The membership went active March 23rd. When I went into the website on membership status my membership start date was back dated to February 29th. I did not have the use of the Costco membership for 24 days but I was charged for it. I have been a member for 29 years. Who keeps track of their Costco membership expiration date? The rep told me it was just like a gym membership. Costco is ripping off their members by making selve-serving rules. Sue the ###!

Westbury< New York: I encountered a Costco employee who came down an aisle with a full pallet of Poland Spring water. This was a near miss which could have been avoided by manuvering this pallet in a safe manner. What was even more scary was the manner in which I was spoken to. After he swerved to avoid hitting me, he became IRATE and THREATENING towards me. I was being blamed for not stoppping to give him the right away..."are you kidding me" On a Saturday evening with wall to wall customers (with Children)? I believe the CUSTOMER should have the right away... Does Costco train their employees that SAFETY is always FIRST? What kind of training do they receive prior to getting hired? Hey, how about Customer Service? Obviously this employee needs anger management classes. My concern is that this employee will get someone hurt by his reckless work habits or physically hurt a co-worker or customer. This ordeal is very unsettling...I wonder if BJ'S is any better.

I have been being soliciting big time to upgrade to execute membership lately in Kirkland and Issaquah. If you find it bothering, please call up [protected] and told them to put a note to don't bother you to do the upgrade. Tell them this is America, you have the choice to decide you want to upgrade or not and they should never bother you like the poor kids in the 3rd world countries asking you for spare change.

They are rough in selling executive membership. It has come to the point that I am just going to use a cell phone to tape the [censor] these people are talking and put in youtube if it happens again. Yesterday I was asked to join b/c I am throwing money away, "I cannot believe that you are guarantee to earn the $ but you refuse". I highly encourage that everyone from now on when they forced you to join, just say " I am not interested. Which word in my sentence you do not understand?"

Costco representatives sell the Executive Membership pretty hard when they see you approach the register with a large cart of groceries. The sales pitch is usually "the rebate check at the end of the year will exceed your initial $100 membership fee." I guess Costco never heard of the time-value of money. In this period of high cost-push inflation, why should I give Costco a $100 zero-interest loan just for the privilege to shop in their store? It's a small scam.

My sister and I have a membership at Costco. She is the primary member, however, while I was on line last year, I was approached by a Costco employee to upgrade my membership from Gold to Executive since I shop there quite a bit. One year later, the membership expired and I decided that the executive membership was not worth it to me, so I decided to downgrade to Gold. I was told that I need the primary member to be present to downgrade. However, I pointed out to them that I did not need the primary member to upgrade, why should I need the primary member to downgrade? Can you believe it, this is their policy. You can upgrade for 2X the cost but you cannot downgrade. I just left my card at the counter and walked out of the store, never to return. If more members did this, Costco would change the way that they did business.

I allowed my membership to lapse for several years, then re-located & re-jointed in August 2008. The following June, at checkout they told me my membership was expired. I argued & was told unless I could provide the receipt showing an August payment I would have to pay the renewal right then. In March 2010 I receive a statement showing my membership expires APRIL 2010 AND while the statement indicates I have a regular membership, they are billing me for an executive membership for TWICE the fee of the regular. Apparently they are getting even more scheming about their practices & giving only 10 months membership for the price of twelve. Who saves their register receipts in order to demonstrate they are being scammed a year later? If not for the fact that I can place the membership in the timeframe of a relocation, I would never have even noticed. I'm sure the vast majority of their members don't even notice they are being scammed.

Oh my gosh...the same thing just happened to me...and the Employee did say it was like a gym membership. Of course that BS didn't sit well with me, as I used to work in the Accounting office of a gym. AND it is not the same.

I paid in March and expected to have a full year of membership...just like everyone else who came into Costco in March & purchased a membership. It is not like they were giving me a discount for being a member for the past 5 years. I had to pay what every other Joe paid. I was so upset I ended up returning my purchases (I paid at the checkout & then went to Customer Svs). At the stores Customer Service refused to extend my membership until March...however when I called the Corporate Customer Svs., they extended it & told me that they are changing the policy...Now, who knows how long that will take to change.

I hope they actually do change this policy & soon because I feel that this can not be legal. To charge the same price but penalize prior members has got to be against the law, doesn't it? Something tells me there must be a Class Action Lawsuit going on somewhere...and I would love to get my name on that list. I am still so upset with this company!

If i re-new my gym membership, I get the 12 months from the re-newal date. Its not like a gym membership as you are being charged for the inactive term. When you dont renew, you cant shop until you pay for the renewal.

Costco got sued over this and as a result of the lawsuit agreed to limit the backdating to 2.5 months.

Their legal department publicly claimed that the stores will give you the full 12 months if you ask. I have tried to no avail. If i pay for 12 months I expect 12 months.

The store where I went to insisted it was like a gym membership. I explained, i dont get charged for months that membership lapsed.

How does my mother find out if her card expired?

if they have time or you can wait. they will try to get you in. most people freak out at the thought of a simple ten minute patch taking three hours due to the line ahead and speed off

Costco's policy is that they cannot preform service on tires not purchased through Costco, I don't see why this should come as a surprise to you. As mentioned, there are members who HAVE purchased tires that would feel very strongly about having the tire center's already long wait times pushed back further for non-purchased service. Beyond that, by not servicing tires that were not purchased through Costco, it also reduced liability for the company. SHOULD something happen to your tire after having it serviced at Costco, they are now responsible for any damaged incurred.

A plug and/or patch typically isn't more than $10. There wasn't a Discount, Bell, WalMart or any various service centers nearby?

take a cart, put some vulnerable staffs, like eggs, glass, flour in it and vandalize them while u go around in the costco and leave them inside and come out and have a cheap hot-dog and pop and go home...

Call AAA, or you local wrecker service if you cannot change your own tire. Since you say its was a new vehicle, then you have roadside assistance. I'm sure in the twenty miles you drove you passed more than one service station or tire repair shop. The folks at costco are great. they work very hard to get members who purchased their tires from costco in and out as quickly as possible.

Costco knows that the new rule of not fixing every persons tires who did not get them at Costco puts a strain on those members who are in need of this service and for this they are truly sorry. When the tire bays are full with member's cars that need to be attended to, (because the price of the tires is right and who is going to turn away from a good deal?) and Costco members ( or even NON-members ) feel that they should be given added treatment on items that are not under Costco's tire warrenty due to tires NOT bought at Costco this puts a strain of those members that DID buy tires and these members and their cars TOTALLY deserve attention. To do so otherwise puts the waiting time back even further for those members who have every right to be attended to in a timely manner. I personally hope you do not become hard hearted by this encounter and continue to shop at what is still a great place, with great folks to help you!
I sincerely hope you have a good day :)

I agree. Costco has THE WORST website for ordering online or seeing what is available in the store! THE WORST!

True, if you want your money refunded promptly do not shop on line thru Costco. They used mine for 2 months and I still do not have a refund.

Wow. All this because of where the tires were mounted. If your not happy, your teach shop, move the stupid things.

Ok let's resolve this BS. In dry climate as in Bakersfield you want the best tires on the front . In rain climate on the rear. So some of you are right and the shop teacher is right too because he's in Bakersfield where it never rains.
Slandering the shop teacher is from those of you that flunked out and dislikes any one smarter than you that would prob be everyone.
If you work at costco you are not experienced at anything, or you would have a decent job.

I feel some of you are missing the point. It's not if he's right
or wrong about placement. It's his money and his right to have
his tires placed where he wants them. He didn't like big brother
telling him how to run his business, so he went some place else
that's also a Mitchlen dealer that is not bound by that BS. That's
all he's saying. They are you're tires and you should be able to
have them where you want.

OK, OK, OK here is how it is plain and simple. I work with the Utah highway patrol in R+D. needless to say we know winter driving. under steer is much more manageable than over steer (fish tailing). Its progressive and you can take the proper steps to counteract it. over steer however is dangerous and any one this side of rally racing would have a hard time controlling it. Most people over correct sending them completely out of control. As for blowouts, if you replace your tires every 5 to 7 years a sudden blow out due to age is negated. Then the only other causes are puncture and/or running the tire low, well this can happen on any tire so the point is mute. Now tractors, how many tires do they have on the rear? Its a traction and stability issue. Tractors have more than enough traction in the rear so they are exempt from this topic. Cars and light trucks do not have the same physics. Costco will still mount new tires on the front of a dually for this same reason. Having better tread on the front will just get you to dangerous speeds faster and let your front end make a promise your back end cant keep. I cannot tell you how many wrecks i have come across (some very catastrophic ) with the primary cause being a spinout due to low rear tread depth. people love to quote a twenty year knowledge, well alot of things change in twenty years. Like abs/traction devices and a better knowledge of tire lifespan.
remember smoking used to be good for your health too you know .

Regardless of whatever conspiracy theories the original poster has, and as stated, Costco is required to install two new tires per their agreement with Michelin. Doing otherwise would violate their merchant agreement and subject them to fine or breach of contract. You need not look any further than the previous posts from other users to understand why, but it seems as if the original posters is stubborn and set in his ways.

Furthermore, Costco WILL NOT rotate tires if your current rear tires have more tread than the current front tires. Not only would it benefit him to understand the company's policies before posting, but maybe it would benefit the children he's been teaching for 21 years. God knows what those students are out there doing now.

Common sense would tell one to put new tires on thr rear, since fish-tailing the worse consequence of a blow out...since most cars have power steering, it would be easier to control a car with a blown front tire...the main problem with a blown front tire is at the instant it bursts, if you happened to have no hands on the steering wheel and the car suddenly lurched to the right or left into an incoming vehicle...so kep two hands on the wheel and drive to "freedom", which means to always try to keep your car clear on other traffic on the sides - as much as possible..

A lie, told often enough, gains believers. It is still a lie.

The tire companies want new tires rear-mounted to increase the wear rate of the old tires. They'll sell more tires this way. The shops just collude with them to make a little more money in the long run. The safety argument is just their phoney excuse for squeezing customers. If it were really a liability issue, they would just make you pick the spot you wanted and sign a waiver. They don't have any trouble putting the better tread in front when they rotate the tires, do they?

The safety question comes down to whether the driver can better manage oversteer or understeer during an incident. It is also vehicle-dependent as most cars are more prone to one or the other. The vehicle owner is in a far better position to judge this than a rubber jockey at Costco. I learned to drive in a Volkswagon and spent many happy hours racing around counting on a good rear wheel slide. Understeer, on the other hand, is useless. That Michelin movie is all Hollywood.

I've bought 36 tires at Costco over the years for my family and my company. I've just bought my last two.

Oh my god what a ###. I work for costco Tire and the reason we put tires on the rear is because of michelins guide lines state that the new tires if it is only a pair go on the rear. All tire manufacturers recommend this. How does this guy have 21 years of auto mechanic experience and not keep up with this. True idiot. I always make a point to humiliate people like that at the store.

Fed law states you must replace a front tire that has went flat on diesel tractor trucks. It is illegal to patch or plug the front tire of a commercial diesel truck, they are repaired and placed in the rear or used for trailers.
Why? Because a blowout in the front tire is bad juju.
Put the new tires on the front, just like the Feds mandate for the trucking industry.

You clearly have no idea WHAT your doing. New tires go on the back as the other people have said, it's easier to control in a potentially dangerous situation. Putting them in the front doesn't help much.

Unless you don't have 4-wheel drive? Do you have only front wheel drive or something? Maybe that's why your grumping about the best tire installers EVER.

Near Death Experience because of this Costco Tire Department! Avoid at all costs! I purchased 4 new tires in Bridgewater Costco around Christmas time 2016 where the employees are wonderful, attentive and customer service oriented despite being very busy. I have the tires rotated and balanced regularly. On April 29th (roughly 30 days ago) I went to the Warton Costco to check the tires because they were slowly leaking air...All 4 tires needed slight re-filling every 2 weeks which is not normal. They took the tires off and remounted them and found the rims were possibly mounted in a way that it might be causing the tires to leak but assured me it was fixed. In the process they broke TWO of the tire sensors off the tires so I could no longer see the tire pressure on my screen in the car...so I now had no idea if they were low on air unless I stopped at a gas station and paid for air to check the current reading.

Last night while driving with my 13 year old twin boys, 11 year old daughter and 8 year old son on busy Interstate I-80, the car began to have a severe vibration. My car- enthusiast son looked out the window on the passenger side and said the back tire was moving like it might fall off. I immediately pulled over. I popped the hubcap off the tire and you can see from the photo attached...5 of the 6 lug nuts were OFF...just sitting in the wheel well with shreds of metal that had sheeted off with the lug nuts . A few more minutes and that last lug nut could have given way and the wheel would have separated from the car with my 4 kids in the car on the interstate in the rain! We could have been killed. When roadside assistance arrived and saw what happened. He said this was clear negligence...an employee that did not tighten the lug nuts! He said that he had never seen anything like it and that this doesn't just happen! I am beyond rattled and I think every employee in this department needs re-training. This should not have occurred!

I have dealt with this Costco Tire Center on numerous occasions, the staff is very professional and very knowledgable. What other Tire Center sends their employees to training centers and events to further product knowledge and to gain experience with what they sell? As far as warranties, for a $14 installation package including- mounting, balancing, valve stems, Lifetime rotation, road hazard warranty, flat repair warranty, and most of the tires having a milage warranty... They stand behind their warranties 100%, To the comment above- I have NEVER seen Sears beating Costco's tire prices when comparing apples to apples. Sears ALSO charges on top of the tire price for valve stems, road hazard, rotations, balancing, fixing tires... If you think over the life of a 60, 000 mile tire, you should have the tires rotated about 8 times. The average rotation costs $20-$30 plus the additional cost of balancing each wheel every rotation. Maybe fixing one flat tire costing $25. Paying 10% of the tire price for road hazard. The cost of maintenance over the life of the tires plus road hazard would double the original cost if purchased elsewhere.
I have purchased 5 sets of tires from Costco Tire Center and would not purchase tires elsewhere anymore. The negative - They do not offer appointments, which can be helpful to people with time constraints. And sometimes it is a while until your helped at the counter or until your car is done, but that's with any business... I'd rather it take longer and done right the first time, rather then rush something that is of such importance... Your life and the person's life driving next to you is at risk if the tire comes flying off the vehicle due to a rushed job.
As for any grease/lubricant that is applied to any mounting hardware. The manufacture engineers the vehicle with a dry torque spec. By adding grease to a stud and lug, the stud is going to be over torqued and stretched, which can cause the stud to not return to normal operating ranges and sometimes pass the yield point and break. Lug-nuts that have been in service for 100, 000 miles and have went on and off numerous times need to be replaced due to the threads and hex edges being worn. For a bag of 20 lug-nuts that usually only costs $10 dollars, why would you risk it, a cross threaded lug or lug-nuts falling off could cost you hundreds down the road.

I read this comment after getting re-re-routed by Costco's voice exchange.
When I finally got thru to the Tire Dept nobody picked up after several minutes of ringing.
So my first impression aligned with this comment.
I called Sears and got a better deal on Michelins than what I saw at Costco on-line.
And the service was outstanding.
Costco is great for returns.
Otherwise their C/S is the pits.

In all the years that I have dealt with the people in this tire center I found them to be utmost professional and handle customers with the most amount of courtesy. Perhaps you came in with an attitude that I also sense in your comments. That probably does not much to make an individual be helpful to you. At the same time you complain that the supervisor gives instructions to the staff with you standing there. That is something you may forget is their job and they have to do as efficiently with the amount of time they have to deal with you and the staff at the same time along with the other customers. I also do not really believe the line was out the door. Perhaps a couple of people stood there as a group and blocked your way in. No matter your wife showed up between 6-7PM as you stated yet they were going to help her at 9PM. That cannot be since the entire store closes at 8:30PM as does the tire center and they really do not like to take people after 7PM since most likely they have other customers to take care of ahead of your wife and her tight schedule, since those others also have probably tighter schedules then you or your wife. Perhaps next time you should take the car with the bad tire to the store yourself and let your wife go on with her tight schedule using your car. But no, that is something you did not think of and now blame Costco for your problems. Sorry but this does not sound fair on your part.

also you guys have amazing eyesight to be able to scan the road at speed for objects

you dont lubricate the lugs because you dont want something holding the tire on your car to be slippin off now do you? it also prevents over torquing the lugs which can lead to failure

so why is it Costco's fault that you are on a tight schedule? Costco business varies day by day, sometimes very busy and you have to wait for service. there are no appointments, so if the manager tried to accommodate you at six and you did not show, its your fault. I also am doubtful that your tire mysteriously had a blow out, you had to hit something. i find the costco tire center to be very professional and their staff extremely helpful.

This same Costco Wharton Tire Department insists on a store manager (many times female) tightening all tire lug nuts with a torque wrench (with which I agree in principle), BUT DOESN'T TEACH THE STORE MANAGER HOW TO USE A TORQUE WRENCH! They always pass the click stop on the large torque wrench used, sometimes by as much as a quarter turn. Don't ask them to lubricate the tire lugs, they get downright nasty!

wow... Go learn law or economics or something. You are a very uniformed and under educated individual.

So let's see, you are angry at the retailer because of a government policy. Are you too blind to understand the government is the problem? Please don't waste people's time by posting illegitmate complaints. Your comments prove you are in the wrong. You would be able to see through that if you were capable of logic.

SORRY, You became a victim when you got the card. Get a lawyer! Quick! (Read the other posts here, always the same!) I can't believe that Costco and GM would do business with slime like this!