Will Costco Revoke Your Membership for Making Too Many Returns?

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Costco’s return policy is generous. But read on to see if making too many returns will put your membership at risk. 

One of the nice things about joining Costco, aside from the massive savings, is getting access to great customer service. Costco prides itself on offering customers a great experience in its stores. The warehouse club giant wants customers to walk away happy with the items they’re purchased.

As such, most of the things you’ll buy at Costco are eligible for returns. However, there are limited exceptions, like cigarettes, alcohol, and electronics that are brought back after the 90-day mark.

But what if you end up having to make a large number of returns in short order? Generally, that won’t cause your Costco membership to be revoked. But in some extreme cases, too many returns could get you banned from Costco, especially if your returns are unreasonable in nature.

When enough is enough at Costco

Costco tends to go above and beyond when it comes to customer satisfaction. Members can even receive a refund on open food purchases by virtue of simply not liking the items in question.

For the most part, a string of Costco returns won’t cause you to lose your membership if there’s a good reason for those returns, and your returns are not excessive relative to the number of items you buy at Costco over time. But if you’re constantly making returns to the point where it’s 60% or 70% of your purchases, then yes, you could risk having your membership revoked.

But let’s say you happened to buy a bunch of Costco apparel that you had your kids try on over the course of several weeks (since we all know kids aren’t always so great about sitting still and trying on clothing). It may be that you’re taking back a pair of shorts that didn’t fit one week, an ill-fitting jacket the next week, and poor-fitting pajamas a few days after that. Something like that won’t put your membership at risk — especially if you’re returning the items in good condition with their tags still on.

Similarly, you really don’t have to worry about having your membership revoked due to returning an item that clearly doesn’t work or, in the case of food, has spoiled well ahead of its expiration date. For example, if you buy a bulk pack of cheese with a June 1 expiration date, and come May 1, the package is still sealed but you can see mold growing inside, Costco will take it back without a problem and it won’t reflect poorly on you.

But let’s say you keep on returning Costco food items on the basis of them not meeting your expectations when each time, you’re doing so after having eaten half of the item in question. That’s a pattern Costco is going to flag. And if you keep it up, your membership might get taken away.

Incidentally, Costco’s policy on refunding food is that unless there’s a quality issue, like mold or premature spoilage, you have to be returning at least 50% of the item in question. You can’t bring back a 16-pack of cookies with three cookies left and say they didn’t meet your standards.

The fine print on the matter

It would perhaps be helpful if Costco had an official policy on the books as to what constitutes too many returns. Unfortunately, there’s no such guidance.

However, Costco does say on its website that “membership may be terminated at Costco’s discretion and without cause.” So reading between the lines, if you abuse Costco’s return policy, you’ll put your membership at risk.

That said, remember that Costco wants to retain customers and isn’t looking to cancel memberships without a good reason. So if you make sure your returns are reasonable (meaning, don’t ask for a refund on cake you didn’t like when 90% of it is gone) and not excessive, you should be just fine to continue enjoying the discounted groceries, household essentials, and other low-cost items Costco is known for.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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