CONSUMER REPORTS: Costco's Renewal Ripoff

g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
edited July 2009 in A Moving Train
If you’re a Costco member like me, sometimes you don’t shop at the big box store for months at a stretch. If your membership happens to expire during such a sabbatical, guess what happens when you renew a month or two later?

Tim Boyle, Getty ImagesAnswer: Costco automatically backdates your membership to renew on the date it expired, not on the actual date you renewed. That means you pay for membership you didn’t and couldn’t have used, because you can’t get your discount-price purchases past the cashier without a current membership.
This happened to me twice in recent years. For some reason, I let my Costco membership lapse each August in 2005 and 2006. But, like clockwork, my need for three-football-field lengths of paper towels and gallon jugs of mayonnaise eventually pressured me to renew in November. I thus retroactively paid for four unused months, a $33 waste.

Costco's Renewal Ripoff

I'm a member but this has not happened to me but I can see how easy it is for this company to pull this off. Especially when the consumer is unaware or NOT paying attention.

As a customer to this corporation we must give them some complications or they will take advantage of you.

Peace
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Comments

  • jlew24asujlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    dicks. I just may not ever renew now. thanks for posting.
  • cookiescookies Posts: 113
    Yeah I got a letter in the mail a few months ago about that. And if it did happen to you, you will get free months depending on how times it had happen to you...Some one sued them for it..

    Cookies
    Cookies
    ôjô
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    hmmmm....so Costco is a bunch of dicks for this...? I guess some feel a new membership should be generated after each lapse...I wonder if the Ten Club should adopt such policy...you know, someone allows their membership to lapse...when they renew they get a new number and go to the back of the line...

    that does sound like a good thing....
  • JR8805JR8805 Posts: 169
    Sounds like a good thing for who? I think the 10 C does it right right now. They give you a fair chance to renew, then if you don't, to the back of the line. Building resentment in a loyal customer base is probably not at the top of business practices, should you ask me.
  • blackredyellowblackredyellow Posts: 5,889
    Is a renewal cheaper than a new membership?
    My whole life
    was like a picture
    of a sunny day
    “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
    ― Abraham Lincoln
  • Number 18Number 18 Posts: 132
    This happened to me at Costco as well. I wonder if it is too late (happened in 2006).

    It also happened with the 10c. I forgot to renew my membership. When I heard about the new album, I renewed and it back dated my renewal and kept my old 10c number.
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    JR8805 wrote:
    Sounds like a good thing for who? I think the 10 C does it right right now. They give you a fair chance to renew, then if you don't, to the back of the line. Building resentment in a loyal customer base is probably not at the top of business practices, should you ask me.

    sounds like a good thing for the folks who don't let their membership lapse....

    it does sound like Costco and the 10C renewal policies are very similar...
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    Is a renewal cheaper than a new membership?

    no...but depending on your membership, you can get cash back toward membership for the next year...if you're a executive member ($100 a year), you get 1% cash back....for the past two years my membership was paid for with this rebate....
  • __ Posts: 6,651
    Eh... I got the letter about this awhile back too and I can see both sides of it. I don't think Costco was trying to be sneaky and fuck people over or anything. I'm sure there are plenty of other kinds of memberships and subscriptions that work this way. Besides, it's the membership fees that keep the prices low at Costco, and that's why I shop there in the first place.
  • Brain of mJBrain of mJ Posts: 786
    cookies wrote:
    Yeah I got a letter in the mail a few months ago about that. And if it did happen to you, you will get free months depending on how times it had happen to you...Some one sued them for it..

    Cookies

    Yeah, I got an email about that class action case as well, sounds like Costco members will start getting restitution in October if I remember. I always thought it was fishy/poor business that they did their renewals that way, and I'm glad somebody caught them on it.
  • soulsingingsoulsinging Posts: 13,202
    g under p wrote:
    If you’re a Costco member like me, sometimes you don’t shop at the big box store for months at a stretch. If your membership happens to expire during such a sabbatical, guess what happens when you renew a month or two later?

    Tim Boyle, Getty ImagesAnswer: Costco automatically backdates your membership to renew on the date it expired, not on the actual date you renewed. That means you pay for membership you didn’t and couldn’t have used, because you can’t get your discount-price purchases past the cashier without a current membership.
    This happened to me twice in recent years. For some reason, I let my Costco membership lapse each August in 2005 and 2006. But, like clockwork, my need for three-football-field lengths of paper towels and gallon jugs of mayonnaise eventually pressured me to renew in November. I thus retroactively paid for four unused months, a $33 waste.

    Costco's Renewal Ripoff

    I'm a member but this has not happened to me but I can see how easy it is for this company to pull this off. Especially when the consumer is unaware or NOT paying attention.

    As a customer to this corporation we must give them some complications or they will take advantage of you.

    Peace

    The 10c does this too. So what?
  • JaneNYJaneNY Posts: 4,438
    The 10C does not do the same thing. If you renew before your expiration date, they add another year to your membership. If you allow your membership to lapse, when you start up again, you get a year from when you paid again, AND get a new number.

    BJ's (a club like Costco) does the same thing as Costco. I don't like it either. Once I convinced them to give me an extra month but they don't like to do it. I hope legalities make them change the policy.
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