Costco’s in Washington are changing their return policy

Over the years, Costco has had one of the most liberal return policies in retail. You could pretty much bring anything back for any reason and get a refund. But the word is out that things are changing. 

According to msn.com, 
‘However, some members have found that Costco workers are now requiring extra proof of purchase for some returns, and managers are even checking to see how often customers are returning their purchases, according to Cleveland.com’ 

The changes started happening over this last year as social media started sharing stories of Costco customers returning items like Christmas trees months after the holiday season ends. 

Why the change?

Lots of other retailers have adopted liberal return policies in order to attract customers but they are finding that the Liberal return policy's also have increased fraud to the point where businesses are losing millions, sometimes billions of dollars. 

Now, some Costco customers who were so used to the original return policies are becoming irate when the store asks for additional information or receipts. 

My son John had an experience with Costco last year where he bought an office chair. He took it home, used it, and about a month later it broke. (Just a note here, he's a big guy.) He took it back to Costco and received a 100% refund. 

Recently one customer noted that they were told that any perishable food item that left the store could not be returned at all, even if there was no indication that it had been opened or touched. 

another change.

Another thing Costco is changing is how you order certain things in the store. For instance, if you were ordering a custom cake from the bakery. It used to be that you would fill out a paper form and submit it to the bakery. Now Costco is preparing to roll out a mobile app that facilitates that. 

For me, I honestly cannot remember the last time I returned something to Costco for a refund or replacement. I think I'll try to keep it that way.