Costco Revokes Its Liberal Return Policy

Stating that its liberal electronics return policy was costing a bundle of money, Costco recently announced that it will no longer accept the return of electronic items past 90 days. They had already reduced the return time for computers, and now this applies to all electronics from iPods to televisions.

Costco says that it intends to extend the manufacturers warranty on certain items from the standard one year to a two-year warranty to help ease the bite of this decision.

Other warehouse stores, such as Sam’s Club, are expected to retain their more liberal return policies, at least for the near future. This may in fact give Sam’s Club an edge over Costco, at least in the electronics area, since neither store is that competitive on a lot of their electronics pricing. Customers would often buy there rather than at other stores because of the return policies, not the pricing, knowing that if their product breaks down they could simply return it.

This new return policy at Costco will first be initiated in California, and will then be expanded to other states. Now that we have a Sam’s Club in Santa Clarita as well as Costco, it would be wise to consider the return policies as well as the pricing when deciding which store will earn your business.