Man, how I wish there was a Costco near me. When are they coming to Indiana?

So CostCo honors price-matching policy? Shouldn't we be praising this company or at least recognizing them as an honest dealer rather than chiding them with overly cynical titles? This is the kind of corporate behavior we want to encourage, right?

"My wife's and I's"? Seriously?

If I understand the post correctly, Costco honored their new low price on the set. I don't think they PM'd it to another story.

I've always found Costco and BJs to be very fair in their pricing, and without pretension. You want a 5 lb. tub of pretzels? There it is! Their electronics have generally been lower than their competitors on a regular day (in which neither retailer had the same TV on sale). Recently, there was a coupon for BJs members taking $200 off for a really great TV. I thought that was a pretty good offer, and if I was in a market for a gigantic TV, I might have taken them up on it because their prices are generally very, very good.

yea, they are really good at price matching in-store items. I have not done it with Best Buy vs Costco or New Egg vs Costco. I mean getting it about 3 - 5% cheaper in store plus tax beats getting it online with shipping and tax (since New Egg is a Kalifornia company, I get dinged on the tax).

Customer is ticked at the store because the price went down after he bought it? My reaction has always been "Darn, I guess I should've waited to buy it. Especially technology products that will ALWAYS decrease in price over time." Now I know to be angry with the store for trying to swindle me. Thanks, Consumerist!

And how the heck does CostCo appear BAD in this situation. They followed their policy and offered to give him the new price. Should they have called up all the customers they knew bought this TV within the previous 30 days? Consumers shouldn't expect to be coddled.

Yep, Costco honors price-matching, even within their store. My friend buys ALL (well, most) of his electronics there. He has a very high-end projector that he bought, saw a few weeks later it was cheaper, and was able to get the difference back without any problems. He's also had no problems whatsoever exhcanging and returning products that he didn't like or just weren't working properly. Basically Costco is the best place to buy this kind of stuff if you can justify the membership fee.

On second look, Costco doesn't have a pricematching policy. They do, however, have a very liberal, 90-day return policy which necessitates matching the price for this customer lest he return the TV, just to repurchase it, leaving them with an unnecessary open box TV to handle.

Oh and he's had them honor returns, price-matching, etc., after their policy dates without problems too, though I'd imagine it would depend in the store/management/etc. Still, he has nothing but praise, and he is a huge, hardcore geek.

@redskull: We're stuck with Sams =(

I worship Cost-Co (I've been going to them since they opened as "Price Club" back in San Diego), and here's my favorite story: I once went there to pick up some random stuff, and accidentally left something (I forget what, but it was like a $20 item) in the cart, and didn't realize it until I got home. My wife convinced me to go back and tell them the story, and see if they'd help me out. I didn't think they would because, really, it sounds like a scam, right? But, I went back, went to customer service, showed my receipt, and said I left it in the cart. They just shrugged and say "ok, go get another one" and let me go. Insane! They also have the most hassle-free returns, great customer service, and the $1.50 hot-dog/soda deal is the best food deal around. I am completely unashamed to admit that I truly love Cost Co.

nakedscience: And the membership fee isn't even really high if you are in the market for one big-ticket item and the savings are more than the membership fee, and if you can't find those savings anywhere else.

To be fair here, Best Buy and the now-dead Circuit City would do the same thing. Not for 90 days, but 30 days. In fact, I think this is a fairly standard practice.

Dave J.: I remember when it was price club too! Back in the day...I was a kid, though, so it didn't really strike me until much later when I started going to the warehouse clubs.

I love Costco. I find the entertainment value of seeing 5 pound cans of corned beef has to be worth half of the membership dues

Isn't this fairly standard practice, or at least used to be? If a price goes down within X days, a lot of stores will just give you difference since in these cases there's often nothing preventing you from just returning the item and buying the item again at the lower price.

@redskull: There are 2 that I found in Indiana:

Castleton: [www.costco.com]

Indianapolis: [www.costco.com]

Hopefully they are close to where you live.

@redskull: Well if the North side of Indianapolis is close, there's two.

@redskull: They're already in Indianapolis in at least two locations and have been for years. Don't know about the rest of the state but I bet it's on their website.

@Dave J.: Is it Cost-Co, Cost Co. or Costco? I know, but do you?

@big keytee: Another nice thing about Costco is their return policy: 90 days on most electronics now (I think). It used to be pretty much forever but too many assholes used that as an excuse to buy a tv or computer and then "upgrade" every year. They also provided an extended warranty on the plasma I bought there (2 years instead of the manufacturer's 1 year). No upselling or anything, it came on the box.

I'm not getting why the title of this is so snarky. It connotes that Costco is normally a problem retailer, when in fact they're one of the good guys most of the time.

Costco has always had a generous electronics returns policy; they don't charge restocking fees, and if you ordered it from Costco.com, they'll even refund the shipping costs. They only reduced the electronics returns window to its current 90 days in the face of some massive fraud by a customer out in California, who was using the old policy to run a rent-to-own business.

In the case related in this article, they implemented the policy by giving the guy the price difference. Otherwise, he could've packed up the whole kit and caboodle and brought it back to the store for a refund, and then turned around and rebought the set at the lower price.

I wouldn't be surprised if the correspondent bought right before a change in sales cycles, when the "coupons" available on the various electronics goods at Costco swap from one set of models to another.

@outoftheblew:
I thought the same thing, almost everything will go down in price at some time, especially with electronics. Therefore you just have to learn to live with that otherwise you would never ever buy a piece of technology.
But, regardless if this story, anything that praises CostCo is good, because they have been a great company to me, and everything I read about them almost never has a bad word to say about them.

Nothing special to see here. This is a simple price adjustment. Bonzombiekitty has it absolutely correct.

I recommend buying every big ticket item at Costco. They are ridiculously good about returns. I brought a 3 year old lawn mower that I bought at Costco to Sears for repair but they no longer fix mowers at my branch. On the way home I thought I'd try Costco because I had returned other things there easily. With no receipt they checked my history, asked me what was wrong with it; I said it stopped working and they gave me $400 in cash. I turned around and bought another mower. I will be a Costco customer for life.

However I find Sam's not to be as amenable.

@bonzombiekitty: Of course it's standard practice. Most stores have a 30 day "no questions" return policy, so if they didn't have a price matching garuntee, they'd just have to process a return and another sale.

Either way, you should never pay full price for a TV, most big ticket items are quite negotiable (if perhaps not at costco etc).

I did the same thing with an external hard drive that dropped $30 two weeks after I bought it. No grief at all from the customer service counter.

Costco's return and price-match policy rules!

@jake7294: My theory is that if I use all possible permutations, I will never be wrong. Cost & Company, included.

@Principia: I've found that the guys out on the floor in the electronics area will also be honest with you about upcoming sales or replaced models, provided that you ask, of course.

@outoftheblew: Costco appearing on consumerist doesn't mean they're being bad

@Principia: I don't find the title snarky at all.

Is this really pricematching? Costco dropped the price on a product they sold.

Most retailers will honor a sale price on something you buy if it goes on sale within the timeframe they usually allow for returns. (Because, really, what's going to prevent you from return the product and re-buying it?)

One factor overlooked in all of these find comments is the personnel. I've been a regular at 2 Costco in my area for over 10 years, and they have very stable employees, no turnover. They treat their employees fairly and they in turn provide excellent service.

Frankly, I don't comparison shop, just go to Costco and I know the price is lowest, or at least, in the ballpark.

"I guess it pays to ask.

-LynIt certainly does, Lyn, it certainly does."

I was buying a new cargo van with a friend last week. We were having lunch trying to decide on the deal offered. He gave me a great piece of advice.
"You are never going to make more money per hour then you will while negotiating."
Meaning that the Hour or so you spent dealing with getting the price reduced payed you about 200 per.
When you look at it that way it changes how much time you are willing to haggle

we ordered window blinds for our whole house a few months ago at Costco, the next week there was an ad for 20% off blind orders in the flyer. we went back with our reciept expecting to have to cancel and re-order but they processed a gift card for us of that amount.
no problemo.

@Pylon83: You's just needing to calm down wif all this grammer nazi stuff.

@fantomesq: Not only do they price match, but f the "30 day gaurentee" thing. If the price drops in 90 days you can return it, and get a new one. Even if the price Doesn't drop, you have 90 days for any electronics to return for ANY reason. 1 year for anything else, including the Membership. I just returned a 6 month old car battery that needed to be charged, didn't feel like charging it, so i returned it, and bought another one, and it was $4 cheaper.

I love Costco!

@Dave J.:
Yeah, but since Best Kosher went out of business at the end of January, Costco switched most of its store's hot dogs to something called Kirkland Supreme around Chicago.
Absolute shit hot dogs, they were getting dozens of complaints at each store that switched.

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Kirkland Supreme is the "Costco" brand. It's used on a tons of products. I miss Best Kosher.

I must count myself lucky for being close to a regular and a business Costco.

And yes, best hassle-free returns around.

@redskull: depends where you are but there are 3 of them in Indiana
6110 East 86th Street,Castleton Indiana 46250 Phone:(317) 558-1453
1310 E. 79th Ave,Merrillville Indiana 46410 Phone:(219) 641-6403
9010 Michigan Road,Indianapolis Indiana 46268 Phone:(317) 532-1608

@redskull: Ditto, but I wish there was one closer than an hour away.

@redskull: Darn. Indy's a 3 hour drive away.

I got a 42" LCD from costco fro $1000 last summer, saw it for $800 within a month (they were discounting the old ones and rolling out a new model). The only question I had to answer was "do you want that in cash?"

I live in Missouri; we don't have Costco, but Sam's.

I wish we did. :(

@outoftheblew: It's clearly a pro-costco post though. Consumerist is about consumers reporting to each other interactions or behavior of companies. This provides a valuable resource to the consumer because we can rely somewhat on each other and the comments to provide a picture of what a relationship (read: dealing with or buying from) with a specific retailer.

Unsurprisingly, sometimes those are good stories, which can positively reinforce a choice for some stores. Other store who primarily have universally poor reputations or poor customer service are to be avoided.

@ionerox: After reading the story, it sounded to me that Costco price matched their own store price, and not a competitors.

Tsk Tsk Tsk. Shame on you Ben Popken. The title is misleading and untrue.

Costco has always price matched to their own store.

Costco still doesn't price match against competitors.