Reader Gina writes in to let us know that her local Costco won’t take the $120 her boyfriend is trying to give them. You see, Gina and her boyfriend are honest people, and they contacted Costco to let them know the store had made a $120 error on their bill. Costco doesn’t want their money, however. It wants Gina’s boyfriend to have something called a “Happy Birthday.” What’s that?

Gina writes:

I just had to write in to share my boyfriend’s experience with Costco this weekend. He has been looking to purchase a SLR camera for months now. After a failed attempt to buy a demo model Nikon D-5000 from Best Buy (wherein they would not let him power up the camera to test it out and told him it didn’t come with a battery or strap) he moseyed on over to Costco to check out the their package deal, which came with the camera, two lenses, a memory card, strap and bag.

He was assisted by the Electronics Manager, who was able to knowledgeably address his questions. He made the decision to purchase the package and was told by the manager that he had a discounted one available, due to it having been opened as a floor model, which was, in turn, never used as such because one was already out on the floor. The package was originally going for around $820 and the opened one was selling for $700.

After being assured that the discounted package came with all the parts, he decided to purchase it. The manager and another employee went through the box piece by piece in front of my boyfriend to make sure that all parts were accounted for. He goes and checks out and then when he gets about halfway home, he realized that the price was funny. After making a few other purchases, his total on his receipt was way off…only $694.00.

Closer inspection revealed that Costco had rung up the camera for the sale price of $700….and then mistakenly applied another $120 discount, bringing the total to $575. My boyfriend, being an honest sort of guy, called Costco and asked for the manager dealt with previously to let him know of the mistake. He offered to come back on Monday to pay the difference and was told by the manager, “Happy Birthday, don’t worry about it.”

I’ve been a longtime Costco customer, but have always had to drag the boyfriend in by his ears (forget about trying to get him in there on a Saturday or Sunday) and now he loves Costco more than he loves me, I think. After being disappointed by Best Buy one too many times, he is going to cancel his (well used) Best Buy card and make all of his big box electronic purchases from Costco. (Also in part due to Costco’s generous return policy on electronics and computers). So good job, Costco! You’ve earned yourself a hard to win customer and we both look forward to making more electronic purchases with you guys!

Oh, Costco. You are so nice.

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