Costco Wholesale — Attraction in East Lyme

DO NOT BUY MILK HERE! For the second time, I had to pour a whole brand new gallon with a good date right down the drain because it was spoiled on opening.

The door greeters have been transformed into nasty security guards! They have installed the card scanners at the entrance now, so they can compare the pictures on the screen to the face of the customer entering the store. But, they have taken it to the extreme and are really terribly over-zealous about it. Now, if you need to go in the exit for a legitimate reason, they start yelling and screaming at you. Nasty!

This part of my review is specifically to address the optical center: in the past, I’ve had nothing but good experiences here. Recently, the place has become impossible, defective, and infuriating. They don’t have enough opticians working to accommodate the number of customers. You have to take a number and wait. They move at a snail’s pace, and seem to be looking for anything else to do instead of helping the people waiting. I dropped off a pair of glasses on March 1 to have new lenses put in. They told me a week and a half, and they’d call. In the past, this usually meant a week, and I’d get a text. After a week, I was there shopping, and just thought I’d check to see. They wouldn’t even look at me without a number, and there were eight people waiting, so I left. Yesterday, I tried calling, but they weren’t picking up the phone. I called the service desk and the woman actually offered to walk over to see if my glasses were in. Indeed, they were just sitting there! She told me there were eight people in line there and only two opticians and recommended I come later. I decided to be the first one there this morning, and was waiting outside at 9:40. Other people were already there. When that door opened, I literally ran to the optical shop, and there was another woman who ran in through the exit to do the same thing. I beat her to the punch, and got the first number. We sat down in the only two chairs there to wait, as there was no optician there yet. We commiserated, and she had essentially the same story as me, having gone in one day last week at 10:15, only to find eight people ahead of her, and a wait of an hour and a half. She picked up new glasses that had a problem and had to be returned. Well, today when the optician finally arrived, he began puttering around the counter, but avoided dealing with the customers at all costs. Finally, he waved me up. Right out of the box, he commented, “well, there’s a problem right there.” It turned out that they only put the correct coatings on one lens, but no coatings on the other. The glasses needed to be sent back to the lab. I explained my saga to him and that I’m a pilot who needs correct glasses to fly in the morning. He told me he could offer me express shipping to and from the lab on the West Coast, and that’s great, but it doesn’t help me for tomorrow morning when I have to fly. It also means that I will lose at least another couple of hours to accomplish the simple task of having updated lenses installed in my glasses. Fast forward: when the glasses came back the second time, they had NO COATING ON EITHER LENS! They had to be sent back to the West Coast a third time. I was told they would be expedited. I still don’t have them. As of last night (MAY 2nd!), the manager told me, “your frames are at the lab. I called and encouraged them to make your lenses.” I began this process when I was still wearing a winter coat. Now I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and I still don’t have my eyeglasses! With this, I have decided that the better prices at the Costco optical center don’t end up saving me anything. With all of the wasted time and trips, and all of the unnecessary aggravation, it’s the same as paying double at LensCrafters. It’s too bad, really. He told me he’s the manager of the optical center and he tells the general manager they need more opticians behind the counter, but that it falls on deaf ears. He asked me to express my frustration in writing to the general manager, hence...

Re: COSTCO Tire Center in East Lyme

Dangerous! Scary! Got a set of BF Goodrich KO2s put on our two year old Jeep Wrangler. The installer knocked the rotor taking off one of the wheels and didn't straighten it when they installed the new tire. It was making a bad sound -- the wheel wasn't put back straight. Hard to get the tire off, then we found rub marks around the outside of the rotor where it had been bound. Totaled the rotor and pad, lucky we weren't killed on the highway. Called COSTCO after getting help from the dealership and learning what happened to our car. Costco Manager said to come in and fill out a liability form once we could drive -- tire manager claims to have worked on the vehicle himself and denies having done this. The right rear rotor is deeply gauged like a record, metal shavings hanging off it, the pad scraped down to a sliver. All the others look pristine, like mirrors. The manager just kept repeating how the brakes weren't their responsibility. Unbelievable! So obviously their fault to everyone but them! I told them that their lack of acknowledgment worried me, that they could put others in danger.

I got nowhere with the local call, so while the brake was getting replaced, I called Costco Corporate Customer Service and described the situation. The person I spoke with at the Corporate level understood exactly what we described, urged us to take pictures, save parts, and go back to fill in their liability form. After the car was off the lift, we drove to East Lyme to fill out their form. A week passed, no call from Costco's Liability Department. Wasted effort filling out their report, their negligence could have easily harmed if not killed us, and reporting the incident fell on deaf ears.

Are we supposed to trust them in the future to put the wheels back on straight for the tire rotations that are included in the purchase of the tires? We've gotten tires replaced and rotated for more than twenty years (maybe more) at Costco in Danbury, Milford, Waterbury, and New Britain, never a problem until now, at the new Costco Tire Center in East Lyme. I've always loved Costco for their guarantees, trusted the Customer Service to make things right, but not any longer. This was like nothing I had ever experienced at a Costco before.

Any savings benefit buying tires at Costco was spent on replacing the brake they totaled with improper installation. I'd give them negative stars if I could, for the danger they put us in, and for not owning up to a serious and costly mistake. Not to be trusted....

DO NOT ORDER APPLIANCES FROM COSTCO. I really enjoy my membership, but I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT get appliances from them. It’s been a nightmare for over a month. The first install delivery was suppose to arrive 1:45-3:45 and they were supposed to call when they were on their way. They never called and they showed up at 12:50p. I work 45 mins away, but they weren’t willing to wait. They delivered and installed the electric range anyway and left before I got there. I arrived at 1:40 (still prior to the EARLIEST delivery time). I checked the stove and not all the burners worked. They never said a word, but in their email they showed the working burners and the rest were dark, so, they were aware and didn’t care. After a very long call with logistics, we scheduled a delivery for the the following Friday. We get a call Sunday night saying it was coming Monday, I explain I can’t take Monday off at this point, they cancel the delivery and tell me it will come the following Monday (they couldn’t fit me in sooner). I call Friday and Sunday to confirm the delivery for 7a to 9a (which was promised so I wouldn’t have to miss work, and the supervisor sent me an email indicating it would arrive at that time) , and to confirm I would get a call in advance. Everything was fine. Sunday night I get a call saying it will arrive between 10:30-12:30! I call up and they tell me to take it or reschedule. My fiancé agrees to leave work (she’s a nurse at a hospital) to be there. I conform AGAIN that they will call when they are in their way. 11:30 my security camera sees them in the driveway, I call my fiancé who leaves work immediately (she works 35 mins away). I also call logistics to find out why they never called…. They can’t explain it…. We go back and forth for almost 30 mins and they tell me because no one was there, they are leaving. I explain that she was 5 mins away, but they don’t care. They then reschedule me for 10 days out and offer to cancel the delivery, which I would have done EXCEPT on the first delivery they removed the old Range. These people are terrible. They are garbage sun-contractors and no one is held accountable for their mistakes. THEY JUST DONT CARE. Please, I don’t know you, but pay extra and buy from someplace that won”t cause a...