Costco Wholesale — Attraction in Los Angeles

2 stars for good products/delicious pizza and kind staff.

To be fair, it is early December entering the holiday season and it was a Sunday afternoon; it was extremely crowded, and that was expected.

PROS • The floor staff I encountered were really great. From the kind and funny staff handing out food samples, staff re-stocking/walking around willing to answer people’s questions, and a staff member who kindly told us our bag of sugar was leaking (and making a mess!) and was super nice about it (and was even willing to help us out with another bag).

CONS • Moving around was impossible and lines were unclear—you’d think that a giant corporation like Costco, would have their stuff figured out by now (like Disneyland lmao). No staff manning lines or at least stanchions/tape/signs/arrows indicating which side of the aisle to walk on in certain areas or just ANY type of guidance for movement. At the very least, a guide for lining up for the cashiers. We didn’t even know there was self-checkout.

• HOWEVER, the worst part of this experience was checking out. I was the Costco member within my family and had gone to the restroom. My family had lined up and, sooner than expected, had reached the cashier’s. Upon reuniting with my family, it looked like there was a problem:

The main problem was that we had already paid for our groceries using my wife’s credit card despite the membership being under my name (for context, my wife had my Membership card with her). When I returned, my wife looked confused and mildly frustrated, so I joined her conversation with the staff member. The staff member very directly, firmly and perhaps in some frustration, explained that the credit card holder’s name would need to match the Costco member holder. The way she was pointing at the card’s names to show us and explain “the names need. to. match.” to us almost felt condescending when you paired it with her tone, but that may have just been my emotion in that moment. She proceeded to talk to us in an unnecessarily firm and tense tone that we “cannot do that” and that “this is a member’s only warehouse”. I completely understood that and had no issue making sure we wouldn’t make the same mistake in the future.

I calmly explained to her that we didn’t know about this policy and apologized. I didn’t know exactly what she wanted us to do about it since the transaction was finished. She finished it with “well, you already paid for it” and it felt like we were just staring at each other in silence. Like, is it alright if we go? I wasn’t too sure since she seemed unhappy with the outcome. We were happy to fix it if we could but I guess what was done was done so she said it was fine, “I guess”.

To be fair (I’d like to believe OG members could vouch for me), I’ve never had an issue in the past and it’s almost as if they’ve never checked if the credit card matched the member’s name. I go to Costco with my family all the time and this was the first I had heard of it. However, I understood as she explained it that it might be a newer policy OR a policy that had been in place but is being reinforced more and I was just unaware of it.

My issue was that she wasn’t explaining how to remedy the situation. She just explained to us what we cannot do (in a frustrated tone but again, to be fair, crowded and rush-time at Costco so I don’t completely blame her), but she wouldn’t give me any next steps. I felt cornered when I was just figuring out if we were okay to leave with our stuff or what we needed to do if we needed to right the situation due to the incorrect payment process.

I feel for the staff at this time. When difficult customers come, I understand communication and tone may vary. But it is pretty unfortunate to be a compliant and calm customer who left overwhelmed from the crowd and unorganized chaos, then feeling cornered by a staff member about something that could’ve just been a conversation.

Right now, this Costco and I need some space. Beware ya’ll. Be a considerate visitor for other customers and always...

I believe most businesses try to serve well, to do well, even though human weaknesses, inconsistencies, apparent innocent unconsciousness/actions or the lack thereof, do sometimes arise. However, today I feel differently, and feel that the customer service within the Optical Center in Costco on Los Feliz needs a reminder and a rebuke in regards to their customer service and diplomacy with customers for some of their team members. In asking to talk with the optician that I see there, via a phone inquiry, the team member on the phone had a somewhat snide response regarding my request, then in the end, said the optician would return my call as soon as she was finished with the patient she was seeing then at that time. But more time passed, and no call came in on my end, so I called again, and after several attempts, and in finally reaching the Optical Center again by phone, I was cut off the line while attempting to speak with the person there in the office, then when I called back, immediately after that, with going through all of the hoops of which # to press, which dept I wanted to talk with, etc., no one picked up the phone again, and the posted hours were still in play, in other words, it was not yet closing time for the Optical office and the disconnection had just happened. I feel it was a conscious decision for them to not answer, with myself having made the attempt to reconnect again several times on my end immediately following the disconnection. True, it is only my gut feeling regarding my negative assessment of this experience, and also considering the snide attitude on their end, and the unresolved sitution from my end, at least. I could let this go, but even when I actually had fulfilled an appointment in person several weeks earlier, I received a similar attitude from the 2 team members who were there working in the Optical office at the time. It was a similar undiplomatic approach during my experience there. Those team members need a reminder that caring and good diplomacy will always serve their customers and themselves much better than a snide attitude, which came my way within that experience that I had there at that time. It was a rather unpleasant experience and could have been even a pleasant, positive one, on both sides, minus the decision for them to be lacking in their wanting to help to make their customers' experience more positive, given my concerns within the situation at the time. Undoubtedly, they work with many kinds of people who may be less than desirable with any unpleasantness in and/or with those customers' attitudes as well. But in the end, that is no excuse, and even when and while it is their job to work with the public, and especially when it is the job and the goal to try to do your best to serve well those who come into your office and into your space. There is no excuse for a less than desirable attitude from your standpoint and from your space of trying to serve your customers/patients and the public, given your employment and optical training and office training, as well as your partnership with Costco and with the...

Since you don't have any customer service that can make actions about my complain I will just post it here so everybody will know how rude are of some employees of Los Feliz branch.

I want to complain about the incident happened last November 4, 2021 at Los Feliz branch. My husband LA Ting is member since 2016 I think Because we don't have the membership card already so I don't know the exact year. On the said day, we are purchasing using a gift card which was gifted to me on my birthday. The cashier asked if we have a membership, I said yes but its already expired since March. She called the manager and ask if we can purchase without a membership. The manager told us we cannot use just the gift card. And as far as I know I don't need a membership (my friend told me working at Costco in different branch) if I will use the gift card. I called the customer service and they told me you are just encouraging people to be a member BUT NOT FORCING. My husband didn't renew the membership because we are not always purchasing since we closed our small business on the pandemic days and we want to use the gift card that my parents gave to me. But this manager is telling us that we cannot use the gift card if we are not a member. Really?? And then the manager and the cashier( I don't know their names) is forcing us to renew the membership and they have a loud voice that everybody can hear. I told them "no we cannot renew our membership because we need to use this gift card first before we renew again. And then they confiscated our membership card!! Is this a right way to treat your customers? You are forcing us to renew the membership but I said no I just want to use my gift card first and we are not always go at Costco to purchase. This incident is very disappointing!! You should just talk to us in proper way but not shouting that you want us to feel embarassed!! and so even if we still want to renew the membership after I used my gift card, better not to renew anymore. And we just want you to make an action on this incident because its not proper to just confiscate the old membership card and forcing the person to be a member. The manager of this branch should know the proper treatment...