Costco Wholesale — Local services in Calgary

Today was our first day at Costco activating our membership and it was a terrible experience. The assistant was unpleasantly insistent that we change our Gold membership to the Executive membership. My partner and I told him repeatedly that we did NOT want to make the change and that we understood the difference between each of the memberships but we were not interested. He still continued to insist in an unpleasant and uncomfortable manner for a very long time. I am pregnant and I was tired. I just wanted to activate my membership, drink water, go to the bathroom, and shop. This person held us up for 30 minutes or more insisting that we change, after we told him no. He started telling me that in three months I would see the executive membership activated on my account and that if I didn’t like it they would refund me… that I had to pay 65 or something like that difference and he started explaining to me how THE OTHER MEMBERSHIP worked!!!, when I had already said no and we were supposedly activating the gold membership, I repeated again that was not the membership I had (I bought it on Groupon) at this point we were quite annoyed and he left us waiting for several minutes and then I realized that he wasn’t there because he was waiting for someone who spoke our language!!? yes, I have an accent but I understand English perfectly and I speak it well enough to tell him no more than 20 times and I never asked for someone to explain anything in Spanish to me. The other person arrived and kindly explained to me how the card worked to which I again explained that we had already been refusing for more than 30 minutes and this gentleman (older, Canadian or Ukrainian I don’t remember the name) kept insisting…. Finally, thanks to her (Gabriela, who spoke Spanish), this gentleman continued with the registration process but was still insistent. It was very unpleasant and uncomfortable. I regret not asking someone else to help me because, in addition to feeling terrible because I wait a long time for go to the bathroom and being thirsty, it left us in a very bad mood since we didn't have much time and the activation was supposed to be quick. I understand the point of offering services and products, and it's valid, but FOR GOD, if we already told you no more than 20 times, please stop!!! And don't play with people's time. He finally told me that I had to enter my credit card to activate next year's membership. I asked if it was mandatory and he said yes. I have no idea if that's true or not, but I had to enter it anyway. At this point, I just wanted to leave… our first customer service...

I wanted to share my recent experience, though it has left me disappointed, with the hope that it might lead to improvements in your customer service.

I must admit that I've been a loyal Costco customer for years, but lately, it feels as if the personal touch is missing. I found myself in a difficult situation recently when I was at home, battling pneumonia, and needed groceries. To help me out, I purchased a shop card for my son to use. However, I was taken aback when I received an email stating that I might have to wait up to 24 hours for my digital card, with no prior warning.

This situation felt unacceptable to me, especially considering the number of people living paycheck to paycheck who rely on your services. Had I been in their shoes, I would have been left without groceries due to the delay in receiving my digital card. The next morning, to my dismay, I received an email stating that my card had been canceled, despite it having gone through on my credit card.

I tried reaching out to Costco's customer service, but as many others have experienced, it's often challenging to get through. Eventually, I managed to contact your head office, hoping for a resolution. However, I was told they couldn't do much to help me.

The most frustrating part of this experience was when I was placed on hold by a representative who seemed willing to assist after a lengthy conversation, only to have the call abruptly ended. I was left feeling not only frustrated but also unappreciated as a customer who has spent tens of thousands of dollars at your store over the years.

It's disheartening to see a company I have supported for so long treating its customers this way. Price competitiveness is important, but it should never come at the expense of customer care. I believe that in 2024, it's crucial to reevaluate your customer service practices and consider the needs and frustrations of your loyal clientele.

Furthermore, I couldn't help but wonder why you sell gift cards if they cannot be gifted to others. The ability to purchase and gift a card to someone else should be a fundamental feature of gift cards.

I sincerely hope that this feedback encourages Costco to reevaluate its customer service approach. No company is invincible, and reputation matters. I look forward to seeing improvements that will make the shopping experience at Costco more customer-centric.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you take these...

I have been a customer at Costco for years and I have never had any issues until yesterday evening. I was heading towards the till at the self checkout lane when I suddenly felt two hands push on my back I did not like the energy, as if I was a nuisance in her way. I did NOT hear excuse me ma’am just “I need to go peepee”. When I turned around I noticed it was an employee in a red vest called Lolita. At first I was in shock at what just happened, I then calmly told her “excuse me, you can’t touch customers like that” she didn’t hear me as she was talking to her coworkers, so I said it louder. She then proceeded to yell at me and say “I didn’t push you, did I push her? Looking at her coworker (Theresa). Interestingly, I never said that she pushed me I simply said you can’t touch customers. Then they both ganged up on me yelling at me saying she didn’t push me. Lolita proceeded to the bathroom. Theresa then started lying and saying that she was pushing a cart even though I did not see any cart that she was pushing, even then, excuse me would have been an appropriate thing to say in that situation. Theresa then proceeds to roll her eyes and laugh at me because I wasn’t buying her very obvious lie. I then asked Charlie for a manager he said he is the manager and when I explained what happened he said that sounds serious let me get another manager involved. When he told her what happened she immediately took the employees side and began gaslighting me and said that it didn’t happen. So I asked to talk to her manager. When I explained to her what happened and that her employees were ganging up on me she said. She will take care of it and apologized. It is pathetic I had to go through so many people just to be heard on what is very obviously disgusting unprofessional behaviour. I hope people get terminated as there are so many people looking for work that are better qualified and didn’t get a job there through family friend connections. (It is very odd that they were all willing to jump in front of a train for one another). I expect professional customer service. Not for employees to act like a zoo animal and then 5 year old child taking sides and attacking a customer with your friends - whose loyalty should be to Costco as a...