Costco Wholesale — Local services in Coralville

Costco, like Sam's club, are great at what they do: a limited selection of a lot of things, sold at a discount price. The limited selection is the only reason for not giving 5 stars, although it hasn't been too much of an issue for me. One disappointment is that sometimes they will stop carrying a food item I like, but that occurs with my local grocer too.

I'm a person that always researches product reviews and costs before a major purchase. I have to drive 70 miles to reach my closest Costco, but I found it worth the drive. I have bought tires, eyeglasses, hearing aids, cell phones, and computers, in addition to the normal items found at all big box stores.

My hearing aids, a small full- featured model, were $2000 less than what the same pair would have been through a local audiologist.

There is a hearing aid forum online in which this is discussed, but the short answer is that Costco's ability to buy in bulk, and place hearing aid centers in a shared business space with other items, allows them to sell a pair for less than the dealer cost to a local audiologist.

The downside is that you get less hand- holding through the process than you'd get from the small, local audiologist who sees a hundred patients rather than a thousand. In my case, I'd worn aids for years and knew what they can and can't do. That's not to say that the Costco hearing specialists are not great-- they are both knowledgeable and professional. But scheduling follow-up visits may take longer than a less-busy vendor.

Costco also sells their hearing aid batteries cheap, has long warranties, free re-checks / adjustments / small disposable parts, and also carries some repair parts in stock ( such as in-ear receivers) that they installed while I waited and eliminated sending the aid back to the manufacturer for repair.

Costco is also great for eyeglasses. My wife and I both use their optical department--- maybe a slightly smaller selection than some eyeglass chains, but great service, professionalism, and prices.

I also buy my tires at Costco. They carry a selection of the more popular tires from a few major brands, there are regular sales where manufacturer rebates lower the price even more, executive club members sometimes get mounting and balancing free, and everyone gets extra services like free tire rotation.

Costco gives a two year warranty on most electronics such as TVs and computers, and has a liberal return policy if you are unsatisfied...

I am a new residence to Iowa and working as a young professor at the University of Iowa, and I never had any bad comment to any store on the public media before. BUT!!!!!

I really had a very bad experience when I activated my membership at this COSTCO store. The person who is responsible for my case did not return my driver license. I tried to actively and politely to ask for their cooperation to solve this issue but was not treated in the same way back: I called this store twice, and asked my colleagues to go there in person to ask for twice. The person called Derek always declined on phone that they have my drive license in a very rude and unprofessional manner, claiming that returning a customer's driver license was not their duty!!!! asking my driver license back was my own duty for my membership!!!! However, when one of my colleagues with a non Asian-face was there to ask, someone in the store said they saw a California driver license (my driver license is from California) but they cannot find it any more!!!

Moreover, I am concerned if they are illegally hiring someone else to deal with in-store customer services. The person who is responsible for my membership activation was not familiar with any procedure at all that day and took more than half an hour to complete it even with another person helping her. Later, from the phone call, I find the name (Heather T) on my receipt was not the person for my case at all but another staff who is helping with her. When I was questioning this with the manager on the phone, he declined again and claimed that all the people working there are their employees. If so, why cannot they find this 'employee' responsible for my license and ask her how she dealt with my driver license and where my driver license is????? From the phone call, I also know they never tried to reach out this 'employee' to ask during this whole week. The driver license would never show up in front of their eyes by itself!

I decided to publicly tell my bad experience here just wanting to claim for my legal right as a customer and to have a kindly reminder to other customers in case of potential issues there. I believe Costco has the duty to return driver license to customers, and keep it safely and actively look for it if they forgot to return it...

My GF convinced me that Costco was the place to go over Sam’s Club. I was excited to check out new merchandise and compare the differences between the two (I’m old and life is boring). I purchased a business membership in advance of arriving. I chose the business membership to get the extra advantages (unfortunately Costco doesn’t offer business services in my area). Upon arrival we wanted to eat. She had told me about how awesome their food court was. I chose pepperoni over plain cheese (a decision that would haunt me). While waiting for our food I walked through the computer area where we had planned on buying a specific device (it was out of stock). While walking out I picked up some macadamia nuts and white cheddar Cheetos. Self serve line was quick and easy. I noticed the super long lines and checked to see if they had a self pay app (like Sam’s). Unfortunately they do not. I picked up my slice of pizza and was covered in grease. The look on my face was all she needed to see. I was ready to go! I took two or three bites then discarded that “food” where it should have been from the start… the garbage can. We looked on the app for a way to cancel the membership and leave. There was no such option and the line was at least 30 people deep. At that moment the grease hit me. The line to leave this place of horrors was twice that to complain at customer service. Because I had purchased two items I was now left in agony waiting for the vision and hearing impaired exit door employee to “check out” the people whom had already paid and checked out. I rushed to the bathroom to find the last stall open. After a solid 90 seconds of scrubbing the toilet seat was “clean enough” for me to use. I sit here now sharing the details of my sh*tty Costco experience surrounded by horrible smells and two bags of snacks that cost me $90. I’ll definite never...