Costco Wholesale — Local services in East Lansing

This review isn’t for the whole of my experience at this Costco but just something I want to get off my chest.

I left the checkout lane mildly offended today because of the customer service I got. I went up to the checkout lane because I wanted to pay cash this time around. The woman was talking to a customer she was ringing up, trying to convince them to get an executive membership. All fine, I understand that upselling is part of the work she does.

The woman working with her walked away cause we were just standing there waiting for her to finish talking with the customer. From my observations, I realized her co-worker literally wasn’t able to start scanning me in while the conversation was going on because the customer hadn’t paid yet; the reason being that they would miss this opportunity to get money back later on if they didn’t upgrade their membership.

Once the customer paid and walked away, I was asked twice how my day was. It was like she couldn’t hear me. One of her co-workers walks up exclaiming about an increase in the price of stamps, and what I didn’t know was that to show her co-worker how the price didn’t increase quite yet, she rang up stamps as if it were part of my order and then voided it. I was looking at the screen, and I thought, nothing I put in my cart was that much (50.00?). I asked her about it, got an explanation, and thought maybe this was not going to get better. I was not going to feel better about this interaction.

I have considered that the co-worker who walked up did not know the context of the previous few minutes.

However, she knows how long I waited and chose to put her attention on other people. It was easier for her to focus on more talkative people, and she did this with enthusiasm. She could have asked her co-worker to wait, hang on a second, and considered that she already had me wait. If she had gotten me through the line quicker, I think I would have been fine. Instead, me leaving was dependent on her finishing a side conversation.

Three things I would like her to consider:

What if I was in a rush to get home? The faster you get through ringing me up the more time you get with other people. Please do better than this, you did not meet me halfway.

I will add here that I did not appreciate “stamps”, which I did not order, on my receipt, even if you did void it. It feels like an invasion of space.

The co-worker who talked with her about stamps asked me if I needed a box for my four items; I can see others have said that some employees at this Costco have an issue with giving out boxes at all. I wasn’t in the space to appreciate that just then, so thank you. Really, four items means I could’ve gone through the...

Rude Customer Service I have been in need of hearing aids for years, but was never able to afford them. Based on a family member recommendation, my wife and I joined Costco for the sole purpose of me finally getting hearing aids. We set an appointment two weeks ago to have my hearing tested and purchase my hearing aids today, 06-06-19. Additionally, I was the first customer appointment of the day. When we arrived we were not acknowledged promptly, then we were told to sit and wait. The audiologist finally appeared only to speak to another walk-up customer and totally ignored us and our scheduled appointment. Then, she very rudely turned her back on us and acted like we were non-existent. After waiting several minutes, we left extremely disgusted and disappointed. I attempted to speak with a Costco Manager about my poor experience, but was informed that none were available. As an older retiree, purchasing hearing aids with no insurance coverage, is a big deal. My wife and I were anxiously waiting for this day, only to be very upset by the way that we were so rudely ignored. We drove over an hour in heavy construction traffic for this appointment, only to be mistreated and made to feel like we do not matter. If we were treated this poorly at the point of sale, I can only imagine how bad we would be treated in the event we ever needed service, or repair, on the hearing aids. Since Costco is far from our home, and I will not be able to get my hearing aids from them, I now want to cancel my membership.

After speaking to the Manager of this Costco location and being urged to "give us another try", my wife and I returned to this Costco, unannounced, on Saturday 07-27-19. The Hearing Center was completely closed and there was nobody there to assist us, or any other customers, during a busy Saturday. I spoke to the Manager on duty about this and all he did was make excuses about his staff. I also gave him back the gift card that I had been mailed as an attempt to bribe me into rejoining Costco. This incident further reiterated to my wife and I that we made the right decision by cancelling our Costco membership and not buying my hearing aids there. Based on the total lack of customer service at the Hearing Center at this particular Costco location, I will be doing a follow-up with the Costco Corporate offices. I will be suggesting that they perform a Corporate Review of the Hearing Center at this is particular Costco location to determine the control weaknesses and implement the necessary corrective actions. Our experiences at the Hearing Center at this particular Costco location is an embarrassment to the entire Costco...

On Sunday, February 23rd 2025, there was a man named Brian who has red hair working a sample booth towards the front of the store in the snack section (chips, granola bars, etc.). I believe the booth he was working had snack sticks of some sort, but I could be wrong. When trying to turn into the aisle we had to stop and wait a couple seconds because a gentleman had his cart parked on one side of the aisle and he was standing on the other side grabbing something, so there was no room for us to get through. We had to wait maybe 10 seconds, not a big deal whatsoever. While waiting, Brian said to us, in the rudest tone I've ever heard a customer service employee use, "Can you guys like move? I really need to get back to my shift." No please, no thank you. I cannot emphasize how rude and unprofessional his tone was. I looked at him in disbelief and said, "There's someone blocking the aisle. We can't get through." His only response was, "My bad. I didn't see that." Which, in my opinion is a complete lie. There's no way he couldn't see him considering he was looking right in his direction. He was obviously just getting defensive because I called him out for being rude. When we got to the check out line I let one of the supervisors know. I can't remember his name, but he was very nice, apologized for how he acted, and explained that Brian is not actually employed by Costco, but by a vender that comes in for the samples. He also said that Brian had been "coached" for his rude behavior before, and that he had caught an attitude with that particular supervisor before. I'm not some "Karen" who's being dramatic or did something to provoke this man. I'm a 23 year old that also works in customer service, and if anyone that I work with spoke to a customer like this, they'd at the very least be written up. And if it was a repeated offense, which I was told by the Costco supervisor that it was, they would be fired. Even though Brian was not a Costco employee, I'm hoping that the right person sees this, and the vendor company that he works for will...