Costco Wholesale — Local services in Goleta

I usually enjoy shopping at this Costco and have never really had any issues and always reflected my experiences as positive until today. I changed my 5 star to 1 star because of one negative employee experience and unfortunately it overpowers all of my positive experience prior to today.

If a Manager is truly reading this review, I hope this would get addressed in the next employee meeting in the hopes that this Costco can create a better customer experience.

Today was my little daughter’s 5th birthday and all morning she asked me over and over if we could spend her birthday going to Costco to pick up those really cool new water balloons that hook up to the hose. We’ve spent a few hundred dollars at this Costco this particular summer buying those water balloons and my daughter really wanted them again today for her birthday. My daughter and I arrived at Costco today and we walked up and down the aisles in search of these balloons and after several minutes I decided to ask an employee to point us in the right direction. At this point we had made our way to the middle of Costco in the clothing section. There were three female employees standing around telling a story in Spanish and laughing. My daughter and I waited a few seconds for them to finish their story as I did not want to interrupt and even though the employees noticed us standing and waiting to ask a question, none of them stopped their conversation and kept laughing. I looked around and did not immediately see any other employees to ask my quick question so finally I politely interrupted and excused myself and asked them if they could point me to the waterballons after a quick description. In midst of my question one of the ladies (who appeared to be very irritated that I interrupted their story) interrupted me and said “we are sold out” and turned her back to me and continued to tell her story in Spanish to the other two female employees. I looked at my daughter and the disappoint in her face broke me. I thanked the ladies (who didn’t acknowledge me again and continued to tell their story and laugh) and my daughter and I walked away. At this point, I picked up my daughter and told her that I’m really sorry that the waterballons are all sold out and I offered to take my daughter around the store to pick out a different present to cheer her up. As we walked towards the back of the store, I immediately locked eyes on a massive pallet of the same exact water balloons right on one of the main aisles. I was blown away and my daughter started to cheer as we placed four big boxes of waterballons in the cart. My daughter was so happy on her birthday that we were able to find the exact waterballons that she wanted! We walked around the store for another twenty/thirty minutes and ended up filling the cart with a bunch of other items. As I made my way back up to the front of the store to pay for our balloons and probably $300 more dollars worth of items, I observed the same three female employees still in the same place telling stories and laughing. I immediately felt angry and I made my way towards them and as I approached them, I picked up the four boxes of waterballons from my cart and held them in my arms and I informed the ladies that I had found an entire pallet of waterballons that they had told me was sold out, just because they were too lazy and careless to assist a customer. I also put them on notice that their behavior was classless and that they were a poor representation of what Costco works so extremely hard to uphold in their employees. I then asked the lady who lied to me about the balloons being sold out to look at my daughter.. and finished by telling her that because of her extremely poor customer service and lack of care for her customers, that my daughter was heart broken on her birthday and that next time with the next customer, that she should at least pretend to care when someone needs assistance and my daughter and I walked away.

I have the name of this employee and...

Review #1: This Costco needs to be on the same page like other Costcos when it comes to bagging. Every time I come to this Costco, the baggers seem to ignore my reusable bags in my cart. They just start putting my items in my cart; showing no effort in bagging them. Why can’t they apply the same energy when boxing to “bagging” items in reusable bags? I’ll tell you why, they like easy money since bagging requires an extra and basic step, which is to open the reusable bags.

I had a negative experience with Luz (a few months back) and Jolette’s (cashier) bagger (did not get his name, but it was a male African-American in his 50s) this past weekend. In both incidents, my reusable bags were in my cart “opened” waiting to be filled w/items and they just ignored them. I asked them above question and they both couldn’t answer. Luz just walked away and left me bagging my items. I reported this to the supervisor on duty and here I am, months later still discussing the topic. It clearly hasn't been fixed.

To Costco Supervisors/Managers, if you cannot train your employees on this basic requirement and customer service, then perhaps you need to be replaced for not enforcing it. To Senior Management, please do better. This request is coming from a long-time Executive Member. FYI, Oxnard Costco does happily “bag” customer’s items w/no questions asked.

Review #2: Very bad management for the relocation of the handicap parking spots. We now have to cross the roadway to enter the warehouse whereas in previous location we did not. This was a major plus! Previous parking spots were next to the warehouse’s sidewalk and it seemed like there were more available. Finally yet importantly, the new handicap spots are scattered around, limiting availability. Please reconsider the old location coming from an...

Title: Deceptive, Dangerous, and Disgraceful – Costco Optical Goleta Fails on Every Level

Review: I never expected that my wife would be assaulted in a Costco Optical department. But that’s exactly what happened at the Goleta location. In 2019, an optometrist—Dr. Kelly Bream—forcibly dilated my wife’s eyes without her consent, despite her clearly marked intake form declining dilation and her desperate pleas: “What are you doing? I am Chinese. I don’t understand.”

Costco claims the doctor is “independent,” but she operated inside their warehouse, wore a Costco badge, and was later promoted to another Costco location. Yet when we reported this incident, Costco’s response was not just dismissive—it was retaliatory. They banned me permanently from Costco after 30 years of loyal membership and refused to service even safety-related tire warranties I had paid for.

Despite multiple written complaints, Costco has ignored all accountability—refusing to provide answers, documents, or even common decency. Instead, I was met with silence, evasion, and hostility. I have since filed a complaint with the California Board of Optometry, where the matter is part of an open investigation.

Costco’s failure to take responsibility for abuse occurring on their property is not just a customer service failure—it is a legal and moral disgrace. Beware of Costco Optical in Goleta. If something goes wrong, you will be stonewalled, silenced, and possibly punished for...