Costco Wholesale — Local services in Lexington

I've been a Costco member since this store opened and had always been very happy with the service there until I tried to purchase two phones through their wireless sales kiosk. The sales associate Austin was very friendly, but made an error concerning available promotions. When the promotion he thought was applicable didn't go through electronically at the kiosk, he assured me that the would be honored regardless. I left the store feeling confident that he would keep his word; that was on Sunday (10-25-2020). I didn't hear back until Tuesday when Austin informed me via text that he had misread the promotion and that I would need to return the phones I purchased and had spent days setting up, and instead receive financed phones that would be shipped to me from T-Mobile several days later for the promotion he promised to be valid. So much for the promise of stand by the terms of the sale. I told him that I did not want to spend any more of my time dealing with his mistake. His manager Brandon contacted me by phone later that day. I explained to him that I was did not feel like my time was being appreciated and that I expected better customer service than just being told that I would have to jump through more hoops to correct his employee's mistake. Brandon said that he would escalate the issue to his management to see what could be done, and that I could expect a reply as soon as the next 24 hours from them. No response Wednesday. Thursday afternoon comes around, so I reach out to Brandon again who tells me he has had no response yet from his management team. Friday afternoon (today) rolls around, and by this time I'm wondering why I have to be the one to check in with Brandon instead of him contacting me with an update. When I call he tells me again in a unapologetic tone that he still hasn't heard from his management. Not long after that I conversation I finally get a call from Mike, the district manager for Wireless Advisors (the company that runs the Costco wireless kiosk) who informs me that to be eligible for the promised promotion I would indeed have to waste time jumping through the hoops previously outlined by Austin on Tuesday. He asked what compensation I would accept for the lost time. I explained that the compensation wasn't important, that all I really wanted was good service. Good service would've been connecting me with someone who fix the employees mistake quickly without asking me to do jump through more hoops to do so. Mike then explained that he and Brandon have everything they were supposed to do and that it was unreasonable for me to expect more timely service or a more acceptable outcome because of the volume of issues that he and his team is expected to deal with and the constraints imposed on them by the mobile carriers. I work in the service industry myself, and I would never in a million years let a mistake on the part of my team be handled like that. As soon as I was aware of the problem I would immediately honor the conditions of the agreement without asking more form my clients or making excuses about why it took me so long to respond. This is completely unacceptable...

As usual, I took my babies and my friend to shop at Costco like any other day on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025, in the afternoon. I first stopped by the return register while in line for my turn – this is what my friend and I have witnessed. There was in line an Asian lady with barely half a cart full, followed by a white, white, white…customers waiting to have their receipt and cart checked and counted to leave, later followed by a black couple customer…

A Costco staff member wearing a floral blouse with yellow/blonde short hair, counting the customer’s items, was taking her time counting every single item in the not even half-full cart of a young Asian lady with black hair, blue pants and eyeglasses. We saw that she took her time counting down every single item on the receipt and in the cart. The Asian lady pulled her cart over behind me to do a return, meanwhile adjusting her pizza box from the baby seat to the front cart area. We saw that the white floral-bloused lady took the receipts of the white customers and gave them a check with barely even looking at the receipts or carts of the white customers. As the Asian girl pulled her phone out to have a look at it, the Costco staff member with a floral blouse asked what she was doing and if she needed help. It was then that the Asian lady replied that she needed to do a return and showed her her phone. After looking at the Asian lady’s phone, she pulled away and gave her one of those unpleasant stares. She continued to check the receipts of the white customers with the same consistency she gave to the first batch of white customers. At this point, my friend and I looked at each other and had a small chat amongst ourselves about what was obviously happening. I lost track of what happened as I was processing my return, but my friend kept her eyes on her being. After turning around from finishing my return, we noticed the same floral blouse lady handled a black couple with the same temperament as she did with the Asian lady. As we started walking over to the entrance, we saw her still taking her sweet time with the black couple. We saw the dismay on the black couple’s faces, and we saw Gary, a black staff member, taking over her position, waiting for her to be done with the black couple.

In the store, my friend and I cross-checked references for what happened from each of our angles and confirmed amongst ourselves that racism was racism. As I exited, I saw Gary swiping the floor near the exit. I went over to tell him what had happened and how unprofessional and unfriendly she was to people of colour, different from the white customer, and how disgusted we felt.

We would like to give her the benefit of the doubt and be proven wrong. Until then, we truly believe this is racism in broad daylight. Being a customer of Costco for over 20+ years, I have shopped at Costco across the country, and in other countries; this is the first time I've witnessed such an event.

Side thoughts: You won’t notice (or maybe if you're sensitive enough) while being in line that you are being cherry-picked until you observe from the...

We have been a Sam’s club member for years, we decided to try out Costco as well this year. We went for the first time this past weekend and I will be fighting to get a refund for the membership! Being the first time there we walked in and was stopped asking for our card I just simply said I need to get one where do I do that? The guy told us we need to go out and in another door, we went in another door and again asked for our cards, again I explained we need to get them. Finally made it to the help desk and they started the sale speech about getting a credit card and the higher membership.

Finally we get our cards and the same guy asked to see our cards, he took my card and looked at the photo and looked at me like I could have stole someone’s membership after he just told me where to go 10 minutes ago!! fast forward we are shopping around and we get stopped by a employee asking for our card AGAIN! just shopping and they interrupted us to ask for our card! I get a couple things and really wasn’t impressed with the prices, options or anything. We get to the check out and I’m standing in line and the lady asks for my card again! (I’m like way back in line )at this point I’m getting mad and said “I mean I can’t buy anything without it so idk why I’d be standing in line if I didn’t have one”She smirked and said “do you have one” which just made me furious and I showed her my card and didn’t say another word.

Sure enough I get to the self check out and first thing is scan my card. I was mad and scanned too fast and the system scanned one thing twice and not the other, so I stopped and tried to get the cashiers attention, she was helping another customer so the lady that just checked my card came to me. She counted my items like 10 times and I told her over and over I need you to remove this and add this, she than acted like I was trying to steal! Not to mention the item I scanned twice was $30 and the item I missed was $8!! As she scanned the item I missed she said “nice try” at this point I was ready to walk out, but I bite my tongue and than she walks away WITHOUT removing the item I scanned twice I flag her down again and she gets a attuide with me that nothing needs to be removed. At this point my husband stepped in because I was furious. we got the item removed finally and this lady kept her eyes on me like I just stole something. I will never go back, the way I was treated was mind blowing! I’ll stick with my Sam’s where they treat people with respect and don’t ask for a stupid card a million times because they know you can’t buy...