Costco Wholesale — Local services in Manchester

I can't believe I'm writing this given how much everyone I've ever spoken to has propped up Costco as the best thing since electricity. This is mostly an admonishment on the whole organization rather than this store in particular, but some of it might be specific to this location. We decided to try switching to Costco from Sam's and this experiment barely lasted two months before I cancelled my membership this weekend.

Firstly, the lack of an app with self-check out is inexcusable for a corporation this size and given the fact that their largest competitor offers a fantastic service with "Scan and Go". Not only does it force you to waste time at the far less efficient self-checkout lanes at the store, but it reeks of corporate cost cutting. The self-checkout process itself is asinine. The first time we went, one of the employees told us that they don't have scanner guns at the station because they "walk away" a lot. You have a scanner gun theft issue? Really? In west county? Sam's doesn't seem to have this issue despite being in all the same areas and then some. Also, if they had an app, they could just let their customers scan the barcodes with their phones. To add insult to injury here, they also have a few people "helping" at the self-checkout lane by selectively scanning some (but not always all) of the heavier items in the cart, and then yelling instructions at you while they stand around. Who on earth designed this process?

Additionally, the parking lot itself at this location was probably designed by the same person who slapped together the self-check out process. It's a college case study in poor traffic flow, and provides terrible access to the local exits while also making it near impossible to get to the gas station without having to drive around lanes without stop signs.

And finally, the reason we're supposedly all shopping here: the savings. What savings? From what we compared, Costco was basically on par with nearly every item we buy at Sam's, and not only that, but they were more expensive with certain meats and produce, while also oddly lacking selection in other categories.

tl;dr Costco seems to be riding on its reputation rather than its current level of service, and from what I can tell, their main competitor is beating them on every front right now, which is why we cancelled and won't be coming back...

Issue related to a refund Me and a friend went to this store June 3rd, and the cashier somehow talked to me the whole time about renew my membership now instead of scanning my items and put them in my cart, and after payment I saw the cashier mistakenly scanned a couple more items of my friend under my purchase(he scanned them again under my friends purchase too) and we went to the corner desk where some faculties there told us he will be refunding my first transaction and scan my items again to make it correct(so far it is good) while that cashier came to us twice saying "I told you it is correct"(no it is not correct) and since after I have never received my money back, I made a phone call a week later and has been told that the refund can take up to 10 business days to go through, after 2 weeks I called again and have been told that in 1-2 business days someone will contact me about this, and after 3 days I called once again and has been told the lady whos in charge of refund is already off duty and they will call me back the next morning and I have waiting the whole morning util 1PM and called the store again, have to describe the whole situation again to some faculty who I have never talked to, and hes name is David, who told me that if I want to refund I cannot do it through the phone, I said I am not requesting a refund, I am check the status of the refund which should have arrived to my account weeks ago, he said he will check and put me on hold, after 3-5 minutes he said "yeah you will have to come to the warehouse" and hang up my phone. I called back and have to describe what I need and just went through to some other faculty who transferred my call to Mr DAVID and he said the phone call somehow broke and yeah you will have to come to the warehouse. I said "Why you guys talk like I deserved to do another trip for this" and he said "we understand but still" "WE NEED TO CHECK IF WE REALLY OWN YOU MONEY AND WE WILL HELP YOU REFUND" DUDE I HAVE THE FKING REFUND RECEIPT ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING? Can Costco train some faculties that can at least understand what customers are talking about instead of telling people what to do and never apologize for the inconvenience? Never heard an apology, no reason, no excuse, just wait and wait longer and never arrived call with their promises,...

I had THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE @ the Manchester location! Specifically, because of 2 floor associates that went above and beyond their pay grade, which is EXTREMELY RARE NOWADAYS. God forbid you “bother” anyone that WORKS for any of these companies, because you as the consumer need help. As for Joe (maintenance) & Marlin. They get a 100 (one-hundred) out of a 10 (ten) Star rating. They didn’t know that their act of kindness, really lifted my spirit, just by their effort and willingness to go out of their way, even if it wasn’t in their scope of support, just to help me out. What Joe did was, he stopped, listened, researched, and double checked with management to make sure the information he gave me was accurate. He told me to continue shopping and he would look for me with the answer, and he did. He was going to make sure, that he KNEW and not just assume. Thank you so much Joe. As for Marlin. His demeanor, kindness, eye engagement and just his uplifting energy really began my day with hope and not despair. Marlin assisted me in the food department at the beginning of my shopping experience, with an accurate answer along with brief Costco knowledge about the inquiry I had. I got to see his wonderful smile and pleasant attitude at the end of my shopping experience on the way out the door, where he checked our receipt. Thanked us for coming there and s well in our day. That may not sound like much, but he meant it and it was felt. That’s the difference. I wish we had more Customer Service hero’s like them everywhere we went. It was great while it lasted. Mary at the membership counter was a jewel as well. Please get more employees like them and take good care of them, so they can take good care of...