Costco Return Policy: The Must-Knows Before You Shop
The return policy at Costco is so darn good that it deserves its own article. While I’ve talked about some of the better return policies in the past, Costco’s return policy is arguably the best of them all. Here is exactly how it works and everything you need to know to take full advantage.
Update: I originally wrote this article back in 2016 but I do my absolute best to keep it updated. The 200+ comments are great as they help me keep it updated with all the newest information. I hope you still find this resource helpful.
What Exactly is the Costco Return Policy?
Costco calls it their “Risk-Free 100% Satisfaction Guarantee” and with very few product exceptions, they’ll refund you the purchase price if not completely satisfied.
Pretty much everything in the warehouse is returnable with no time limit.
No questions asked.
This guarantee also includes your Costco membership. You have 364 days from the date you sign-up to try out the membership and see if it works for you.
If not completely satisfied, you can get a full refund on your membership cost.
See Also: How to Essentially Get a $60 Costco Membership for Free
Can Product Packaging Be Opened or Missing?
Yes.
You do NOT need the original packaging or product manual in order to return the product to Costco.
But, you do need all of the parts and accessories that came with the product.
This is a wonderful feature, especially when you’ve had a product for a while and no longer have any of the original packaging.
Permanent COVID-19 Changes
Costco was limiting the return of items that people tend to hoard, but in recent months their return policy has returned to normal.
But with that said, unfortunately for the Costco food court lovers out there, they’ve limited the food court menu and have permanently eliminated a few things including the combination pizza, chicken Caesar salad, and the turkey and cheese wrap.
Can You Return Food to Costco?
Yes.
You can return produce, food (opened or unopened), and anything else you’d put in your mouth, to your local Costco.
No questions asked. Makes for a great reason to try new products and see if your family likes them.
Just be aware that Costco is tracking all of your returns and if they think you’re abusing the return policy they might flag your account.
Update: A comment came in saying that a lady was refused her return of unopened buns that she bought the day before.
So it seems your mileage may vary when it comes to returning food.
Keep in mind that most food items will be discarded by Costco, even though they’ll get reimbursed.
If you’re buying bakery items you can always freeze them for later use if you overbuy.
Bottom line, don’t abuse their return policy as it’ll eventually go away, and hurt all members, if more and more folks abuse it.
90-Day Return Policy on Electronics
Due to some abuse from shoppers in recent years, Costco has shortened their return window on electronics from unlimited days to 90 days.
You now have 90 days from date of purchase to return televisions, tuner-free displays, projectors, computers, tablets, cameras, camcorders, MP3 players and cell phones.
The 90-day policy is still fairly liberal and simply keeps Costco members from bringing back 5 year-old HDTV’s that now have a yellow picture. (For example)
Tip on Buying Apple Products: If you can avoid it, DO NOT buy your next iPhone or iPad from an Apple Store or you’ll be stuck with their measly 14-day return window.
Instead, buy it from the kiosk within Costco and you’ll get the 90-day “electronics” return policy and the return process will be simple if you need to bring it back.
All that Costco asks you to do before you return your Apple device is to Unlock it and perform a Factory Reset.
What’s the Policy on Major Appliances?
90 days.
Unlike Lowe’s and Home Depot, who have both recently shortened their return policy on appliances to a measly 48 hours, Costco still offers a very generous 90 days.
This includes refrigerators over 10 cubic feet, washers, dryers, freezers, ranges, dishwashers, and even hot water heaters.
Do You Need Your Costco Receipt?
No.
You don’t need your receipt to return anything to Costco.
Simply take your Costco membership card (or number), and the item you want to return, to the customer service desk.
They’ll be able to look up all of your past purchases and quickly find evidence of your purchase and issue your refund.
See Also: 12 Things You Should NEVER Buy at Costco
Can You Get Cash When Returning Items Bought with a Debit Card?
Thanks to reader Olivia for this information: If you buy items with your ATM card you might be stuck with a Costco cash card when returning something.
This is especially true if the item is a gift and the person returning it has the original receipt but not the ATM card.
Great information if you regularly buy gifts with your ATM card as you might want to use a credit card or cash to make returns easier.
What Items Can’t Be Returned to Costco?
Here are the handful of items that you can’t return to Costco for a full refund.
Alcohol – Bottoms up on any wine, beer, or liquor as you can’t return them to most states in the U.S. and thus all sales are final. Opened or unopened, it doesn’t matter.
See Also: Costco Liquor: 4 Things You Gotta Know Before You Buy
Cigarettes – Light ’em up, or throw them away, as you can’t return them to any Costco location.
Diamonds – Any diamonds 1 carat or larger must be returned with all original paperwork and has to be verified via the Costco fulfillment center before you get your refund.
A Costco Graduate Gemologist will inspect the diamond and issue a jewelry credit memo that allows you to purchase a different diamond or get your money back. Could take up to 5 business days.
Limited Lifetime Products – Think car tires and batteries. These are sold with a product-specific limited warranty.
Sanitizing Wipes – During COVID you could NOT return Lysol wipes, but I think this has changed and you can now return them again. Leave a comment if you know.
Special Order Kiosk – While you can’t return special orders, you can get a warranty repair or replacement due to failure to meet product specs.
Custom Installed Programs – The same as above.
Pretty limited list when you consider the thousands of products Costco stocks on a daily basis.
Can You Return Items Bought Online to Costco?
Yes.
Just bring in the item and your Costco.com receipt to your local store and they’ll process your refund.
Also, Costco now has a handy Online Return Form to make your Costco.com purchases even easier to return.
What About Returning Furniture That I Bought Online?
I started a live chat session with Costco and asked about their furniture return policy.
I used a couch as my example and was told the following, “Our returns for couches are quite easy. We do everything for you! The same way the couch gets delivered, would be the same way it would get picked up. Our carrier would call you once a return is requested and they would set up an appointment that works best for you.”
I then asked, “Even like 2 years later when the couch starts sagging?”
I was then told, “Yes, if for any reason you become unsatisfied with this item, you can return it!”
Pretty amazing. Why would you buy furniture anywhere else?
Can I Return a Casket I Bought From Costco?
First of all, YES, Costco sells caskets and people in-the-know say they’re a good value.
Secondly, you can ONLY return a casket to Costco if there is damage during delivery.
So always try to be home, and examine the casket closely, before signing-off on the delivery.
Otherwise, you can call Costco to get a return authorization on your coffin, the number to call is 1 (800) 955-2292.
You CANNOT show up at the Costco returns desk with your casket on an orange flatbed shopping cart and try to return it, they WILL NOT take it back.
How About Returning Gifts to Costco?
Yes, you can return items to Costco that were given to you as a gift.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a member or not, you can walk in and return stuff.
But keep in mind that if you DON’T have the receipt you’ll need the membership number of the person who purchased the gift for you.
See Also: 5 Brilliant Money-Savings Hacks for Buying Costco Meats
Can Someone Else Make a Return For You?
If they are not listed on your membership then NO they will not be able to make the return on your behalf.
You’ll have to find the time to make the return yourself.
Can You Make a Return Beyond the Manufacturer’s Warranty?
From some recent comments I have received, it seems Costco will not take back an item if it has gone beyond the manufacturer’s warranty.
The example in the comments section was HP printer ink that had “expired”.
In this case, Costco would not take it back.
Can You Return Something If Your Membership has Expired?
No.
Costco will ONLY let you return items if you have an active (and paid) membership.
Can You Return a Mattress to Costco?
Yes, but if you try and return a mattress that you’ve had over a year you’re going to end up dealing with the store manager.
The manager will take a look at your buying history to decide if you spend enough at Costco to make the return worthwhile.
It’s been suggested that you return it to a Costco out of your hometown as you might make some enemies returning a nasty old mattress.
Can You Return Car Tires?
Yes.
Costco gives you 30 days to test out your new tires.
If you don’t like them for any reason, they will let you return or exchange them for a new set.
If there’s a problem with the tire, and you want a new set after 30 days, they will prorate them based on a tread depth measurement.
See Also: Here’s How Costco Tire Prices Stack Up to the Competition
Strangest Items Ever Returned to Costco…
I loved this article from Mashed.com that breaks down some of the strangest returns that Costco employees have seen over the years.
Some of my favorites include an empty bottle of wine that gave the lady a headache, a bag of cat food without the bag, a package of opened underwear, a used chicken coop, and a broken 15-year old pressure washer.
Also, a woman was able to return a dead Christmas tree in January and get a full refund. Crazy.
Moral of the story? Be smart and don’t abuse Costco’s liberal return policy as it’ll end up costing us all.
Ask the Reader: How often do you use their return policy? Any smart Costco tips I may have neglected to mention?
By Kyle James
I started Rather-Be-Shopping.com in 2000 and have become a consumer expert and advocate writing about out-of-the-box ways to save at stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco to name a few. I’ve been featured on FOX News, Good Morning America, and the NY Times talking about my savings tips. (Learn more)
THIS IS fake INFORMATION… TRIED TO GET REFUND ON MEMBERSHIP AND THEY WOULD NOT DO IT.
What was the reason they gave you? I need more info if you want me to give you any advice.
Why are you writing in all CAPS like a jerk& it says right on the Costco website they refund memberships 100% guarantee… So why are you being a dick towards kyle
They will not give my son the refund because he has no membership. I work during the hours they are open. So he offers to get the refund.i gave all info like receipt and my membership card and they still refused to refund everything. When to minor need membership, my son lives under my roof and offered to help his mother. And they still refuse cash was paid.
It’s all a matter of liability. There is NO way for any of the employees to KNOW 100% He IS your son and they are not going to take that chance… Banks won’t let a spouse deposit cash into the other spouse Acct and if you are not the holder of an Acct when depositing a check, you won’t be getting a receipt for that receipt either, don’t borrow a card from your boyfriend/girlfriend/fiancé/roommate/or any other close personal friend and expect to be able to give it back to them later…Costco confiscated it at the register if they notice you don’t look like the photo. As for work hours, Costco is open 7 days a week and you don’t have to go to the Costco you bought the membership from, I’m pretty sure there’s at least 15-20min during any of the 7 days that you could take care of it, it’s all a matter of How Bad Do You ReALlY want your $$ back…
How did you manage to buy it if it’s so impossible for you to get there?
Membership is key word. You are, he is not.
The receipt should be all the proof Costco’s needs. This policy only benefits them.
I was told that you could add a person onto your membership card (no charge) as an authorized purchaser when I tried to return something with my 88-year-old mother’s membership card. They refused the return for it, but they DID tell me that my mother could call Costco (or it might have been Citibank) to have me added as an “authorized buyer,” since she was homebound/immobile and I was assisting her. So anytime in the future if I needed to return an item, they could simply look up her membership and my name would show up as “approved.”
I tried to return a product past the manufacture guarantee and they told me costco only allows returns up to the manufacture warranty length. they said they do not know why people get the idea costco will except returns. They will never except a return beyond the manufacture warranty.
This tracks with my experience today. I tried to return some HP printer ink that had apparently “expired”, so was told they were unable to accept the return – even though I was buying new ink to fit my new printer. My old printer died, so I was unable to use the ink I had set aside for it. So now I have purchased $150 worth of new ink, and am sitting on 2 unopened packages of ink that is useless to me just because it is past its “expiration” date. Doesn’t seem like the most liberal return policy to me.
Electronics is 90 days. Printer ink is probably included in that.
If your mayonnaise has set on the counter and is two years expired would you expect them to accept that?
Well yes I would expect that…the story says they took a 15 yr old pressure washer back
No, the story says they did not accept the 15 yr old pressure washer.
I would not try to return things like that but they say in this article a woman was refunded the cost of her Christmas tree she returned dead in January.
Dude, get over it. It’s your problem, not Costco’s!
Does anyone know if in order to get a refund does your membership have to be active? What if it expired and haven’t renewed yet?
IT would have to be active.
I don’t believe Costco is that lenient on returns. I was in line behind a woman turned away who wanted to return unopened buns. She said she over bought for a party the day before. She had her receipt. The clerk told her she could not accept food items. This was last fall. Granted I don’t know how many times the lady had made returns, but the look on her face told me she wasn’t one to abuse the policy…she had 2 kids in tow…
Returning a bakery item because you bought too much is nuts. It can’t be resold, so it will be trashed and there’s nothing wrong with it. If it were inferior, moldly, etc., they’d accept it.
Good point, plus the lady could have thrown them in the freezer until she needed them. We do that all the time.
and yet that is what most grocery stores do and have done for quite a while! So, a biz like Costco creates a situation where to have that same refundability, we have to lie and say the product was substandard/defective, just provide the receipt. I get Costco’s stance for sure, but it’s very different from many food retailers who are so flexible with food returns.
I would think this was common sense. You should never attempt to return baked goods unless you can prove that they were defective in some way.
I was told by a Costco employee that they get reimbursed by vendors for products that are no good, so I would think they would accept the buns because even though they can’t sell it, they would be able to get reimbursed. Also, they told me they will refund your Square Trade extended warranty if you don’t use it!! 🙂
But there was nothing wrong with the buns… So, freeze them and get over it.
You said it yourself Karen, “products that are no good”. The product quality was not the issue. Remember?
David you must be getting paid by Costco or something. You’re defending them like they’re you’re lover. You’re so offended at some of these people. Just shut up already
I was behind a woman in line who was returning a shitload of Hamburger Buns, Muffins and other packaged food saying that they had ordered extra for an office party… I was furious initially (as all that food would’ve been thrown away immediately) as told to her by the Cust Rep who agreed to take it back… The good thing is that she said she would instead donate it to the needy… So in short, Costco was willing to accept the returned food products but wanted to let her know that it meant that the food would be discarded immediately… At least it gave the woman a chance to make a better decision… I applaud Costco for that !
You were “Furious”? Might want to talk to someone about that Ashley.
Trying to return a food item because she didn’t properly plan. Ridiculous!
yes, but its what many food retailers policies are.. so many ppl are accustomed to that in these united states.
Definitley not working in my situation. I bought a Kirkland signature BBQ $1200 and after the first 5 years the pipes blew out and they would not refund it nor even replace the parts for me. Corporate said it’s up to the manager at the store to make that desicion and when I asked him he said pipes blow out after 3-5 years and he wouldn’t do anything for me. 35+ years a member never returned anything.
Try different Costco
Five years sounds like the average life span of a BBQ.
Not for a $1200 BBQ though
I have a 15 year Jenn Aire, I have replaced pipes and grates 2 times each so far. They are less than $100 for pipes. Just replace them and don’t work the system. How would you feel if you owned the business that people abused ? You got your monies worth.
Seriously. You had this BBQ for five years and the pipes you said blew out on you. I take it that you meant the burners! I wouldn’t take it back either especially if it was working fine for the first four years. Every BBQ owner knows that the burners must be cleaned out especially if the bbq is sitting over the winter months. Heck just get new burners, they are not that expensive. Some common sense must prevail here.
what about Google play e gift card codes?? that have been used already and was unsatisfied because lost ability to use the currency purchased with the e gift code
Hey that’s my name!
Why is it that unopened bottles of alcoholic beverages cannot be returned? I just overbought some for a party, so will I have to consume them all myself?
They definitely can be. We returned all of the unopened alcohol we purchased for our wedding that we didn’t consume. It was a quick 5-minute stop at the customer service desk and we were on our way…
State laws say that in order for you to return alcohol you yourself must have a liquor license to sell it back to the store.
Fake news- not completely accurate info:
Costco says they will only take back items the store manager feels he can resell. Store manager said “our stock holders don’t like us taking hits by taking items back”. Then don’t advertise 100% satisfaction.
We tried to return some unopened food items (hamburger buns, cookies, water bottles, etc). Also tried to return some of their salsa that we didn’t use or open but had popped open due to a poor manufacturing seal; we obviously didn’t want to feed to our guests. It was visibly apparent the tubs hadn’t been opened and the lids popped but Costco didn’t refund or swap or abide by the so called 100% satisfied bs policy; nope, they wouldn’t take these items back either.
After extensive “discussion”, store manager eventually took about half of some of the items back leaving us with the other half. Seemed to be a very random determination on what he eventually agreed to take back. So maybe call their policy a “50/50 if you’re lucky (and argue until the guy gets fed up)” policy.
Prices weren’t even that great and we could have gotten similar items in bulk from another store. We bought bulk for a party because of how costco advertises their return policy; what a waste.
“We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell” – costco website.
and therein may be the new Costco in these rougher times, given there’s so much variation from store to store, in various seemingly typical situations.
We bought our son a mattress when he moved to finish college. He started complaint about it about ft er year, but was really busy. So I called costco a few months
later and was told that we would have to deal with the mattress company, not them because by then, he had had it for a bit more than 18 months. The mattress company wouldn’t do anything. Just a very sagging mattress and my son is thin. We bought from costco because we thought the larger purchase would be covered. That was a big chunk of money for a college kid.
Hi…I bought an emergency generator at Costco that I never opened at all and still as I bought it…can I return it to Costco even though i bought it 4 years ago?
Costco has a great return policy that I’ve used with great success. I bought Kirkland nonstick pots and pans that were guaranteed to not flake. I was careful and didn’t use metal utensils on them and after almost three years they started flaking. I called and asked if I could just exchange them and was told to bring them in and return them for a full refund and I could get any new set I wanted. My refund was for the purchase price, too, not the lowest price they sold them for. I got a new set of Kirkland all stainless pots and pans, paid the $20 difference after my refund and I’ve had them for about 5 years now and I love them.
I’ve never had any problem returning anything and the employees have always been super nice.
Coffin bought online wheeled instore warehouse via shopping cart. Used slightly ?
Unknown. A decade ago fonny.
I’d hate to be working the customer service desk that day…
I return wine all the time to costco, open and unopened. Not sure where you alcohol policy statement comes from, Kyle.
Apparently some states allow you to return alcohol, California is not one of them. Article updated…trying to find a list of all the states that allow alcohol returns. Anybody have one?
Per California state law via California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control you are currently able to return bottles of alcohol.
I want to take back truly sparking water it’s nasty. Not sure if salem costco well let me take it back in salem oregon
My brother and I would always laugh at the people around New Years who return those huge, fancy Xmas trees for refunds. You’d have to be a pretty cheap mofo to pull that off each year.
My friend returned a 5 year old humidifier and Costco refund him. Cheapo…
i would laugh quietly too when i was younger. But after later in life experiences of financial struggle, i can entirely imagine it, namely for ppl who can’t plan very precisely, or even maybe for those who can plan but have a lot of mouths to feed. The prices since around 2016 have been through the roof for the average person.