California mom tests limits of Costco’s return policy — by trying to take back a 3-year-old couch her son drew on: ‘Do you feel good about it?’
Talk about the cost of doing business.
A shameless Costco shopper put the popular warehouse retailer’s generous return policy to the test — and tested the patience of social media observers — by dragging a three-year-old couch back to her local store.
California-based realtor Jasmen Reyes recently performed a public demonstration of the limits of the guarantee via a video posted to her TikTok account where she attempts to return the unwanted furniture — said to be worth approximately $1,400.
Following in the footsteps of a person who just returned a five-year-old mattress at the bulk merchandiser, Reyes sought to find out just how serious the Issaquah, Wash.-based retailer is about standing behind their product.
“We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell, and will refund your purchase price,” the online policy reads.
Aside from electronics, which have a 90-day window, and special items like jewelry, the wholesaler is known for its lenient attitude toward takebacks.
But things apparently didn’t go all that smoothly — Reyes said she received considerably pushback from the store, even after she’d called ahead to say she was coming.
Staffers “were trying to make up excuses” to block a return, Reyes claimed, beginning with a manager who told her that location was not accepting furniture returns that day.
Then, Reyes stated in her video clip, workers allegedly haggled over some marks left on the merchandise by Reyes’ son, who had drawn on the couch a little bit — a minor flaw the unbothered mom insisted “can be washed off.”
Reyes also said she showed the reticent employees where the seams were coming apart, saying “they’re starting to rip.”
Plenty of internet commenters appeared to be about as enthusiastic over Reyes’ attempted return as the store employees.
“The couches you returned I’ve had since 2016 with no issues,” one bystander said.
“It sounds like you guys are just rough on your furniture,” she tsked.
“It’s all about me me me,” another sniffed.
“Go to the landfill.”
“Time to buy new ones three years later, not return them,” one person suggested.
“The audacity,” another viewer observed.
“Do you feel good about it?” one more challenged.
“If they don’t want returns, they should provide better quality,” Reyes shrugged in a reply to one of her critics.
“At the end of the day, they did end up doing the return,” she reported, saying she used her store credit for a newer sectional couch at the store, which she criticized, saying that “their employees need better training.”
But it may have been something of a pyrrhic victory — in the end the crafty consumer confessed to missing her old sectional.
“They’re not as comfy as my old ones, which I’m going to miss,” said Reyes.
“But they’re still really cute.”