taf said:horizon6 said:taf said:I wonder if Costco still thinks the possible bad publicity and loss to reputation from this mess is worth the extra money they collected?

They were quite crowded when I was in there today. But, I assume FWs are not buying the Godiva gift cards to protest how they've been treated

BTW, this was a settlement, not a victory, except perhaps the legal fees.Costco agrees to pay up to 5 million in legal fees and they will pass that cost along to their customers. The renewal policy was a business decision and the settlment without admiting wrong doing was also a business decision. I think the renewal policy was like a hidden fee, but Costco will not admit that. As usual, read the fine print and at least you will not be suprised by what things really cost, if you can understand what the fine print is saying. A law degree may be helpful.

Yes, businesses make business decisions. Would you expect them to do otherwise.

If you think the renewal policy was fine print, okay think that, but what about the big print that says if you're not happy with your membership you can return it.

Let's see...

Millions in legal fees and higher prices for all consumers: check.
A few bucks worth of membership extensions to some consumers: check.
No legal precedent or admission of wrongdoing: check.

Hooray for class action lawsuits!

This lawsuit is even more useless than usual, since every Costco member who got "screwed" out of a month or two of membership fees could have easily gotten a full refund for their membership by canceling just before the renewal date.

As for the "bad publicity", I could not find any stories at all on this on Google News. The only story relating to Costco lawsuits was a positive one here.

When I first got my Coscto membership it was in the month of May. The next year when I went to renew in July they originally renewed it from the May date. I asked them about that and told them I wanted to renew from the current date so they re-did the transaction, giving me the new July date. Since then I've been shopping there so much I never have any time lapses between the expiration and renewal.

cme10ae said:When I first got my Coscto membership it was in the month of May. The next year when I went to renew in July they originally renewed it from the May date. I asked them about that and told them I wanted to renew from the current date so they re-did the transaction, giving me the new July date. Since then I've been shopping there so much I never have any time lapses between the expiration and renewal.

And you even saved $5m in legal fees

taf said:horizon6 said:taf said:horizon6 said:taf said:horizon6 said:taf said:I wonder if Costco still thinks the possible bad publicity and loss to reputation from this mess is worth the extra money they collected?

They were quite crowded when I was in there today. But, I assume FWs are not buying the Godiva gift cards to protest how they've been treated

BTW, this was a settlement, not a victory, except perhaps the legal fees.Costco agrees to pay up to 5 million in legal fees and they will pass that cost along to their customers. The renewal policy was a business decision and the settlment without admiting wrong doing was also a business decision. I think the renewal policy was like a hidden fee, but Costco will not admit that. As usual, read the fine print and at least you will not be suprised by what things really cost, if you can understand what the fine print is saying. A law degree may be helpful.

Yes, businesses make business decisions. Would you expect them to do otherwise.

If you think the renewal policy was fine print, okay think that, but what about the big print that says if you're not happy with your membership you can return it.

Yes, I think that is something they want you to see to make you feel good about them, but I think the renewal policy was not something they really wanted you to see or they would have put it in the big print also.

Yes, you can cancel, but that is not the issue. The renewal policy is the issue


No the renewal policy was not the issue. Was the person denied an opportunity to cancel the renewed membership. How many of those affected would have changed their behavior about renewing based on the policy. Would you like to list places to shop that are better overall.

Now would you like to talk about fine print. Try reading the court documents about the case. Find how much the consumer gets and how much the lawyers get. Or try, for example, reading some mobile phone ads and contracts--you know those minutes that they says are included--do you get all of them or do you get all of them only if your calls end exactly on a 60 second interval--where do you find out.

Yes, I agree the legal process has problems and Costco is a good place to shop and the cell phone companies and credit card companies and banks and utilities like hidden fees. Yes, yes yes.

Now getting back to the Costco renewal policy, I think most people that shop at Costco would prefer to have the memebership extend 12 months from the renewal date rather than back date to the expiration date. I know how Costco sees it, but some customers think they should not have to pay for a period of time that they think they did not use. Many people find out the membship has expired at checkout. The cahsier renews the membership, but does the cahsier say that it will back date it to the expiration date? If they do not, does the customer even know that is what happened? If the practice was known by customers, I have no problem with it because customers can choose to accept it or choose to shop some place else. The customer does not have to like the policy even if they choose to shop at Costco. But, the customer should understand the renewal policy to be able to accept it.

For me, transparency is the key issue here and can we at least agree that transparency is a good practice for a good company like Costco to follow?

We can certainly agree that transparency as well as fairness are good business practices. I expect that is what keeps customers and employees coming back to Costco and long term shareholders satisfied. Costco practices, based on experience, indicates that this situation did not require an expensive lawsuit to resolve.
Unfortunately there are situations elsewhere where the latter are required recourse and those should be pursued although attempts to resolve the situation in such manner that the bulk of the recovery go to those who suffered actual losses rather than to the legal system.

For simplicity, when you join Costco I presume you join and you can cancel anytime, even getting a refund for the membership year if you were dissatisfied; else your membership continues until you cancel it. They charge an annual membership fee during the year. There is nothing magic about that system and someone else could have a warehouse club where customers paid a fee each time they shopped or customers paid a monthly membership fee or prices were higher and customers did not pay a membership fee.

My point was simply that the problem should have been worked out simply and inexpensively and that from what I know, Costco has a deservedly high reputation that should not be damaged but such a silly thing; that there were better ways to handle this and other companies more deserving of complaints and actions about poor business practices.

My thanks to you and others for the discussion.

Chupa said:horizon6 said:Sorry, this one sounds like it would be a victory basically for some lawyer.

How many have been denied a refund of a request for their membership fee if they were unsatisfied? Should memberships be sold only for the days they someone shops?

There are plenty of companies that display poor business practices. We'd be better off if more companies followed the high standards Costco sets.

To borrow there phrase, Costco is a company with 'a code of ethics that gives members, employees and suppliers priority before shareholders but has resulted in shareholder gains year after year'.

Do you think its ethical to charge people for the months not used b/c they let their membership lapse? Let me put it in simpler terms... if you subscribed to a magazine for a year then let it lapse. The magazines stop coming, of course. Then 6 months later you decide to re-subscribe. You pay for a full year, but the magazine starts the clock not at present day, but when your initial subscription expired. That would be a pretty slimly tactic. What is different here? Nothing. When your Costco membership lapses you can't buying anything so why should you have to pay for those months?

This is not a question of ethics.

Was the person denied a refund of their membership fee; offered the opportunity not to renew.

Should you pay only for the days you shop there. Find a store that offers that option and do it.

Did the person cancel their membership or just come back and assume that their membership would be in place.

If you shop there every three months should you be able to shop on the last day of your membership year and avoid paying for the next three months.

Should someone who shops there every day pay the same membership fee as someone who shops there four time a year.

Could the situation have been settled without a 5m dollar lawsuit.

Could you name some other stores with you would rank better in ethics or other than Costco.

Perhaps if you read the entire thread you'll rethink your question.

cnIsfg said:and yet it was YOU who was questioning if Costco even had such a policy when I posted their policy days ago in this FW thread.You're right...I have never let my membership lapse, so I had never heard of this policy. Not sure what that has to do with this thread.

Even if the court decides this proposed class action has merit and is allowed to proceed to settlementThis settlement has been all but approved, it's hard to imagine the court would reject it.

it (will) have no effect on Coscto's current membership renewal policy other than to futher raise membership renewal prices for Coscto members who can AND do actually read Costco's membership terms incluing their renewal policy before jumping into a Coscto membership.So in other words, this class action is useless. Glad we agree.

Sometimes we are quite amazing

We have a thread running here now at FW about the great discount on Godiva gift cards at Costco. No one said they were told it was a price mistake. The thread was rated highly.

Costco set a membership policy and people can join or not join. Some who joined don't like the policy but have not said they were denied a refund. Some lawyers get 5m dollars. Some applaud this--wanna go to BB and then reconsider.

cnifsg said:BTW you misappropriated the quote.You can sue me for that. In this economy laywers do not have much clients and are eager to try a case. Should the case proven to be frivolous the judge will trow it away. That's how democracy works. Think Mike Jakson.

bopc1996 said:Costco just got too greedy.

Did the person(s) read the terms of the membership. Were they written in plain English.

Did you read the briefs or the settlement agreement.

Was the person denied a refund of their membership fee; offered the opportunity not to renew.

Should you pay only for the days you shop there. Find a store that offers that option and do it.

Did the person cancel their membership or just come back and assume that their membership would be in place.

If you shop there every three months should you be able to shop on the last day of your membership year and avoid paying for the next three months.

Should someone who shops there every day pay the same membership fee as someone who shops there four time a year.

Could the situation have been settled without a 5m dollar lawsuit.

Could you name some other stores with you would rank better in ethics or other than Costco.

It seems we hear only one piece of information - bad Costco - yet nobody has yet said they've canceled their membership because of the way Costco behaves and nobody provides a list of better places to shop.

Perhaps if you read the entire thread you'll rethink your question.

P.S. What do you think of the lawyers in the case?