Costco Ends Unlimited Returns on Electronics After Decades of Super Bowl TVs
For years, you could buy a TV, watch the game, and return it. In 2007, Costco decided that wasn't really a rental program.
For most of its history, Costco's return policy on electronics matched the rest of the warehouse: no time limit, no real questions asked.
Members noticed. A predictable pattern emerged around major sporting events — a TV bought in late January, returned in early February, a camera bought before a vacation, returned the week after.
Costco has said the abuse cost the company tens of millions of dollars a year. In 2007, it introduced a 90-day return window specifically for consumer electronics — TVs, computers, cameras, phones, drones, camcorders, smart wearables, and major appliances all fall under the new limit.
Everything else at Costco still carries the famously open-ended return policy. Electronics are the one category the company decided needed a clock.
Filed from public reporting: SlashGear, AnandTech forums, ConsumerAffairs.
