songhua ye

Hi,

I have a fighting with Costco, which is the largest wholesale in the world.

I want the employee of Costco, Mr. Simon Poulet, who claimed to be the manager of Costco, apologize to me for his rude words and bad manner
I, as a Chinese, who have a depanneur like a lot other owners of this kind of small business, work very hard to make a living in Quebec.

I go to Costco very often to buy cigar products. Some time I need to return a few cartons of cigar because I picked up mistakenly or the Costco employees picked them up wrongly. Never before I had problem until last Sunday, Mr. Simon Poulet refused the returns of cigar. He said that I was playing game with Costco and I made Costco lose money. I am customer of Costco, but I am distinguished from other customer only because I bought cigar.

Did I do something wrong, I asked myself. No, I did nothing wrong. So I have no fear to fight with Mr. Simon Poulet.

I really need your help in order to get this issue done right.

Best Regards,

Qi Shu

Please leave your comments and message!

You may email me at qishu2002@yahoo.ca

dior

You do this return many times, they recognize you. It is not good to you and COSCO. You should make your final decision when you buy something.

songhua ye

Hi Dior,

I am sorry I do not understand your logic.

<< You do this return many times, they recognize you. >>
So what, I am still customer of Costco. Costco never change its policy of full amount refund. I deserve the same right and freedom to chose the products I like and to return the products I do not want. I did returns many times before, which means nothing wrong with the returns. They recognize me, good, so do you think they have enough reason to distinguish me.

<< It is not good to you and COSCO. You should make your final decision when you buy something.>>
I have a business, I bought not a carton, or two cartons, or ten. I bought over 100 cartons regularly, every week from Costco. Do you know that there are so many kinds of cigar products that it is very hard to tell which is which some times.
I do not think I return stuff is not good to me and Costco. Costco loses nothing. Neither do I.

By the way, Costco Laval is not the only place, nor the only Costco in Montreal Area. Other Costco does accept returns or exchange.

My wife called cigar company yesterday. Cigar company sent representives to my depanneur to check the returns and refund me in full amount the products I want to return.
My question is:
As such a small business can do that, why not Costco, which is the largest wholesale in the world.

The point here I want to make is not the returns, BUT how I was treated in Costco Laval. I have no problem at all to do the returns in other Costco or other distributors.

As I said, I want Mr. Simon apologize to me for what he said and did to me.

Any comments and suggestion welcomed.

Qi Shu

Paramount

hi, my friend:
By my guess, you have discrenpancy with the Costco franchisee in Laval, not the whole Costco.
Actually, each manager of the franchisee might interprete Costco's policy differently. what you can do is to make a complain to Costco headquarter, and the headquarter's customer service will contact Laval branch if they did wrong.

It is better to ask if it is refoundable when purcahsing. If it is yes, mention it is said refoundable when you refounding the ciars.

Also, try to mention the inconvenient brought from the return and express your appreciation if the return did not due to the defect of the good you purchased. I think many problems may easly solved if both parties can use proper interpersonal communication skills.  

Hope what I said can help you somehow in your future business activities.

songhua ye

Hi,

Thank you very much for your post. You guess right.

I appreciate your suggestion, and your suggestion can apply to every business activity. But I think you did not mention how I can deal with the issue now, which is what I want most.

Best Regards,

Qi Shu

DonCherry

Hi,

Why you must buy from Cosco? There are so many place where you can buy, such as major food stores. I think you can get good treatment from those food stores.

tonight

以前看到有朋友提及这里也有消费者投诉的协会，不知有没有人再贴一下电话和地址。
没有做店的朋友也许不知道，品种拿错了或者仅仅因为那些包装图案太恶心，客人不喜欢，而拿去调换是会经常发生的。好一点的批发商，你凑齐8包就行，拆开了照样换。COSTCO的这种态度以前也听说过。
发票上有1800的电话，让他们接投诉部门。

circle

Honestly, I don’t want to judge who’s right and who’s wrong.  But we can put ourselves at a consumer and as an owner side to consider some points as below:

If a customer ALWAYS come back and return the products, and this customer is a shop owner, people may query this customer wants to return and have the refund because he/she can’t sell the product and he/she just want to take advantage to try to sell that product.

You as a business owner, would you like your customer come back to return the products?  Not only one or two items, but its FEW CARTONS and LTS OF THE TIME.  (Whatever who’s right or wrong).

If the reason to return is because the customer or the employee pick the wrong one, who need to take the responsibility?  The one who pick or the one who go to the counter to pay?

Mr. Simon Poulet said you made Costco lose money (Whatever who’s right or wrong), that’s true.  Because they need to spend extra time to put back the returned product on the shelve or returned to the supplier, they need to adjust their inventory, costing……. All these cost their labors and administration.  It ALL could be avoid and suppose will not happened.

Finally, if it’s the owner’s mistake, how much energy and time that a customer use/loose on this matter?  What impressions that the owner has for this customer or even worse to his/her nationality?

Once again, I’m not saying who’s right and who’s wrong.  But we can consider if its worth to take any further action.  Especially if you are a business owner, you know the owner’s feelings better then me.

Please respect yourself and your nationality.

songhua ye

Hi Guys,

Thank you very much for your posting.
I come here just for sharing information with you guys.
Some of you have no idea about Costco’s return policy.
Some of you gave me no suggestion on how to deal with this issue. But

I would like every one know that I won completely last week.
I had a meeting with Eric Kissy, general manager; Leonilde Pirolo, middle manager, who is the person in charge of customer service; Simon Poulet, some kind of manager, with whom I had this disagreement.
I told them what happened to on that day and what I did after that:

I emailed and opened a customer service ticket in Costco headquarter.
I called customer consortium or association to ask for advices.
I called Eric Kissy three times to setup the meeting with them.
I call Costco headquarter to ask whether or not Costco changes its return policy.
I went to Costco web site and printed out the Costco return policy.
My wife called Cigar Company, which sent representative to go to my depanneur to wrap up the products I don’t want and they told me to return that to Costco.

What I asked to Costco managers during the meeting:
I tell Simon Poulet that I hope he could RESPECT Costco return policy for business.
As customer, I want to return the cigar products as I want to return on that day, and I can return at any time in the future.
I want Simon Poulet apologize for his attitude toward my return and me.

After a serious discussion of more than half an hour, the results:
Leonilde Pirolo told me I could return the cigar products, as I want. She gave me his name card and told me that if I encounter any problem with the returns, just call her and she will take care of it. I made the return afterward.
Simon Poulet apologized for what he said and did caused misunderstanding or disagreement. He told me that I could make return anything I want in the future.

What else I need to have from Costco, nothing more. I have to continue to deal with them and I have no spare time to play with them any further.

So I shook hands with Costco managers and that was the happy ending of this issue.