Woman returns "dead" Christmas tree to Costco on Jan 4. Gets her money back

[T_R_Oglodyte]

This is from the"Stuff You Can't Make Up" department.

Man irate after Costco lets woman return dead Christmas tree in January

While many of us were trying to figure out where to discard our Christmas trees, one woman decided to return hers.

On Jan 4., the woman reportedly took her tree to a Santa Clarita Costco asking for a refund because her tree died.

One shopper, who was waiting in line behind the woman, was so blown away that he posted about the exchange on his Facebook page.

"I can't make this stuff up," Scott Bentley wrote. "Woman in line at Costco, totally nonchalant, to return her Christmas tree 'because it is dead' on January 4."

 

[Passepartout]

I'm assuming this was a potted, 'live' tree? I don't think Costco sells cut trees- at least where we live. Still kind of a cheeky move. The guy doesn't say if she got the refund.

 

[VacationForever]

If this is not a live tree and presumably has built-in lights, and if the lights died, she could return the tree. I suspect it was a live tree.

The picture is of a live tree.

 

[Luanne]

I'm assuming this was a potted, 'live' tree? I don't think Costco sells cut trees- at least where we live. Still kind of a cheeky move. The guy doesn't say if she got the refund.

From the picture it does not look like a potted tree. And yes, she did get the refund. It's further down in the article.

 

[SandyPGravel]

That woman gives human beings a bad name. Can only imagine what else she has returned to Costco. I've had Costco employees tell me to return a food item if I end up not liking it. I can't bring myself to do that. It's one thing if the bag of oranges is rotting in the middle when you open it(had this happen), but returning a 1/2 eaten bag of chips because "Eh, didn't really like them" is just wrong. IMNSHO

 

[am1]

I would be mad if I was behind her line waiting for the refund to be processed. Anyone that needs the money that bad (if that was the case) should not be buying a real Christmas tree.

 

[klpca]

I saw this on Facebook and it looked like a regular cut tree. I wish that I had thought to do this a few years ago. At Costco, you have to buy your tree already bagged up, so you get what you get. Most of the time it is fine. Three years ago we took one home and opened it up to find a tree already shedding needles, and to top it off, it was a flat top. No pointy end. But there was no way that my husband was going to haul that thing back to Costco, so we made the best of it and held our breath until Dec 26th, praying that it wouldn't catch on fire. We took that thing down first thing on Dec 26th. And then I bought a used pre-lit artificial tree from my buy/sell group on Facebook. I haven't looked back since.

 

[x3 skier]

YHGTBSM.

Cheers

 

[VacationForever]

YHGTBSM.

Cheers

I had to look it up. LOL

 

[SandyPGravel]

YHGTBSM.

Cheers

Had to google this one. Gonna remember to use it

 

[moonstone]

I don't think that's any worse than people who buy clothes or shoes to wear to a special event then return them afterwards. Years ago my Sister-in-law worked at Sears she saw it often, especially near Christmas or during the summer for weddings. Clothes would come back with perspiration and other stains and in one case, the hem turned up! The new way of placing tags in a conspicuous spot seems to have slowed down or stopped that happening. We had former neighbours order a living room full of furniture for a large family gathering at their new home and then return it all after they left. Geesh!


~Diane

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I have nothing against being frugal, however this unethical action ruins returns for the rest of us who might need it for a legitimate purpose.

 

[pedro47]

I have personally witnessed a couple returned a set of mattresses to Costco with their Costco receipt. The mattresses were used, dirty, stained and over ten (10) years old.
Costco gave that couple a full refund. I was surprised.

 

[rapmarks]

I had to do a return toncostco on Monday. I bought a chicken and two loaves of bread.
When we cut into the chicken, it was bloody, and maroon colored. I was going to let that go. But when we opened the bread it was stale. They were closed by now. I called next morning and they said I had to bring the chicken in, so I dug it out of the garbage and got a refund for both. I had to get some bread anyway, or I wouldn't have made the trip.

 

[presley]

People certainly return stuff a lot more than I do/would. I was behind a woman at Costco who asked if the watermelon she was buying wasn't any good, how should she go about getting a refund. I would have never thought about that. When I cut a watermelon and it's bad, I toss it. I couldn't imagine going out of my way to get my money back. Everyone's different and has a different amount of spare time, I guess.

My daughter worked at Sprouts for years and said people return crazy stuff all the time. Empty cracker boxes, "I didn't like them." It's hard not to ask why they ate the entire box if they didn't like it. Black, watery fresh vegetables, "these are bad." I'd be saying, "and so are you." I guess if people have a spare hour every day for returning stuff, it's probably more of a hobby than anything else.

 

[VacationForever]

My memory of buying fresh packaged chicken from Costco was a horrible one. The chicken breasts were individually wrapped. The same evening when I bought it I opened and the stench from the chicken that had gone bad were so strong that we dumped the whole thing, tripple bagged with garbage bags and threw the entire batch into the trash can. We did not want to even bother to ask about refund as we were just not going to drag the most foul smelling chicken back to the store. We gathered that someone did not want the chicken and it was left somewhere on the counter or wherever before they were placed back into the open refrigerator.

Another time we bought chicken wings from Whole Foods and we failed to notice until we opened up the packet (those were not pre-packaged ones), most of the wings were blue and black. It was as though someone threw the chickens across the room to kill them. That time we did take back to Whole Foods and explained what we saw. The customer services person just asked us to toss it into their trash, without opening up the package and issued a refund.

 

[pedro47]

Now do you understand why Costco have now change their return policy on televisions and computers . Please do not do this. I have a very close friend who is a store manager with Costco. He stated before Costco started their new return policy on televisions and computers. Some Costco customers would purchase a new wide screen television for the NFL Super Bowl Game and then return it after the Super Bowl game. This practice went on for years; until someone in the state of Washington became aware of this situation.

 

[VacationForever]

Now do you understand why Costco have now change their return policy on televisions and computers . Please do not do this. I have a very close friend who is a store manager with Costco. He stated before Costco started their new return policy on televisions and computers. Some Costco customers would purchase a new wide screen television for the NFL Super Bowl Game and then return it after the Super Bowl game. This practice went on for years; until someone in the state of Washington became aware of this situation.

What is the new return policy? I don't know what was the old one either...

 

[pedro47]

Costco new electronics policy started some years ago. You now have ninety (90) days to return your electronics items liked televisions and computer sales. You can go on line and read Costco electronics return policy for yourself.
The Costco manager that told me this worked in a Costco store in the state of Washington.

 

[loosefeet]

I was in line to return something at CostCo (yes, love their return policy), and saw a nicely dressed man try to return an open tray of sandwich wraps--he told the clerk that they didn't need all of them! When she resisted, he insisted, saying their return policy was to take everything back... I almost gave him 3 bucks to get him out of there. Embarrassing!

 

[vacationhopeful]

Some people have NO SHAME!

But it does make me wonder IF I really want to shop at Costco ... where it might be more "flea market/use goods" than new from the manufacturer.

 

[Eric B]

People certainly return stuff a lot more than I do/would. I was behind a woman at Costco who asked if the watermelon she was buying wasn't any good, how should she go about getting a refund. I would have never thought about that. When I cut a watermelon and it's bad, I toss it. I couldn't imagine going out of my way to get my money back. Everyone's different and has a different amount of spare time, I guess.

My daughter worked at Sprouts for years and said people return crazy stuff all the time. Empty cracker boxes, "I didn't like them." It's hard not to ask why they ate the entire box if they didn't like it. Black, watery fresh vegetables, "these are bad." I'd be saying, "and so are you." I guess if people have a spare hour every day for returning stuff, it's probably more of a hobby than anything else.

I do agree that some of the returns are going a bit overboard, but there is a chance that the empty box wasn’t all that off. I’ve returned an empty dog food bag after I dumped the contents when it was recalled; no reason to lug the contents around to return when they’re just going to toss them anyway. Same thing may have happened with the crackers, but who knows.

As far as dead Christmas trees goes, I just feed them to my goats. They just finished eating the needles off this year’s; I wonder if Costco will give me my money back.... it is both dead and I can tell them the goats didn’t like it; took them a couple of weeks to eat it.

 

[SmithOp]

I saw a guy taking back a swimming pool at the end of summer, it was obvious from the condition he had used it the whole summer. Maybe he didnt have a place to store it over the winter.

This thread it like the web site with the only at Walmart pictures, can’t stop looking, like a train wreck. I always check out the people with returns at Costco.

I’ve never done a return, only once got a credit when the item I purchased dropped in price the week after I got it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Elan]

Since I don't know the full story, could it not be possible that this was sold as a live tree and she returned just the tree, sans pot and soil? I mean, it's gonna be a lot easier to transport without 30lbs of dirt and pot. Again, just a possibility.

BTW, that's one ugly tree. I can't even tell which end is the top from the photo.

 

[Eric B]

Looks a bit big for that, but she might have bought it 5 years ago....