[DrFunke]

For the past year I've noticed their cashiers are oddly hostile. I've just not been digging the vibe of the store lately. I pay $60 for membership. You don't need to treat me like a potential criminal who may be using someone else's card.

Anyway, I have two Discover cards (0% apr for 12 months) that gave me 10% cash back at Costco.com. I purchased $3000 worth of Costco giftcards & will be using them in lieu of membership in the store when mine expires (a little known store loophole). I'd like to think it's in the spirit of Steve Jobs leasing cars for one month at a time to avoid license plates.

[adave]

And you wonder why they turn hostile, pay the $60 fee you cheapskate.

[DrFunke]

A cashier will never speak down to me. As god as my witness I will crash this company with no survivors.

[ZeroSolstice]

I'm not sure what you are hinting at by saying "like a potential criminal who may be using someone else's card." Were you using someone else's card or not? Its a membership based store and your card is what validates that status. What exactly was the scenario you found yourself in? maiden vs. married name? Picture scratched up?

It looks like from reviews left that the Costco Shop gift card[1] is a one time use. How they would know that, maybe via system tracking, I'm not sure. It would seem that you would have to have a new card every time you go verse a single card with $3k on it. Other reviews seem to indicate that they check the member that gave you the card which after the first year of renewal you would not be able to show since your membership lapsed.

[1] https://www.costco.com/costco-shop-card.product.10024438.htm...

[DrFunke]

>I'm not sure what you are hinting at

Where am I hinting at anything? I literally said that "I pay $60 for membership"

The scenario I've witnessed many times in the last year: a cashier screaming at members for not having their card ready/not having an item barcode visible/scrutinizing the tiny B&W photo for any hint of malfeasance. Just an unpleasant experience altogether. They do this because memberships are way down. And if you think it's just me here's a reddit thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/14fpbjm/accused_of_...

Costco cashiers enjoy the highest pay and benefits for a job that requires little intelligence or skill. For some reason they act like frustrated divas forced to interact with the unwashed masses. Sorry, no. You're an unskilled service worker and wear a nametag. Get over yourself!

Anyway I'm not going to subsidize that. But I'm also not going to give up my rotisserie chickens and $5 gallons of organic milk. I'll get a membership again when the self-checkout machines outnumber employees.

>one time use

Nope. Have used a single card 3x. Also gift cards are highly regulated in my state, what you're describing is illegal

>they check the member that gave you the card

No idea what you're talking about. Been doing this for three months.

[ZeroSolstice]

I wasn't asking about a reddit thread, I was asking about your experience since you indicated it happened to you. If you don't want to share thats fine I was just curious as quite a few commenters on the thread seem to think that verifying your membership by asking for your card is "being treated like a criminal." I was trying to take other instances into account.

I don't really know how many times you would have to shop at Costco to not know to have your card out. I can understand peoples first time or forgetting but you have to be very oblivious to not notice the process that is happening with the person in front of you and have it ready. This is akin to people waiting in line at a restaurant then getting to the counter and not knowing what they want.

If you went to the link I referenced you would see in the reviews that people were leaving on the Costco site that this was their experience with the gift cards.

>one time use >> Nope. Have used a single card 3x.

Right, because your current membership is still active. Again, if you read the Costco link I referenced the people attempting to use the card were not members and gifted the Costco cards. This will be the scenario you run into when your membership expires.

>>Also gift cards are highly regulated in my state, what you're describing is illegal

Great, then apply your personal knowledge to where you live, clearly its not the same everywhere.

>they check the member that gave you the card >> No idea what you're talking about. Been doing this for three months.

Again because your membership is still active and you are the one that purchased them.

[DrFunke]

>I was asking about your experience since you indicated it happened to you. If you don't want to share thats fine

I just have written two paragraphs on my personal experience

>seem to think that verifying your membership by asking for your card is "being treated like a criminal."

not at all what I said, but I think you knew that

>I don't really know how many times you would have to shop at Costco to not know to have your card out.

Not addressing my point but again I think you knew that

>This will be the scenario you run into when your membership expires

Again, gift cards are highly regulated in my state. They don't suddenly lose all value contingent on the buyers standing at the store. You're making that up for some reason. Do you work for Costco?

>Great, then apply your personal knowledge to where you live

That's... what I've been doing this whole time, thanks

[ZeroSolstice]

>I was asking about your experience since you indicated it happened to you. If you don't want to share thats fine

>>I just have written two paragraphs on my personal experience

I see. So you haven't directly experienced being yelled at or having your picture scrutinized, you just observed it happening to other people?

>seem to think that verifying your membership by asking for your card is "being treated like a criminal."

>>not at all what I said, but I think you knew that

I think its disingenuous to cherry pick parts of quotes. I'll list it out again so you see that it wasn't directed at you specifically.

"as quite a few commenters on the thread seem to think that verifying your membership by asking for your card is "being treated like a criminal."

I'll leave it to you to scroll through the thread if you want to see what I was speaking too.

>This will be the scenario you run into when your membership expires

>>Again, gift cards are highly regulated in my state. They don't suddenly lose all value contingent on the buyers standing at the store. You're making that up for some reason.

I think if you read the reviews from the link I referenced[1] there was no mention of loosing the cards value. I said Costco only let them use it once as a non-member. There are a number of different scenarios listed in the reviews that people ran into. If you don't want to read the reviews thats fine, but there is nothing being made up instead you are creating a scenario which wasn't stated. It makes no sense why I would do that and then provide you the link to the source of the information.

> Do you work for Costco?

I pointed you to the Costco site which is where I would go to find out about their policies and because of that I must "work" for Costco now? I was simply pointing out other peoples experiences as "non_members" which you alluded to as your future plan here with the cards.

Here are the reviews incase you missed the link previously, look through the (1) star reviews to see what I was talking about.

[1] https://www.costco.com/costco-shop-card.product.10024438.htm...

>Great, then apply your personal knowledge to where you live

>>That's... what I've been doing this whole time, thanks

Yes and where you live is known to you, not everyone in the thread. We were only granted the illuminating information of cards being "highly regulated in your state" later on in your response post. No one would have known this information prior to that.

[DrFunke]

>unintelligible, unformatted post

I'm not reading this

[loco5niner]

The problem is that people ARE using other peoples cards. It hurts members who actually paid for a membership, and I don't mind them checking for that at all.