I’m forced to shop at Sam’s Club after Costco canceled my membership – it was a simple mistake, but it can’t be fixed

A COSTCO buyer had his subscription abruptly canceled by the retailer.

The situation could not be resolved easily, forcing the member to shop at Sam’s Club.

two

two

The buyer shared the details in a lengthy post on the Costco subreddit from seven months ago.

They explained how their partner spent several hours shopping at the Costco store before being unable to checkout due to issues with their subscription.

At the customer service desk, she was informed that her account appeared in the system as inactive/cancelled and only the company could change the problem.

“It said that the other account member (me) canceled the order (although I didn’t receive any email from them about this),” the user wrote.

The partner was also told that she could not renew her subscription or pay for a new one, forcing her to leave her cart full of groceries at the store.

The Reddit user explained that they purchased the Costco membership through Instacart because their first order was online, and then they came to Costco later that week to pick up their membership cards and shop in-store.

“It was ‘cancelled’ about a week after we shopped at the store and my account appears to no longer exist when I try to log in with the correct information, but the subscription payment has definitely gone through,” they wrote.

They updated the Reddit post after speaking on the phone with seven Costco and Instacart customer service people for nearly three hours.

“Unfortunately, I’m still out of the $60 and membership, and my partner shopped at Sam’s Club again,” they shared.

The user was told that Costco could not resolve the issue and was advised to call the company the next day.

The member concluded that the cause was likely a bug caused by the interaction of the Instacart and Costco systems.

REDDIT ADVICE

Several Costco shoppers took to the comments section to offer advice.

One user suggested that the member call and ask to speak to the membership manager or supervisor at the local Costco.

“There’s a big difference between talking to a person at your local warehouse and calling company-wide customer service lines,” the Redditor wrote.

“You could call any warehouse and they could all see the same notes, but Membership employees understand them.”

Another user advised the buyer to dispute the $60 charge with their bank as the cancellation was not their fault.

Other users raised hypotheses about the true cause of the cancellation.

One Redditor suggested that an employee “messed up” and now Costco was trying to cover up their mistake.

“Costco systems MAY be antiquated, but the system is EXTREMELY transparent when it comes to figuring out what went wrong,” they said.

In other Costco news, a member fumed after the retailer denied a return – and the item was only a month old.

Plus, a Costco employee revealed the truth behind the “highlighted” tags – when customers identified letter patterns and asked if they would save.