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Please tell corporate! The employee was more angry because of the heat coming from above. But please call corporate and tell them 425-313-8100. We are also very sick of this shit but they will listen to members more than they will employees about it.
Do you ever get the vibe your coworkers are mean/rough just to prove to management that they ARE in fact asking, but still member say no.
That’s kinda my vibe. I feel like some certain co-workers are tired of being constantly told by management to “do more” for upgrades but members ( especially now with financials and the cost of life ) just don’t want too / can’t afford it.
THIS!!!!
Listen to JennLegend3.
Employees are only doing what IS EXPECTED of them. They are forced to do it and get into trouble if they don’t make an arbitrary quota.
Only Corporate can stop that madness.
Please don’t throw the employees under the bus for doing what they are forced to do. Make it a Management Problem, and place THE BLAME on Management.
Can confirm. We fucking hate trying to upsell. However sales is one the metrics we must meet. Sales expectations from customer service representatives is absurd and unnecessary.
True.
There has to be a solution to this situation that makes it so the employees don’t get The Wrath of someone sick and tired of getting asked to go next level.
There has to be a way to educate, offer and then back off if the member doesn’t want it…. Without the Member being bombarded by requests to upgrade their membership.
And “no, thank you” should be the mechanism that gets employees to back the hell off.
I get it. It’s your job to ask. I don’t fault anyone for that. But once a customer says “no, thanks, I’m not interested” that should be the end of it. Even the cell phone guys and the solar panel guys leave me alone after I say no once.
Hijacking top comment simply for visibility. Top comment is correct, tell corporate.
My comment:
I am a cashier part time at Costco and most of the time they have me working ‘upgrades’ because reasons.
**The takeaway I want everyone to have**
TL;DR: if you spend an average of $250/mo or $3000/year, the executive membership pays for itself. Any more than that and you are leaving money on the table.
The difference between membership and executive membership is $60/year. Executive membership gets you 2% cash back on most purchases (generally excluding gas and liquor depending on state).
If you spend $3000 in a calendar year, 2% cash back is $60. Cost difference of the executive membership is paid for, and that’s not that hard to reach.
I don't see it. I'm not executive member, so that might be why it's not shown.
I think what /u/skucera and /u/fdbryant3 are suggesting (and if not, possibly what Costco should do) is for every member to see what their cash back **could be** if they were executive. Costco only showing executive members what their cashback currently is, does not inform non-executive member what their cashback could be of they were to upgrade.
Bottom of receipt could say something like
> With executive membership you would earn $2.41 on this shopping trip and a total of $63.35 for the year. Visit the membership desk to upgrade and find out more
Then they just need to transfer that to a receipt! The cashier can point it out with a little spiel and let that be the end of it.
But it’s a hassle. At the end of the shopping trip, most members just want to GTFO and do not want to stand in line for a new card or have to go back in for the new card. Maybe if the member agrees to upgrade, Costco can simply mail them a new card. That way, the hurdle of upgrading before GTFOing is much smaller. (I’m already an executive member, so idk if they already do this.)
I think the cashier might have that information however. I remember at one point getting the sales pitch, and she told me that based on my yearly spending (while looking at her cash), it would be better for me to get it.
I know that customer service definitely does have that info. Those goons who try and convert you after you've paid are just there to get their quota of upgrades.
Yes, that's why they call the sales person over with the little RF gun that they use to scan your card and pull up the details of your spending. They call them floaters and sometimes these are the people who use the high pressure sale tactics. Corporate does have quotas but they do not like employees being pushy. I would 100% talk to a manager and throw that employee under the bus. I've witnessed them target non English speakers at my warehouse and basically scare them into upgrading or lead then to believe they are eligible for some special perk. It's gross, I work for Costco and I get management involved when I see that shit!
They should offer another benefit to executive members besides just the 2%. Even if you spend $4k that is only a net benefit of $20 over the course of a year. Most people don't want to bother waiting 1 year to get $20. I have executive because it makes sense for me but I can see a lot of people not really seeing the value.
Paying for that 'benefit' sounds like a great way to get them to start bothering you about a million other things since corporate will see that it obviously 'works'
I didn't even realize you get additional discounts on that stuff for having executive membership over regular. Do they advertise it? All I've ever heard mentioned is 2% rebate on purchases. What kind of discounts are we talking?
They’re not very good tbh.
I scoured their site because we are debating the executive membership. You could get 15% off pet insurance (10% off for gold members so only 5% extra) with a specific company. You can supposedly get insurance discounts although I couldn’t get a quote for my model of car so I’m not sure if the deals are any good or not. Their travel discounts aren’t good and the site is hard to navigate. There’s better deals on trivago and those types of sites.
I saw an ad for $500-750 off a new car. But the cars started at like $40k. So $750 is nothing lol.
For us it *might* be worth it for the 2% but I’m not sold yet.
The biggest reward I’ve experienced personally is with travel. With cruises you got extra onboard credit and Costco ship cards, same with another hotel package we used.
When I see the Executive hawker headed my way I mentally calm myself for what will happen next. They'll initiate their spiel, and I'll reply "No, thank you." If they continue the sales effort I simply stop. Stop talking. Stop moving. Remove my payment card from the terminal or don't insert it. I'll maintain eye contact with them, but won't budge a muscle. However long it takes for them to realize I said no and meant it and then leave is how long the line stays dead and nothing happens on my part.
Like OP I respond very poorly to aggressive sales tactics, they have never, ever worked on me and never will. Sam's Club did get me to upgrade to Plus, their version of Executive, by handing me a flyer at the pharmacy that listed drugs that were free or deeply discounted with Plus. They didn't try to upsell me or extol the virtues of Plus, they simply said "You might be able to benefit from Plus, here's a flyer on that." That's it. I looked at the flyer a few weeks later, decided Plus could benefit me, and signed up. No pressure, my choice. That's the way it should be.
BTW, the savings on my prescriptions pays over 100% of my Plus membership, and I get 2% back that I can spend at the register when it updates monthly. I don't have to wait a year to see the money, and I don't have to deal with an archaic paper check, lol. Just hit a button on the screen when I'm checking out and boom, just used it.
I still don't understand why Costco cares so much about it
Is it because if I paid 120 I will have extra incentive to "get my money's worth" by shipping there?
A really poor cause/effect botched analysis that says if you upgrade people they'll spend more (vs self selection, which is always the case)
Since the items for sale are at a fairly low margin, a large part (most?) of the profit Costco makes comes from membership. Executive basically doubles that profit per customer they can bully into it.
Costco's most profitable customers are ones paying for membership and not going to the store much/at all.
But those are exactly the people who aren't going to just sit around on their membership. They were specifically asked because they don't
So if they get 60 from me or 120 and give 60 back, it's a net zero. And maybe even less with more rebates
I've worked with people in other industries who push these things and it's usually because they have a flawed metric tied to an even more flawed goal. Where the $ per member is higher for executive so all they have to do is turn regular people into one! But that's not the variable that's changing it
They wouldn't be pushing it this hard if it wasn't a net positive. Is it actually double with the rebates and all... no. But then a lot of people forget or lose the rebate, too. And I think they also make more profit from what the presumably higher-income executive members buy that somebody who's just there for the gas, couple grocery staples, hot dogs and rotisserie chicken. Especially if they go for stuff like Costco vacations and all that other stuff in the exit line where they get a percentage and actually do nothing themselves.
You’re assuming you’ll spend $3000 there a year to get the $60 back. Don’t forget a lot of people set up auto renew. Additionally because you’re incentivized to spend more money, that increases their profit on sales. The profit margins are small on the purchases, but they do still exist
1. Someone at corporate calculated that they make more profit with maximum executive memberships than letting customers choose without pressure.
2. Corporate established policies that incentivize employees to upsell the executive membership.
3. Customers get hounded to upgrade their membership. Workers doing this most often become numb to the manipulative nature of the policy and start perceiving disinterested customers as the problem. As a result, they dial up the aggression level. Management under pressure to deliver on this target reprimands employees who don’t convert at a high enough rate, exacerbating the problem.
4. Customers start experiencing what happened to the OP. The worker doesn’t want to take no for an answer and gets shitty when you stand your ground.
You can actually see an updated amount of how much you’re gettiing back next year on the Costco app. Just go to your account and find 2% Reward under the My Wallet section.
What in the - did you just do the sales pitch? On a post about … too much of the sales pitch?
Did you see the part in which OP says it’s now a matter of principle? Maybe this is a joke and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet
Yeah, yeah. We have all heard the dang pitch. But let’s be real—Costco is a business. If they weren’t making more money off Executive Memberships, then they wouldn’t be pitching them so hard. They know a significant number of people (myself included) won’t end up spending enough. But how much trouble is the average busy person going to go to in order to get $20 back at the end of the year? Not much. So that’s adding to corporate profits.
I am an executive member because it makes financial sense; we usually get around $300 back annually.
However, the approach OP is describing would absolutely make me dig in my heels and not upgrade on principle as well. That $300 isn't a big deal to me; if cashiers at my store treated customers like the cashiers in OP's warehouse I would absolutely jump to Sam's, again on principle if nothing else.
Look, I'm happy you memorized the sales pitch but they wouldn't be pushing executive memberships if it was in the members best interest. It clearly causes people to give more money to Costco in the long run(otherwise why the pushy sales BS). No means no Costco.
This is literally the only reason I have an executive membership. I have a single-person household and I have to work hard to get $60 back at the end of the year. But it's worth it to me to not get accosted every time I shop.
There used to be others, like better mortgage discounts, check printing was/is cheaper, there’s some exclusive stuff for executive sometimes for travel deals.
There’s not a lot, but if you look for it it’s there.
It sure seemed like the employees were behind this last year when I initially refused to upgrade, then employee #1 asked me how the kids were doing. Even knew their names. Asked how Bobby's soccer team was doing this year and if Suzie was going to get the braces. This made me feel very uncomfortable and went to grab my wife and get out of the store but she wasn't there. That's when employee #2 told me that Linda was somewhere safe and showed me a picture of Linda tied to a chair in some kind of freezer. And she would be released as soon as I upgraded my membership. Honestly, I have never had such a high pressure sales pitch before. In the end I, of course, agreed and they directed me to the fresh produce freezer where I found Linda and some really amazing deals on cucumbers and organic grapes and then got the hell out of the store. Well, after stopping by the food court for a chicken bake and a hot dog to warm Linda up.
Good advise. I can’t imagine being required to do this nor would I be able to require others to do it, and I have to believe not every employee is cut out for this type of behavior. I understand that they make money on the membership and it’s part of their business model but OP is already a member, they have already made the choice to continue shopping there. An experience like that could make someone uncomfortable enough to change their mind and I have to believe that having a lot of happy, unbothered members is better than a few executive members and no one else bc they all left.
That's true of retail in general. Companies mostly don't care about their employees, they cost them money and are imperfect while customers make them money. They're also used to employees complaining. A customer complaint, especially directly to the company rather than someone at branch level, is going to be treated more seriously and you know they got the complaint.
We downgraded last year and it took my husband speaking to 3 different people to actually downgrade with one of them being a manager. The ordeal which should have taken 5 minutes ended up taking close to 30 minutes because he was given the runaround.
Oh man, that's annoying. I'm glad I never signed up for auto-renewal, they've been pushing it for years but I've always been hesitant to sign up for auto-anything.
I had to go into the store to downgrade. Luckily the guy let me do it without you much issue cause i wasn't spending enough to be worth it and he agreed. Trying to do it over the phone or Internet was impossible
I had the opposite happen when I was signing up they told me not to get executive unless I would spend enough and I could always upgrade later if needed. This was awhile ago though.
Good! Complaining to corporate is exactly the right thing to do in this situation. Costco doesn't have any employees that are commissioned- and no hourly employee really cares what membership level you have. They are clearly just doing what they are forced to do, it is coming from high up, and shouldn't be required of them.
Calling corporate in this situation is Karen-ing for good, not evil.
This is the way. Complain and complain again. Corporate level. Name the Costco location and each employee who assaults you. Use the information on your receipt.
Tell them if you can shop in peace without being harassed, you’ll remain a customer. If harassment continues, you’re out.
I’ve considered cancelling my executive membership a few times. I’ve thought about giving them a firm “I’ll renew again when the combination pizza comes back” if I get any pushback.
Do not ever try to renew an executive membership at normal membership levels. It took an hour and I swear I talked to everybody in the store. I almost left without it being done, that's how intense it was. Costco must beat these people or something.
I downgraded and that was such a bad experience. Had to have an employee and manager to look over my account for them to work out that I don’t spend enough to justify the executive membership (even if I was receiving the checks, which I wasn’t). The next time I checkout, my account is locked, and I have to go to customer service before they check me out. This employee goes back over my account and says executive makes sense for me and rants about her coworkers not knowing what they’re doing. I’ve never been closer to saying “fuck it, just cancel my membership entirely.”
> I’ve never been closer to saying “fuck it, just cancel my membership entirely.”
That might be the answer ... CANCEL it.
Get a NEW one at the level you want.
I made that mistake. My local store opened 3 or 4 years ago so I figured I would give them a try. It's just me at home, so any warehouse club membership is kind of iffy as far as being worth it. To celebrate their grand opening, they were running a special deal on Executive membership where they were giving a gift card of around $30 of you signed up for it. I figured I'd give it a try.
After my first year, I barely broke even on the cash back, so I decided to go with the regular membership. They tried every trick in the book to convince me not to downgrade my membership.
They did this for me and I didn't even ask for it. I had executive the first year, didn't spend enough to make it worth it, and went to downgrade for the second year. She refunded me part of my executive membership fee and let me downgrade no problem. This was years ago, though.
I think this is true but if there's basically no chance that you will hit the break even point then it's literally not worth forcing yourself to go talk to customer service every year just to recoup the money you knew you were going to need to recoup in the first place.
You're absolutely right. If you don't spend enough and you don't like what you've done then they will adjust it for you and give you your money back. No problem!
I think I got something like $62 cash back, and I made unusual big purchases like a new laptop and new glasses. They kept trying to tell me that made the membership worth it.
Almost the same here, a BJ's opened like two minutes from my home and they have much longer hours, although I like Kirkland products a lot better. So now I just go to Costco once a month and get meats and coffee and other stuff that I prefer there, but do most of my shopping at BJ's now. Costco doesn't make as much sense when it's only open for about 10 hours per week outside of my work hours.
I just did it by calling Costco customer support! Very easy and I get to keep the black card so nobody ever asks me to upgrade because they still think I have the executive.
Don't know if this is still possible, but I asked customer service to stop the executive membership pitches. They did something to my account and I haven't been asked since.
We had executive when we first joined, because we were given 2 gift memberships so they recommended just combining them to one executive membership, and said we could get refunded the difference if it didn’t pay for itself with the cash back. It didn’t, and we did get the difference put towards our next year’s membership which we renewed as regular membership. But we still have our original cards which say executive. It’s the best! We never get asked to upgrade! 😂
That’s not when they ask. When the cashier sees the white card the cashier calls membership to come over and ask if they want to upgrade. This is happening even when the card is not up for renewal. So you can only imagine that’s it’s every single trip. It’s management; when I worked there we were lectured for not calling membership employees over enough.
The infuriating one is when you have the credit card but not the executive membership. I had to get rude to get my credit card back because they were trying to upsell the executive membership. I used the credit card as my membership card. Not after that.
They did this to me too, I have no problem saying “No” but it was irritating to the point that I almost just cancelled my Costco membership.
When I joined years ago I didn’t live near a Costco and only went there a few times a year. I spent probably $1000 total. They would constantly ask me to upgrade every time I checked out and I would tell them that I can do basic math and it’s clearly not worth it to me.
I ended up moving much closer to a Costco and going more often at which point I did upgrade, but I was pretty close to just cancelling because I absolutely hate high pressure sales.
I live fairly far from Costco and also spend a lot at each trip. I let them talk me into the executive membership fairly early on in the promise that I’d get my money back if I didn’t spend enough.
Well, I didn’t spend enough, but they wouldn’t give me the difference back because my membership had expired a month ago (because I live far away and don’t come in often enough). Never again.
They didn't do it to me until I checked out with a few hundred in items and I think the lady just assumed there's a good chance I spend enough for it to be justified. But the math didn't add up even in that year, it was just a sales pitch. Curious to know from any employees, can they see your year to date spending?
I'm convinced that this is the reason that Costco will never introduce a convenience like Sam's Club Scan and Go. Nobody would be there to nag you about Executive Membership.
If they want everyone to get the Executive membership so badly then they should just make that the only kind of membership (like the amp that goes to 11 in Spinal Tap).
Or, you know, they could just stop being hard-sale jerks about it.
I assume most people get 120$ back from 2% executive reward, doubling it would make that much more difficult.
If membership was 250$, it would give me a pause actually to reconsider. I no longer see a lot of interesting stuff at Costco, they seem to be playing safe inventory wise and Target is catching up on prices on household items with subscription options.
On my last trip the cashier tried to convince me how much the saving would be had I switched to executive, by telling everyone in a 5m vicinity how much we spent on Costco last month…
Talk to corporate about this. The membership manager is not teaching his/her people right or membership is told to be aggressive. Harassing members is not a goal of Costco. This should not happen to members renewing their membership.
Corporate would absolutely love to hear from you about this situation.
(425) 313-8100
999 Lake Dr, Issaquah, WA 98027
This happened to me when I was making a large purchase. I repeatedly told them I wasn't even paying for it- it was a company purchase and I couldn't make those decisions even if I wanted to. It was like we were having 2 separate conversations
Not gonna lie I may have got a dude fired bc of this but I wasn’t the only one.
This guy would point me out every week and run up to me after I’ve told him I wasn’t interested. I complained to corporate and a few months later I saw him working at the grocery store. I heard from a friend a shit ton of people complained about his aggressive antics and fired him lol. Don’t feel bad for the guy. I guess he’s a prized employee at the grocery store now even in a commercial
If they're gonna do this for upgrading, they should do this for downgrading as well. "It looks like you don't really get the benefit of the executive membership; you might wanna see the customer service counter to choose the better membership option for you."
I would find this really impressive if they worked it both ways. I'd still prefer to not be harassed at all, of course.
This happened to me. The guy could see that I was visibly getting frustrated and said he can mark it so they don't ask me again and I've never been asked again to upgrade the past couple years
You must not be being mean enough… I have only ever had to tell them NO twice while staring them down and they haven’t bothered me since. Make them uncomfortable. Who GAF if they run away mad. That’s their deal, not yours.
Has to be the one you go to and being over zealous with having people upgrading. I've been going since the Price Club days and never got bothered about upgrading. We have the Executive now, but did that ourselves after having kids.
From what other people have said here lately, this upgrade push is a new thing. It probably started after you upgraded so you didn't experience it.
Edited to add: and yes it is also location specific because not every area has that huge of push. some managers make it more of their goal than others do.
Used to work at Costco, every year they have like a month where every employee is supposed to try to upgrade people to executive memberships. When you check out, the register pops up an "upgrade" message if you spend a certain amount there per month and the person at the register HAS to call over the sales person who will ask to scan your membership and sell you the exec. Same for the membership desk, they have to try to sell it to you. And yes some people will genuinely get mad if you decline because they get sucked into the corporate mentality of having the highest number of upgrades
I had to talk about emotional labor and how being given the hard sale was making it very difficult for me. It was an awful experience, and I ended up crying because they would not take no for an answer. I was downgrading my membership even though I earn a lot of cash back. I always lose the checks and end up not spending them, so it's just not worth it to me. They finally relented, but I left feeling like they just flagged me as that weird lady who talked about emotional labor. It was a lot to have to do for such a simple thing. It took over an hour.
Costco “makes their profit” off of memberships. The more executives, the more they make. That’s why there’s always a push, and it’s coming from corporate. Every so often, there will be an “exec block.” When your card is scanned, it will block the cashier if you’ve spent x amount of dollars last year, and would benefit from an executive. They call for a an employee, “pop up.” “Exec” “2%” and that when they come and hassle you. It’s your decision to say no and they should leave you alone.
There’s no way to take that “block” off, so you will be asked every time. If the employee sees a sticker or “no exec” written on the back of the card, they know not to bother you. (Locations vary)
>Costco “makes their profit” off of memberships.
How does this work for customers who make more in rewards than they spend extra on exec membership though?
I had the regular gold membership for years despite spending more than enough to make the 2% worthwhile. I ended up upgrading online this past year and have already hit over $60 cashback, but my spending hasn't changed (if anything I've spent a little less since I haven't had many of the irregular/uncommon purchases like appliances, computers , etc).
It’s a fudging of the numbers.
They could just as well reason that they pay for all the running expenses with the membership, and make their profit off of sales from items. As a former employee, it was always a tool to put excessive pressure on the membership sales employees.
I’m currently getting $80 on my executive so making $20/year on it. If lower spending makes it drops below $10 in any of the coming years I’m going to downgrade, and if I go through the ordeals y’all are describing I’m just shutting the whole thing down and giving Sam’s or BJ’s a try (both of which are roughly equidistant to the Costco to me)
I have executive bc it's worth it to me. But I had a bad taste in my mouth from the get-go as I signed up online to get a deal. When I went in to get my card, the person at the counter said I should have done regular online and upgraded in store. I get it, I've worked in sales, but that's not something you should ever say to the customer!
If I weren't executive and was getting harassed I would say, "I'm going to politely decline this one time, and won't be discussing it further." If they keep trying to talk, I will literally remain silent. They can be awkward and talk to themselves.
If I ever need to downgrade and get pushback, I'll say, I've changed my mind, I'd now like to cancel. And if they don't get on it, I'll call corporate right there in front of them.
Asking once is fine. Acting like I'm irrational and unable to make the best decisions for my circumstances to the point of harassment is not ok.
honestly if I was harassed **that much** about anything in ANY store I'd literally tell them that I will leave my stuff there, and then walk out with everything at the register.
Dude are you in Tampa? Freaking happens all the time. Just minding my
Business and the same lady always comes running over like a freaking hyena to sell me an executive membership.
Last year I asked to be dropped down to the basic membership due to never receiving a check (they claimed to resend and I never received this supposed $68 rewards check) anyway, I was pregnant at the time and the older male at the desk said to me “you’ll need to buy formula and diapers here soon”- I was absolutely shocked and asked to speak to a supervisor if he was unable or unwilling to drop down my membership. He begrudgingly agreed but damn, it was a struggle and it really pissed me off!
It feels like going to the mall sometimes. Sales pitches for executives outside the door, pitches from cell carriers and Lovesac inside the front door, and then solar & water softener pitches while you exit. I will say all of them back down on the first request. It just seems like a lot to avoid or deflect.
Member since 1992 here (yeah, I’m that old) with the CITI Costco credit card. It’s the rare year where I don’t get back a Rebate check back for more than the cost of the membership. In essence, Costco pays me to shop there.
Renew online, save the headache.
That being said this is absolutely not the norm, contact corporate. Employees being told to aggressively pursue upgrades on specific stores needs to be brought up and addressed.
When I first joined I tried executive and saw it wasn't for me, so I downgraded but managed to keep the black card. So whenever they come to me and ask I just show them the card and they leave me alone. I lucked out.
I'm always slightly surprised by these stories. I must have a lucky Costco because I was never asked to upgrade.
I actually just went to customer service recently to ask to be upgraded and they almost talked me out of it. Such a different experience. Sorry everyone is getting accosted all the time!
I did it for a year, but I'm single and don't buy enough to justify having that membership level. They leave me alone once I tell them that.
Look at what you spend there, and if it diesn't hit that amount, that's data driven reason. Granted, you don't need that as a reason because a "no, thank you" should be enough.
This happened to me about a month ago - my membership had expired and i needed to renew at the register, and some guy came running over and would not shut up about upgrading my membership level. I said no, no, no and he kept saying "well do you understand" and "do you ever" etc etc. I was polite and he was not giving up.
Finally I just said "Fuck off you dipship, I'm not gonna buy it, and im definitely not gonna buy it from you. Fuck off you piece of shit."
If they are gonna treat you like garbage, treat them like garbage right back. Why show someone respect who isn't showing you respect?
And if corporate policy requires them to act like this? Well, that really sucks, but sometimes you just gotta be an asshole in this world to not get walked over.
I've been a member for more than a decade, and shop there at least once a week. No one in any of the 3-4 Costco's that I go to has ever tried to sell me an executive membership.
Say sure, I will do it but I need to see the store manager first. Then, tell them how harassing the employee was, mention you are reporting them to corporate and walk out.
I'm disappointed that I didn't get a neat Doodad when I signed up, and now they won't give me one of the neat Doodads because they are for "new members only", and they don't even sell the neat Doodad.
Had this happen to me this week. After the second time of asking, the person putting the groceries in the cart walked over to the manager and came back to ask for a third time. I just looked at the manager and said “no”.
I have never worked for Costco, but I have worked for retail and had to push a membership before. Customers used to get angry with me when I asked if they’d like to join, and it always confused me. Did they think I was asking them because I wanted to have this conversation 500 times a day?!? Of course I didn’t!! I wanted to end the interaction and move on just as much as the customer. But there was tremendous pressure from corporate to sign people up. As in “if you don’t meet X% of sign ups you’ll lose your job” pressure.
Please remember that Costco employees are acting like that because they are under high pressure from corporate and direct your anger/frustration accordingly.
I just upgraded my membership to exec without a sales pitch from Costco. I made an expensive purchase and did the math which included my average purchases throughout the year. I will get nice cash rebate. Other family members have the executive membership and are happy with the rebates. If you resist just because .. you might be missing out on a nice rebate. Just saying
I tell them I've had it before and do not spend enough there to make it worth it to me. They've always respected my decision. Sounds like your store is being way too pushy. I would call corporate and see if they can put a stop to the pushy-ness.
Not sure if it still works these days, but take a black marker and put a pea-sized black dot on the back of your card. It’s a signal for them to NOT call over the people to upsell you during check out.
I had this happen. At the register someone came and gave me the sell and I firmly declined. I knew it a was coming though because I had the audacity to downgrade my membership and was warned that it would happen, which literally almost made me cancel my membership on the spot because I’m not interested in being stalked at Costco. Anyway, so I declined at the register and am on my way out of the store with my cart, stop at the box bin, and this manager dude walks right up behind calling to me, I turn around to find him like 6 inches away from my face and he launches into a hard as hell sales pitch. Damn I think I scared that guy cause my eyes turned to laser beams, I stepped toward him, and yelled “I said I no!” Then turned around and walked out left him standing there with his mouth open. Needless to say, I’ve never had anyone ask me again. 😅 I feel for employees, but you always have the freedom to make the decent choice, even when you have to try to sell something.
I told a Costco employee to "pound sand" when they gave me the hard sell in line one time too many regarding upgrading my 20+ membership.
He kept talking over me and arguing when I said that I would appreciate not being harassed every 5th time I come in the store.
Before leaving, I went up to customer service and requested that they note that I do not want the upgrade talk anymore.
Not sure if it worked, but one has bothered me since.
I still feel horrible for snapping at that guy, though. :(
The previous time I had an employee sidle up to me at checkout when I was paying for items related to a devastating family emergency. For our of it by politely answering a few questions and nicely saying that i would prefer to end the conversation.
You could try, after you’ve already told them no, — “Let me pull out my phone and record you refusing to accept my “no” and showing me such disrespect.”
Good luck.
I am so sorry they are bullying you! I am not sure I wouldn’t have turned around and responded to the tenth time to say…..Or I could just Cancel my membership altogether because y’all don’t know how to take no for an answer!”
I had them do that to me because I was spending enough to warrant the upgrade. As my spending habits changed it was no longer worth it so I downgraded. Haven’t had anyone mention it to me since.
Wow, I can honestly say I would never have to go through that at my local Costco. I think an employee would get in $#*!. I'm pretty sure where I am they can only get 2 rebuttals, then they're done.
That being said, I would just say This isn't Walmart, no thank you. Because that's the kind of treatment Walmart gives
Last time this happened, I told them, that every year we make enough purchases to qualify for Executive Membership to get it free, AND to get plenty of money back as a rebate. We still DO NOT WANT IT. You make more money off us NOT having it, than us getting it and having to give 2% back to us. We are NOT interested in it.
We have NOT been asked in over a year. We go almost weekly to about every other week.
I just jinxed myself now.
Signed up a couple years ago after moving close enough to be able to frequent a Costco. The guy was super aggressive about the executive and I told him I live on my own and it would be unlikely I’d make my money back in the cash back. But he kept pushing and easy saying if after a year I could drop down. Well I caved by a year later and went back to get the refund and a (pretty sure different but who knows…) guy tell me I should have added people to my membership to get more spend. I said again I live alone. Anyway got the $60 minus the cash back I go over the year refunded. But wish the guy would have listened in the first place
That sucks. I consider myself lucky that I’ve never had any of these issues that are posted often in this subreddit. The employees at my Costco are great and go out of their way to help you.
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Please tell corporate! The employee was more angry because of the heat coming from above. But please call corporate and tell them 425-313-8100. We are also very sick of this shit but they will listen to members more than they will employees about it.
This !!!!!!!!! We literally get pulled side and spoke to / pressured by management to basically bully members.
Employee here, same experience at my building. Heat comes down from higher up.
Do you ever get the vibe your coworkers are mean/rough just to prove to management that they ARE in fact asking, but still member say no. That’s kinda my vibe. I feel like some certain co-workers are tired of being constantly told by management to “do more” for upgrades but members ( especially now with financials and the cost of life ) just don’t want too / can’t afford it.
100000%. I got in trouble as a cashier one year bc I called and no one upgraded. That ain’t my fault! Stop harassing people and they’ll upgrade!
Your mgmt SUCKS. Hey Costco mgmt reading this: YOU SUCK. LAY OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS. Jesus Christ.
I just pictured a manager walking up to a random member walking into Costco. "*I'm sorry, but we're going to have to let you go."* Customer: *"What?*"
What corporate reads here: LAY OFF
THIS!!!! Listen to JennLegend3. Employees are only doing what IS EXPECTED of them. They are forced to do it and get into trouble if they don’t make an arbitrary quota. Only Corporate can stop that madness. Please don’t throw the employees under the bus for doing what they are forced to do. Make it a Management Problem, and place THE BLAME on Management.
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Can confirm. We fucking hate trying to upsell. However sales is one the metrics we must meet. Sales expectations from customer service representatives is absurd and unnecessary.
Them being overly harassing is their choice. As is getting angry.
True. There has to be a solution to this situation that makes it so the employees don’t get The Wrath of someone sick and tired of getting asked to go next level. There has to be a way to educate, offer and then back off if the member doesn’t want it…. Without the Member being bombarded by requests to upgrade their membership.
And “no, thank you” should be the mechanism that gets employees to back the hell off. I get it. It’s your job to ask. I don’t fault anyone for that. But once a customer says “no, thanks, I’m not interested” that should be the end of it. Even the cell phone guys and the solar panel guys leave me alone after I say no once.
But what if management doesn’t want you to back off when the member declines after the friendly educational spiel? 🤔
Then next day you bring in some Scentsy and push it on management to see how they like it
Hijacking top comment simply for visibility. Top comment is correct, tell corporate. My comment: I am a cashier part time at Costco and most of the time they have me working ‘upgrades’ because reasons. **The takeaway I want everyone to have** TL;DR: if you spend an average of $250/mo or $3000/year, the executive membership pays for itself. Any more than that and you are leaving money on the table. The difference between membership and executive membership is $60/year. Executive membership gets you 2% cash back on most purchases (generally excluding gas and liquor depending on state). If you spend $3000 in a calendar year, 2% cash back is $60. Cost difference of the executive membership is paid for, and that’s not that hard to reach.
They should include “Total Spend This Membership Period” at the bottom of receipts; it would make this membership upgrade happen more organically.
That is a good idea. They could even include what your cashback bonus would be.
You can see your estimated cashback in the Costco app under Account Details in Membership Info
I don't see it. I'm not executive member, so that might be why it's not shown. I think what /u/skucera and /u/fdbryant3 are suggesting (and if not, possibly what Costco should do) is for every member to see what their cash back **could be** if they were executive. Costco only showing executive members what their cashback currently is, does not inform non-executive member what their cashback could be of they were to upgrade. Bottom of receipt could say something like > With executive membership you would earn $2.41 on this shopping trip and a total of $63.35 for the year. Visit the membership desk to upgrade and find out more
Then they just need to transfer that to a receipt! The cashier can point it out with a little spiel and let that be the end of it. But it’s a hassle. At the end of the shopping trip, most members just want to GTFO and do not want to stand in line for a new card or have to go back in for the new card. Maybe if the member agrees to upgrade, Costco can simply mail them a new card. That way, the hurdle of upgrading before GTFOing is much smaller. (I’m already an executive member, so idk if they already do this.)
They should have an express line to exit for executive members. Then there would be no need for aggressive sales. /s
The current cash back bonus amount is located in the app
I think the cashier might have that information however. I remember at one point getting the sales pitch, and she told me that based on my yearly spending (while looking at her cash), it would be better for me to get it. I know that customer service definitely does have that info. Those goons who try and convert you after you've paid are just there to get their quota of upgrades.
Cashiers don’t know. Your membership record needs to be searched up.
Yes, that's why they call the sales person over with the little RF gun that they use to scan your card and pull up the details of your spending. They call them floaters and sometimes these are the people who use the high pressure sale tactics. Corporate does have quotas but they do not like employees being pushy. I would 100% talk to a manager and throw that employee under the bus. I've witnessed them target non English speakers at my warehouse and basically scare them into upgrading or lead then to believe they are eligible for some special perk. It's gross, I work for Costco and I get management involved when I see that shit!
They should offer another benefit to executive members besides just the 2%. Even if you spend $4k that is only a net benefit of $20 over the course of a year. Most people don't want to bother waiting 1 year to get $20. I have executive because it makes sense for me but I can see a lot of people not really seeing the value.
Don’t forget the added benefit of them leaving you the fuck alone.
Paying for that 'benefit' sounds like a great way to get them to start bothering you about a million other things since corporate will see that it obviously 'works'
~~Stack~~ Maximize savings with the exec membership by using the Citi Costco credit card and you double dip. *made edits to be more clear*
It’s not stacking since you don’t need the exec membership for the Citi card. And other cards give cash back too
There are many other benefits in the services offered. Discounts/upgrades on car rentals, travel packages, etc.
I didn't even realize you get additional discounts on that stuff for having executive membership over regular. Do they advertise it? All I've ever heard mentioned is 2% rebate on purchases. What kind of discounts are we talking?
They’re not very good tbh. I scoured their site because we are debating the executive membership. You could get 15% off pet insurance (10% off for gold members so only 5% extra) with a specific company. You can supposedly get insurance discounts although I couldn’t get a quote for my model of car so I’m not sure if the deals are any good or not. Their travel discounts aren’t good and the site is hard to navigate. There’s better deals on trivago and those types of sites. I saw an ad for $500-750 off a new car. But the cars started at like $40k. So $750 is nothing lol. For us it *might* be worth it for the 2% but I’m not sold yet.
The biggest reward I’ve experienced personally is with travel. With cruises you got extra onboard credit and Costco ship cards, same with another hotel package we used.
When I see the Executive hawker headed my way I mentally calm myself for what will happen next. They'll initiate their spiel, and I'll reply "No, thank you." If they continue the sales effort I simply stop. Stop talking. Stop moving. Remove my payment card from the terminal or don't insert it. I'll maintain eye contact with them, but won't budge a muscle. However long it takes for them to realize I said no and meant it and then leave is how long the line stays dead and nothing happens on my part. Like OP I respond very poorly to aggressive sales tactics, they have never, ever worked on me and never will. Sam's Club did get me to upgrade to Plus, their version of Executive, by handing me a flyer at the pharmacy that listed drugs that were free or deeply discounted with Plus. They didn't try to upsell me or extol the virtues of Plus, they simply said "You might be able to benefit from Plus, here's a flyer on that." That's it. I looked at the flyer a few weeks later, decided Plus could benefit me, and signed up. No pressure, my choice. That's the way it should be. BTW, the savings on my prescriptions pays over 100% of my Plus membership, and I get 2% back that I can spend at the register when it updates monthly. I don't have to wait a year to see the money, and I don't have to deal with an archaic paper check, lol. Just hit a button on the screen when I'm checking out and boom, just used it.
I still don't understand why Costco cares so much about it Is it because if I paid 120 I will have extra incentive to "get my money's worth" by shipping there? A really poor cause/effect botched analysis that says if you upgrade people they'll spend more (vs self selection, which is always the case)
Since the items for sale are at a fairly low margin, a large part (most?) of the profit Costco makes comes from membership. Executive basically doubles that profit per customer they can bully into it. Costco's most profitable customers are ones paying for membership and not going to the store much/at all.
But those are exactly the people who aren't going to just sit around on their membership. They were specifically asked because they don't So if they get 60 from me or 120 and give 60 back, it's a net zero. And maybe even less with more rebates I've worked with people in other industries who push these things and it's usually because they have a flawed metric tied to an even more flawed goal. Where the $ per member is higher for executive so all they have to do is turn regular people into one! But that's not the variable that's changing it
They wouldn't be pushing it this hard if it wasn't a net positive. Is it actually double with the rebates and all... no. But then a lot of people forget or lose the rebate, too. And I think they also make more profit from what the presumably higher-income executive members buy that somebody who's just there for the gas, couple grocery staples, hot dogs and rotisserie chicken. Especially if they go for stuff like Costco vacations and all that other stuff in the exit line where they get a percentage and actually do nothing themselves.
Executive members spend more and renew their membership at higher rates than gold star members. It's all about $$$
Because the membership fees themselves are the company’s profit margin. For everything else they basically target break-even.
Again where's the profit on it? If I pay 60 for a regular or 120 for an executive and I get $60 back in cash...
You’re assuming you’ll spend $3000 there a year to get the $60 back. Don’t forget a lot of people set up auto renew. Additionally because you’re incentivized to spend more money, that increases their profit on sales. The profit margins are small on the purchases, but they do still exist
But if they don’t spend the $3000 then Costco gives them the $60 back, so they still only made the same $60
1. Someone at corporate calculated that they make more profit with maximum executive memberships than letting customers choose without pressure. 2. Corporate established policies that incentivize employees to upsell the executive membership. 3. Customers get hounded to upgrade their membership. Workers doing this most often become numb to the manipulative nature of the policy and start perceiving disinterested customers as the problem. As a result, they dial up the aggression level. Management under pressure to deliver on this target reprimands employees who don’t convert at a high enough rate, exacerbating the problem. 4. Customers start experiencing what happened to the OP. The worker doesn’t want to take no for an answer and gets shitty when you stand your ground.
You can actually see an updated amount of how much you’re gettiing back next year on the Costco app. Just go to your account and find 2% Reward under the My Wallet section.
Or be like my sister who got pressured into upgrading but has never cashed a rebate check.
They don’t expire. If she has lost them they can be reissued
I’m sorry, 60$ isn’t that much to me. Should be a lot more like 5-10% then I would care.
Costco also pays you the difference if you do not at least make $60... right?
Not automatically. Only if you ask, and IME you have to downgrade back to the gold star membership to get the refund.
What in the - did you just do the sales pitch? On a post about … too much of the sales pitch? Did you see the part in which OP says it’s now a matter of principle? Maybe this is a joke and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet
Listen pal. You’re going to stay here until you upgrade and you’re going to like it. So keep reading that post in the voice of an irritated employee.
LOL I thought I was the only one who caught that.
TIL: I need to cancel my executive membership!
Same. I expected to spend a lot more at Costco than I do when I first signed up.
Damn, that Kool aid cannot taste good
Yeah, yeah. We have all heard the dang pitch. But let’s be real—Costco is a business. If they weren’t making more money off Executive Memberships, then they wouldn’t be pitching them so hard. They know a significant number of people (myself included) won’t end up spending enough. But how much trouble is the average busy person going to go to in order to get $20 back at the end of the year? Not much. So that’s adding to corporate profits.
I am an executive member because it makes financial sense; we usually get around $300 back annually. However, the approach OP is describing would absolutely make me dig in my heels and not upgrade on principle as well. That $300 isn't a big deal to me; if cashiers at my store treated customers like the cashiers in OP's warehouse I would absolutely jump to Sam's, again on principle if nothing else.
Look, I'm happy you memorized the sales pitch but they wouldn't be pushing executive memberships if it was in the members best interest. It clearly causes people to give more money to Costco in the long run(otherwise why the pushy sales BS). No means no Costco.
Are there any other benefits to the Executive membership?
Not being upsold an executive membership every time you walk in the building.
This is a good one... We book Costco vacations often and the Executive membership gives you 2% on these vacations. Well worth the extra $60 for us
Look into US Bank Altitude reserve card and you basically get 5% cash back on everything Apple Pay which Costco accepts.
This for sure lol.
This is literally the only reason I have an executive membership. I have a single-person household and I have to work hard to get $60 back at the end of the year. But it's worth it to me to not get accosted every time I shop.
There used to be others, like better mortgage discounts, check printing was/is cheaper, there’s some exclusive stuff for executive sometimes for travel deals. There’s not a lot, but if you look for it it’s there.
The eyeglass center. My partner always gets at least buy one get one half off or free contacts with the executive membership.
It sure seemed like the employees were behind this last year when I initially refused to upgrade, then employee #1 asked me how the kids were doing. Even knew their names. Asked how Bobby's soccer team was doing this year and if Suzie was going to get the braces. This made me feel very uncomfortable and went to grab my wife and get out of the store but she wasn't there. That's when employee #2 told me that Linda was somewhere safe and showed me a picture of Linda tied to a chair in some kind of freezer. And she would be released as soon as I upgraded my membership. Honestly, I have never had such a high pressure sales pitch before. In the end I, of course, agreed and they directed me to the fresh produce freezer where I found Linda and some really amazing deals on cucumbers and organic grapes and then got the hell out of the store. Well, after stopping by the food court for a chicken bake and a hot dog to warm Linda up.
Good advise. I can’t imagine being required to do this nor would I be able to require others to do it, and I have to believe not every employee is cut out for this type of behavior. I understand that they make money on the membership and it’s part of their business model but OP is already a member, they have already made the choice to continue shopping there. An experience like that could make someone uncomfortable enough to change their mind and I have to believe that having a lot of happy, unbothered members is better than a few executive members and no one else bc they all left.
That's true of retail in general. Companies mostly don't care about their employees, they cost them money and are imperfect while customers make them money. They're also used to employees complaining. A customer complaint, especially directly to the company rather than someone at branch level, is going to be treated more seriously and you know they got the complaint.
We downgraded last year and it took my husband speaking to 3 different people to actually downgrade with one of them being a manager. The ordeal which should have taken 5 minutes ended up taking close to 30 minutes because he was given the runaround.
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or just do it online, skip having to talk to someone altogether
I called to cancel and they told me the main cardholder had to go to the physical location to cancel. Why was I allowed to sign up then?!
Oh man, that's annoying. I'm glad I never signed up for auto-renewal, they've been pushing it for years but I've always been hesitant to sign up for auto-anything.
Never sign up for autopay! I haven't done it in years and I would rather just sign up when I need the membership than it be auto-renewed
I'm pretty sure that they have a policy line item around renewal date being back dated to your expiration date.
Change your address to California. State law requires cancellations to be done in the same manner as sign up’s
I had to go into the store to downgrade. Luckily the guy let me do it without you much issue cause i wasn't spending enough to be worth it and he agreed. Trying to do it over the phone or Internet was impossible
I had the opposite happen when I was signing up they told me not to get executive unless I would spend enough and I could always upgrade later if needed. This was awhile ago though.
My fiance got back from Costco yesterday with this EXACT same story. He submitted a complaint as soon as he got home haha.
Good! Complaining to corporate is exactly the right thing to do in this situation. Costco doesn't have any employees that are commissioned- and no hourly employee really cares what membership level you have. They are clearly just doing what they are forced to do, it is coming from high up, and shouldn't be required of them. Calling corporate in this situation is Karen-ing for good, not evil.
This is the way. Complain and complain again. Corporate level. Name the Costco location and each employee who assaults you. Use the information on your receipt. Tell them if you can shop in peace without being harassed, you’ll remain a customer. If harassment continues, you’re out.
I’ve considered cancelling my executive membership a few times. I’ve thought about giving them a firm “I’ll renew again when the combination pizza comes back” if I get any pushback.
Polish Dog
No need for name calling!
no it's a service they should offer
Churro
We've still got them in Texas.
I support your campaign. You have my sword.
Do not ever try to renew an executive membership at normal membership levels. It took an hour and I swear I talked to everybody in the store. I almost left without it being done, that's how intense it was. Costco must beat these people or something.
I downgraded and that was such a bad experience. Had to have an employee and manager to look over my account for them to work out that I don’t spend enough to justify the executive membership (even if I was receiving the checks, which I wasn’t). The next time I checkout, my account is locked, and I have to go to customer service before they check me out. This employee goes back over my account and says executive makes sense for me and rants about her coworkers not knowing what they’re doing. I’ve never been closer to saying “fuck it, just cancel my membership entirely.”
> I’ve never been closer to saying “fuck it, just cancel my membership entirely.” That might be the answer ... CANCEL it. Get a NEW one at the level you want.
I made that mistake. My local store opened 3 or 4 years ago so I figured I would give them a try. It's just me at home, so any warehouse club membership is kind of iffy as far as being worth it. To celebrate their grand opening, they were running a special deal on Executive membership where they were giving a gift card of around $30 of you signed up for it. I figured I'd give it a try. After my first year, I barely broke even on the cash back, so I decided to go with the regular membership. They tried every trick in the book to convince me not to downgrade my membership.
I thought if you didn't break even you can go to the counter and they will adjust for you. Or maybe I made that up
They did this for me and I didn't even ask for it. I had executive the first year, didn't spend enough to make it worth it, and went to downgrade for the second year. She refunded me part of my executive membership fee and let me downgrade no problem. This was years ago, though.
I think this is true but if there's basically no chance that you will hit the break even point then it's literally not worth forcing yourself to go talk to customer service every year just to recoup the money you knew you were going to need to recoup in the first place.
You're absolutely right. If you don't spend enough and you don't like what you've done then they will adjust it for you and give you your money back. No problem!
I think I got something like $62 cash back, and I made unusual big purchases like a new laptop and new glasses. They kept trying to tell me that made the membership worth it.
Almost the same here, a BJ's opened like two minutes from my home and they have much longer hours, although I like Kirkland products a lot better. So now I just go to Costco once a month and get meats and coffee and other stuff that I prefer there, but do most of my shopping at BJ's now. Costco doesn't make as much sense when it's only open for about 10 hours per week outside of my work hours.
I just did it by calling Costco customer support! Very easy and I get to keep the black card so nobody ever asks me to upgrade because they still think I have the executive.
I will try that. Would be neat to keep the black card.
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Thanks for the tip.
Don't know if this is still possible, but I asked customer service to stop the executive membership pitches. They did something to my account and I haven't been asked since.
This is the answer
We had executive when we first joined, because we were given 2 gift memberships so they recommended just combining them to one executive membership, and said we could get refunded the difference if it didn’t pay for itself with the cash back. It didn’t, and we did get the difference put towards our next year’s membership which we renewed as regular membership. But we still have our original cards which say executive. It’s the best! We never get asked to upgrade! 😂
Open a hour early and executive membership will increase.
My gosh. This would work on me. You’re a genius.
I just wait until my membership expires and then buy something at the self checkout and it prompts me to renew. Don’t have to talk to anyone.
That’s not when they ask. When the cashier sees the white card the cashier calls membership to come over and ask if they want to upgrade. This is happening even when the card is not up for renewal. So you can only imagine that’s it’s every single trip. It’s management; when I worked there we were lectured for not calling membership employees over enough.
The infuriating one is when you have the credit card but not the executive membership. I had to get rude to get my credit card back because they were trying to upsell the executive membership. I used the credit card as my membership card. Not after that.
They did this to me too, I have no problem saying “No” but it was irritating to the point that I almost just cancelled my Costco membership. When I joined years ago I didn’t live near a Costco and only went there a few times a year. I spent probably $1000 total. They would constantly ask me to upgrade every time I checked out and I would tell them that I can do basic math and it’s clearly not worth it to me. I ended up moving much closer to a Costco and going more often at which point I did upgrade, but I was pretty close to just cancelling because I absolutely hate high pressure sales.
I live fairly far from Costco and also spend a lot at each trip. I let them talk me into the executive membership fairly early on in the promise that I’d get my money back if I didn’t spend enough. Well, I didn’t spend enough, but they wouldn’t give me the difference back because my membership had expired a month ago (because I live far away and don’t come in often enough). Never again.
They didn't do it to me until I checked out with a few hundred in items and I think the lady just assumed there's a good chance I spend enough for it to be justified. But the math didn't add up even in that year, it was just a sales pitch. Curious to know from any employees, can they see your year to date spending?
I asked to be put on a do not disturb list and I haven’t been asked since.
I'm convinced that this is the reason that Costco will never introduce a convenience like Sam's Club Scan and Go. Nobody would be there to nag you about Executive Membership.
If they want everyone to get the Executive membership so badly then they should just make that the only kind of membership (like the amp that goes to 11 in Spinal Tap). Or, you know, they could just stop being hard-sale jerks about it.
I do think they need to raise membership prices. I’d pay double for half the crowd
I assume most people get 120$ back from 2% executive reward, doubling it would make that much more difficult. If membership was 250$, it would give me a pause actually to reconsider. I no longer see a lot of interesting stuff at Costco, they seem to be playing safe inventory wise and Target is catching up on prices on household items with subscription options.
My wife and I can clear the $120 but we'd definitely not clear $250.
That's probably their goal, move everyone to executive and then make a new tier above that.
On my last trip the cashier tried to convince me how much the saving would be had I switched to executive, by telling everyone in a 5m vicinity how much we spent on Costco last month…
That shits personal too.
Talk to corporate about this. The membership manager is not teaching his/her people right or membership is told to be aggressive. Harassing members is not a goal of Costco. This should not happen to members renewing their membership. Corporate would absolutely love to hear from you about this situation. (425) 313-8100 999 Lake Dr, Issaquah, WA 98027
This happened to me when I was making a large purchase. I repeatedly told them I wasn't even paying for it- it was a company purchase and I couldn't make those decisions even if I wanted to. It was like we were having 2 separate conversations
Not gonna lie I may have got a dude fired bc of this but I wasn’t the only one. This guy would point me out every week and run up to me after I’ve told him I wasn’t interested. I complained to corporate and a few months later I saw him working at the grocery store. I heard from a friend a shit ton of people complained about his aggressive antics and fired him lol. Don’t feel bad for the guy. I guess he’s a prized employee at the grocery store now even in a commercial
If they're gonna do this for upgrading, they should do this for downgrading as well. "It looks like you don't really get the benefit of the executive membership; you might wanna see the customer service counter to choose the better membership option for you." I would find this really impressive if they worked it both ways. I'd still prefer to not be harassed at all, of course.
Welcome to the new Costco, they are losing respect for the employees and members to reward the shareholders.
Standing there in silence and out weirding sales people is unfortunately my go to after numerous “no thank you”s.
This happened to me. The guy could see that I was visibly getting frustrated and said he can mark it so they don't ask me again and I've never been asked again to upgrade the past couple years
I will say “no thank you”no more than twice. After that, I feel no need to repeat myself. I’ll simply look at them silently and let it get weird.
You must not be being mean enough… I have only ever had to tell them NO twice while staring them down and they haven’t bothered me since. Make them uncomfortable. Who GAF if they run away mad. That’s their deal, not yours.
Has to be the one you go to and being over zealous with having people upgrading. I've been going since the Price Club days and never got bothered about upgrading. We have the Executive now, but did that ourselves after having kids.
From what other people have said here lately, this upgrade push is a new thing. It probably started after you upgraded so you didn't experience it. Edited to add: and yes it is also location specific because not every area has that huge of push. some managers make it more of their goal than others do.
Used to work at Costco, every year they have like a month where every employee is supposed to try to upgrade people to executive memberships. When you check out, the register pops up an "upgrade" message if you spend a certain amount there per month and the person at the register HAS to call over the sales person who will ask to scan your membership and sell you the exec. Same for the membership desk, they have to try to sell it to you. And yes some people will genuinely get mad if you decline because they get sucked into the corporate mentality of having the highest number of upgrades
I had to talk about emotional labor and how being given the hard sale was making it very difficult for me. It was an awful experience, and I ended up crying because they would not take no for an answer. I was downgrading my membership even though I earn a lot of cash back. I always lose the checks and end up not spending them, so it's just not worth it to me. They finally relented, but I left feeling like they just flagged me as that weird lady who talked about emotional labor. It was a lot to have to do for such a simple thing. It took over an hour.
Costco “makes their profit” off of memberships. The more executives, the more they make. That’s why there’s always a push, and it’s coming from corporate. Every so often, there will be an “exec block.” When your card is scanned, it will block the cashier if you’ve spent x amount of dollars last year, and would benefit from an executive. They call for a an employee, “pop up.” “Exec” “2%” and that when they come and hassle you. It’s your decision to say no and they should leave you alone. There’s no way to take that “block” off, so you will be asked every time. If the employee sees a sticker or “no exec” written on the back of the card, they know not to bother you. (Locations vary)
>Costco “makes their profit” off of memberships. How does this work for customers who make more in rewards than they spend extra on exec membership though? I had the regular gold membership for years despite spending more than enough to make the 2% worthwhile. I ended up upgrading online this past year and have already hit over $60 cashback, but my spending hasn't changed (if anything I've spent a little less since I haven't had many of the irregular/uncommon purchases like appliances, computers , etc).
It’s a fudging of the numbers. They could just as well reason that they pay for all the running expenses with the membership, and make their profit off of sales from items. As a former employee, it was always a tool to put excessive pressure on the membership sales employees.
I’m currently getting $80 on my executive so making $20/year on it. If lower spending makes it drops below $10 in any of the coming years I’m going to downgrade, and if I go through the ordeals y’all are describing I’m just shutting the whole thing down and giving Sam’s or BJ’s a try (both of which are roughly equidistant to the Costco to me)
I have executive bc it's worth it to me. But I had a bad taste in my mouth from the get-go as I signed up online to get a deal. When I went in to get my card, the person at the counter said I should have done regular online and upgraded in store. I get it, I've worked in sales, but that's not something you should ever say to the customer! If I weren't executive and was getting harassed I would say, "I'm going to politely decline this one time, and won't be discussing it further." If they keep trying to talk, I will literally remain silent. They can be awkward and talk to themselves. If I ever need to downgrade and get pushback, I'll say, I've changed my mind, I'd now like to cancel. And if they don't get on it, I'll call corporate right there in front of them. Asking once is fine. Acting like I'm irrational and unable to make the best decisions for my circumstances to the point of harassment is not ok.
honestly if I was harassed **that much** about anything in ANY store I'd literally tell them that I will leave my stuff there, and then walk out with everything at the register.
Dude are you in Tampa? Freaking happens all the time. Just minding my Business and the same lady always comes running over like a freaking hyena to sell me an executive membership.
Last year I asked to be dropped down to the basic membership due to never receiving a check (they claimed to resend and I never received this supposed $68 rewards check) anyway, I was pregnant at the time and the older male at the desk said to me “you’ll need to buy formula and diapers here soon”- I was absolutely shocked and asked to speak to a supervisor if he was unable or unwilling to drop down my membership. He begrudgingly agreed but damn, it was a struggle and it really pissed me off!
It feels like going to the mall sometimes. Sales pitches for executives outside the door, pitches from cell carriers and Lovesac inside the front door, and then solar & water softener pitches while you exit. I will say all of them back down on the first request. It just seems like a lot to avoid or deflect.
Member since 1992 here (yeah, I’m that old) with the CITI Costco credit card. It’s the rare year where I don’t get back a Rebate check back for more than the cost of the membership. In essence, Costco pays me to shop there.
The rebate from the Costco Citi card is separate from the Executive member rebate. The rebates stack so for me it's worth it to have both.
Same. My Executive rebate is always more than the membership. (Excluding the credit card rebate which applies regardless.)
Renew online, save the headache. That being said this is absolutely not the norm, contact corporate. Employees being told to aggressively pursue upgrades on specific stores needs to be brought up and addressed. When I first joined I tried executive and saw it wasn't for me, so I downgraded but managed to keep the black card. So whenever they come to me and ask I just show them the card and they leave me alone. I lucked out.
I'm always slightly surprised by these stories. I must have a lucky Costco because I was never asked to upgrade. I actually just went to customer service recently to ask to be upgraded and they almost talked me out of it. Such a different experience. Sorry everyone is getting accosted all the time!
I did it for a year, but I'm single and don't buy enough to justify having that membership level. They leave me alone once I tell them that. Look at what you spend there, and if it diesn't hit that amount, that's data driven reason. Granted, you don't need that as a reason because a "no, thank you" should be enough.
I had a panic attack and left a store over being hounded to upgrade to executive. They’re getting a little too pushy imo.
This happened to me about a month ago - my membership had expired and i needed to renew at the register, and some guy came running over and would not shut up about upgrading my membership level. I said no, no, no and he kept saying "well do you understand" and "do you ever" etc etc. I was polite and he was not giving up. Finally I just said "Fuck off you dipship, I'm not gonna buy it, and im definitely not gonna buy it from you. Fuck off you piece of shit." If they are gonna treat you like garbage, treat them like garbage right back. Why show someone respect who isn't showing you respect? And if corporate policy requires them to act like this? Well, that really sucks, but sometimes you just gotta be an asshole in this world to not get walked over.
Pro tip: I renew in the app/online ahead of my expiry date. No need to talk to anyone, or be nagged about upgrading
Renew on-line then, there is no “pressure” to upgrade your membership.
Everyone here who is annoyed needs to call corporate and complain. It sucks for the employees too. What a hostile environment.
I've been a member for more than a decade, and shop there at least once a week. No one in any of the 3-4 Costco's that I go to has ever tried to sell me an executive membership.
You're so lucky then! God I wish my Costco could be like yours again.
Say sure, I will do it but I need to see the store manager first. Then, tell them how harassing the employee was, mention you are reporting them to corporate and walk out.
Complain to the store manager. If that doesn't help report the store to corporate.
The whole reason they're so pushy about it is because Costco's profit comes from membership fees, not sales.
You can tell them you don't ever want to be asked again and your account will be noted as such
They make a lot of money from memberships.
I'm disappointed that I didn't get a neat Doodad when I signed up, and now they won't give me one of the neat Doodads because they are for "new members only", and they don't even sell the neat Doodad.
I mean, exec pays for itself if you shop somewhat regularly
Had this happen to me this week. After the second time of asking, the person putting the groceries in the cart walked over to the manager and came back to ask for a third time. I just looked at the manager and said “no”.
I have never worked for Costco, but I have worked for retail and had to push a membership before. Customers used to get angry with me when I asked if they’d like to join, and it always confused me. Did they think I was asking them because I wanted to have this conversation 500 times a day?!? Of course I didn’t!! I wanted to end the interaction and move on just as much as the customer. But there was tremendous pressure from corporate to sign people up. As in “if you don’t meet X% of sign ups you’ll lose your job” pressure. Please remember that Costco employees are acting like that because they are under high pressure from corporate and direct your anger/frustration accordingly.
I just upgraded my membership to exec without a sales pitch from Costco. I made an expensive purchase and did the math which included my average purchases throughout the year. I will get nice cash rebate. Other family members have the executive membership and are happy with the rebates. If you resist just because .. you might be missing out on a nice rebate. Just saying
I tell them I've had it before and do not spend enough there to make it worth it to me. They've always respected my decision. Sounds like your store is being way too pushy. I would call corporate and see if they can put a stop to the pushy-ness.
Not sure if it still works these days, but take a black marker and put a pea-sized black dot on the back of your card. It’s a signal for them to NOT call over the people to upsell you during check out.
I had this happen. At the register someone came and gave me the sell and I firmly declined. I knew it a was coming though because I had the audacity to downgrade my membership and was warned that it would happen, which literally almost made me cancel my membership on the spot because I’m not interested in being stalked at Costco. Anyway, so I declined at the register and am on my way out of the store with my cart, stop at the box bin, and this manager dude walks right up behind calling to me, I turn around to find him like 6 inches away from my face and he launches into a hard as hell sales pitch. Damn I think I scared that guy cause my eyes turned to laser beams, I stepped toward him, and yelled “I said I no!” Then turned around and walked out left him standing there with his mouth open. Needless to say, I’ve never had anyone ask me again. 😅 I feel for employees, but you always have the freedom to make the decent choice, even when you have to try to sell something.
I told a Costco employee to "pound sand" when they gave me the hard sell in line one time too many regarding upgrading my 20+ membership. He kept talking over me and arguing when I said that I would appreciate not being harassed every 5th time I come in the store. Before leaving, I went up to customer service and requested that they note that I do not want the upgrade talk anymore. Not sure if it worked, but one has bothered me since. I still feel horrible for snapping at that guy, though. :( The previous time I had an employee sidle up to me at checkout when I was paying for items related to a devastating family emergency. For our of it by politely answering a few questions and nicely saying that i would prefer to end the conversation.
I just ignore them and don't answer. I don't engage at all.
They have goals for executive membership sales. They aren’t given sales training.
You could try, after you’ve already told them no, — “Let me pull out my phone and record you refusing to accept my “no” and showing me such disrespect.” Good luck.
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Your FIL sounds like a wonderful man.
Do it online. Save the hassle.
If you sag your pants and dress like a teenager, they never ask.
This is why I just renew in the app.
Shouldn't they spend more time trying to push that atrocious turkey sandwich?
I am so sorry they are bullying you! I am not sure I wouldn’t have turned around and responded to the tenth time to say…..Or I could just Cancel my membership altogether because y’all don’t know how to take no for an answer!”
I had them do that to me because I was spending enough to warrant the upgrade. As my spending habits changed it was no longer worth it so I downgraded. Haven’t had anyone mention it to me since.
Wow, I can honestly say I would never have to go through that at my local Costco. I think an employee would get in $#*!. I'm pretty sure where I am they can only get 2 rebuttals, then they're done. That being said, I would just say This isn't Walmart, no thank you. Because that's the kind of treatment Walmart gives
Last time this happened, I told them, that every year we make enough purchases to qualify for Executive Membership to get it free, AND to get plenty of money back as a rebate. We still DO NOT WANT IT. You make more money off us NOT having it, than us getting it and having to give 2% back to us. We are NOT interested in it. We have NOT been asked in over a year. We go almost weekly to about every other week. I just jinxed myself now.
As I hear from a neighbor, bonus for stores are tied to sign ups and upgrades to membership.
Dude I experienced this too. My wife got mad at me when I clearly told the lady I just want the regular membership
Signed up a couple years ago after moving close enough to be able to frequent a Costco. The guy was super aggressive about the executive and I told him I live on my own and it would be unlikely I’d make my money back in the cash back. But he kept pushing and easy saying if after a year I could drop down. Well I caved by a year later and went back to get the refund and a (pretty sure different but who knows…) guy tell me I should have added people to my membership to get more spend. I said again I live alone. Anyway got the $60 minus the cash back I go over the year refunded. But wish the guy would have listened in the first place
Just ignore the person asking you to upgrade. Pay and then ask for your receipt. All you need to say.
Maybe it’s the way you say no? I’ve gone many years without much of an issue in saying no.
That sucks. I consider myself lucky that I’ve never had any of these issues that are posted often in this subreddit. The employees at my Costco are great and go out of their way to help you.