It sounds like a small number of Costco members took advantage of this policy to return big ticket electronics like big screen TVs in order to take advantage of large price drops.
It will be interesting to see if this policy change actually helps the bottom line which is the reason they made the change in the first place. A number of friends and family have purchased large item electronics at Costco because of their lenient return policy. I doubt that very few of them returned items to save a few bucks on a newer model. Will these people look elsewhere now that they won’t feel so safe making a large purchase?
Will the amount saved by taking fewer returns be offset by the number of customers that take their wallets to Best Buy, CompUSA or Wal-Mart? Only time will tell, but this sounds like a defensive move to offset the behavior of a select few at the expense of many.
Nordquist Blog 