It's widely known that using a Costco gift card allows non-members access to the warehouse club. That's a secret back door, but the reality is that most people who want to shop at the chain simply become Costco members.
There's really no reason to find a secret back door when the front door works so well.
Costco members and customers reveal gift card frustrations
Still, Costco gift cards remain popular both as a way to beat the system and as an easy gift for Costco members. The problem is that some members have reported massive problems with their cards.
This includes a number of issues.
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What's wrong with Costco gift cards?
- Balances are simply disappearing
- Physical cards arrive with a $0 balance
- Wait times for physical cards can be more than a few weeks.
The biggest issue, however, is likely the “disappearing balance” issue. Some people who had a Costco Shop card, the official name for the chain's gift card, with a balance on it found their funds simply went away.
That's a major issue for a chain with bare-bones customer service, and some members/customers are not happy.
Costco Shop card holders post their problems
Various Costco Reddit threads are filled with people complaining about missing funds on their cards.
“I recently bought a $500 shop card on their website and went to use it in store, only to be told the balance was now $0. I am 100% sure nobody had access to this card except for me. The employee at my local Costco said he had a coworker who had this same issue and it turned out to be hacked,” wrote JustBumbling77.
The customer called Costco and was told by the first representative that this was a known issue.
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“The second representative I spoke to told me that it's not their problem and it must be a security issue on my end (even though I've had no other indication of my email being hacked — none of my other information has been compromised),” they added.
Costco did ultimately mail that person a replacement card for the full balance.
Other Reddit users posted similar experiences:
- “I have seen other people commenting similar things about Shop Cards being used in California. Really sounds like an issue on Costco's side that they need to resolve ASAP. Especially for cases like this where disputing the charge is not straightforward,” TitusMilo posted.
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“I bought a shop card two weeks ago and used it once. It should still have some balance, but today when I checked the balance online, it shows zero. I reported this to the front desk at my local store and they are looking into it. Still waiting for their response,” JunzHefen wrote.
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I ran into the same issue and Costco told me to dispute the transaction as that was the only way. I disputed it a couple of days ago from my credit card, let’s see how it goes,” posted JaiDeep13.
There were dozens of other comments sharing similar issues.
The Canadian Broadcasting company requested a comment from Costco's U.S. headquarters on this issue and received no reply.
Costco has multiple other card issues
In addition to people losing their card balances, others have taken to social media to complain that Costco has major problems when it comes to delivering and accepting cards.
Costco does not share user names on its website.
“I gave this card as a gift. However, it was reported back to me that the cashier didn't know what it was or how it worked. She called for someone to override something to allow the use of the card and said, yeah, this is for PEOPLE who don't want to pay for a Costco Membership. It's “just not right,” she said. He replied, “Costco created the card, if they don't like how people use them then they should get rid of them, but you shouldn't make me feel bad spending money at your establishment.” POOR, POOR customer service and shaming. Costco should be ASHAMED that they do not inform employees as to how these cards work and better yet, NEVER EVER to shame a customer for using them.”
That may be a one-off bad customer service situation, but that comes from Costco's own website, which is filled with other complaints.
“I ordered a gift card to be emailed to me so I could use it that day. The email transaction failed. I went to the warehouse and was told my email causes issues so it could not be emailed to that address, no one told me that before. The warehouse called someone and the only answer they could give me is you have to wait 24 hours and maybe it will work or I could change the email. If not call back. Well, after a 20 min drive each way and more than 45 min talking to Costco people, I don't have a solution, they are closed today, so more time. I just wanted to buy a new carpet to start the new year. I have nothing but lost time and disappointment.”
Costco's website also shows a lot of complaints about actually using digital gift cards.
“The digital shop cards themselves are okay IF you know what you're doing, but there are definitely a number of problems if you're going with the digital version. 1. Not all cashiers know how to enter these. About half the time, they will have to ask someone else to help them,” the poster shared.
The poster also shared how to solve this problem.
“You can avoid this by going to the self-checkout line when possible,” they added.
Digital gift cards cannot be used at gas pumps and food courts.
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