My Letter to Costco CEO Jim Sinegal

Hello,

My name is Andy Ford and I have been a satisfied Costco member since 2005. I send you this letter in good faith and with the context of “opportunity for improvement”. I was compelled to write this out of surprised disappointment – not anger or bitterness.

Since Costco does not issue new cards upon membership renewal, my card still says “02/2005″. I hadn’t shopped at Costco in quite a few months and could not remember when I last renewed, so I did not know if my membership was still active.

Unfortunately, I could not locate any documentation regarding my most recent renewal. Admittedly, this lack of good record keeping is my fault (but the situation would still be the same if one had kept good records, but was not able to physically retrieve them – ie. out of town). I was left with no idea of whether or not I was still an active Costco member.

So I created an account on costco.com and entered my personal information including my Costco membership number (xxxxxxxxxxxx). I reasoned that now costco.com would surely be able to inform me if my membership status was current or expired. After all, the site now had my personal information and my membership number.

To my surprise, I could not find my membership status in the “my account” page or anywhere on costco.com. I double checked that I was indeed still logged in. Yes, I was still logged in. I spent at least 15 minutes looking over the FAQ page and clicking on what I thought were pages that might lead me to my membership status info. Then – out of desperation – I began clicking on pages that I really didn’t think would have my membership status, but I tried them anyway.

I finally gave up searching costo.com for my membership status and called the 800 number listed on the site (800-774-2678). After waiting at least 5 minutes to speak to a representative, I was greeted by a very pleasant and helpful woman (who’s name I regret I cannot remember. the call was at 10:11am PST and lasted ~11 minutes including hold time).

I explained my situation to her and she mentioned that the Costco mainframes don’t talk to the website. She informed me that my membership had expired in February of 2009. I asked her if she could relay a request to Costco management and to the CEO for me: please show members logged into costco.com their membership status (past/upcoming renewal date).

I spent at least 15 minutes searching costco.com for my membership status. Then I spent at least 5 minutes on hold. My conversation with the rep must have lasted anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes (based on the total 11 minute call time). As I told the phone representative, this was time that both of us could have spent better if costco.com would show membership status on the site. Between the two of us, almost half an hour was spent on just this one simple piece of data (not to mention another half hour or so for me to draft this letter). I can’t imagine I’m the only person who’s ever had to make this phone call.

I am a professional web developer and I understand that there may be technological barriers and security concerns involved in getting two disparate systems communicating. And I realize that my seemingly simple request may or may not be simple to implement.

However, displaying membership status on the site could potentially save countless hours of costco staff time and increase internal efficiency and productivity.

For costco members and costco.com users it would help reinforce the Costco brand of “value”. Personally, I enjoy shopping at Costco because it saves me time and money and I am happy with what I know about Costco’s business practices (and because I think WalMart/Sam’s Club is evil – but that’s a separate topic). This experience made me feel that my time was being wasted – eroding away at my positive perception of the Costco brand.

Respecting a customer’s time is incredibly important – especially online. If a customer feels that their time is being wasted, they will take their business elsewhere.

I don’t know if implementing my request will have the same affect as “The $300 Million Button” – http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button – but I think it will be more than worth the effort.

Ironically, the very “Questions & Comments” form that I am using to send you my feedback asked me for my:

First Name
Last Name
Email
Contact Phone #
Costco Membership #
Order #

I was already logged in to the costco.com website! I should not have to enter any of this information (except “Order #” if applicable). At the very least, the first 5 fields should have been auto-populated with this information that costco.com already has!

Also, the first time I submitted the form, I got an error and had to re-submit the form:
“Error:The page you are trying to access is not available. Please contact the administrator for more details.”

I did notice that the URL for the Questions & Comments form was not on the costco.com domain but rather egain.net – https://costco.egain.net/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1000&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=STARTPAGE&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=us
So this may be a limitation of some third party service, but it is another missed opportunity to show respect for the user’s time. Don’t make your users “take the shit with the sugar”!

Thank you,
Andy Ford

Edit (September 2nd, 2009):

I’ve had a few people contact me asking how I got in touch with Mr. Sinegal and if I got a response.

I used their “Contact Us” form on their website and put “Please forward to Jim Sinegal” at the top. I never heard back from anyone.

I’d post the link to the Contact Us form here, but it’s probably the world’s longest URL with so many query strings that I’m not confident that the URL would be the same tomorrow. But, you can get there by clicking the “Customer Service” link (at the very top or bottom of the page), then click on the “Contact Us” link, then click on the “Member Questions & Comments” link to launch another window with the contact form… Only 3 clicks away – usability at its finest!

Comments, Quips & Protestations

1 November 23, 2009 7:58 pm Rene

Thanks for this Andy. I ran into the same frustration tonight and ran into your post after a frsutrating search of the Costco site then eventually a Google search for answers.

Because of your post and the obvious disregard for something so obviously needed, I am cancelling my membership and asking my family to do the same.

It always amazes me how some companies never seem to understand customer service or even attempt to care.

Thanks again Andy.

RZ
2 December 22, 2009 11:49 pm Chris

I was gonna comment: “They sound like a bunch of pooh-butt freaks” but I decided not to. Tell them to give you the job as cosco.com’s website manager- or you’re gonna build a site called “CoscoDotComSucks.com”
3 January 23, 2010 8:52 pm Sara

Happening to me right now! The call center is closed though right now. So stupid.
4 March 10, 2010 7:12 pm Matt

I know some websites can be difficult to use sometimes. But all in all I would say that Costco is one of the few outstanding companies. I have shopped there for several years now and always appreciate the great selection of electronics, clothes, produce and many other items. They have always tried to help whenever there was a problem. They try to make it as convenient as possible and reduce waste by not having an expiration date on the members cards. You don’t have to get a new one unless you want to. One of the few companies trying to lessen their impact on the environment. I do find it odd that people would cancel their membership over something so small. Anyone call a costco store and get an answer in less than 30 seconds during business hours. The store nearest you will gladly tell you when it expires. If you ever go into the store and your membership has expired they will ask you at the register if you would like to renew and its done right there. No waiting in another line or waiting for the new card to come in the mail. Our family has truly been blessed by Costco, I hope yours is too.
5 April 29, 2010 1:52 pm Steve Allen

This is truely amazing that an individual like yourself trys to sound so hesitant to leave a complaint to Costco, like as if at any point in your life you were ever a loyal customer. People like you, your bad bookkeeping and finger pointing at other people in a feeble attempt to cover up your own stupidity and ignorance are the reason why there is the competitor “Sams Club”. If your so dissatisfied then request your membership refund and go to Walmart or Sams then, they wont hesitate bottom line. Then you start a frezie of all of these bottom feeders that run into the same unheard of situation and turn to blaming Costco for your own ignorance. Costco has a reputation of attracting classy individuals which clearly you are not. You truely disgust those that are proud to shop at Costco by taking this frivilous stab at the companies reputation for customer service, truely sick.
6 April 29, 2010 2:51 pm Andy Ford

Wow. Steve gets the dickhead award. The “classy individuals” bit is hilarious.
7 April 29, 2010 4:03 pm Evan

A quote from “Idiocracy” —
Frito: Yah I know this place pretty good, I went to law school here.
Pvt. Joe Bowers: In Costco?
Frito: Yah I couldn’t believe it myself, luckily my dad was an alumnus and pulled some strings.
8 April 30, 2010 3:01 pm Mark

Steve sounds like one of those Costco execs who has a bonus payout tied to online reputation management. Since I found this site after my own negative experience with the company, I must also be one of those so-called “bottom feeders”. I can proudly accept that label after abandoning my purchase and walking across the street to get the exact same thing for less money at Sam’s Club. Companies who don’t view complaints as opportunities can assign negative labels to customers all the way into bankruptcy for all I care.
9 May 4, 2010 11:47 am Steve "Classy Guy" Allen

First off Andy, what a stellar display of class I must say with that “dickhead” comment of yours. You write this blog welcoming “Comments, Quips & Protestations”, then when someone expresses their distaste in your blog you resort to a trashly response like that? Its amazing that that was the only response you could come up with, maybe you should have given it some time and formulated a response so your didnt further diminish what little credibility you had from your fellow Costco members.
As for Mark, good job on getting your refund and going to Walmart and contributing to the problem in Corporate America today. Also to clear up whether I am some Corporate Exec for Costco, just because someone objects to some amateur complaint from an individual that is completely out of line; DOES NOT mean that I have any further vesting in the company other than that fact that I am an extremely loyal custome and have been for many years.
10 July 6, 2010 11:22 am dale

My observations of Costco, as a customer for many years, have mostly been positive. That changed recently when I was attacked in the store by a disturbed customer. Managements response was completely unacceptable; they refused to document the crime, refused to take the names of witnesses, and have failed to follow up with me. The sheriff here had never experienced a situation where any retail store management had passively thwarted the investigation of a crime before. I observe that Mr Fords comments were appropriate and polite; Mr Allen injects an op-ed alleging third party defense for a situation he has no involvement in. Impolite, ill-advised, and curious. Sometimes people with low self esteem act out in peculiar ways.

Ford Interactive