Three weeks ago I went to Costco to order eye glasses. They have a numbered queue system, which should have been my first clue that they don't mind making customer wait a long time. When I arrived and took my number there were about six numbers ahead of me. More than 20 minutes passed before they finally called my number. The girls working there had served two young guys out of sequence. So not only do they make you wait, if the girls working there aren't interested in flirting with you then you wait even longer.
Finally I was able to get service and within a few minutes was able to place my order with them.
They told me that my order would be filled within two weeks. After three weeks I called them to find out what was going on. To which they responded that my glasses had been ready since December 4th, but I never got a call.
I drove the 30 minute to Issaquah to pick-up my glasses. When I arrived there were dozens of customers in the queue in front of me. From my previous experience I knew that this meant that my wait would be nearly an hour. Since all I wanted was to pick-up my glasses, I asked the connected optometrist's office to help me collect my glasses. They were only too happy to inform me that none of the four people standing around doing nothing could help me.
Since I could not wait, I went back to my office and called them to ask that they mail my order to me. They informed me that there is a $5 charge for this and that I can only pay with American Express. I don't have an America Express card so they told me that I can drive the 30 minute back there and wait in line to pay the $5 fee.?? In response to this I canceled my order. This seemed to delight the girl I was speaking with. However, she initially informed me that they could only be refunded to an American Express card. When I reminded them that I can accept a check they finally agreed to mail me a check.
Upset with having wasted so much time and been treated so poorly, I attempted to file a complaint through the Costco web site. However, the complaint page is broken. Based on my experience, the fact that they have no means of collecting customer feedback is not a surprise.
In Summary:
- Extremely long wait times.
- Aloof, indifferent, and downright rude staff.
- Poor customer service policy.
- Broken customer feedback web page.
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