I purchased a refrigerator May 1, 2018. It was delivered and installed May 17, 2018. I was living in CA working on my MBA. I returned to the property June 6, 2018 to find my kitchen flooded - standing water in front of the fridge extending down 2/3's of my kitchen. I contacted costcocare and was told someone would reach in 24-48 hrs. The delivery team fixed the connection on 6/7/2018. It took 2 weeks. It ended up taking 14 months for the first insurance adjuster to come to the property. In the meantime, a representative of the broker contacted me and told me a "contractor" was going to come to the property to assess damage and get resolution moving. It turned out to be the delivery/installer company owner. He insisted he had the right to enter my property to determine if the damage exceeded his deductible. I kicked him out. He made up stories about why they didn't install it - copper pipes (manufactured homes don't have copper pipes), the shut off valve was under the sink. It turns out he took video surreptitiously 6 weeks after the incident without my permission. Stills from this video ended up in a "denial" letter issued by the broker, not an insurance adjuster. This broker claimed my demolition was "proof of prior damage". In March 2019 I received a letter from Sedgwick telling me I had to file as a creditor in the Sears bankruptcy to get compensation. 1. I didn't buy anything from Sears - Innovel Solutions (now Costco Logistics) was formed out of the Sears bankruptcy and 2. The Sears bankruptcy had been adjudicated in February 2019. I finally had to file suit in 2021 to meet the statute of limitations. I escalated to Mr. Jelinek 4 times, Mr. Mike Parrot, SVP E-commerce and Maggie Wilderotter, Board Director, with whom I have an acquaintance in common - no resolution. Multiple times representatives committed to resolution and it never materialized. Why the complexity? 1. Costco has third party contracts with brokers/LTL. Costco treats the purchase receipt and shipping notification as the method they "bind" you to the terms of the third party contract. This is BS. Costco also tries to assert the two bodies of contract law apply to the same transaction 1. The Uniform Commercial Code applies to the item and 2. Common contract law applies to the service. This is also BS. The UCC recognized the concept of "hybrid" contracts, Article 2. The determination of which contract applies is made by applying the "dominant element test". In the case of Costco's selling items/services together, the dominant element is the item and the UCC is the prevailing contract law. Why does this matter? It boils down to the degree of alteration to the original contract. In these cases, its the means for resolution. When Costco "binds" its members to the third party contracts, the means of resolution shifts to the third party - who cannot give a nanoshit about resolving the issue if it's significant and Costco doesn't force them. Costco's party line is "you need to pursue resolution from the party you think did the damage." Of course, the third parties know this and don't leave behind identifying documentation and you are literally left without means for resolution. 1. The purchase receipt and shipping notification cannot possibly constitute a binding to any other contract. 2. These email are unsolicited and there is no way Costco can confirm you've seen it or read it. 3. The alteration to the original contract is significant - means for resolution. I would argue the means of resolution is everything in a contract with Costco because we buy from them for that very reason - they give us reason to believe they will stand by the contract. This has been 7 years of hell. They've know I'm disabled since 2019 and they don't care. I had an attorney at first, but they blew him off as well. Costco sells us "Risk free 100% satisfaction guaranteed on membership and merchandise" and "Concierge" level of service and gives us a never ending nightmare by hiring the cheapest delivery/installer. The delivery/installer didn't even have a business license in his own city/county. BTW the American Customer Satisfaction Rating for Costco has never exceeded 86%. Costco has never achieve 100% so they should stop using this enticing language. They are also required to report to the SEC how they measure their KPI. Costco never mentions its satisfaction in its 10-Q and 10-K filings. Costco left me with a destroyed house for 7 harrowing years. I've had 2 eye surgeries, a nose surgery (none cosmetic), a broken wrist, a broken foot, shingles twice, two rounds of spine injections and spinal nerve ablation and a moldy house fighting them to fix this. We've come to a verbal agreement - waiting for payment. Buy local, hire you're own installer if you buy from Costco. Take pictures/video of the full path from street to the location of the appliance.
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I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. Costco is just not who we've been led to believe they are.