I found something about the replacement policy. Costco will apparently do it as a free replacement and not just a refund of the original purchase price, but the cashier has to override the price if it went up. There’s a class action lawsuit over this, where the lead plaintiff wasn’t told this at the time he just got a refund and was charged the difference.
I remember the time I returned a failed battery with the Kirkland Signature brand under their full refund warranty. They no longer had the battery type (group 51) so I just took what they got and ended up getting a Die Hard at Sears really cheap. It was really weird too as I bought it online for pickup where they had north and south versions at different price points. I think the north version was $55 and the south version maybe $100, and I saw estimated inventory at my closest store. But when I got there for pickup, the employee said just grab one off the rack and that they only had one version that wasn’t identified as north or south. That battery was near indestructible, suffering several jump starts and that lasted about 8 years anyways. The Deka that replaced it has been doing great even after about 5 months parked in the driveway with sporadic attempts to charge it with a external charger.
Costco’s ‘free replacement’ car batteries aren’t really free, lawsuit claims
Issaquah-based Costco is facing a challenge by consumers who purchased the wholesale club's Interstate Batteries and ran afoul of a replacement policy.
www.seattletimes.com
The suit claims that Costco’s failure to honor the Free Replacement Warranty and/or disclose to customers that they must pay an additional cost for a new battery violates state laws barring unfair and deceptive trade practices.
In a Feb. 9 court filing asserting that the case has met the standards for class certification, attorneys said that Costco had a policy in its Refund Manual requiring that any additional cost for a free replacement battery be overrode at the cash register.
But that didn’t happen for Skrandel, his original complaint states.
Skrandel purchased an Interstate Battery with a 36-month replacement warranty for $72.99 at a Costco in Palm Beach Gardens on Dec. 19, 2017, the suit says.
Skrandel returned to the store with his old, failed battery 19 days before his warranty expired, the suit states.
Instead of a free battery, Skrandel was given a refund of his original price and then told the new battery would cost $78.99 — nearly six dollars more, the suit says.
I remember the time I returned a failed battery with the Kirkland Signature brand under their full refund warranty. They no longer had the battery type (group 51) so I just took what they got and ended up getting a Die Hard at Sears really cheap. It was really weird too as I bought it online for pickup where they had north and south versions at different price points. I think the north version was $55 and the south version maybe $100, and I saw estimated inventory at my closest store. But when I got there for pickup, the employee said just grab one off the rack and that they only had one version that wasn’t identified as north or south. That battery was near indestructible, suffering several jump starts and that lasted about 8 years anyways. The Deka that replaced it has been doing great even after about 5 months parked in the driveway with sporadic attempts to charge it with a external charger.