Costco customer tries to return a 22-year-old TV pushing the store's return policy to its limits

In an age of convenience ushered in by e-commerce platforms, easy return policies are a major feature that consumers look out for. As it competes with online marketplaces, brick-and-mortar retail store chain Costco’s generous return policy has become the basis for several viral stories over the years, delivering something bizarre every single time. In a viral Reddit post, a user (@estaack) posted that someone walked into Costco with a 22-year-old TV to return it. The post on the forum r/Costco left Redditors baffled who couldn’t believe it could be done.

Can you return a TV bought in 2002 at Costco?

The viral post showed a person carrying an old TV, that appears to be a vintage on the iconic orange Costco flat cart in a store in Pennsylvania. The original poster thought that it was a prank initially but when they found out that it was real, they were impressed. According to DailyMail UK, the model of the TV appeared to be a rear projection Samsung HCL552W, which was sold in the US market in 2002.

In the comments, one user (@Caterpillar89) exclaimed that it was crazy to return a 22-year-old TV. To this, the original poster of the photo said that the customer could have realized that after 20 years it just didn’t fit their space.

"This is WILD. 22 years later who just decides to roll in and return a TV?" wrote one user. Another added: "You have to be an absolutely psychotic human being to do this."

To this, another user (@Garjin) replied that the customer did get the money back. However, this hasn’t been verified.

More than just ‘liberal’

Sharing a similar ridiculous account, another user (@UrsulaStoleMyVoice) said that they had once come across a customer who was trying to return a set of plates that were purchased in 1999. The reason for the return? “One of the plates broke”, the user wrote.

In this case, the user who posted the photo told Daily Mail that they weren’t sure if the return was completed but they sure overheard the associates suggesting that the purchase was made in 2002. “I just saw the associates processing. Their response was 'falls within guidelines' along with a large shrug,” the user also wrote in one of the replies.

Costco’s return policies allow several items to be returned anytime after the purchase. This was seen in another viral case where a woman returned a 2-and-a-half-year-old used couch just because they didn’t like it anymore.

TikTok creator and Costco shopper Jackie Nguyen shared a TikTok video of her return experience where she said she was given a full refund of the original price on her card. However, Costo’s current policy says that electronics items need to be returned within a 90-day window. However, this wasn’t the case before. In a story published by the LA Times, it was reported that Costco had a different policy which had an infinite return window even for electronics as well until 2007. The story titled "Costco halts liberal electronics return policy" said that the retail chain had been losing 'tens of millions of dollars' a year on returned consumer electronics, thus, it was changing the return policy for those items.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 13, 2024. It has since been updated.