A COSTCO member has said they left $500 worth of groceries behind after the retailer insisted her family could not pay by splitting the bill among them because of a payment policy. The shopper aired her complaint on Facebook , saying her family felt discriminated against for being persons of color. For some of them, this was their first time at Costco too.
She said they had an "unkind and repulsive experience" with the customer service provided by the employees who went to assist at the self-checkout registers. They wanted to split the bill , but the store said only the member could pay for the items. "Coming from a minority background, we are an educated group of people, as well as financially stable," she said.
"We were bullied and treated like criminals, when the reality was - each member of our family wanted to pay for their own share of items. "Despite living in the same household and sharing one membership, the cashier notified us of a policy that requires the same payment method to be used as the membership holder; and yet made no effort to show where it is stated in the Costco policy terms," the shopper added. She then said the employee brought this to the attention of other co-workers, who repeated to the family the same message: it's the rule.
"Then the cashier by the name of Jennifer, ambushed me and arrogantly stated, 'oh so you didn't even use your own card to pay?' Why does this employee deem it acceptable to be within that proximity to a paying customer?" the s.
