Why You Might Want To Avoid Ordering Large Items From Costco

Costco: your favorite place for pizza, hot dogs, cheesecakes, pre-made cheeseboards, massive pecan pies, and ... sofas? Maybe not. Not if you're planning on ordering White Glove Delivery Service to help you install your Costco-purchased furniture, anyway.

Don't get us wrong. The quality of Costco-purchased furniture gets pretty decent reviews on Reddit most of the time. And if you're home-improvement skills are HGTV-worthy, maybe skip this article. You can order your furniture, and set it up all by yourself.  

But if you're like us, and spend your time watching shows like Bobby and Giada in Italy and Hell's Kitchen instead of Fixer Upper and Home Town, and if you prefer to be experimenting with comfort food queen Ina Garten's mashed potatoes recipe rather than messing around with Ikea furniture instructions, read on. Because while Costco promises  the "best of the best" when you purchase its White Glove Delivery Service, some disappointed customers have come away with horror stories.

On Thursday, February 4, 2021, a confused Costco customer took to Reddit, writing " What's going on with Costco customer service?" The customer in question had ordered a 200-pound piece of furniture that was 60 inches in length. They'd also ordered Costco's White Glove Delivery service, and had hoped to keep a distance during installation, due, presumably, to COVID. Costco sent a single person to set it up. "Ultimately I decide to help him both to carry the furniture and also put down some floor protectors I had. I also had to help him lean down the furniture to install the legs etc," the customer wrote, frustrated. Costco's customer service told them, "since you did half of the work, we will refund you the half."

Theirs is far from the only complaint on the internet. Another Reddit thread, dated nine months ago, detailed the botched installation of a washer and dryer. The delivery service neither provided "notice" they were showing up, nor brought all the parts, forcing the customer into going out to buy them, and "didn't know how to stack the units."

Trust Pilot is full of similar stories. For example, the customer who ordered two leather couches with White Glove delivery, only to have it delivered outside of scheduled times, and with no extra installation help. All of which is enough to convince us to stick with Costco's glorious food court, from now on.