Costco won't deliver my bottled water!!!

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Take a duffle bag and hop on the DTD bus. Get off at the 2nd bus stop walk across the streat to the Hess station and buy a case of water for $3.99 cheapest suggestion you will get on here.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Well, got an email today about my order - saying my credit card had been declined. (???) So I wonder if I put the information in correctly (???) - anyway - can't find what billing information I put in under "my order" or "my account" on the costco website - I will have to call. I am leaving for the States tomorrow so I may not have time to mess with it till I get home - good thing I ordered two refillable water bottles from Avon - we may be using those!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Bank says 3 digit code failed - so now trying to decide if I should try another order from Costco or order from another site. I must of entered the code incorrectly and I was all worried about whether or not it would ship!

 

[crisi]

Way too Sassy for this thread! It's not about how much money you give the company, it's about word of mouth and customer loyalty that's important!

anyways, costco shipped this morning yeah!

But what sets different customers off isn't always the same thing. For instance, I think not shipping to hotels is a good thing - keeps fraud down, keeps fraud investigation costs lower to just cancel all these without manual review - and that means that Costco can continue to give me lower prices as a member, and better dividends and stock appreciation as a shareholder. To me this is a "thank God Costco is taking steps to manage fraud - because that is in my best interest" not "I can't get my water through Costco." So don't assume that everyone has the same reaction.

(I think there is a compromise in tuning the fraud alert - for small orders who cares if its fraudulant. And I talked to my husband about this who used to manage fraud systems for another large internet retailer - their process on something like this is manual - someone has to look at it and make a determination on if its fraud or not. If its suspected fraud, they can either push it for further investigation, or just cancel the order. An investigation costs more than your water costs - so it doesn't make sense to investigate it - so they either accept the risk or not based on a human beings gut about your order. I'm guessing you get someone who "gets" Disney and you are through, someone who just knows 'shipments to hotels are bad' and you get cancelled. According to my husband, his firm uses other metrics as well - e.g. if you typically order from them over the internet, you won't hit fraud for a small amount for this. If you aren't a regular internet customer, your purchases will hit fraud if the billing address on the credit card and the shipping address don't match - no matter what the amount is.)

 

[Metsfan520]

I would be searching the internet to find a president, CEO or someone at the top of the company to complain to. This isn't acceptable by any means.

I'm sorry, but Costco is protecting themselves. I'm sure a majority of customers who are having things shipped to hotels are not stealing from anyone, but Costco had to do something for the itsy-bitsy percentage that are. How do they figure out who's honest & who isn't? It makes more sense to say no more deliveries to hotels rather than only cutting off big items. As usual, the honest people have to pay for the dishonest ones. Costco has to do whatever it can to prevent losing money. Honestly, as a Costco member I'm kind of glad that they are doing this--they are keeping their costs down, and as I'm sure you know, the cost of stealing is passed on to the consumer.

 

[Metsfan520]

But what sets different customers off isn't always the same thing. For instance, I think not shipping to hotels is a good thing - keeps fraud down, keeps fraud investigation costs lower to just cancel all these without manual review - and that means that Costco can continue to give me lower prices as a member, and better dividends and stock appreciation as a shareholder. To me this is a "thank God Costco is taking steps to manage fraud - because that is in my best interest" not "I can't get my water through Costco." So don't assume that everyone has the same reaction.

(I think there is a compromise in tuning the fraud alert - for small orders who cares if its fraudulant. And I talked to my husband about this who used to manage fraud systems for another large internet retailer - their process on something like this is manual - someone has to look at it and make a determination on if its fraud or not. If its suspected fraud, they can either push it for further investigation, or just cancel the order. An investigation costs more than your water costs - so it doesn't make sense to investigate it - so they either accept the risk or not based on a human beings gut about your order. I'm guessing you get someone who "gets" Disney and you are through, someone who just knows 'shipments to hotels are bad' and you get cancelled. According to my husband, his firm uses other metrics as well - e.g. if you typically order from them over the internet, you won't hit fraud for a small amount for this. If you aren't a regular internet customer, your purchases will hit fraud if the billing address on the credit card and the shipping address don't match - no matter what the amount is.)

Looks like great minds think alike! (except you said it better than I did)

 

[shystalips]

To everyone who is concerned about costco not shipping water, I just placed an order on Saturday Sept 19 for arrival on Sept 25 to pop century and now my order status says shipped. Est. delivery date Sept. 23. I am a costco member, and registered through the website if that makes a difference. When filling out the shipping address I did as follows:
Full name (name line 1)
hold for guest arrival 9/25 res#......... (name line 2)
Pop century
1050 Century Drive
Lake Beuna Vista, FL 32830

when placing the order I went through the business section of website.
hope this helps someone, was beginning to worry

 

[Lewisc]

I suspect water delivery sales, with free delivery, is a money loser, even if there aren't any complications.

Hotels sometimes impose package acceptance fees. There is conflicting reports regarding current Disney policy. A guest might refuses the fee and refuses to accept delivery. COSTCO is stuck paying return shipping and possibly also paying a fee to Disney. More likely COSTCO will just ask Disney to discard the water.

Shipping to any address, other then the credit card billing address, is never a good idea. Shipping to an alternate address, cardholders work address, makes sense (if it's verified). Shipping to a temporary address (hotel) makes no sense. The minuscule profit (if any) on a case of water doesn't justify whatever steps would be required to make an exception to policy.

JMO but COSTCO is doing the right thing.

I'm not sure why anyone is shocked. The supervisor gave you an honest answer.

I would think that if they could monitor which orders were being shipped where, they could also see that my $7.50 bottled water order was not a big screen tv and that the delivery address was to a disney resort and not a motel 6 on i-70.

I actually spoke to the supervisor at Costco and asked her if she realized how much money they would lose with this policy just from the "online community" that I belong to (meaning the Dis, but I didn't want to name drop) and her reply was, "Well I doubt if it is a significant amount, compared to our day to day sales numbers."

After hearing this I was in shock <------this was the look on my face.

I politely informed her that I would let my fellow online community members know that Costco was not interested in their business and she said, "sounds great, thanks" and hung up!

I just thought you should all know how Costco thinks about it's customers.

Thank you captainj for letting me and the others know. Also, I am shocked at how you were treated on the phone! I am normally a BJ's customer but was going to use Costco for the water on our trip - now no way! That is absolutely no way to treat your customers and most especially recurring ones!!

 

[hipchickie]

I'm not sure why anyone is shocked. The supervisor gave you an honest answer.

Seriously, you don't find that rude? Really?


Really?
As a business owner I would be horrified to hear an employee talk to any customer like that, no matter how "small" their order.

 

[Lewisc]

Seriously, you don't find that rude? Really?


Really?
As a business owner I would be horrified to hear an employee talk to any customer like that, no matter how "small" their order.

Really. Absolutely not rude. A customer tells a superivosor how much money COSTCO will lose, from DIS members, as a result of this new policy. The supervisor honestly tells the internet sales of water (shipped to hotels) isn't significant. I'm surprised the supervisor is being so honest with the customer.

A thought. costo.com only sells Nestle water, including local brands owned by Nestle. My guess is the order is being shipped by a third party. It's possible the decision wasn't even made by costco.

 

[4Seasons]

I suspect water delivery sales, with free delivery, is a money loser, even if there aren't any complications.
Hotels sometimes impose package acceptance fees. There is conflicting reports regarding current Disney policy. A guest might refuses the fee and refuses to accept delivery. COSTCO is stuck paying return shipping and possibly also paying a fee to Disney. More likely COSTCO will just ask Disney to discard the water.

Shipping to any address, other then the credit card billing address, is never a good idea. Shipping to an alternate address, cardholders work address, makes sense (if it's verified). Shipping to a temporary address (hotel) makes no sense. The minuscule profit (if any) on a case of water doesn't justify whatever steps would be required to make an exception to policy.

JMO but COSTCO is doing the right thing.

I'm not sure why anyone is shocked. The supervisor gave you an honest answer.

As much as I hate to say it, I agree with this. I doubt there is any profit at all for Costco in delivering a $6.99 case of water for free, and with things being tight for alot of businesses big and small I think they are probably justified in what they are doing.

 

[hipchickie]

Now when I read that, I hear the complete disregard for the customer and fake chipper tone. Hmm.

So you are saying that she said "sounds great, thanks!" Because she was being honest, and really *did* think that was a great idea, and was thanking the poster for doing it.... not because she was being condescending and could care less what that customer did or said, as long as he hung up the phone and quit bugging her?

 

[Lewisc]

I'm not sure "regular" delivery of bottled water is profitable. I have little doubt delivery of bottled water to a hotel is not profitable.

The costco supervisor honestly assured the customer the amount of business being lost as a result of the new policy will be insignifcant.

The customer (rudely?) suggested (threatened) the superivosr with telling people on internet boards costco no longer wants their business. A company doesn't want unprofitable business.

Really no point in continuing the conversation.

 

[crisi]

Now when I read that, I hear the complete disregard for the customer and fake chipper tone. Hmm.

So you are saying that she said "sounds great, thanks!" Because she was being honest, and really *did* think that was a great idea, and was thanking the poster for doing it.... not because she was being condescending and could care less what that customer did or said, as long as he hung up the phone and quit bugging her?

Here is what the supervisor is thinking...

"Internet site" = "Fat Wallet"

Internet ecommerce companies hate Fat Wallet. It the Fat Wallet community stopped giving my husband's company business - their profitability would go up.

She's thinking PLEASE tell your internet friends to stop using our services in a way that costs us money.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Here is what the supervisor is thinking...

"Internet site" = "Fat Wallet"

Internet ecommerce companies hate Fat Wallet. It the Fat Wallet community stopped giving my husband's company business - their profitability would go up.

She's thinking PLEASE tell your internet friends to stop using our services in a way that costs us money.

Also from what I know about customer service jobs if the customer starts getting irate and threatening anything you are to just tell them have a nice day, or I will connect you to the correct department to complain, cancel your service etc. They aren't required to listen to threats and complaints. Their job is to tell you have a nice day and get off the phone. Not argue with you or give you what you want when they can't.

 

[hipchickie]

What is Fat Wallet?


If they are not making a profit, or even losing money, then make a business decision to not offer it. No problem.
Don't cxl the order and not even notify the customer
Don't allow some and not others.

easy peasy

 

[dclfun]

I only read the first few pages and the last, so I don't know if this was even brought up. There is much talk about buying locally to help the environment and support local businesses. Having trucks of water delivered by a vehicle burning gas and a company paying an employee to deliver really isn't the best use of resources. Then you have the resort that has to have space to store it, and often guests then want it to be delivered to their room as a free service. All that for $6.99. I'm not sure why everyone needs bottled water anyway, although I do realize there are some who really do need it for health reasons, and some who don't like the taste of local water. And yes I understand why people don't like to drink out of fountains, although we've done it for years at the parks to save money and all of us survived. I think of all those plastic bottles in landfills and cringe. I'm not a nutty environmentalist either, although we have made some lifestyle changes to do our part to help the earth. With all but the value resorts at WDW and many offsite resorts having fridges, why not just bring a refillable container, fill it up at night for each member of your party and freeze what you'll need for the parks with filtered water from the food court? That would cut down tremendously on all the labor and costs used to produce and deliver that 24 pack.---Kathy

 

[Planogirl]

I don't think that the supervisor had anything to do with the new policy. People always think that supervisors can control policy but no. She could have however explained a little more nicely.

 

[Anal Annie]

I'm not sure "regular" delivery of bottled water is profitable. I have little doubt delivery of bottled water to a hotel is not profitable.
The costco supervisor honestly assured the customer the amount of business being lost as a result of the new policy will be insignifcant.

The customer (rudely?) suggested (threatened) the superivosr with telling people on internet boards costco no longer wants their business. A company doesn't want unprofitable business.

Really no point in continuing the conversation.

But see the thing here is that it's NOT DELIVERED, it's shipped via UPS. So profit has nothing to do with it. They have their profit built into their product prices already. Then they simply add shipping which is calculated however it is that they calculate shipping on any other internet order. So IMO profit has nothing to do with this.

As far as shipping to a different address than the billing address - who here hasn't ordered something and had it shipped to their work. Maybe to deter theft from their porch, maybe as a Christmas present that they want to hide...or just because they don't want a package sitting on their porch in bad weather. I have ordered online from a lot of places and had it shipped to my office probably 50% of the time. If I order something for my DS as a surprise I don't want him coming home from school and finding it before I get home. Some people order things as gifts and have it shipped directly to the person they're buying it for. My FIL does this a lot when he orders something for our DS. They can't just stop having different bill to / ship to addresses - that is just too common and too convenient for a lot of people. There must be something else behind this. If it's fraud behind it then maybe they need to start shipping things with a signature required on delivery.

 

[crisi]

But see the thing here is that it's NOT DELIVERED, it's shipped via UPS. So profit has nothing to do with it. They have their profit built into their product prices already. Then they simply add shipping which is calculated however it is that they calculate shipping on any other internet order. So IMO profit has nothing to do with this.

As far as shipping to a different address than the billing address - who here hasn't ordered something and had it shipped to their work. Maybe to deter theft from their porch, maybe as a Christmas present that they want to hide...or just because they don't want a package sitting on their porch in bad weather. I have ordered online from a lot of places and had it shipped to my office probably 50% of the time. If I order something for my DS as a surprise I don't want him coming home from school and finding it before I get home. Some people order things as gifts and have it shipped directly to the person they're buying it for. My FIL does this a lot when he orders something for our DS. They can't just stop having different bill to / ship to addresses - that is just too common and too convenient for a lot of people. There must be something else behind this. If it's fraud behind it then maybe they need to start shipping things with a signature required on delivery.

Work is a low fraud situation - workplaces are stable and if I address it to Annie, there needs to be an Annie working there to get it to you. Hotels are a high fraud situation, because I can check in with my stolen ID, have stuff delivered to me for two days, check out and disappear.

Costco has, I believe, free shipping. So shipping costs are built into orders. I doubt they cover shipping costs on any order less than $50.

You should see the fraud databases used to tag things - these companies know whether the address you are giving is your current employer .... even sometimes the home address of someone you are connected with - relatives are easy, the scary thing is the fraud system could predict who my friends were. They are pretty complex systems.