6 ms·

This reminds of a Costco bug I discovered, it appears that they fixed it lol. So, Costco runs AS/400 in stores, and their online store is in .Net MVC. I worked

by avgDev 5y ago

This reminds of a Costco bug I discovered, it appears that they fixed it lol. So, Costco runs AS/400 in stores, and their online store is in .Net MVC. I worked with both technologies and often have to communicate with AS/400 devs and they are close to their retirement so little fucks are given. Plus, working with DB2 is annoying in general, the .NET data provider from IBM is expensive and sucks. Now onto the bug, when you purchased items online at a discount, you were able to return to store at a full price as their systems were not communicating that a discount was applied. I returned several items, but did not realize until I bought a laptop that was $400 off and tried returning it. I ended up calling Costco and letting them know. Unfortunately, they didn't give me any lifetime membership or a good citizen award. If any Costco devs read this and know about this send me some love.

windexh8er 5y ago
Costco still has issues of resolving discounts on a return. I won't state the bug explicitly but I had a conversation with them about how they refunded me a significant amount I never paid on a large purchase and showed them the delta via receipts. Local management was appreciative but didn't seem to have an idea of how to proceed to make things right. Ultimately they said my account would be flagged as owing the difference so the next time I shopped I would be charged for the incorrect refund. The problem is that that didn't work either and I don't shop there often. I tried to do the right thing but ultimately it ends up being their responsibility to handle it when the customer is standing right in front of them showing their loss of revenue.
- giantg2 5y ago
  "I tried to do the right thing but ultimately it ends up being their responsibility to handle it when the customer is standing right in front of them showing their loss of revenue." I bought some lions mane mushrooms from a grocery store, which cost $10-12 per lbs. The cashier rang them up as "regular" (button) mushrooms at $2 per lbs. I pointed out the mistake and she tried to correct it but chose the button mushroom again. I brought it up a second time and she selected a different incorrect mushroom at a slight increase ($4/lb?). At that point, I gave up. She's the one ringing it up. I tried.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - idiotsecant 5y ago
    Where in the world can you buy lions mane mushrooms in a grocery store? I have been seriously debating growing my own because i cant find them.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      Wegmans has them sometimes. I have two local/independent stores that also carry them. Although, I grow my own due to price. Occasionally I'll get some from a small scale producer who sells to the two local stores.
    - kf 5y ago
      Berkeley Bowl
  - bikingbismuth 5y ago
    I was in dire need of an Cat 5 cable a few years ago and went to Walmart to get one. Until this point I had always made my own cables, so when I saw the price ($40ish) I was floored. Unfortunately, I had to buy it anyway. As I was checking out I had that cable and a small bag of beef jerky. The cashier wasn’t paying attention and didn’t engage with me at all. She scanned the beef jerky and moved the cable across the scanner, but it didn’t register. She told me it would be ~$3.50. I considered telling her that missed the cable but given the fact I was mad about the cable costing so much I didn’t say anything. I always wondered if I would feel bad about doing that, but several years later I still don’t.
    - kortilla 5y ago
      You just stole it. I don’t see how this is even a grey area. Can you walk me through the thinking of “the cashier touched it, so now it’s mine?”
      - xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
mleonhard 5y ago
I met someone many years ago who bragged that they did this with sales tax. They purchased expensive items at Costco in Oregon, paying 0% sales tax, and then returned those items in Washington and received a full refund plus 10% sales tax. This was the first time I met a person who appeared normal but lacked social mores against fraud.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- seabreezy 5y ago
  In grade school a class mate told me how to mail letters for free: print where the letter _should be sent_ in the return address, print anything for the apparent delivery address, apply no stamp, and drop in a public mail bin. The letter will be sent "back" to the return address because postage was not paid. When I got home later that day I excitedly shared with my parents the new hack I had learned and they told me it was wrong because it was stealing. I had been so taken with the neatness of the scheme I did not register its immorality.
  - tomschlick 5y ago
    I would expect that postage scam to only work in the same geographic area. If you put a return as California but dropped it in the box in NY I dont know if they would return it, would they? If so I would imagine they have anti-fraud measures against doing this in mass.
    - harshreality 5y ago
      A postmark is applied where the post office receives the letter. If the return address isn't in the post office's service area and there's no postmark, it's fraudulent. I'd be shocked if the automated systems don't check for that before applying a postmark.
      - davchana 5y ago
rot13xor 5y ago
I'd expect Costco would require receipts for returns, even for online purchases, like most stores. Then the store would only refund the amount after discounts. But perhaps Costco is more trusting of their customers because they have to pay for membership.
- sojournerc 5y ago
  I'm a member and am nearly certain they can just lookup what you've bought on the membership. They scan the member card for any purchase.

by avgDev 5y ago

windexh8er 5y ago

Costco still has issues of resolving discounts on a return. I won't state the bug explicitly but I had a conversation with them about how they refunded me a significant amount I never paid on a large purchase and showed them the delta via receipts. Local management was appreciative but didn't seem to have an idea of how to proceed to make things right. Ultimately they said my account would be flagged as owing the difference so the next time I shopped I would be charged for the incorrect refund. The problem is that that didn't work either and I don't shop there often. I tried to do the right thing but ultimately it ends up being their responsibility to handle it when the customer is standing right in front of them showing their loss of revenue.

giantg2 5y ago
"I tried to do the right thing but ultimately it ends up being their responsibility to handle it when the customer is standing right in front of them showing their loss of revenue." I bought some lions mane mushrooms from a grocery store, which cost $10-12 per lbs. The cashier rang them up as "regular" (button) mushrooms at $2 per lbs. I pointed out the mistake and she tried to correct it but chose the button mushroom again. I brought it up a second time and she selected a different incorrect mushroom at a slight increase ($4/lb?). At that point, I gave up. She's the one ringing it up. I tried.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- idiotsecant 5y ago
  Where in the world can you buy lions mane mushrooms in a grocery store? I have been seriously debating growing my own because i cant find them.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    Wegmans has them sometimes. I have two local/independent stores that also carry them. Although, I grow my own due to price. Occasionally I'll get some from a small scale producer who sells to the two local stores.
  - kf 5y ago
    Berkeley Bowl
- bikingbismuth 5y ago
  I was in dire need of an Cat 5 cable a few years ago and went to Walmart to get one. Until this point I had always made my own cables, so when I saw the price ($40ish) I was floored. Unfortunately, I had to buy it anyway. As I was checking out I had that cable and a small bag of beef jerky. The cashier wasn’t paying attention and didn’t engage with me at all. She scanned the beef jerky and moved the cable across the scanner, but it didn’t register. She told me it would be ~$3.50. I considered telling her that missed the cable but given the fact I was mad about the cable costing so much I didn’t say anything. I always wondered if I would feel bad about doing that, but several years later I still don’t.
  - kortilla 5y ago
    You just stole it. I don’t see how this is even a grey area. Can you walk me through the thinking of “the cashier touched it, so now it’s mine?”
    - xyzzy_plugh 5y ago

mleonhard 5y ago

I met someone many years ago who bragged that they did this with sales tax. They purchased expensive items at Costco in Oregon, paying 0% sales tax, and then returned those items in Washington and received a full refund plus 10% sales tax. This was the first time I met a person who appeared normal but lacked social mores against fraud.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
seabreezy 5y ago
In grade school a class mate told me how to mail letters for free: print where the letter _should be sent_ in the return address, print anything for the apparent delivery address, apply no stamp, and drop in a public mail bin. The letter will be sent "back" to the return address because postage was not paid. When I got home later that day I excitedly shared with my parents the new hack I had learned and they told me it was wrong because it was stealing. I had been so taken with the neatness of the scheme I did not register its immorality.
- tomschlick 5y ago
  I would expect that postage scam to only work in the same geographic area. If you put a return as California but dropped it in the box in NY I dont know if they would return it, would they? If so I would imagine they have anti-fraud measures against doing this in mass.
  - harshreality 5y ago
    A postmark is applied where the post office receives the letter. If the return address isn't in the post office's service area and there's no postmark, it's fraudulent. I'd be shocked if the automated systems don't check for that before applying a postmark.
    - davchana 5y ago

rot13xor 5y ago

I'd expect Costco would require receipts for returns, even for online purchases, like most stores. Then the store would only refund the amount after discounts. But perhaps Costco is more trusting of their customers because they have to pay for membership.

sojournerc 5y ago
I'm a member and am nearly certain they can just lookup what you've bought on the membership. They scan the member card for any purchase.