I’m a long-time Clark listener…over 30 yrs! This is my first time sending in a question.
I recently purchased tires at Costco in St. Augustine FL, and there was damage to my rims during the service. The manager was real nice and had me complete an insurance claim form and told me their insurance company is great about taking care of customers when they have a problem.
The next day I got a call from their insurance company, Gallager Basset, and it’s the worst customer service experience I’ve experienced during my 61 years on this planet.
The agent was extremely rude from the beginning. He barely let me talk and immediately told me they would not pay the claim. He started giving me reasons that were not real in the situation, trying to blame it on me. Every time I tried to dispute what he said he raised his voice and got more mean and aggressive. I said, “this is not the kind of service Costco gives and I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate you treating me so aggressively”. He said, “I am Costco because they are self insured”. I felt a bit traumatized when I got off the call.
I asked for his manager’s info which he gave me, but was nasty about it. I tried to call his manager several times and sent an email. I got no response. I called the manager back at Costco and she told me that after the claim is filed, it’s out of her hands. She said to go to the website and send an email to customer service. When I go to the website there is no way I can find to reach customer service.
At this point, I’m not sure how to get this resolved and it looks like I just got duped.
Do you know a better way I can get this resolved?
Try this: Take videos of the damage, the tire sales area, the storefront and location. Then go to the warehouse manager and tell them about your experience. If they don’t give you satisfaction tell them that you plan on asking a talented video editor/creator to put together an informative video of your story and publish it on the internet. That should spur the local manager into action.
Have you tried calling back and see if you get a different person?
Thanks for the great idea! I wonder if google allows a video in a review. I haven’t done a google review because I wanted to try to resolve it first. This would be a good addition to that.
Thanks for your reply and idea.
I tried calling the insurance company back, but only got a voice mail and no one calls me back. I haven’t called Costco back a third time. I may just go into the store and try one more time with a manager. The manager I spoke with said it’s now out of their hands because they sent it into the insurance company.
What a cop out. Washing their hands of it after filed with the insurance company. I would go straight to the store manager and not mess around with the low level flunkies. My daughter had an issue with a set of tires once and messed around too long with the first level manager to no avail. Once she went to the store manager everything got resolved quickly.
Your objective should be to get the results you want with the least amount of time and effort on your part.
What you are up against is a system that is designed to take advantage of the weaknesses in your case and to stop it at the lowest escalation level possible with least cost possible and still keep you as a customer. It’s likely that some bean counter in corporate came up with the "see the insurance people’ spiel, it’s there to dissuade you and wear down your patience.
The best way to work with their system is to convince them that you and your problem are not going away until you get satisfaction. So you have to make your problem their problem. The best way to do that is to have a convincing story and the willingness to take your case all the way up to the CEO if necessary. The route to the CEO includes someone that can fix your problem. If you fail to reach that person through company channels then the cheapest and most effective way to reach someone who cares is through social media. Usually just the threat of exposure of unfair dealing will motivate the local warehouse manager to fix your problem. People love watching videos of well-presented facts.
Take the video of the damage with you when you talk to the warehouse manager.
Suggestion: since you have already tried to work out the issue with the manager who sent you to the insurance company (bad decision), then having a bad experience with the insurance people, simply document everything, include photos of the damage and send it to the CEO of Costco. I would cc Consumer Reports in Yonkers, NY to let them know how poorly Costco treated you. I have done this on several occasions and within 5 business days I received a personal call from company headquarters; works every time.
Definitely a cop out on their part. I’ll see if there’s a higher level manager I can talk with. Thanks!
I agree. I feel like they were trying to wear me down and make me go away. Good idea, thanks!
That sounds like a simple and straight forward next step. Thanks!