No wonder I got such a pushy hard sell to upgrade. I was flat out promised that the upgrade couldn't possibly cost me more, even if I didn't shop very often and never took any special action. This was a lie, I lost around $100, and I stopped shopping at Costco.
The upgraded membership is 60usd more than the normal, gives you 2% back on purchases, and they will refund it to you if you ask, so not sure how you could lose 100 on that.
Maybe it was 60. I literally asked the cashier: "I will not remember to request a refund. Will it be automatically credited to me if I do not meet the threshold?", and they told me yes.
The point is - I didn't "ask" anybody to upgrade, this was pushed harder than a time share.
How about I rephrase: "I felt lied to and taken advantage of, and I decided not to bother being a customer any longer, given that I shopped there very infrequently and despise high pressure sales tactics."
In the end, this is about my personal customer experience, which I've subjectively decided sucked enough to outweigh the utility I got from Costco membership. I can't stand pushy salespeople, and I basically argued with the cashier for several minutes telling him that I didn't want to upgrade. I said no at least five or six times.
I should have just stuck to my position, but after I was told that there was literally no way to lose money even if I never took any action to get a refund, I caved because I wanted to go home.
