Costco Electronics Return Policy 2026: 90-Day Rules

Costco's electronics rules are usually explained as a single number: 90 days. That number is right, and on its own it is close to useless — because a Costco electronics purchase is governed by two separate clocks, and the Costco return policy for electronics is only one of them. There is a 90-day window in which Costco will take the item back and refund you. There is a separate "up to 2 years" window in which Costco will fix it, replace it, or refund it under warranty. The two windows cover different product lists, start on different events, and end in different outcomes.

Conflating them is why a member with a 14-month-old failed television believes they have no options when they have ten more months of free coverage left, and why a member with a 14-month-old failed iPad believes the same thing and is, in that case, correct.

The short answer

Costco accepts returns on televisions, projectors, computers, tablets, smart wearables, cameras, drones, camcorders, MP3 players, cell phones and major appliances within 90 days of the date the member received the merchandise. Separately, Costco extends the manufacturer's warranty to up to two years — but only on televisions, projectors, computers and major appliances. Everything else in that list gets the 90-day cap and no extension.

The two clocks on every Costco electronics purchase

The return clock and the warranty clock are written in two different Costco documents, and they diverge on almost every detail that matters: length, start date, covered list and remedy. Reading them side by side is the whole trick.

The practical consequence: inside 90 days you do not need a reason. You decided you do not like the TV, and that is sufficient. After day 91 you need a defect, and you need it to be a defect the manufacturer's own warranty covers, because Costco's second year follows the manufacturer's terms rather than replacing them: CU1618 says Costco's warranty mirrors the manufacturer's in the second year, and CU1536 says the manufacturer's warranty governs the specific coverage terms.

Which electronics get only 90 days

Costco's official return policy, document CU2573, carves these categories out of the open-ended satisfaction guarantee and caps them at 90 days from the date the member received the merchandise:

• Televisions
• Projectors
• Major Appliances — refrigerators above 10 cu. ft., freezers, ranges, cooktops, over-the-range and under-counter microwaves, range hoods, dishwashers, water heaters, washers and dryers
• Computers
• Touchscreen Tablets
• Smart Wearable Devices
• Cameras
• Aerial Cameras (drones)
• Camcorders
• MP3 players
• Cellular Phones — Costco notes that "return details will vary by carrier service contract"

Costco also applies a 90-day window to recreational carts ordered online.

The clock starts on delivery, not on checkout

This is the most consequential sentence in the policy and the one most often paraphrased wrong. CU2573 measures the 90 days "from the date the member received the merchandise." For a warehouse purchase you carry out yourself, received and purchased are the same day. For a Costco.com order of a refrigerator scheduled three weeks out, they are three weeks apart — and those three weeks belong to you.

Treat the date the item actually arrived — the delivery confirmation, not the scheduled date and not the charge date on your statement — as day zero. A scheduled delivery date that slipped is not the date you received it.

Which electronics have no stated deadline

If a product is not named in the list above, CU2573 sets no window for it at all. In practice that functions as an open-ended return right under the Risk-Free 100% Satisfaction Guarantee — but note that the document grants it by silence rather than by stating a term. CU2573 states the guarantee in two parts: Costco will cancel and refund a membership fee "at any time if you are dissatisfied," and it guarantees satisfaction on merchandise and will refund the purchase price, subject to the listed exceptions.

Because the 90-day carve-out is a closed list, a great deal of what shoppers think of as "electronics" is not subject to it:

• Headphones and earbuds, including AirPods
• Bluetooth and smart speakers
• Keyboards, mice and external drives
• Cables, chargers and adapters
• Video game consoles and handheld gaming devices
• Routers, modems and mesh networking kits
• Smart lights, plugs and thermostats
• Printers and scanners

A useful test: ask whether the item is on CU2573's list by name. A smartwatch plainly falls under "Smart Wearable Devices," so a smartwatch is capped. Nothing names headphones, so headphones are not on the list. That is a policy distinction, not a loophole. It is also not a licence: CU2573 states the guarantee is subject to exceptions and limitations, so the open-ended window is a policy Costco administers, not a contractual right to treat the warehouse as a rental counter.

AirPods are headphones, and CU2573 names no headphone category, so the document sets no window for them; it also does not say whether Costco counts earbuds as smart wearable devices, so confirm at the returns counter before relying on a return after 90 days.

Security cameras and webcams are a closer call than earbuds. CU2573 caps "Cameras" without defining the word, and by the name test above a security camera or a webcam is a camera, so treat both as capped at 90 days unless the returns counter tells you otherwise.

Costco's free warranty extension to 2 years: which electronics qualify

Here is the half of the picture most guides omit entirely. Under Costco document CU1536, version 11.0, published 25 August 2026, "Costco extends the manufacturer's warranty on the following items for up to 2 years" — measured "from the date of warehouse purchase or date of delivery if the item was purchased online."

The covered list is much shorter than the 90-day list:

Seven of the eleven capped categories get the restriction without the compensation. A camera, a drone and a smartwatch are all cut off at 90 days and then left to the manufacturer's bare warranty. A laptop bought the same day is cut off at 90 days and then covered by Costco for up to two years.

"Up to 2 years" means to the two-year mark, not plus two years

CU1536's phrasing is "for up to 2 years ... from the date of warehouse purchase." That is a destination, not an addition. A television sold with a one-year manufacturer warranty gains a second year. A television sold with a two-year manufacturer warranty gains nothing, because it is already at the ceiling.

The distinction is worth stating precisely when you call: you are asking Costco to cover a failure that falls after the manufacturer's warranty expired but before the 24-month mark from purchase or delivery.

What the second year actually promises

Three limits are written into CU1536 and the major-appliance document, and all three are worth knowing before you call:

1. Costco extends, it does not upgrade. CU1536 says the manufacturer's warranty governs the specific coverage terms, and for major appliances CU1618 says Costco's warranty mirrors the manufacturer's in the second year. Neither document promises coverage the manufacturer never offered — so if the manufacturer excluded your failure mode, confirm scope on the call rather than assuming Costco fills the gap.
2. Costco picks the remedy. It reserves the right to satisfy the second-year obligation through repair, replacement, or a refund up to the purchase price — at Costco's choice, not yours.
3. The common exclusions are broad. CU1536 names "data backup and software replacement, physical damage, liquid damage," plus inadequate use such as running a residential unit in a commercial setting. CU1536 also advises backing up computers frequently.

How to reach Costco Technical & Warranty Services

Warranty claims do not go through the returns counter. They go to Costco Technical & Warranty Services at 1-866-861-0450. CU1536 states that English- and Spanish-speaking agents are available, that calls are answered and handled in the U.S., and that the service is available only to U.S. Costco members. CU2573 also links a guided assistant at concierge.costco.com.

If you are inside 90 days, go to the returns counter instead — a refund is faster and unconditional. The warranty line is for day 91 onward.

Years three to five: the Allstate option

CU1536 describes paid Allstate Protection Plans as the layer above Costco's own coverage. In the television example on Costco's page, Costco covers the first two years and "the following 3 [are] covered by Allstate," producing a combined ceiling of up to five years.

Whether that is worth buying is a different question, and the Federal Trade Commission's consumer guidance on extended warranties and service contracts (March 2023) is blunt about the test: "It's not a good value if it doesn't offer more coverage than the warranty that came with the product," and "An extended warranty or service contract might not be worth the cost if a product isn't likely to need repairs." The FTC also notes that such a contract "is different from the warranties that may automatically come with a product."

Applied to Costco specifically: in the example Costco itself publishes, the Allstate years sit on top of Costco's two rather than overlapping them. That is the arrangement to check for, because a plan that instead starts at the date of purchase is worth two years less than its sticker suggests. The FTC's own topics to pin down are the costs, including deductibles, fees, whether you must pay to ship the product to a repair center and whether the contract caps reimbursement; the reputation of whoever is offering it; the length of coverage; what is actually covered, including accidental damage and whether coverage can be denied for skipped maintenance; and how claims are filed.

Major appliances are governed by a narrower list

Major appliances have their own document, CU1618 version 3.0, published 3 March 2026, and it is the most recently revised of the two appliance-facing pages — though CU1536 is newer still, and CU2573 v18.0 dates from 2 October 2025. It states that "Costco will accept returns within 90 days from the date you receive the following Major Appliances," then lists: refrigerators (more than 10 cubic feet), water heaters, washers, dryers, dishwashers, freezers, ranges, cooktops, and over-the-range microwaves.

It adds the warranty line directly: "In addition, we extend the manufacturer's warranty on Major Appliances to two years" — across all manufacturers and all the listed appliances — with Costco Technical & Warranty Services providing the assistance, its warranty mirroring the manufacturer's in the second year, and Costco choosing between repair, replacement and a refund up to the purchase price.

A genuine discrepancy between Costco's own documents

Costco's three documents do not list the same appliances. We checked all three on 11 October 2026:

We are not going to guess at what Costco means by the gap. The honest reading is that under-counter microwaves and range hoods are clearly inside the 90-day return cap and are not clearly inside the two-year warranty extension. If you own one and it fails in month 14, call 1-866-861-0450 and ask — do not assume either answer from a published list that disagrees with itself.

What to do when the 90 days are gone

Most searches that land on this page are not from someone deciding whether to buy. They are from someone holding a dead device and a receipt that is too old. Work the three zones in order.

Zone 1 — day 0 to day 90: take it back

1. Find the date you received the item, from the Costco.com order detail page or the warehouse receipt.
2. Gather the item and all included accessories, plus the packaging if you still have it. No Costco document requires the original box; bringing a complete item is practical advice, not policy.
3. Our advice, not Costco's rule — CU2573 says nothing about this: on Apple devices and most phones, sign out of your account and factory reset before you leave home. An activation-locked device is one the next buyer cannot use.
4. CU2573: "Products purchased at a Costco location need to be returned at the returns counter at any Costco warehouse." Items ordered online "can be returned at any Costco warehouse -or- you can initiate a return through Costco.com."
5. Expect the refund to the original payment method. Our guide to how long a refund takes covers why a card refund can still take several business days to appear after the counter says "done."

Zone 2 — day 91 to month 24: call the warranty line

1. Confirm your product is one of the four extended categories: television, projector, computer, or a listed major appliance. Tablets, phones, cameras, drones, camcorders, wearables and MP3 players are not.
2. Find the date of warehouse purchase, or the delivery date for an online order. The two-year ceiling runs from that date.
3. Check whether the manufacturer's own warranty is still running. If it is, Costco's extension has not kicked in yet and the manufacturer may be the faster route.
4. Read the manufacturer's warranty for the failure mode you actually have. CU1536 says those terms govern, so a failure the manufacturer excludes is unlikely to be one Costco covers.
5. Call 1-866-861-0450. Have the member number, the item, the purchase or delivery date, and a plain description of the symptom.
6. Back up any data first. Software and data restoration are named exclusions.

Zone 3 — past two years, or outside the covered categories

The warehouse and the warranty line are both done. What remains is thinner, but it is not nothing:

1. The manufacturer's own warranty may be longer than two years. Check the warranty card that came in the box — some categories, sealed refrigeration systems and compressors in particular, are commonly warranted well beyond two years. Costco's extension ending does not end the manufacturer's.
2. Implied warranties under state law may still be alive. See the next section.
3. A card dispute is a separate track with its own clock. If the charge itself is the problem rather than the product, our guide to disputing a credit card charge walks the billing-error and claims-and-defenses routes. Note that these are not a substitute for a warranty claim on a product that simply broke.

What federal warranty law actually gives you

Two federal rules sit underneath every Costco electronics purchase, and both are more useful than they sound.

Implied warranties: what a written warranty cannot take away

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, enacted 4 January 1975, is explicit. 15 U.S.C. § 2308(a) provides:

No supplier may disclaim or modify (except as provided in subsection (b)) any implied warranty to a consumer with respect to such consumer product if (1) such supplier makes any written warranty to the consumer with respect to such consumer product, or (2) at the time of sale, or within 90 days thereafter, such supplier enters into a service contract with the consumer which applies to such consumer product.

Subsection (b) allows implied warranties to "be limited in duration to the duration of a written warranty of reasonable duration, if such limitation is conscionable and is set forth in clear and unmistakable language and prominently displayed on the face of the warranty." Subsection (c) supplies the teeth: a disclaimer made in violation of the section "shall be ineffective for purposes of this chapter and State law."

In plain terms: a supplier that gave you a written warranty — on a Costco television, at least the manufacturer — cannot tell you that you have no implied warranty at all. It can tie that implied warranty's duration to the written one, but only clearly, prominently and conscionably. Section 2308 binds the supplier that made the written warranty, or that entered into a service contract with you at the sale or within 90 days of it; on its own it does not stop every seller in the chain from disclaiming. The practical length of that protection is set by your state's commercial code, which is why it is worth reading return policy laws by state before accepting "you're out of warranty" as the end of the conversation.

There is a pleasing coincidence in that statute worth not misreading: the 90 days in § 2308(a)(2) is a service-contract trigger under federal law and has nothing to do with Costco's 90-day return window. Two different clocks that share a number.

You can read the warranty before you buy

16 C.F.R. § 702.3, the FTC's pre-sale availability rule, applies to "consumer products actually costing the consumer more than $15.00." The seller of a product with a written warranty must make the warranty text "readily available for examination by the prospective buyer," either by displaying it in close proximity to the product or by furnishing it on request and posting signs that tell shoppers the warranties are available.

For a $1,400 television this is a real lever, and it costs nothing to pull. Ask for the manufacturer's warranty text before you pay. CU1536 says the manufacturer's warranty governs the coverage terms, so that document determines what your free second year is actually worth — and reading it in the warehouse is cheaper than discovering its exclusions in month 14.

FTC staff has also warned that, unless the warrantor supplies the parts or services free or has a Commission waiver, conditioning warranty coverage on the use of specified parts or service providers is generally prohibited by the Magnuson-Moss Act; the rule is 15 U.S.C. § 2302(c). That constrains the manufacturer, not you — so a manufacturer telling you that going through Costco's warranty service forfeits your coverage is making a claim worth questioning.

What Costco won't take back, and other return exceptions

Separate from the 90-day cap, CU2573 lists other exceptions to the guarantee. Some items are non-refundable outright; others are routed to their own return process or sold under a product-specific warranty:

Note what is not on this list: there is no restocking fee for electronics in CU2573, and no requirement that you keep the original box. Both are common assumptions and neither appears in the policy. If you are comparing, our guide to restocking fees covers the retailers that do charge them.

Diamonds over 1.00 carat, and a note on reading sources carefully

Diamonds sit outside the electronics rules but inside the same document, and the procedure is unusually specific. A member returning a diamond above 1.00 carat must present the original IGI and/or GIA certificates and receives a Jewelry Credit Memo, after which a Costco Graduate Gemologist inspects the stone for authenticity within 48 hours.

One honest caveat, because it illustrates how to use a policy page: CU2573 is internally inconsistent about the threshold, describing it in one place as "1.00ct or larger" and in another as "over 1.00ct." For a stone at exactly 1.00 carat, confirm with the warehouse rather than relying on either phrasing. A policy document that contradicts itself is still the best available source — it just means the edge case needs a phone call.

Your membership fee is refundable at any time

The sentence worth remembering from the Risk-Free 100% Satisfaction Guarantee has nothing to do with electronics: Costco will cancel and refund a membership fee "at any time if you are dissatisfied." There is no 90-day cap on that one.

That is a genuinely unusual term, and it is the reason the warehouse-club annual fee behaves differently from an ordinary subscription. If you are auditing recurring charges more broadly, a membership you no longer use is a different problem from one you cancelled and are still being billed for — we cover the second case in cancelled but still being charged.

Costco versus Best Buy on electronics

A side-by-side only helps if both numbers are current, so this table is limited to the two retailers whose policies we verified from primary sources in October 2026. For the rest, follow the links — each one tracks its own retailer's live terms.

Costco's 90 days is six times Best Buy's standard window and still 50 percent longer than Best Buy's paid 60-day tier. The free second year has no Best Buy equivalent. In exchange, Costco requires a membership and gives seven of its eleven capped categories no warranty extension at all — which is the trade worth understanding before you decide where to buy a camera. Best Buy's side of that trade: outside its eight exempt states and anywhere the fee is not prohibited by law, returning an opened digital camera, drone or projector there costs a 15 percent restocking fee.

Best Buy's return policy page listed no holiday return extension when we checked its 27 October 2026 copy. If you are buying gifts there, check the page again before you shop; until an extension is posted, assume the standard 15-day window (60 days for My Best Buy Plus and Total members) applies.

For the other major retailers, see our dedicated guides to Amazon electronics returns, Target electronics returns, Best Buy's full policy, Apple's policy, Samsung's policy and the warehouse-club comparison in our Sam's Club guide and BJ's Wholesale guide.

How often does any of this get used?

Returns are not an edge case in American retail. In its 2025 Retail Returns Landscape, the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns estimated that retailers expected 15.8 percent of annual sales to be returned in 2025, totalling $849.9 billion — down slightly from 16.9 percent and $890 billion the prior year. Online sales return at a higher rate, an estimated 19.3 percent.

Against that backdrop, a 90-day window is a meaningful consumer advantage and a meaningful operational cost, which is the tension that explains why the generous open-ended guarantee has a closed list of exceptions bolted onto it at all.

Does your Costco credit card extend the warranty? No.

For years the standard advice was to put large Costco electronics purchases on the Costco Anywhere Visa because the card added extended-warranty coverage on top of Costco's own. That advice is now wrong, and it is still widely repeated.

We last checked Citi's current benefits page for the Costco Anywhere Visa on 28 October 2026. The listed protections are Damage & Theft Purchase Protection, Worldwide Car Rental Insurance, travel and emergency assistance, roadside assistance dispatch, Citi Quick Lock, 24-hour fraud protection, no foreign transaction fees, Citi Entertainment, Citi Flex Pay and free FICO score access. Extended warranty does not appear. Neither does price protection.

Secondary reporting from late 2022 — including Mouse Print's coverage and Doctor of Credit's — reported that Citi ended the benefit for purchases made on or after 22 January 2023. We have verified the current absence of the benefit from Citi's own page; we are citing those two outlets, rather than a primary source, for the specific cutover date.

Two things follow. First, Damage & Theft Purchase Protection is not a warranty — as its name says, it addresses damage and theft, not a product that failed on its own. Citi's page says it may cover repairs or reimbursement if an item bought with the card is damaged or stolen within 120 days of purchase or delivery (90 days for New York residents); read the Guide to Benefits for the limits. Second, if you specifically want card-based warranty extension on a large purchase, it now has to come from a different card, because the Costco-branded one does not provide it.

A worked example: two devices, one shopping trip

Nothing makes the two-clock structure concrete faster than running real dates through it. Suppose on 1 March 2026 you walk into a warehouse and buy a television and an iPad, and you carry both out the same day. Both carry a one-year manufacturer warranty.

Now change one fact. Suppose the television was ordered on Costco.com on 1 March and delivered on 22 March. The return window now ends on 20 June, because CU2573 counts from the date you received it. The warranty ceiling now ends on 22 March 2028, because CU1536 counts from the delivery date for online orders. Three weeks of shipping moved both deadlines, and they moved together — which is the one case where the two documents happen to line up.

One caution on the arithmetic above: Costco's documents do not say whether the day you receive an item counts as day zero or day one, so a date computed to the last day of the window may be a day optimistic. Treat the final two days as gone.

The failure case to avoid is assuming it works the other way. If you bought in the warehouse but had the television delivered later, the two clocks start on different days: the return window from when it arrived, and — on a strict reading of CU1536's "date of warehouse purchase" — the warranty ceiling from when you paid. If that distinction is worth money to you, confirm it on the phone before you rely on it.

Cell phones: Costco's window is not the binding one

Cellular phones appear on the 90-day list, but CU2573 attaches a caveat to them that it attaches to nothing else: "return details will vary by carrier service contract." That single clause moves the real deadline off Costco's page and onto a document you signed with a carrier.

The structure to understand is that two agreements are running at once. Costco sold you hardware and will take the hardware back for 90 days. The carrier sold you service, often with a device-payment plan or an activation incentive, under its own return-and-cancellation terms. CU2573 does not tell you what those are, and they are frequently shorter than 90 days — which is exactly why Costco points you at your carrier contract instead of answering the question itself. Returning the phone to Costco on day 60 does not, by itself, unwind the carrier agreement — and an unwound-too-late agreement is where early termination charges, unreturned-device fees and clawed-back promotional credits live.

Three practical rules follow:

1. Find the carrier's window before you rely on Costco's. Treat the shorter of the two as your deadline. Our cell phone return policy guide carries the carrier-side numbers; Costco's own document does not.
2. Treat the line and the hardware as two separate cancellations. Handing the phone back at a Costco counter does not, on its own, end a service agreement, and the charges that can follow — termination fees, device-payment balances, reversed promotional credits — are set by the carrier contract, not by CU2573.
3. Keep the proof of both. The Costco return receipt proves the hardware went back. Only the carrier's confirmation proves the service agreement ended.

If a major appliance arrives damaged

Costco's three documents set no damage-reporting deadline. CU1618 does not state one, and CU2573 routes large freight-delivered items to a separate process whose terms we have not verified. That silence cuts both ways: nobody can point to a 24-hour or 48-hour rule in Costco's policy, and you should not assume you have the full 90 days to raise it either, because the delivery agent's own terms and the manufacturer's inspection requirements are separate documents with their own timelines.

The defensible approach is to treat the delivery itself as the deadline:

1. Inspect before the delivery crew leaves, including the sides and back of the unit.
2. Photograph any damage next to the packaging it arrived in, so the photos establish it was damaged in transit rather than afterwards.
3. Note the damage on the delivery paperwork before signing.
4. Call Costco the same day, and say the words "damaged on delivery" — that is a different conversation from a 90-day return.
5. Do not install or use the unit while the claim is open.

Five things members get wrong

Frequently asked questions

Does Costco have a 90-day return policy for all electronics?

No. The 90-day cap applies only to the categories CU2573 names: televisions, projectors, major appliances, computers, touchscreen tablets, smart wearables, cameras, drones, camcorders, MP3 players and cell phones. Headphones, speakers, consoles, routers, smart-home devices and peripherals are not named and stay under the open-ended satisfaction guarantee, though CU2573 does not say whether Costco treats earbuds as smart wearable devices. Security cameras and webcams are a closer call: CU2573 caps cameras without defining the term, so treat them as capped at 90 days.

Can I return a TV to Costco after 90 days?

Not for a refund-on-demand. But a television is one of the four categories Costco covers for up to two years from purchase or delivery, so if the set has an actual defect, call Costco Technical & Warranty Services at 1-866-861-0450 rather than visiting the returns counter.

Does Costco accept returns on opened electronics?

Yes. Nothing in CU2573 conditions an electronics return on unopened packaging, and the satisfaction guarantee is explicitly about whether you are satisfied with the product — which requires using it. Return the accessories with it.

Do I need the original box to return electronics to Costco?

No. The policy does not require original packaging. A complete return including accessories and manuals processes faster, and for a large television the box makes transport much easier, but it is a convenience rather than a condition.

When exactly does the 90 days start?

On the date you received the merchandise. For an in-warehouse purchase that is the purchase date. For a Costco.com order it is the delivery date, which can be weeks later. The warranty clock is written differently — it runs from the warehouse purchase date, or from delivery for online orders.

Does Costco extend the warranty on tablets or iPads?

No. CU1536 covers computers but carries an explicit footnote excluding touchscreen tablets. A tablet gets the 90-day return window and then only the manufacturer's own warranty. A laptop bought the same day gets up to two years of Costco coverage.

What is Costco's return policy for Apple products?

Costco's documents do not name Apple, so each device follows its category. An iPhone (cellular phone), iPad (touchscreen tablet), MacBook or other Mac (computer) and Apple Watch (smart wearable device) all get 90 days from the date you received them, and an iPhone's return details also vary by carrier contract. AirPods are headphones, and CU2573 names no headphone category, so the document sets no window for them; it also does not say whether Costco counts earbuds as smart wearable devices, so confirm at the returns counter before relying on a return after 90 days. Only Macs get Costco's warranty extension to up to two years, because CU1536 covers computers and excludes touchscreen tablets; an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch gets Apple's own warranty and no extension from Costco.

Is the Costco warranty two extra years or two years total?

Total. The wording is "up to 2 years ... from the date of warehouse purchase or date of delivery." A one-year manufacturer warranty effectively gains a second year; a product already carrying two years gains nothing.

What does Costco's second year of coverage not include?

CU1536 names data backup and software replacement, physical damage and liquid damage among common exclusions, along with inadequate use such as placing a residential unit in a commercial setting. It also says the manufacturer's warranty governs the specific coverage terms, so anything the manufacturer excluded is unlikely to be covered.

Who decides whether I get a repair, a replacement or a refund?

Costco does. Both CU1536 and CU1618 reserve the right to fulfil the second-year obligation through repair, replacement, or a refund up to the purchase price, at Costco's choice.

Does Costco charge a restocking fee on electronics?

No restocking fee for electronics appears anywhere in CU2573. Some other retailers do charge one: Best Buy charges $45 on opened activatable devices (excluding prepaid phones) and 15% on opened drones, digital cameras, camera lenses, camcorders and projectors, with no fee if the item is unopened, bought in one of eight exempt states, or where prohibited by law.

Can I return a Costco.com order to a warehouse?

Yes. CU2573 says items ordered online "can be returned at any Costco warehouse -or- you can initiate a return through Costco.com."

Does the Costco Anywhere Visa still add extended warranty coverage?

No. Citi's current benefits page for the card does not list an extended warranty or price protection; it lists Damage & Theft Purchase Protection, which covers damage or theft rather than product failure. Secondary reporting puts the end of the warranty benefit at purchases made on or after 22 January 2023.

How long does a Costco electronics refund take to appear?

The counter processes it immediately, but a card refund has to travel back through your issuer, which typically adds several business days. Our guide to how long a refund takes explains the handoffs involved.

Can Costco refuse my return?

CU2573 states the guarantee is subject to exceptions and limitations, so the open-ended window on non-listed items is a policy Costco administers rather than an entitlement. We did not find language in CU2573 about cancelling memberships over returns; treat claims about that as unsourced.

Do I need my receipt to return electronics to Costco?

CU2573 does not condition the listed electronics returns on producing a paper receipt. Bring the membership card — purchases are made against a membership number, so the warehouse has a record to work from, though CU2573 does not describe the lookup. For the general case across retailers, see returning without a receipt.

Can I return an electronics item to a different Costco warehouse?

CU2573 says products purchased at a Costco location "need to be returned at the returns counter at any Costco warehouse." It does not separately address buying at one warehouse and returning at another, but "any Costco warehouse" is the document's own phrase.

Does the two-year warranty extension apply to projectors?

Yes. Projectors are one of the four categories CU1536 names alongside televisions, computers and major appliances. They are also on the 90-day return list, so a projector carries both protections.

Are range hoods and under-counter microwaves covered by the warranty extension?

Unclear, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. CU2573 lists both inside the 90-day appliance group, while CU1536's footnote and CU1618's list name neither. Call 1-866-861-0450 and ask about your specific model rather than relying on either list.

What happens to my implied warranty rights after Costco's coverage ends?

Under 15 U.S.C. § 2308, a supplier that gives you a written warranty cannot disclaim your implied warranties outright. It may limit their duration to that of the written warranty, but only if the limitation is conscionable and set out in clear, prominent language. The resulting length is a matter of state law.

Can I ask to see the manufacturer's warranty before I buy?

Yes, and on anything over $15.00 that carries a written warranty, the seller has to make it available. 16 C.F.R. § 702.3 requires the text to be readily available for examination before sale, either displayed near the product or furnished on request with signage saying so.

Is an Allstate Protection Plan worth buying on a Costco TV?

That depends on whether it adds coverage you do not already have. Costco's own extension already covers years one and two on televisions, so a plan's real value is years three onward. The FTC's test is direct: "It's not a good value if it doesn't offer more coverage than the warranty that came with the product."

Is my Costco membership fee refundable?

Yes, and without a deadline. CU2573 states Costco will cancel and refund the membership fee at any time if you are dissatisfied.

Keeping the receipt and the return date in one place

The failure mode in this policy is not complexity, it is memory. Ninety days is long enough to forget, and the warranty window is long enough that it is easy to forget it exists when a television fails in month 14.

Purchy keeps that paperwork together. It captures your receipts — so the receipt and the date on it are on file when you call the warranty line in month 14 — starts a return reminder on each purchase, can put that reminder on your calendar, and lets you review the recurring charges you have stopped noticing. Ask Purchy answers "what did I buy, and when?" in one place, and the daily budget, The Perch, keeps the spending side honest. Purchy is free to download, and Purchy Pro is $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year, cancellable from the App Store or Google Play.

Related reading: Costco's 2026 policy changes, returning opened electronics, returning without a receipt, and refund versus store credit.

Sources

• Costco, "What is Costco's return policy?" — document CU2573 v18.0. customerservice.costco.com. Verified 11 Oct 2026.
• Costco, "Does Costco offer an extended warranty on products?" — document CU1536 v11.0, published 25 Aug 2026. customerservice.costco.com. Verified 11 Oct 2026.
• Costco, "What is Costco's major appliance return policy?" — document CU1618 v3.0, published 3 Mar 2026. customerservice.costco.com. Verified 11 Oct 2026.
• Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2308 (Pub. L. 93–637, title I, § 108, 4 Jan 1975, 88 Stat. 2189); 15 U.S.C. § 2302(c) (tie-in prohibition); FTC, 16 C.F.R. § 700.4 (sellers that only distribute another party's warranty).
• FTC pre-sale availability rule, 16 C.F.R. § 702.3.
• Federal Trade Commission, "Extended Warranties and Service Contracts", March 2023.
• National Retail Federation and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape.
• Citi, Costco Anywhere Visa Card benefits. Verified 28 Oct 2026.
• Best Buy, Return & Exchange Promise. Verified 11 Oct 2026; restocking-fee terms and the absence of a holiday return extension rechecked 28 Oct 2026 against the Internet Archive copy of 27 Oct 2026.
• Secondary, for the card-benefit cutover date only: Mouse Print, Doctor of Credit.