Question on buying Carpet through Costco

[tominboise]

We are wanting to replace the carpet in our basement and have received several quotes. Costco offers carpet through them and we received a competitive quote, and it includes a costco cash card. A local flooring company has the contract with Costco and they came and measured, sent the quote, etc.

My questions are - in order to proceed with the transaction, they want to be paid up front, and tell me that is Costco policy. Since I am leery of paying for anything like this before I get the product, I was wondering if anyone else has used this or a similar home improvement service through Costco, and if so, did you have to pay in full up front and if so, were there any issues?

 

[COcheesehead]

Use a credit card.

 

[tominboise]

Use a credit card.

Yes, I will use a credit card and get another 2% rebate from them. I guess that would be one way to dispute the payment if there was an issue.

 

[Another Reader]

Find the flooring dealer in your area that services property management companies and real estate agents. They will have a good selection and the best prices. Get a bid and compare.

 

[Sunset]

Costco seems to be getting into a lot of these types of deals:

Where they get paid by some company a "finders fee" for supplying a customer, and it must be rich enough of a kickback they can give a costco card to the customer.

When there is a problem, is costco going to cover the issue/problem and get it resolved or are you on your own ?

I know when I had a cruise via costco, and wanted to cancel, it suddenly was not their problem and yet the cruiseline kept passing me back to Costco as I bought from Costco.

 

[tominboise]

Find the flooring dealer in your area that services property management companies and real estate agents. They will have a good selection and the best prices. Get a bid and compare.

Yes, I have three quotes. The Costco one is in the middle.

 

[Jerry1]

When there is a problem, is costco going to cover the issue/problem and get it resolved or are you on your own ?

I know when I had a cruise via costco, and wanted to cancel, it suddenly was not their problem and yet the cruiseline kept passing me back to Costco as I bought from Costco.

I like Costco, but I’d be concerned about the same thing. Thankfully, carpet is pretty straightforward but still, I’d be cautious.

A similar thing is happening in the hotel industry. You book and pay through something like Hotels dot com and when you get to the hotel, the reservation is screwed up and the hotel is not very helpful. I now book directly with the hotel. I’d try to find a carpet installer that would beat the Costco price or at least come close.

 

[tominboise]

I called another local company today and asked for a quote. The installer came by to measure and gave me his quote for labor. Depending on the carpet price, I expect to save 20% over the Costco quote. I will update when I get it all figured out.

 

[tominboise]

Turns out we saved about 30% over Costco going with a discount carpet store and independent installer.

 

[bloom2708]

We used Costco to replace our carpet about 5-6 years ago. They referred us to a long time flooring company in our city.

I put the whole thing on our Costco Visa.

It was smooth, the carpet turned out good and the company was easy to work for.

I think I bumped up our limit on the Costco Visa to make sure I have plenty of space to charge the carpet.

 

[KB]

While I have not used Costco for Carpeting, I did use their vendor to replace my kitchen counters and my HVAC system. Yes, their policy is to pay 100% up front, I used my Costco Citibank card.

Because Costco has such a great return policy, I felt they would stand behind their vendors also. I did get an estimate for the HVAC system, and then covid hit. So it was two years later when I went back to the process, and the vendor was still the same one. I feel if Costco was unhappy with them, they would switch to a different vendor.

Both of my transactions went well and I received my gift card quickly. I certainly would use a Costco vendor over an unknown one.

 

[Happyras]

I found the Shaw carpet that the Costco carpet sub was offering, had a different name. I was able to shop the carpet down based on weight of carpet and pile height etc and found I ended up going once again with Carpets to Go in Bellevue which beat out everyone for the high quality carpet we chose. Home Depot was high despite the free install, HA! The charged me $50 for the measure and they estimated more carpet than required to make up profit. I forced them to refund it.

The normal builder shops had some off brands that were close and maybe slightly less, without "guarantees" for 25 years etc

 

[tominboise]

I found the Shaw carpet that the Costco carpet sub was offering, had a different name. I was able to shop the carpet down based on weight of carpet and pile height etc and found I ended up going once again with Carpets to Go in Bellevue which beat out everyone for the high quality carpet we chose. Home Depot was high despite the free install, HA! The charged me $50 for the measure and they estimated more carpet than required to make up profit. I forced them to refund it.

The normal builder shops had some off brands that were close and maybe slightly less, without "guarantees" for 25 years etc

Yeah, I dropped HomeDepot when they asked for $50 to give me a quote. I am not interested in that business model.

The carpet I ordered is the same Shaw part number from all three providers. Hopefully this all goes well.