The most immediate reason that makes Costco uniquely attractive for buying Apple products is that its return policy is unusually generous. For electronics, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches, Costco’s return window is 90 days, according to its website. It’s far more forgiving than the roughly two weeks you get from the likes of Best Buy and the Apple Store. So if you want to try out an Apple product for yourself to put it through the paces the ways you would use it day to day, Costco gives you a lot more freedom.
It used to be more freedom, though: Until 2007, an open-ended, no-questions-asked return policy applied to electronics. At the time, the company told the Los Angeles Times that the unusually customer-friendly policy cost the wholesale club “literally tens of millions of dollars” each year, and eventually, it became too much.
There are some other additional benefits to buying your Apple products from Costco, though. Membership also grants customers unlimited lifetime technical support on electronics bought there and gives them a two-year warranty on each electronics purchase as well. Many major credit cards already offer the warranty benefit, but lifetime technical support is a different matter. Neither is a replacement for the now-renewable AppleCare+, especially since there are no accidental damage benefits on the credit card or Costco side, but it’s still a nice perk to have in theory.
