12v battery replacement at Costco

[RickLightning]

Return shipping seems to be the new 'penalty' retailers are imposing to make you wish you'd never purchased from them in the first place. I recently bought an upgrade kit for my Bronco and realized later I didn't need it and wanted to return it. No problem they said. It originally came shipped from Pennsylvania.....they had me return it to their facility in Las Vegas. $300 shipping cost. I learned a very valuable lesson. I guess I'm lucky they didn't want me to ship it to LA or Seattle.

Not really a penalty, but what customers want (free shipping / free returns) is not a sustainable business model.

My wife wants to buy a new sewing machine as hers died. Michaels has one she can see and touch. No returns if you use it.

Amazon has it cheaper. Free returns for 30 days. But they won't put it back in inventory. It will go to UPS' return company, and be sold to someone in a pallet sale I expect.

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[jefrank]

Not really a penalty, but what customers want (free shipping / free returns) is not a sustainable business model.

My wife wants to buy a new sewing machine as hers died. Michaels has one she can see and touch. No returns if you use it.

Amazon has it cheaper. Free returns for 30 days. But they won't put it back in inventory. It will go to UPS' return company, and be sold to someone in a pallet sale I expect.

That last statement may or may not actually be true. There are plenty of people on Reddit (yes, I know, it's Reddit) complaining about getting used goods from Amazon. Seems like it's entirely up to the quality of the person doing the receiving as to whether used goods get back into stock.

 

[RickLightning]

That last statement may or may not actually be true. There are plenty of people on Reddit (yes, I know, it's Reddit) complaining about getting used goods from Amazon. Seems like it's entirely up to the quality of the person doing the receiving as to whether used goods get back into stock.

It's a category thing / margin thing. Some items have a high return rate (clothes), and they may restock. Others require too much effort to ensure they're working or not working, so they liquidate.

In 2023, UPS acquired Happy Returns, which is what Amazon does their returns through. They do all the processing, which Amazon pays for.

 

[MaintGrl]

I wanted to give everyone a heads up if you’re approaching the 3-4 year mark of ownership. I was able to special order the 12v H3 Interstate battery at Costco for $149.99, that’s a pretty good price as far as my research tells me. It does take 4 weeks to get in though.

Ya, I like Interstate's, have had very good service from them, personally and from work.

 

[JPro]

Keep in mind Costco includes the core charge in its price so the actual price is about $20 less. I just did this for my wife's EV6 far cheaper than local prices.

I paid $149.99 for battery and $15 core which I'll be getting back tonight so upfront total was $165.

 

[Lightning Rod]

I've had nothing but bad from Interstate Batteries, Optima is about all I buy now. Optima Blue Top Deep Cycle would be best for our Trucks.

I've always bought Oprima Yellow Top batteries for my old f150 because I've always had high-end audio equipment that always demanded heavy current. I checked and they don't seem to make a Yellow Top that fits our trucks. I may just contact Optima and ask them just to be sure. Their Yellow Tops are expensive but were well worth it and always lasted for 5 plus years of heavy daily draining and recharging.

 

[DiverBroski]

Got mine from Costco too!

 

[scruvs]

I have an OBD2 reader. Are there OBD2 variables (e.g. state of health) for the 12-volt battery that someone could proactively look at to determine how soon they may need to change their 12 volt battery?

I’m curious about this too. I’ll start monitoring my 12V battery, but not really sure what I’m looking for to know of its going bad.

 

[Zprime29]

I’m curious about this too. I’ll start monitoring my 12V battery, but not really sure what I’m looking for to know of its going bad.

The biggest red flag is when you get the "System off to save power" message. I've gotten that 2 or 3 times the past couple months so I know it's finally time to replace mine. When I check with the ODB reader, it's always reporting greater than 80% SoC but it's over 4 years old now and the desert heat is not kind to batteries. 3-4 years is about as long as I usually get so I'm satisfied with how long it lasted. Gonna check my local Costco this weekend to see what they have/will order.

 

[JPro]

The biggest red flag is when you get the "System off to save power" message. I've gotten that 2 or 3 times the past couple months so I know it's finally time to replace mine. When I check with the ODB reader, it's always reporting greater than 80% SoC but it's over 4 years old now and the desert heat is not kind to batteries. 3-4 years is about as long as I usually get so I'm satisfied with how long it lasted. Gonna check my local Costco this weekend to see what they have/will order.

That was pretty much what led to me replacing mine.

 

[RickLightning]

The biggest red flag is when you get the "System off to save power" message. I've gotten that 2 or 3 times the past couple months so I know it's finally time to replace mine. When I check with the ODB reader, it's always reporting greater than 80% SoC but it's over 4 years old now and the desert heat is not kind to batteries. 3-4 years is about as long as I usually get so I'm satisfied with how long it lasted. Gonna check my local Costco this weekend to see what they have/will order.

That message does not equal a bad battery. It indicates a low state of charge, so now the question is why? I never replace batteries without getting them load tested.

My F-150 did that in year 2. I put it on a Battery Tender due to using it infrequently, and it lasted 7 years as I recall.

 

[Zprime29]

That message does not equal a bad battery. It indicates a low state of charge, so now the question is why? I never replace batteries without getting them load tested.

My F-150 did that in year 2. I put it on a Battery Tender due to using it infrequently, and it lasted 7 years as I recall.

Load test is a good call. Maybe I'll run by AutoZone before my Costco run.

 

[VeganF150]

I wanted to give everyone a heads up if you’re approaching the 3-4 year mark of ownership. I was able to special order the 12v H3 Interstate battery at Costco for $149.99, that’s a pretty good price as far as my research tells me. It does take 4 weeks to get in though.

Generally curious about Costco because I went to Costco and loaded the battery available on the website that said go into Costco to order it and the battery guy behind the counter said the item number doesn’t even exist in the Costco system. So can you tell me how you ordered the battery through Costco cause I really need to buy one thanks.

 

[JPro]

Generally curious about Costco because I went to Costco and loaded the battery available on the website that said go into Costco to order it and the battery guy behind the counter said the item number doesn’t even exist in the Costco system. So can you tell me how you ordered the battery through Costco cause I really need to buy one thanks.

here is the product number and they special ordered it for me. They have a huge banner that says they can special order batteries.

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