Costco customer service number: how to talk to a real person

We called Costco's membership and warehouse line with general questions and no member number. Here is the touch-tone menu, how long it took to reach a person, what the representative said about prices, refunds, non-members and scams, where Costco's own website says something different, and the full 19 minute recording.

Nick Khami / October 13, 2026 / number verified October 13, 2026 / 12 min read

The short answer: the Costco customer service number for membership and warehouse questions is 1-800-774-2678. Phone hours are Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm Pacific, and Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 5pm Pacific. A recorded touch-tone menu answers, not a person and not an AI. It asks you to type your member number. We had no member number and pressed no keys, and the menu still put us in the queue after its membership sub-menu. It quoted "approximately 14 minutes," and a live representative answered 14 minutes 9 seconds after the call connected.

The number and hours are from Costco's Contact Us page, which lists "Membership and Warehouse" at 1-800-774-2678, with phone hours "Mon - Fri: 6am - 6pm PT" and "Sat - Sun: 8am - 5pm PT." The same page lists chat for this line, Monday to Friday 6:30am to 5:30pm PT and weekends 8am to 5pm PT.

Here's what got us from the menu to a person, with no account:

1. Call 1-800-774-2678. The main menu offers options 1 to 5. We didn't press anything.
2. It asks you to have your membership number ready and enter it, followed by the pound sign. If you have one, enter it. We didn't, and it asked a second time.
3. A membership sub-menu offers options 1 to 5. We didn't press anything again.
4. "Please hold while your call is being transferred to the next available Costco representative." A wait estimate, then hold music.
5. A person answered at 14:09.

What the representative told us (her answers, checked against costco.com below):

• Prices: Gold Star is $65 a year, Executive is $130 a year with 2% back on most purchases, and the Business versions cost the same. Costco's site agrees on the prices, and adds that the 2% Reward is capped at $1,250 a year.
• Refunds: cancel at a warehouse or through the membership desk and you get back what you paid. The site agrees, with one wrinkle for Executive members (below).
• Non-members need a membership for pharmacy, optical or gas, she said. Costco's site says the opposite for the pharmacy: "You don't need to be a Costco member to purchase Costco Pharmacy prescriptions."
• Suspicious emails or surveys: call Costco so an agent can pass it to a supervisor. Costco's scam page says to report them to the FTC.

We called on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at about 3:20 pm Pacific, with call4me placing the call. It was a general question for this guide, not about any membership or account. This page is what we heard.

Listen to the call #

The whole call, 19 minutes 41 seconds, including both holds. Three short silences cover names: under a second for the representative's first name, about 1.4 seconds where our caller said whose assistant it was, and about half a second where it repeated that person's first name. Nothing else is muted or cut.

Jump to a moment:

• 0:00 "Thank you for calling Costco Wholesale," then the main menu
• 0:41 "Please have your membership number ready"
• 1:10 The member number prompt repeats
• 1:30 We say "I don't have a member number"
• 1:32 The membership sub-menu
• 2:03 "Please hold while your call is being transferred"
• 2:43 "Your expected wait time is approximately 14 minutes"
• 3:03 Hold music starts
• 14:09 A live representative answers
• 14:33 "Is this AI?" Our caller says yes
• 14:52 Hold music again, about 2 minutes 30 seconds
• 17:24 "Hello?" A representative is back on the line
• 17:29 Membership tiers and prices
• 18:03 Business memberships
• 18:20 How the membership refund works
• 18:51 Do non-members need a membership for pharmacy, optical or gas? "Yes."
• 19:04 How to tell a real Costco email or survey from a scam
• 19:23 "The Costco should be in red and wholesale should be in blue"

The first live words, at 14:09:

Representative: Good evening. Thank you for calling Costco. My name's [name removed]. Who am I speaking with?

The Costco phone menu, step by step #

It's a recorded touch-tone menu. Our caller only spoke; it pressed no keys, and the menu moved on by itself each time it got no input.

1. Call 1-800-774-2678. "Thank you for calling Costco Wholesale."
2. The main menu:
   • Membership, Executive 2% Rewards and Costco services, press 1
   • The Costco Citi Visa, Costco Shop Card and payment options, press 2
   • Costco.com orders, returns and all other website questions, press 3
   • Warehouse products and returns, or your local Costco's phone number, hours and address, press 4
   • Costco Travel, press 5
   • Repeat, press star
3. The member number prompt. "In order to better assist you, please have your membership number ready." It says member numbers are on the back of your membership card or your Costco Citi Visa, or on the membership tab in the Costco app, and start with 1, 3 or 8. "Please enter your Costco member number now, followed by the pound sign." It asked twice.
4. The membership sub-menu:
   • Help with your membership, press 1
   • General information about Executive membership and 2% rewards, press 2
   • Help with your online membership verification, press 3
   • Costco services for your home or business, press 4
   • All other questions, press 5
   • Repeat, press star; previous menu, press pound
5. "Please hold while your call is being transferred to the next available Costco representative." A recording notice, then "Due to an unusually high volume of calls, we are experiencing longer than normal hold times," then "Your expected wait time is approximately 14 minutes."
6. Hold music for about 11 minutes, then a person.

We didn't try any numbered option, so we can't say whether pressing 1 and then 1 is faster, or where the other options lead. If your call is about your own membership, entering your member number is probably the better route; we had none to enter.

How long the Costco wait is #

On our call the menu estimated about 14 minutes at 2:43, and a person answered at 14:09, so the estimate was close. One call on a Tuesday afternoon isn't a typical wait. For how Costco compares with other companies we've called, see our hold times.

There was a second, shorter wait. When the representative asked "Is this AI?" and our caller said yes, she said "Oh, no," and the line went to hold music for about 2 minutes 30 seconds. Then someone came back on and answered every question.

Membership prices: the representative versus the website #

The representative: "The Gold Star is $65. That's a yearly. And the Executive is $130, which is also yearly. So the Executive, what that encounters is it covers, you get 2% back on most purchases yearly with that 2% Executive Rewards program." And: "a Business Gold Star would be $65 and the Business Executive would be $130 as well."

Costco's website, checked October 13, 2026:

Sources: Costco's difference between each type of membership and membership fee increase pages, and the Executive Rewards terms. The fee page says the current prices took effect September 1, 2024 (Gold Star and Business went from $60 to $65, Executive from $120 to $130) and the reward cap went from $1,000 to $1,250 a year.

The prices match. What the representative didn't mention, from the Executive Rewards terms:

• The cap. "Reward is capped at and will not exceed $1,250 for any 12-month period."
• What doesn't count. Rewards aren't calculated on "cigarettes or tobacco-related products, gasoline, Costco Shop Cards," among other exclusions such as membership fees, taxes and shipping.
• When you get it. "The 2% Reward is issued approximately three months prior to the member's renewal date, in the Renewal Statement," and you must be "a current, paid Executive Member at the end of the membership year."

Refunds: the representative versus the website #

The representative: "If someone cancels, they would just go into their warehouse or they would go into, they would call the membership desk and they would refund. You would be refunded what you paid. So if you started a membership today, if you wanted to refund that membership a month from now, you would get what you paid back for the membership would be refunded, the total amount."

Costco's website agrees on the basics. Its return policy page says, under its satisfaction guarantee: "We will cancel and refund your membership fee at any time if you are dissatisfied." Its how to cancel page gives the same two routes she did: "Speak with a team member at any warehouse membership counter and receive an immediate refund," or "Call our Member Services Center at 1-800-774-2678 and speak to a live agent."

The wrinkle for Executive members: Costco's Executive 2% Reward FAQs say the reward "is not guaranteed to be equal to or greater than the Executive upgrade fee paid." To get the current upgrade fee back, you cancel or downgrade to Gold Star or Business, and any reward already issued or earned is subtracted from that refund. So "the total amount" may not be the whole story for an Executive member who has earned rewards.

Do non-members need a membership? The representative versus the website #

We asked: "Does a non-member need a membership to use the pharmacy, optical, or gas?" She said: "Yes." Costco's website splits that three ways.

The pharmacy is the clear conflict. Costco's shopping pass page says the same thing a second way: non-members "may still purchase prescriptions from a Costco pharmacy," but "you must be a paid member to enter the warehouse and purchase any other items." Costco's member privileges page also lists "prescription drugs and alcoholic beverages in some states" among things non-members can buy "where required by law." Costco's site says members get lower prices through its Member Prescription Program; it doesn't say members are the only ones who can fill prescriptions.

Gas matches, apart from the Shop Card exception she didn't mention.

Optical is partly right. Contacts are members only on Costco's site. For eye exams, the optometrists are independent practices. When we called two Costco eye doctors about exam prices, the Santa Clara office said membership isn't required for the exam. We didn't find a costco.com page that says whether non-members can buy glasses.

Our caller didn't follow up on any of this, so we don't know whether she meant something narrower, like member pricing. As asked and answered, the website disagrees on the pharmacy.

Scam emails and surveys: the representative versus the website #

The representative: "They should call someone at Costco.com or Costco membership. We would take down that. You would forward that to an agent who would then send it up to a supervisor. It should have the Costco logo. The Costco should be in red and wholesale should be in blue."

Costco's Currently Known Scams page (published September 11, 2026) gives a different route: "You can report scams as well as suspicious calls, emails, and text messages to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)." It links to reportfraud.ftc.gov. It doesn't say to call Costco. To check whether an email is real, it points to a list of valid Costco Wholesale email domains rather than the logo, and it says "you should not provide the sender any personal information." The page lists current fake offers by name, including "SATISFACTION SURVEY," "TEXT SURVEY," "EXECUTIVE REWARDS REDEMPTION" and "REDEEM YOUR GIFT CARD!"

Two things worth knowing from that page:

• Scammers fake this exact number. It says people have received "scam calls disguised as our home office number (425-313-8100), Ecommerce number (800-955-2292), or Membership number (800-774-2678)," claiming to be from the "Costco Chinese Member Service." If a call shows 1-800-774-2678 on caller ID, that doesn't prove it's Costco. Hang up and call the number yourself.
• A logo proves little. A scam email can copy Costco's red and blue logo. Costco's own advice is to check the sender's domain.

Calling Costco about a suspicious message may still help, and she may be right that an agent can escalate it. But the page Costco publishes about scams says to report them to the FTC, so we'd do that too.

Other Costco phone numbers #

From the same Contact Us page, checked October 13, 2026. We only called the first one.

For a question about one warehouse, like tires or the pharmacy, your local Costco's own number is usually more direct. The main menu's option 4 can give you that number. We've written up calling a Costco warehouse to cancel a tire appointment and ask about a refund, where the warehouse menu had its own traps.

What wasn't answered #

• The Executive reward cap and exclusions. She said "most purchases" and didn't mention the $1,250 cap. We didn't ask.
• What she meant on the pharmacy. Our caller took "Yes" and moved on.
• Whether the person after the second hold was the same representative. The recording doesn't make it clear, and nobody said.
• Why she put us on hold after asking "Is this AI?" She didn't say.

Things we didn't test #

• Entering a member number or pressing any menu option. We had no number and pressed nothing.
• Chat, which the Contact Us page also offers for this line.
• Calling at another time of day. The menu mentioned "an unusually high volume of calls."
• Reporting an actual scam to Costco or the FTC.

How we made this recording #

call4me is a phone for your AI agent: your agent (Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT) tells it what to get done and it makes the call. For this one, the brief was to reach a person on Costco's membership line and ask general questions for this guide: membership tiers and prices, how the refund works, whether non-members can use the pharmacy, optical or gas, and how to spot and report a scam email or survey. It wasn't allowed to claim to be a member, give any account or personal details, or agree to any change. When the representative asked whether it was an AI, it said yes.

One thing our caller could have done better: it didn't push back on "Yes." A follow-up like "even the pharmacy?" might have gotten a more precise answer.

For more recorded calls, see the companies we've called.

Have your agent make this call #

If you use call4me, paste this into your agent:

Call Costco member services at 1-800-774-2678, Monday to Friday 6am to 6pm Pacific or weekends 8am to 5pm Pacific. It's a touch-tone menu that asks for my member number. [If it's about my membership: enter my member number, [number], followed by pound. / If it's a general question: don't press anything; the menu moves to the queue on its own.] Expect a hold of 10 minutes or more. When a person answers, ask [your question]. Don't cancel, renew or change anything unless I've said to, and ring me to join if they need to verify my identity.

costco / customer service / membership / phone trees / phone numbers