What to Do If a Costco Delivery or Installation Damages Your Home
This is what one family wishes it had known on the day a Costco refrigerator installation flooded their first floor. It is general information, not legal advice.
In the first hours
- Stop the damage if you safely can: shut off the water supply to the appliance, cut power to wet areas.
- Photograph and video everything before anything is moved: the connection that failed, the water line, every wet room, the delivery paperwork.
- Write down the time of delivery, the time you found the damage, and the names on the delivery paperwork.
- Call a licensed water mitigation company. Drying has to start within hours. Keep every invoice.
Notify Costco in writing, the same day
Call, but also email. A phone call leaves nothing behind. In this case the customer emailed Costco's chief executive on the day of the flood and had a reply within the hour; that email later became an exhibit in court.
Ask for a claim number, and ask in writing which company is responsible for your claim. In this case there were at least four: Costco, its claims administrator, RXO, and RXO's claims administrator.
Ask who installed it, and whether they are insured
Costco does not install the appliances it sells with installation. In this case Costco hired RXO, and RXO hired a local crew. The family learned a week later that the crew was uninsured.
Ask in writing for the legal name of the company that did the installation and for its certificate of insurance. Costco's own contract, filed in court in this case, requires every installer to carry at least $3,000,000 in liability coverage that names Costco.
Be careful about being told to stop work
Two weeks after the flood, the adjuster for Sedgwick, RXO's claims administrator asked this family to "hold off on any additional demolition." A year later Costco's answer to the lawsuit accused the family of failing to mitigate their damages.
If you are asked to stop or delay work, get the request in writing, answer it in writing, and ask in writing who will pay for the delay.
Keep one running record
- Every email, with dates. Put phone calls in a follow-up email: "To confirm our call today..."
- Every receipt: mitigation, storage, hotels or rentals, meals, mileage.
- Every promise of a call back, and whether it came.
Common questions
Is Costco responsible if its installer damages my home?
That is disputed in this case and no court has ruled. Costco's chief executive wrote that Costco would fix the problem "if our people caused it." Costco's attorney later told a judge that once the refrigerator is picked up, "it's not Costco's responsibility, it is the vendor's responsibility."
Who actually installs Costco appliances?
In this case, a local crew hired by RXO, the logistics company Costco hired. RXO wrote: "Costco contracts RXO for deliveries, and RXO, in turn, hire third-party contractors."
How long did it take to receive any payment?
In this case the first payment, $38,694.11 paid on RXO's behalf, came 50 days after the flood.
This guide is general information from one customer's experience, not legal advice. The quotations come from the record of Byrd v. Costco; see the timeline and the court file.