5 Reasons Sam's Club May Cancel Your Membership

You need a membership to shop at Sam's Club. For most Sam's Club shoppers, the membership fee is well worth it, because they save much more than that by shopping there. If you're one of the people who saves money at Sam's Club, you probably wouldn't want to lose your membership.

It doesn't happen often, but some Sam's Club shoppers have had their memberships revoked. The warehouse club reserves the right to do this, and it provides examples of actionable offenses on its website. Consider this the list of what not to do.

1. Making questionable returns

Sam's Club has a great return policy. It offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and you can return most items for a replacement or refund at any time. There are some exceptions. For example, you can return electronics and major appliances within 90 days. There are also some items you can't return to Sam's Club, such as personalized ones.

When stores offer lenient return policies, there will always be some who take advantage. If Sam's Club suspects that a customer is abusing its return policy, it could revoke their membership.

This doesn't mean you should avoid returning anything. If you bought a product you don't want anymore, then by all means, go ahead and return it. The people at risk of losing their memberships are the ones with return patterns far outside normal behavior. Here are a few examples:

• Borrowers: You can return most items after months or even years, but if you do it often, it starts to look suspicious.
• Serial returners: If you return practically everything you buy at Sam's Club, it may revoke your membership, because you clearly aren't happy with what you buy there.
• Fraudsters: Any sort of return fraud, such as swapping out a new phone you just bought with an old one and trying to return it, is fraud and will likely get your membership revoked.

2. Shoplifting

Like any retailer, Sam's Club wants paying customers, not people trying to get the five-finger discount. Many stores will ban shoplifters from the premises. Sam's Club will typically cancel your membership so you can't come back and shop there.

3. Writing bad checks

If you pay for items with a check that bounces, Sam's Club could take away your membership. Bounced checks can happen if you lose track of how much is in your checking account. You may be able to keep your membership if you explain that it was an honest mistake and pay what you owe. But if this is a frequent occurrence, store management will probably think you're intentionally writing bad checks.

Just so you know, there are better ways to pay at Sam's Club (and other stores). A cash back credit card is a good choice, because you can earn cash back on your purchases. You could also go with a Sam's Club credit card if you shop there often. And if you'd rather not use a credit card, a debit card is a convenient way to pay for purchases using your bank account.

4. Violent behavior

The first rule of fight club is that you don't do it at Sam's Club. If you want to keep your membership, at least. Violent behavior is an actionable offense. You could lose your membership, get arrested, or both.

5. Abuse, threats, disrespect, or profanity toward an associate

Basically, Sam's Club expects customers to follow the Golden Rule: Treat others how you want to be treated. Most shoppers don't cause any problems, but unfortunately, there are a select few who think they can heap abuse on retail employees. Sam's Club can and does cancel memberships for this reason, and rightfully so.

Keeping your Sam's Club membership

Those are just the actionable offenses that Sam's Club spells out on its website. It reserves the right to revoke memberships for any reason, without cause, presumably to cover any new offenses people come up with. 

In all likelihood, you have nothing to worry about. If you shop at Sam's Club like a normal human being, your membership won't get canceled. It's the members who cause problems, steal, and abuse the return policy who get banned.