I receive emails on a daily basis from Costco. The emails contain photos/gifs or whatever you call them. Anyway for the past 5 or 6 weeks roughly half of the gifs don’t show in the email. I can click on them and they show the product but I would rather it go back to the way it was and have all the gifs display.
Anyway I got tired of it and decided to get Costco involoved. So I look all over their website and finally see they have a chat mode. As an aside I totallly hate HATE chat mode. I go into chat mode and enter name, member number, email address, date of birth, wife’s name, address, name of children, grandchilden, all the pets we used to have, etc. Then I get to type in my problem. I type in the problem and guess what? You are limited to 240 letters or whatever. So I delete some and its still too long, delete some more, still too long. Do this about six times and it’s finally short enough to get into chat mode. Guess what? Costco’s chat mode is totally robotic. Totally useless.
OK, let’s see if Costo has a phone number. Great, they have a 1-800 number. Guess what? Their telephone service is worse than their Chat Dude. None of the choices pertain to my problem and there is not “other”. Typing in 0’s doesn’t work either.
Has anyone experienced this problem. I have cleared my browsing history several times since this started and feel confident it’s not a browser issue. By the way I’m using Chrome. Not sure what else to look for.
That would be in your email Client Golfer. Are you using Gmail? It is a security feature to protect against malicious emails. The problem with “fixing” it is what if it is a malicious or phishing attempt? You sure you want this to be fixed?
Hi Buy&Hold. Thanks for the input. I think my email client would be earthlink. Having said that why would it take earthlink 20 plus years to decide some of the gifs in Costco’s emails are malicious?
OK, thanks GW. In that case my client is MS Outlook a part of MS 365 or whatever they call it these days. So I guess I have to go to MS and try to interpret all their fine BS of which there will be tons of it none of which will work. So, I guess I’ll just have to live with it. Thanks.
ImAGolfer, The following response was generated by Preplexity AI where I entered only the first paragraph of your post (topic).
The issue you’re experiencing with GIFs not displaying in Costco emails could be related to several factors, including email client settings, browser configurations, or even network restrictions. Here are some potential solutions and troubleshooting steps you can take:
Check Email Client Settings
Image Display Settings: Ensure that your email client is set to display images automatically. Some clients block images by default for security reasons.
Enable Animated GIFs: If you’re using Outlook or a similar email client, check that animated GIFs are enabled in the settings. For Outlook, go to File > Options > Advanced and ensure the option to play animated GIFs is checked[4][5].
Browser Configuration
Clear Cache and Cookies: Sometimes, clearing your browser’s cache and cookies can resolve display issues. This can help refresh the way your browser loads images[6].
Disable VPN or Proxy: If you are using a VPN or proxy, try disabling it temporarily to see if that resolves the issue, as these services can sometimes block certain content from loading properly[1][2].
Test Different Browsers
Try opening your Costco emails in different web browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari) to see if the issue is consistent across all of them. Some browsers may handle GIFs differently, and switching can often resolve display problems[2][4].
Check for Ad Blockers
If you have an ad blocker enabled, it might be interfering with the display of GIFs. Consider disabling it or adding exceptions for Costco’s email domain to see if that resolves the issue[2].
Update Your Email Application
Ensure that your email application or browser is updated to the latest version. Outdated software may have compatibility issues that affect how content is displayed[6].
If these steps do not resolve the issue, consider reaching out to Costco’s customer support for further assistance as they may have specific recommendations based on their email system.
Hey George. Thanks man. I just printed off the AI returns. That’s a boatload. Let me read them over and try some of them. Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.
A simple fix for annoying emails, in Outlook at least, is to make a Rule, ‘Not a Contact’, in my case, and let it handle them… More important Contacts are passed along because you’ve created a Contact listing for them, friends, family, various resources that you do want in your Inbox… I still scan the Spam & Trash before emptying them, but it keeps my Inbox cleaned up nicely…
I do want to hear from Costco, I just thing three times a day is a bit much.
Also, I am perfectly happy - no, make the very pleased - with my email front end, which is mail.yahoo.com. I have dozens of filters sending messages to both useful folders as well as the spam folder.
Bingo!!! Thanks Rich. I’ve always seen that message and ignored it because I thought I would leave the email and go to my browswer which I didn’t want to do. After reading your note tried the view in browser just for fun and got a bunch of what appeared to be source code or something. Then I noticed there is another view in browser a little bit lower and if you click on it you get exactly what I needed.
Thank you very much. Only problem is now I don’t have anything to b*tch about.
Hi Weco. I use rules all the time. Not necessarily for annoying emails but for legit emails. I have 54 folders set up in Outlook and 10 folders set up in Yahoo mail. The rules are very handy for sorting mail. Some of my folders are:
Amazon, Apple, Amazon, Barons, Costco, DX, Earthlink, Exxon, Family, Financial-Other, Fitness-Connection, Fool, Golf-Notes, Honda, HP, Inogen, Medical, Q-Fox, QRP-L, Radio-Notes, RWBaird, Texans, USPS, Volunteer. Just to name a few.
