My order status

[Achilles]

Not to play Devil's advocate too hard, but I find it a bit baffling when people complain about getting banned. Target (and other stores) have pretty open policies about their rights to ban suspected resellers. I don't wish ill on anyone, but a lot of folks in the "game" are pretty selfish, and they don't understand not only do their exploitative policies hurt themselves, they hurt everyone in the long run by having stores changing policies that make things harder on everyone. I've witnessed it in real time over the years.

If folks used a bit more restraint and weren't as obvious (And let's be honest, we're all resellers here) - maybe they'd avoid the banhammer. Maybe don't order 10k of stuff during one sale. Normal customers don't do that. If you aren't willing to face the consequences of a speeding ticket, don't speed.

Spread out your orders, be patient, use different sources = don't get banned.

People get bent out of shape when someone undercuts them by a penny, but no one seems to bat an eye when a couple shortsighted folks make huge orders that cause massive fallout throughout the industry. It's very narrow sighted. 

---

On an unrelated note, I think it's interesting Target is kind of doing their clearance this way. Markdown the prices online, ship stuff from stores. Saves them the time and hassle of stickering/restickering/moving stock in stores. It's a pretty smart move really. And stuff is more likely to move at 50% when the whole country is the customer base, as opposed to stuff hanging out til 70% in stores. And it avoid them dealing with the closeout stores.

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Achilles

[Bchorean]

So people that have insta-cancels previously from target online...any advice/experience? Lay low and try to reorder in the future? Dont call customer service? Open another account? Permanent bans or temporary?

[redcell]

47 minutes ago, Achilles said:

Not to play Devil's advocate too hard, but I find it a bit baffling when people complain about getting banned. Target (and other stores) have pretty open policies about their rights to ban suspected resellers. I don't wish ill on anyone, but a lot of folks in the "game" are pretty selfish, and they don't understand not only do their exploitative policies hurt themselves, they hurt everyone in the long run by having stores changing policies that make things harder on everyone. I've witnessed it in real time over the years.

If folks used a bit more restraint and weren't as obvious (And let's be honest, we're all resellers here) - maybe they'd avoid the banhammer. Maybe don't order 10k of stuff during one sale. Normal customers don't do that. If you aren't willing to face the consequences of a speeding ticket, don't speed.

Spread out your orders, be patient, use different sources = don't get banned.

People get bent out of shape when someone undercuts them by a penny, but no one seems to bat an eye when a couple shortsighted folks make huge orders that cause massive fallout throughout the industry. It's very narrow sighted. 

---

On an unrelated note, I think it's interesting Target is kind of doing their clearance this way. Markdown the prices online, ship stuff from stores. Saves them the time and hassle of stickering/restickering/moving stock in stores. It's a pretty smart move really. And stuff is more likely to move at 50% when the whole country is the customer base, as opposed to stuff hanging out til 70% in stores. And it avoid them dealing with the closeout stores.

 

Why is it baffling that people complain about getting banned?  It is a total PIA for a reseller.  I agree with you somewhat when I see people arguing that stores have no right to ban them or that the stores are stupid to turn down business, etc.  But...the mere fact of being banned...totally understandable why someone would kvetch about that.

On the question of restraint, speaking as someone who places a lot of large orders, I do what the stores allow me to do until they don't allow me to do it anymore.  These stores are not stupid.  They all know that resellers are buying from them and they all know how to disrupt or prevent resellers from doing so.  In my experience, most stores care far more about people who do certain things that cost them money (e.g., return & rebuy) than they do about people who simply order massive quantities of product.  Those that don't generally implement measures to prevent it (e.g., LEGO Shop at Home and Barnes with their hard quantity limits).  

I've been banned from a number of websites.  It is annoying, but, at the end of the day, it's no real skin off my back...it just means I have to adapt my sourcing strategies.  And stores don't make massive changes to their policies in response to a few resellers...they just ban those accounts.  Stores make massive changes when the aggregate action of a large numbers of resellers causes some type of large-scale threat to their business like when Target banned all tax-exempt accounts following some fiasco with a clothing line that sold out in a minute because of resellers.  

49 minutes ago, Bchorean said:

So people that have insta-cancels previously from target online...any advice/experience? Lay low and try to reorder in the future? Dont call customer service? Open another account? Permanent bans or temporary?

Try to figure out how they've targeted you (name, address, email, CC, or some combination) and then find a way around it.  Unless you doing something that really pisses them off or you're dealing with certain retailers, it has been my experience that hard bans are relatively rare. 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

1 hour ago, Achilles said:

 

On an unrelated note, I think it's interesting Target is kind of doing their clearance this way. Markdown the prices online, ship stuff from stores. Saves them the time and hassle of stickering/restickering/moving stock in stores. It's a pretty smart move really. And stuff is more likely to move at 50% when the whole country is the customer base, as opposed to stuff hanging out til 70% in stores. And it avoid them dealing with the closeout stores.

 

If or When Walmart does this:

Bye-Bye 75%+off Clearance

 

[cobrakai]

1 hour ago, skinsfan0521 said:

This x100.

My red card limit is $2k. What good is that??

I have high limits on Chase cards, bu they're hard limits. If I try to spend over my $50k limit on a chase card, it declines.

AMEX gives me a reasonable "limit" ($30k or so) and will let me spend as much as I want over that. I've had that card up to $75k balance before and never had an issue or a single declined charge. As long as I'm paying them off every month, they just keep letting me spend as much as I want to.

Since the recent Red Card change to a Mastercard, my limit was increased to $10k.  The downside is the fraud alerts.  If I spend $300 at a couple Targets, my card will get declined at the 3rd Target and make me verify charges.  I've never had a fraud alert in 5 years of using the old Red Card.

[marcandre]

75930s arriving from target beat to hell. Oh well ?

 

edit - 42070 6x6s showed up from walmart minty. ? Great deal on these. Technic is still a reliable investment.

Edited October 22, 2019 by marcandre

[FM]

On 10/21/2019 at 7:15 AM, LegoBro said:

So all my stuff is getting shipping confirmations, but I did notice this on the app when I click on my account. Haven't placed an order since yesterday morning, but I'll probably order something just to see if my account is still good. Anyone else get this? I placed about 6 orders. Each order was 40 to 80 units.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

 

I have the same notification. I placed about 7 orders, $5-800/order. I did max out my Red Card and used a other credit card for about $2k, maybe the 1% back on $2k triggered this? I looked at my account and my circle points are gone.

From their TOS:

If you or Target delete, suspend or close your Target Circle account or your Target account, any accumulated Target Circle Earnings rewards and Community Giving Program votes will be deleted and you may not have access to other Target Circle benefits. Any deleted Target Circle Earnings rewards or Community Giving Program votes will not be reinstated. In the event of any abusive or fraudulent activity related to Target Circle, and/or any violation of Target Circle terms, as determined in our sole discretion, Target reserves the right to make any adjustments to your Target Circle account and/or terminate your participation in Target Circle at any time.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

Edited October 22, 2019 by FM

[LegoBro]

Yeah.....is it even worth emailing them tho...? Waiting to hear from the brave ones that have attempted to get in touch to rectify the circle account.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

[FM]

6 minutes ago, LegoBro said:

Yeah.....is it even worth emailing them tho...? Waiting to hear from the brave ones that have attempted to get in touch to rectify the circle account.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Brickpicker Forum mobile app
 

lol I agree. It looks harmless but could be a can of worms. I hope its a 'circle' thing and not a 'reseller' thing.

Edited October 22, 2019 by FM

[iahawks550]

5 hours ago, marcandre said:

75930s arriving from target beat to hell. Oh well ?

 

I was wondering if the store to home shipping would result in trashed boxes from store shelves.

[odysea11]

8 minutes ago, iahawks550 said:

I was wondering if the store to home shipping would result in trashed boxes from store shelves.

Not only shelf wear...but those awesome security stickers that leave lots of residue behind....

Very similar to B&N's clearance....multiple shipments from multiple locations....complete crap-shoot on condition...

[LegoMan1212]

7 minutes ago, odysea11 said:

Not only shelf wear...but those awesome security stickers that leave lots of residue behind....

Very similar to B&N's clearance....multiple shipments from multiple locations....complete crap-shoot on condition...

Don't forget ShopKo  RIP

[toni8284]

since I got banned from Target online. I went to 5 Target near me. And I'm able to get 1 Hospital and 10 JW Indoraptor. Better than online purchase @ Target. Easier and my box condition is good to great. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by toni8284

[landphieran]

Does anyone actually get 2-day shipping from target? My orders are arriving sporadically from tomorrow until Nov 11th.... I normally wouldn't care but now i have to cut my neighbors in on the deal while im on vacation ?

[iahawks550]

19 minutes ago, toni8284 said:

since I got banned from Target online. I went to 5 Target near me. And I'm able to get 1 Hospital and 10 JW Indoraptor. Better than online purchase @ Target. Easier and my box condition is good to great. 

Easier than sitting at home and pushing buttons? 

[toni8284]

4 minutes ago, iahawks550 said:

Easier than sitting at home and pushing buttons? 

Better than sitting at home and got cancelled.

Now my Walmart is acting up too... 

instant cancel too. Called multiple times with Walmart.com on phone. Even talked to customer relation and then billing. None of them can figure it out how to help me....

And my account got Tax exemption approved yesterday.

So anyone who had Tax exempt Walmart online account, can you order without cancel?

Anyone else had any idea how to solve the cancel due to "cant verify all my information".

[landphieran]

Just now, toni8284 said:

Now my Walmart is acting up too... 

instant cancel too. Called multiple times with Walmart.com on phone. Even talked to customer relation and then billing. None of them can figure it out how to help me....

And my account got Tax exemption approved yesterday.

So anyone who had Tax exempt Walmart online account, can you order without cancel?

Anyone else had any idea how to solve the cancel due to "cant verify all my information".

I haven't been to able to purchase much if anything from Walmart. Even using new accounts. They have a pretty aggressive algorithm tracking purchasing trends for LEGO.

[skinsfan0521]

I have some updates on my Target orders...

First, I emailed Circle support yesterday with just a quick "my account says suspended, I'm not sure why" type of email. I received a response today saying this:

Quote

Thanks for reaching out. 

Your account was automatically reviewed due to multiple high dollar value transactions in a short period of time.  This behavior is outside of what we normally see from our average guest, and appears that it may be related to purchasing items for resale.  Per Target Circle terms: Resellers are expressly excluded from Target Circle. If you purchase items for resale, Target reserves the right to not award Target Circle Earnings rewards and Community Giving Program votes, to deduct improperly awarded Target Circle Earnings rewards and Community Giving Program votes, and/or to terminate your participation in Target Circle.

Could you please help us understand the activity on your account? 

Thank you, 

The Target Circle Team 

I won't be responding to that email... I'm thinking I wait it out and see if it magically becomes un-suspended. Or, if I don't place a lot of orders online for a few months if I can get it reinstated saying something along the lines of "I just realized that my Circle is suspended and I'm not sure why" and someone would look at recent purchase history and hopefully not see the thousands of dollars in clearance LEGO purchases.

Also, some of my Target orders started coming in as early as yesterday and today I had about 20 packages from them. This is definitely reminiscent of Shopko or B&N. Some came very well packed in correctly sized boxes. Others came thrown in an oversized box with very little packing material. So, there are definitely some of the sets came crushed and I'll be returning them (I'm sure that won't help with keeping a low profile on Target). But, so far, the majority are in good shape. We'll see if that holds up through the rest of the shipments that are coming in over the next week or so.

Edited October 22, 2019 by skinsfan0521

[toni8284]

29 minutes ago, landphieran said:

I haven't been to able to purchase much if anything from Walmart. Even using new accounts. They have a pretty aggressive algorithm tracking purchasing trends for LEGO.

If that's the case, it's ok. But dont tell me it's my billing information not matching. Because this morning, my first order of the day for Walmart, they cancelled and told me I exceeded my limit. I rather see this than BS about my billing.

[LegoBro]

 

 

 

I have some updates on my Target orders...

First, I emailed Circle support yesterday with just a quick "my account says suspended, I'm not sure why" type of email. I received a response today saying this:

Thanks for reaching out. 

Your account was automatically reviewed due to multiple high dollar value transactions in a short period of time.  This behavior is outside of what we normally see from our average guest, and appears that it may be related to purchasing items for resale.  Per Target Circle terms: Resellers are expressly excluded from Target Circle. If you purchase items for resale, Target reserves the right to not award Target Circle Earnings rewards and Community Giving Program votes, to deduct improperly awarded Target Circle Earnings rewards and Community Giving Program votes, and/or to terminate your participation in Target Circle.

Could you please help us understand the activity on your account? 

Thank you, 

The Target Circle Team 

"I won't be responding to that email... I'm thinking I wait it out and see if it magically becomes un-suspended. Or, if I don't place a lot of orders online for a few months if I can get it reinstated saying something along the lines of "I just realized that my Circle is suspended and I'm not sure why" and someone would look at recent purchase history and hopefully not see the thousands of dollars in clearance LEGO purchases."

 

 

Thanks for sharing this out. That sounds like a good plan. Seems like the wise thing to do after I spend a few thousand more lol.....I'm going to definitely be weary though of my buying patterns going forward. I placed orders yesterday just to test the waters and they are shipping just fine. The circle thing is the only issue at this point.

 

[cobrakai]

39 minutes ago, toni8284 said:

Better than sitting at home and got cancelled.

Now my Walmart is acting up too... 

instant cancel too. Called multiple times with Walmart.com on phone. Even talked to customer relation and then billing. None of them can figure it out how to help me....

And my account got Tax exemption approved yesterday.

So anyone who had Tax exempt Walmart online account, can you order without cancel?

Anyone else had any idea how to solve the cancel due to "cant verify all my information".

The Walmart thing is based on quantity limits with certain Lego sets and they will clearly tell you they don't sell Lego for resale purposes (even if your account is tax exempt.)  If you are getting orders cancelled, either that specific order quantity exceeded the unknown limit, or your past purchases of that set exceeded the limit.  I was getting insta cancels on a couple sets and it took 4 or 5 e-mail chain replies to finally get the answer.

[toni8284]

1 minute ago, cobrakai said:

The Walmart thing is based on quantity limits with certain Lego sets and they will clearly tell you they don't sell Lego for resale purposes (even if your account is tax exempt.)  If you are getting orders cancelled, either that specific order quantity exceeded the unknown limit, or your past purchases of that set exceeded the limit.  I was getting insta cancels on a couple sets and it took 4 or 5 e-mail chain replies to finally get the answer.

That's helpful. So tax exempt not for LEGO?

If that's the case, who you email to and get the reply?

 

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, toni8284 said:

That's helpful. So tax exempt not for LEGO?

If that's the case, who you email to and get the reply?

 

If you push them hard enough , they will concede that they are limiting your purchases due to suspected reselling activity , which is dumb on a tax exempt account. They won't lift that unless you have a very compelling and convincing story reason 

[landphieran]

2 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

The Walmart thing is based on quantity limits with certain Lego sets and they will clearly tell you they don't sell Lego for resale purposes (even if your account is tax exempt.)  If you are getting orders cancelled, either that specific order quantity exceeded the unknown limit, or your past purchases of that set exceeded the limit.  I was getting insta cancels on a couple sets and it took 4 or 5 e-mail chain replies to finally get the answer.

I was placing orders under the limit and they were still getting cancelled. Quantities under 10 of new sets i've never purchased. I was able to fight them to get it reinstated. At this point its not really worth the effort messing around for 10 sets here and there.

[cobrakai]

1 minute ago, toni8284 said:

That's helpful. So tax exempt not for LEGO?

If that's the case, who you email to and get the reply?

 

Tax exempt works for Lego, but they have hard limits for a lot of sets.  There are sets i've ordered 36 to 48 of in the past that are now getting insta cancelled.  If you are ordering 8 units of a set you never ordered before, you'll probably get the order through with a tax exempt account.  As others have mentioned, they seem to lighten up the limits after between Jan-Sept and start cancelling more in Oct-December.  The e-mail [email protected] works.