LEGO Bans - Open Discussion

[TheBrickClique]

As for operating with a single account to stay within the vendor’s technically-enforced limits, I believe this is the current state of things.
 

Cliff notes: you’ll be fine as long as you don’t go on a spending spree at Target.com, and try not to bring attention to your buying patterns by dealing with online customer service for small gripes that can be dealt with in store instead.

Target - the easiest place to get banned based simply on purchase volume online and the most aggressive against resellers in store — employees trained to identify resellers loading up carts for example.  Can still use red card in store after online ban, but using with a new email account will result in repeat ban — start receiving auto cancellations and email about possible issues including payment purchase method.  Some people have bans lifted after a period in timeout. Others indefinitely. The amount of purchases that may identify you as a reseller and get a ban? One data point: I have been unable to purchase online going on 18 months now after two months of $5k purchases on the red card. Same red card still works fine in store.
 

LEGO shop at home — with the purchase limits mechanics implemented a few years ago, it is much more difficult to get the SAH ban hammer. If you exceed a limit on any item based on past purchases of the same item, they will cancel your entire order. Be warned that if they cancel an order with a VIP Rewards purchase, the reward is not automatically credited back to your account. Also, if they cancel an item due to inventory issues, the system still tracks it as qty purchased. Qty purchased in brick and mortar stores that are purchased with VIP accounts are not counted towards SAH limits and and limits in store are done at the individual store’s discretion. If you do have to call customer service to resolve an issue, they do have easy visibility to all of your previous orders and will make comments about you “really liking LEGOs”.  No indication that that is how the ban process starts, but unless you really have an issue that needs CS, might be best to just let the small things go. 
 

Amazon — shop away. Their limits are tracked to the second on a 168-hour FIFO.  Limits apply and are tracked in that window only to items sold and shipped by Amazon.com. Buy as many third party items as you wish. Anecdotal stories of bans for excessive returns, but no clear information on the metrics used. Generally, probably best to save the returns for the really bad boxes.  Creating multiple accounts will get noticed and is the quickest way to get the warning shot emails. 
 

Barnes and Noble — similar to LEGO, has a five qty per item lifetime limit online. Exceed that amount and just that item will be cancelled from the order. No reports of bans. In store purchases do not appear to be tied to online memberships as far as adding to your 5-count quantity.  
 

Walmart — most LEGO are limited to two per order, but they won’t say how often that limit is reset.  Doing a couple of multiple limit orders in the same day has worked.  Doing dozens has resulted in order cancellations of those specific items but no bans that I am aware of. Generally, I have found one limit order per day has never resulted in a cancellation. 
 

ShopDisney — some items have limits but they are selectively enforced. If you put in multiple limit orders at the same time, they might cancel those items. If you space them out, they will be fine. I ordered a dozen castles (limit one per customer) last year and they all went through. Sometimes two in two consecutive days. 
 

Costco — has item limits on some items, but I haven’t seen any on LEGOs. Even with items with limits, possible to space them out without issue.  In store limits are usually “per day”. 
 

Best Buy — unsure on LEGO as I’ve never pushed the limits on them. In the past, I would make 50 purchases at a time of 2-dollar items that had limits and they would all go through.  I have tried to make multiple purchases of Xbox consoles and those were cancelled.  So YMMV. But no reports of bans.

Anyways, those are my observations.

[jbacunn]

Many members are Lego lovers and enthusiast collectors, they are just the silent majority imo.  

Can't we be both investors and lovers? I am.

[Bold-Arrow]

Can't we be both investors and lovers? I am.

I am too... I just meant with 20k+ members on the site , there maybe are 200-300 regular posters?? Many just come here to see how much their sets are worth or to gain more info about that. I don't think that having an affiliated link will lead TLG to scrutinize every member here.

[knarrff]

I wonder how many of these 20k members are active. It must be quite a few by looking at the "online within the last 20 min" list at the bottom of the page, but 20k members doesn't mean 20k active members (say, active within the last few weeks or so). I also didn't want to cause panic or something. Using the affiliate links is quite probably safe. And as far as I know nobody got banned because of an account on BP yet.

[Jeff Mack]

Everyone please stop with all the speculation, affiliate links are not leading to bans.  BP usernames are not leading to bans.

[justafrog]

Sorry but this is wrong. I got a ban but I have been successful making an account with my wife's name, email, and credit card. The shipping address is the same of course. So they will ship to a banned buyers address.

 

I should never have underestimated them. Like a belligerent drunk in a bar, they're enthusiastic fighters, but not exactly super effective. 

[No More Monkeys]

I should never have underestimated them. Like a belligerent drunk in a bar, they're enthusiastic fighters, but not exactly super effective. 

I am shipping to my office. I certainly hope there is no way they could possibly ban entire office... I could also imagine a scenario where billing address is also set up to be an office address. Though ban hammer targeting a fly might wreck the whole table...

[Ed Mack]

This seems very hypocritical to me. If BP has an affiliate deal with S&H they obviously have been to the site and know what goes on here. Why sign sites like this up as affiliates if they don't like what we are doing?  I have changed my Ebay name to a different name than my S&H name and my BP name. I guess I need to do the same for Bricklink now too.

We sell a lot of LEGO for LEGO.  That is the truth.  Jeff and I have no idea about how LEGO actually feels about us as a site, but being that we are the biggest promoters of their product on the planet Earth, I'm sure they like us at least a little bit.  LOL.  On a serious note, LEGO likes to protect their brand and many LEGO sites and retailers have a love/hate type of relationship with them.  They are not always clear as to what they really want from affiliates, consumers or small retailers.  You would think they would love the reseller because they buy a ton of their products, yet there are many reasons why LEGO is leery of resellers.  

 

Affiliate plans are not run by LEGO directly, so I guess they can have their cake and eat it too.  They can have us promote their product and then ban people for reselling and parting out sets to resell, so they can look good to Moms and Dads who can't buy a Minecraft set for their kids.  As I have stated before, we have heard from LEGO directly in an interview(about us) that was done a year or so ago and they don't mind the small time reseller and investor...basically, the person who buys 2-3 sets...one to build, a couple to resell at a latter time.  I guess they have issues with people who buy large quantities at a discount to resell in direct competition to them or their retailers.  Those people they would rather shift to their own marketing program, which requires a brick and mortar store, no exclusives, and other requirements.  

 

Is this hypocritical, I guess in some ways it is, but I truly do not know the real impact that resellers of LEGO sets and parts has on LEGO and their future.  As for Bricklink, they have always been a niche type of site, very busy, but kinda under the radar.  With these new owners, who knows how this will affect TLG's view of that site and its members.

[Bold-Arrow]

re Bricklink:

around Jan when Lego had the VWC on sale for $80 I wanted one and had to call Lego CS as they had the call for availability tag on their website. Lady said that they were OOS, would not restock then she suggested I check a website called bricklink as they sell Lego stuff.

[binici]

If you all get banned then you can only blame yourselves. Without doing research and just jumping the gun, you'll easily be a marked target for TLG.

[No More Monkeys]

If you all get banned then you can only blame yourselves. Without doing research and just jumping the gun, you'll easily be a marked target for TLG.

I prefer to blame others

[IMDeus]

I am shipping to my office. I certainly hope there is no way they could possibly ban entire office... I could also imagine a scenario where billing address is also set up to be an office address. Though ban hammer targeting a fly might wreck the whole table...

 

AHHH I will order 10 orders of 5 Pet Shops and have them sent to their headquarters!!! Then they will ban themselves! HA! That'll show 'em! ummm errrr. nm

[No More Monkeys]

AHHH I will order 10 orders of 5 Pet Shops and have them sent to their headquarters!!! Then they will ban themselves! HA! That'll show 'em! ummm errrr. nm

This could cause collapse of the Universe. Maybe let's try head of FTC address first...

[Deez_Brickz]

This happened with another BPer who used the same username for his VIP and eBay accounts. Interesting that TLG are digging deeper to find who the resellers are .

Before I got banned, my VIP account name and eBay selling name were only different by the last character.  I have changed that with my new VIP account.

[Crustybeaver]

Interesting that TLG are digging deeper to find who the resellers are .

It'd be nice nice if TLG gave a Donald Duck about the bootleggers. How they allow eBay to advertise endless illegal fakes is beyond me

[dbroncos59]

It'd be nice nice if TLG gave a Donald Duck about the bootleggers. How they allow eBay to advertise endless illegal fakes is beyond me

[Gooker1]

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't it mind when people buy some here and there that have been around for a couple years, but when they see topics, posts and pictures of people owning more than 100 of an item that is exclusive and made on a very small run (ie...Mars Curiosity Rover) then they probably frown upon that. 

[Ed Mack]

People are not getting banned for being members of Bricklink, Brickpicker, Brickset, BrickOwl...They are getting banned for being Brickbrains and buying multiples on LEGO [email protected] exceeding the limits set.  People are not being selectively targeted unless something in their buying history is audited.  It is then a LEGO rep probably looks deeper into a customer's history and might find a connection to a store on eBay, BrickOwl or Bricklink.  

 

Either way, it is not the end of the world to be banned from LEGO S@H.  The best discounts are found elsewhere.  

[Ed Mack]

When is that feature allowing us to change user names being implemented, Ed and Jeff?

I think when people are willing to pay cash for Jeff's time to change them.  

[naf]

re Bricklink:

around Jan when Lego had the VWC on sale for $80 I wanted one and had to call Lego CS as they had the call for availability tag on their website. Lady said that they were OOS, would not restock then she suggested I check a website called bricklink as they sell Lego stuff.

 

Same thing here.  I called to see if I could purchase a replacement sticker sheet for a set that's long been retired.  They said they only had spare parts for sets 5 years back, and that I should check bricklink or ebay for a replacement.

 

If you all get banned then you can only blame yourselves. Without doing research and just jumping the gun, you'll easily be a marked target for TLG.

 

What research would that be?  Some people on here seem to be band for buying 3 of something at one time, yet others like Iketart order 90 vampyre hearses without TLG batting an eye at it.  We will never know their reasoning or methods, and no amount of research will uncover how to not get banned."  As Ed said, don't abuse the buying limits and you should be fine 99% of the time.

[Ed Mack]

 

What research would that be?  Some people on here seem to be band for buying 3 of something at one time, yet others like Iketart order 90 vampyre hearses without TLG batting an eye at it.  We will never know their reasoning or methods, and no amount of research will uncover how to not get banned."  As Ed said, don't abuse the buying limits and you should be fine 99% of the time.

I have bought hundreds of sets through LEGO S@H through the years.  I don't order 10 of this and 20 of that.  I mix it up and stay within their limits.  Many people on this site will lie and say,"Oh, I only bought 3 sets!!!."  Nonsense.  They want the sympathy from other members, but 9 times out of ten, they bought something in mass quantities that triggered the ban.  

[binici]

Same thing here.  I called to see if I could purchase a replacement sticker sheet for a set that's long been retired.  They said they only had spare parts for sets 5 years back, and that I should check bricklink or ebay for a replacement.

 

 

What research would that be?  Some people on here seem to be band for buying 3 of something at one time, yet others like Iketart order 90 vampyre hearses without TLG batting an eye at it.  We will never know their reasoning or methods, and no amount of research will uncover how to not get banned."  As Ed said, don't abuse the buying limits and you should be fine 99% of the time.

 

I have bought hundreds of sets through LEGO LEGO Shop at Home through the years.  I don't order 10 of this and 20 of that.  I mix it up and stay within their limits.  Many people on this site will lie and say,"Oh, I only bought 3 sets!!!."  Nonsense.  They want the sympathy from other members, but 9 times out of ten, they bought something in mass quantities that triggered the ban.  

 

Ok, then don't lie and use your brain, as Ed sorta wants to blurt out!

[naf]

Ok, then don't lie and use your brain, as Ed sorta wants to blurt out!

 

That's kind of what I was getting at.  There's no way to know what criteria is used to drop the banhammer, so if people just follow the buying limits you're going to be fine most of the time.  Others choose to press their luck, and more power to them.

 

Nearly every order I've put in this year that is a non-exclusive has been 5 or 6 of a set when they go on clearance, and that's usually the buying limit.  Exclusives I buy 1 or 2 at a time.  Haven't received any nastygrams yet.

[Anakinisvader]

You are being watched 

[Darth_Raichu]

You are being watched 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOnQ8CD3v4g

[TheOrcKing]

Big Brother is watching.... and he's made of Lego. :keeporder: