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.

[LegoBro]

so I have 6 months

[Lordoflego]

4 minutes ago, LegoBro said:

so I have 6 months

UP to 6 months lol

[newbie77]

10 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

this is what i believe and have posted and shared long time ago.

in my opinion, TRU shares buyers information with TLG. [ btw, TLG asks for all lego buyer information from all retailers/sellers]. some provide them and some don't. some provide only the retail not the bulk buyers information.

Toys R Us is the only retailer, i know of which actually shares all information with TLG. i am not sure how often or automated that review process is but

if one's purchase at TRU has increased significantly, then assume within 6(six) months certain action from TLG. 

if TRU ban-hammer been struck then definitely expect some action from TLG. 

 

also with regard to amazon, i don't know if there is such limit of 10 lifetime return. if there were something of that sort then i would have been banned a long time ago. i have been prime member since 2005 and i am pretty sure in last 11 years i have had over 10 returns or complaint.

its absolute certain that amazon does track complaint, return and etc.

they are very good at what they do, so its futile to try to circumvent their limit on quantity. they enforce that and will send you notification. you can get around for certain time by using different address/using different payment method etc. but they will catch you. they will send you nasty letter and after that they will ban you.

for note: i have been banned from:

a. TRU [ online ]

b. Kmart/Sears/SWY 

c. TLG [ online purchase ]

and yes i have received letter from amazon about my quantity restriction. i have complied and fortunately, i haven't been banned and/or account suspended. i have two accounts with amazon. personal and seller. and what i buy for resale only gets purchased from seller side [buy]. but still i don't buy anything/repeat what i buy at my personal account.

anything i buy for re-sale don't get returned to the retailer [ no matter what the damage and/or impact is ].

 

Edited December 10, 2016 by newbie77

[Ed Mack]

1 hour ago, Mhd747 said:

Not to alert people or make them paranoid, but I would stop posting pictures of lots of promos or openly stating you are buying above lego limits, if you want to superced them that's fine, I don't think it's wise to post stuff on Internet where it can be quite easy to track people and link accounts etc 

It's a tricky situation.  LEGO sends out multiple promos even though the small print says "one per household."  They could stop that if they wanted to, yet they know it will hurt sales if they do.

[KShine]

1 hour ago, Mhd747 said:

Not to alert people or make them paranoid, but I would stop posting pictures of lots of promos or openly stating you are buying above lego limits, if you want to superced them that's fine, I don't think it's wise to post stuff on Internet where it can be quite easy to track people and link accounts etc 

I have considered a paranoia possibility - but if it was as easy as that (purchase history from stores, or clicks from websites), people would be banned by the boat load (and they're not).

[redcell]

22 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

this is what i believe and have posted and shared long time ago.

in my opinion, TRU shares buyers information with TLG. [ btw, TLG asks for all lego buyer information from all retailers/sellers]. some provide them and some don't. some provide only the retail not the bulk buyers information.

Toys R Us is the only retailer, i know of which actually shares all information with TLG. i am not sure how often or automated that review process is but

if one's purchase at TRU has increased significantly, then assume within 6(six) months certain action from TLG. 

if TRU ban-hammer been struck then definitely expect some action from TLG. 

 

I don't think that this is right.  My main account at TRU got banned last year and I haven't had any adverse action on LEGO Shop at Home even though I used the same email for both accounts and if anyone with half a brain looked at my buying patterns, they would scream reseller.

[newbie77]

1 minute ago, KShine said:

I have considered a paranoia possibility - but if it was as easy as that (purchase history from stores, or clicks from websites), people would be banned by the boat load (and they're not).

i would say there is certain trigger that causes this. not sure about those triggers. but my guess is it has to do something with

a. total annual and/or rolling six months purchase [$ figure ]

b. total combined purchases from shared resources [ TRU & other retailers figure ]

c. business registration

d. online sales of promotional items.

[newbie77]

6 minutes ago, redcell said:

I don't think that this is right.  My main account at TRU got banned last year and I haven't had any adverse action on LEGO Shop at Home even though I used the same email for both accounts and if anyone with half a brain looked at my buying patterns, they would scream reseller.

how many concurrent TRU account do you have? have you been banned at all of them? if not then i would say you are not in their radar.

[ personally, i had 3 accounts and they had banned all of those sequentially. one of them didn't have more than 6 purchase in over 3 years. ] within 90-120 days of this. i got letter from TLG that they have suspended my LEGO Shop at Home account. 

actually, there has been some back and forth. they sent me letter that they have suspended my account. and i assumed that they did. so after 3 months i placed an online order. it went through. so i went on my regular personal purchase for about another decent months before they kicked me out :P. last i checked i got those .... "we sell only to end consumers ".

Edited December 10, 2016 by newbie77

[Ed Mack]

Just from reading this thread for the past few years, having multiple, active accounts is THE major issue with any retailer. 

[newbie77]

5 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Just from reading this thread for the past few years, having multiple, active accounts is THE major issue with any retailer. 

having two(2) is quite common if one is purchasing anything for resale from that vendor. 

i have same with every retailers, amazon, target, staples etc. one has Tax exemption and other don't. of course not with TLG.  and of course after target stopped taking/selling to re-sellers. that account is dead.

Edited December 10, 2016 by newbie77

[Ed Mack]

26 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

having two(2) is quite common if one is purchasing anything for resale from that vendor. 

i have same with every retailers, amazon, target, staples etc. one has Tax exemption and other don't. of course not with TLG.  and of course after target stopped taking/selling to re-sellers. that account is dead.

Claiming  tax exempt status is probably THE second main issue getting banned from a retailer.  LOL.

[exciter1]

this is what i believe and have posted and shared long time ago.
in my opinion, TRU shares buyers information with TLG. [ btw, TLG asks for all lego buyer information from all retailers/sellers]. some provide them and some don't. some provide only the retail not the bulk buyers information.
Toys R Us is the only retailer, i know of which actually shares all information with TLG. i am not sure how often or automated that review process is but
if one's purchase at TRU has increased significantly, then assume within 6(six) months certain action from TLG. 
if TRU ban-hammer been struck then definitely expect some action from TLG. 
 

If you buy loads of diapers and wipes, it totally throws them off.

[jaisonline]

2 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Claiming  tax exempt status is probably THE second main issue getting banned from a retailer.  LOL.

I would agree with this thought as using the sales tax exemption means you're going to collect the sales tax when resold. Total giveaway for being a reseller. 

[exciter1]

56 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Just from reading this thread for the past few years, having multiple, active accounts is THE major issue with any retailer. 

Any retailer I buy from, only one account, ever. Not because of ethics, buying power or laziness, it's all I've ever needed. Good deals will come, slow and steady.

[Sharkbait]

4 hours ago, asharerin said:

For Amazon 10 returns gets your account flagged. After that any returns will get your account manually reviewed and they will tally up your activity and if you are a net money loser you will get one warning. Any return or concession asked for after that warning and you and everyone in your household / shipping addresses/ same IP are banned for life. If you are a net profit maker then you stay on until the next manual review. They limit purchases per household per week so you won't get banned ordering those limits. If you create multiple accounts to skirt the limits you will get one warning. Again if you keep skirting after the warning it is banned for life time. 

You really don't want to get banned from Amazon as they are almost impossible to find a workaround and in the future they are most likely to be supplying a significant chunk of your consumables. Lego ban is easy to get around but not really worth the hassle as their prices are awful. Lego just stings because alot of bricklinkers and LUGs got banned so they really hurt the brand and goodwill.

How do you know that 10 returns with Amazon? 

[Bold-Arrow]

1 hour ago, jaisonline said:

I would agree with this thought as using the sales tax exemption means you're going to collect the sales tax when resold. Total giveaway for being a reseller. 

You don't need to collect sales tax in states where u don't have a presence , unless my accountant lied to me . 

[KShine]

2 hours ago, newbie77 said:

i would say there is certain trigger that causes this. not sure about those triggers. but my guess is it has to do something with

a. total annual and/or rolling six months purchase [$ figure ]

b. total combined purchases from shared resources [ TRU & other retailers figure ]

c. business registration

d. online sales of promotional items.

Well something happened - but all of my purchase activity had been unquestionably scaled back.

Somehow, human intervention must have taken place, and the dept that would make such a call was somehow alerted.

Edited December 11, 2016 by KShine

[newbie77]

8 minutes ago, KShine said:

Well something happened - but all of my purchase activity had been unquestionably scaled back.

Somehow, human intervention must have taken place, and the dept that would make such a call was somehow alerted.

yes that is correct. its mostly to do with some human intervention for whatever reason

[bigboy61]

Brickpicker needs to give badges of honor to people when they get banned from websites!

[redcell]

3 hours ago, newbie77 said:

how many concurrent TRU account do you have? have you been banned at all of them? if not then i would say you are not in their radar.

[ personally, i had 3 accounts and they had banned all of those sequentially. one of them didn't have more than 6 purchase in over 3 years. ] within 90-120 days of this. i got letter from TLG that they have suspended my LEGO Shop at Home account. 

actually, there has been some back and forth. they sent me letter that they have suspended my account. and i assumed that they did. so after 3 months i placed an online order. it went through. so i went on my regular personal purchase for about another decent months before they kicked me out :P. last i checked i got those .... "we sell only to end consumers ".

I have 3 or 4 that I've used, but, up until December of last year, I only had one and that was the one that was banned.  I was definitely on their radar.  I spent the time that it took to work through their customer service system to get to the right department who confirmed that I had been banned because of my purchasing patterns.  They were very nice about it and said that I was still welcome to buy from the store.  They also said that I had been banned based on either my credit card number, address, or email address, but couldn't tell me which one.  I figured out that it was definitely the email address and not either of the other two.  This happened last December and I have been able to purchase at LEGO Shop at Home since, but I only buy from there once in a blue moon.

[redcell]

2 hours ago, Ed Mack said:

Claiming  tax exempt status is probably THE second main issue getting banned from a retailer.  LOL.

That's what got my first account banned at Target when they did the reseller sweep last year.  However, since then, I've been able to order through a new account without any trouble.  In fact, I have ordered more from Target over the past 6 months than any end user ever would without any trouble. 

[Bold-Arrow]

7 minutes ago, bigboy61 said:

Brickpicker needs to give badges of honor to people when they get banned from websites!

We used to 

[Bold-Arrow]

5 minutes ago, redcell said:

I have 3 or 4 that I've used, but, up until December of last year, I only had one and that was the one that was banned.  I was definitely on their radar.  I spent the time that it took to work through their customer service system to get to the right department who confirmed that I had been banned because of my purchasing patterns.  They were very nice about it and said that I was still welcome to buy from the store.  They also said that I had been banned based on either my credit card number, address, or email address, but couldn't tell me which one.  I figured out that it was definitely the email address and not either of the other two.  This happened last December and I have been able to purchase at LEGO Shop at Home since, but I only buy from there once in a blue moon.

ditto this.

 

2 minutes ago, redcell said:

That's what got my first account banned at Target when they did the reseller sweep last year.  However, since then, I've been able to order through a new account without any trouble.  In fact, I have ordered more from Target over the past 6 months than any end user ever would without any trouble. 

that ban was BS and solely PR related. we played by the rules and got penalized for doing so...

[zskid00]

I still find it absurd that LEGO spends manpower and resources to do this yet doesn't just reject purchases over the limit for a certain period like Amazon does. Not to mention these resources should be used to protect their intellectual property rights from the rampant counterfeiters overseas instead of worrying about the reseller market.

[Alpinemaps]

Brickpicker needs to give badges of honor to people when they get banned from websites!

As BA said, we used to. We sorta still do. We can assign badges, but there's something with the forum software that keeps it from showing up. Stopped working sometime last year, I think.