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.

[boliramirez]

I'm banned from LEGO Shop at Home but I still use my VIP card to collect and use the points at the brick and mortar store..

[kumas]

could they ban my account / block my VIP card if I make several purchases during one day at brick and mortar Lego store ? (to get more promos)

[Shewie]

9 minutes ago, kumas said:

could they ban my account / block my VIP card if I make several purchases during one day at brick and mortar Lego store ? (to get more promos)

yes they could, thats why we are suggesting to avoid using vip cards when you want to get multiple promo boxes. VIP is your Lego ID. Every recent data about your purchases are right there. But they shouldn't be blocking your VIP card on the other hand. That's odd.

[FM]

This question comes on the heels of a deal this past weekend for B&N GCs at Kmart...  Buy a $25 B&N GC and get a $5 Kmart GC and $2 in points, which is $7 off $25, or a 28% discount on B&N GCs.  I bought a nice handful from one store and a few from another store, with no resistance at all, and no employees including a store mgr had ever heard of this type of promo.  But over the week I could have gone to 15 stores and bought 15-20 from each store, or well over $5000 in GCs. (At $25 a crack that's 200+ checkouts)  Can anyone shed a light on any danger zone number that could cause me any trouble for doing this?  Thanks!

[Will 4]

On 14/04/2017 at 8:27 AM, kumas said:

could they ban my account / block my VIP card if I make several purchases during one day at brick and mortar Lego store ? (to get more promos)

 

I doubt it at a lego store in the UK I got 3 mini VW's in the space of 10 min buy splitting purchases as a matter of fact it only took 2 carrier bags so I even saved 5p.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Will 4

[thoroakenfelder]

Did I get a ban?

Quote

Thank you for your recent order. Please note that your order did not pass our order verification and has been cancelled.

The LEGO® Company takes its customers security and privacy very seriously. If you place another order with us, please ensure that all payment information you provide is accurate and that you are an authorized user for the payment type being submitted.

Sincerely,

LEGO Systems, Inc.
Consumer Services

I see an authorization on my card. I placed one order last night and another order this morning. Plus one trip to the store.

[Migration]

4 minutes ago, thoroakenfelder said:

Did I get a ban?

I see an authorization on my card. I placed one order last night and another order this morning. Plus one trip to the store.

That is not the ban letter.

 

[thoroakenfelder]

Just now, Migration said:

That is not the ban letter.

 

Oh ok. I guess I'll try asking them tomorrow after CS is open.

[cladner]

i ordered 50+ of a limit 5 item last month during the disco batman promo over a 3 day period using both of my shop at home accounts and have no issues.    i have though had my cc company flag multiple purchases in a 24 hour period and got a sort of similar sounding email and thought i was banned.  four orders sounds pretty small to get the ban hammer.  maybe try another credit card/debit card or paypal to see if that still doesn't work .  then if that doesn't work, i might be a little more concerned but probably not that  much since you can still go to a lego store and get basically all the deals without having to worry about a smashed box courtesy of the overly zealous bubble folk of shop at home.

 

Edited May 4, 2017 by cladner

[randrace]

I want to place a large (for me) order with LEGO Bricks and Pieces. Does buying 50+ of a decorated tile or blank head raise any red flags?

[Phil B]

44 minutes ago, randrace said:

I want to place a large (for me) order with LEGO Bricks and Pieces. Does buying 50+ of a decorated tile or blank head raise any red flags?

Isn't that exactly what B&P is for?

[Martae54]

I want to place a large (for me) order with LEGO Bricks and Pieces. Does buying 50+ of a decorated tile or blank head raise any red flags?

 

I ordered quite a few of a certain piece last month over the phone. Lady was thrilled to help me with my order, and actually nice enough to give me the VW promo since I hit the monetary plateau. (B&P orders do not normally count toward any promotional offers.)

[Alpinemaps]

50 minutes ago, randrace said:

I want to place a large (for me) order with LEGO Bricks and Pieces. Does buying 50+ of a decorated tile or blank head raise any red flags?

Nope. you should be fine.  I've never heard anyone get banned for buying from Bricks and Pieces.

I've put in large orders before (~$100), without issue.

I *suppose* it might raise an eyebrow if you ordered 200 Wonder Woman torsos.  But I doubt it.

[terrymc4677]

19 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

 

I *suppose* it might raise an eyebrow if you ordered 200 Wonder Woman torsos.  But I doubt it.

There is a fetish for everything these days. To each his own I guess.

[exciter1]

13 minutes ago, terrymc4677 said:

There is a fetish for everything these days. To each his own I guess.

I like paint

[Lordoflego]

45 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

I like paint

Didn't he just get married last month at your Kmart too?  

[Rodeogeorge]

2 hours ago, Lordoflego said:

Didn't he just get married last month at your Kmart too?  

CHROME! WITNESS!!!

[cmartin33]

Well I think I just got banned from Walmart.com.....so now I'm banned from Lego Shop at Home, Target.com, and Walmart.com.....just great. The only one I've been able to avoid is TRU.com suprisingly.

Has anybody else been banned from Walmart.com? Anybody know of a workaround? I'm thinking of creating another account but my current account has tax exemption.

[Val-E]

2 minutes ago, cmartin33 said:

Well I think I just got banned from Walmart.com.....so now I'm banned from Lego Shop at Home, Target.com, and Walmart.com.....just great. The only one I've been able to avoid is TRU.com suprisingly.

Has anybody else been banned from Walmart.com? Anybody know of a workaround? I'm thinking of creating another account but my current account has tax exemption.

Well, the last thing TRU want to do now is lose customers. Do you mind telling why you got banned - volume buyer?

[cmartin33]

Just now, Val-E said:

Well, the last thing TRU want to do now is lose customers. Do you mind telling why you got banned - volume buyer?

I think I ordered too much too fast. I stopped buying Legos over the summer b/c of lack of space. So now that I've cleared out some space from selling, I thought I could get some inventory for next year quickly from Walmart....I ordered 25 quantity of a few sets within the span of an hour. The first few orders shipped...the rest canceled. They probably think I'm laundering money....IDK.

Maybe don't order more than 12 at a time?

[Val-E]

Could be a secure countermeasure incase of stolen CC or account details.

[newbie77]

High quantity of pricing error item. That's theory I have

[Bold-Arrow]

2 hours ago, cmartin33 said:

I think I ordered too much too fast. I stopped buying Legos over the summer b/c of lack of space. So now that I've cleared out some space from selling, I thought I could get some inventory for next year quickly from Walmart....I ordered 25 quantity of a few sets within the span of an hour. The first few orders shipped...the rest canceled. They probably think I'm laundering money....IDK.

Maybe don't order more than 12 at a time?

Just do an online chat . They will remove the hold . They probably suspect cc fraud . I’ve had that few times . Should be easily resolved 

[Robb]

Once you're done with your buy out, what item do you think is worthy of going all in like that?

 

[redcell]

I think I ordered too much too fast. I stopped buying Legos over the summer b/c of lack of space. So now that I've cleared out some space from selling, I thought I could get some inventory for next year quickly from Walmart....I ordered 25 quantity of a few sets within the span of an hour. The first few orders shipped...the rest canceled. They probably think I'm laundering money....IDK.
Maybe don't order more than 12 at a time?

I can personally attest,to the fact that WM does not have any kind of limitations on Lego sets. I have bought close to a thousand sets over the past two weeks and many thousands more over the past few years all on the same account without any issues. I'm just glad that they lifted their per limit purchase orders so you can order 100 sets at a time.