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.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

6 minutes ago, KShine said:

The Tabby situation is just like the UK - If you say that you are leaving, you are supposed to leave!

Hello you lovely Americans... Bring it on, us Brits are made of sterner stuff. We may well be suffering Brexit fall-out, but you lot have Trump! I rest my case ?

[KShine]

Just now, TabbyBoy said:

Hello you lovely Americans... Bring it on, us Brits are made of sterner stuff. We may well be suffering Brexit fall-out, but you lot have Trump! I rest my case ?

And a fairly thriving economy!

[fuzzy_bricks]

2 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

Hello you lovely Americans... Bring it on, us Brits are made of sterner stuff. We may well be suffering Brexit fall-out, but you lot have Trump! I rest my case ?

That explains why we still have a queen...oh wait.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

5 minutes ago, KShine said:

And a fairly thriving economy!

After the initial FUD, so will we when the "Great" goes back into Britain on 29MAR. We could even be the 51st State one day as London is closer to DC than Honolulu.

There's even been talk of Scotland becoming a province of Canada if they leave the UK.

[asharerin]

56 minutes ago, KShine said:

And a fairly thriving economy!

I wouldn't even classify it as "fairly" thriving. The only thing we manufacture is fiat currency these days and those printing presses are about to start up again and run red hot for a few years. The service economy cannot sustain our level of debt. We certainly can never repay the debt, and within 10 years just the interest payments are looking very iffy. To be fair though we are still much better off than Europe. S*** show all around and I would not be proud of having the least s**** economy.

Edited January 15, 2019 by asharerin

[cladner]

?

 

[Reddwarf4ever]

Building tower bridge set, as I may have mentioned and unbelievably, there is a brick missing, a beige 2x1 part 4109995

i thought, nothing to lose, so I requested the part via the automated system, the only difference is, I used a VPN to give me a different IP address, still the UK, but not the one from my ISP.....the order has been accepted and usually I get the ‘ sorry’ email within minutes, now been several hours and nothing ? so maybe the only ‘ trigger’ was my IP address. Waiting for the item dispatched email, if it works ( or doesn’t )I will report back......could help others ???

Edited January 15, 2019 by Reddwarf4ever

[Guest TabbyBoy]

10 hours ago, Reddwarf4ever said:

Building tower bridge set, as I may have mentioned and unbelievably, there is a brick missing, a beige 2x1 part 4109995

i thought, nothing to lose, so I requested the part via the automated system, the only difference is, I used a VPN to give me a different IP address, still the UK, but not the one from my ISP.....the order has been accepted and usually I get the ‘ sorry’ email within minutes, now been several hours and nothing ? so maybe the only ‘ trigger’ was my IP address. Waiting for the item dispatched email, if it works ( or doesn’t )I will report back......could help others ???

Of the TBs that I sold, two buyers complained of similar pieces missing. I asked them to contact LEGO CS and it got resolved without fuss. The missing pieces were from sets using the new box, not the old one. That reminds me.... I ordered some 4x2 white tiles when I come to see my 10220 VW as they got added to the roof when that box was changed. Also the 10242 Mini needed a new rear windscreen as some of those are in an old box too. I have a lot of these sets and LEGO CS had no problem whatsoever as I PICKED UP THE PHONE rather emailed. Due to these "quality" issues, I no longer buy larger sets soon after release.

[Reddwarf4ever]

Well I got the ‘ banned for life ‘ email today, I have emailed Lego with the order number and asked them to resolve this banning issue....but have asked my daughter to order the missing brick.....

[Guest TabbyBoy]

18 minutes ago, Reddwarf4ever said:

Well I got the ‘ banned for life ‘ email today, I have emailed Lego with the order number and asked them to resolve this banning issue....but have asked my daughter to order the missing brick.....

The telephone can often resolve the most difficult of issues ?

[Reddwarf4ever]

Just phoned and order the part, couldn’t find the batch code needed from the box, but ordered anyway.

the phone number is weird 0080053465555 had to use the 0080 on my landline or it wouldn’t ring, my mobile won’t ring this number though......will phone in future, but I have Ben set up an account with my real name and email address, so may work next time ?

[Secret Squirrel]

Just now, Reddwarf4ever said:

Just phoned and order the part, couldn’t find the batch code needed from the box, but ordered anyway.

the phone number is weird 0080053465555 had to use the 0080 on my landline or it wouldn’t ring, my mobile won’t ring this number though......will phone in future, but I have Ben set up an account with my real name and email address, so may work next time ?

Same here, every variation I used just wouldn't go through from the mobile. E-mailing CS took a few days but got the issue resolved.

[Reddwarf4ever]

Strange one, first thought it was a US number.....

alls well that ends well

[Guest TabbyBoy]

26 minutes ago, Reddwarf4ever said:

Just phoned and order the part, couldn’t find the batch code needed from the box, but ordered anyway.

the phone number is weird 0080053465555 had to use the 0080 on my landline or it wouldn’t ring, my mobile won’t ring this number though......will phone in future, but I have Ben set up an account with my real name and email address, so may work next time ?

If you want to speak to somebody at LEGO with a higher rank than an amoeba, call 01753 495000 or 01753 495370. I hope this helps.

If you want a non-"free" number Google "say no to 0870" and you may be able to see the corresponding landline number, often with clearer line and not lining the pockets of others.

[Reddwarf4ever]

Wow I use saynoto0870 all the time, an amazing resource, thanks for the number, I may well call them about the lifetime bans

thanks

[Val-E]

He pedido un SSD de 240GB WD y 4GB más de RAM ya que no me gustan los portátiles nuevos porque carecen de muchas cosas que tengo como lector DVD, conector Ethernet o batería extraíble. Luego habrá que ver posibilidades de cambiar la placa base  procesadora por otras más modernas pero tiempo al tiempo.

La idea es usar el SSD para sistema y programas y el disco actual solo para ficheros.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

22 minutes ago, Val-E said:

He pedido un SSD de 240GB WD y 4GB más de RAM ya que no me gustan los portátiles nuevos porque carecen de muchas cosas que tengo como lector DVD, conector Ethernet o batería extraíble. Luego habrá que ver posibilidades de cambiar la placa base  procesadora por otras más modernas pero tiempo al tiempo.

La idea es usar el SSD para sistema y programas y el disco actual solo para ficheros.

You can by a 512GB SSD for a similar price these days. I'm currently using one right now on my i9 with 32GB RAM. I still prefer my iMac though ?

[Reddwarf4ever]

Cool

?

[Val-E]

Wow, that was a pretty cool derailment of thread. Wrong topic and language! Sorry.

[Reddwarf4ever]

He’s a strange cat LOL

[thebrickdad]

4 hours ago, Val-E said:

He pedido un SSD de 240GB WD y 4GB más de RAM ya que no me gustan los portátiles nuevos porque carecen de muchas cosas que tengo como lector DVD, conector Ethernet o batería extraíble. Luego habrá que ver posibilidades de cambiar la placa base  procesadora por otras más modernas pero tiempo al tiempo.

La idea es usar el SSD para sistema y programas y el disco actual solo para ficheros.

Best post of the year so far 

[Val-E]

4 hours ago, thebrickdad said:

Best post of the year so far 

I just wish the folk on the  Spanish PC modding forum had been as amused when they got the crossed post about Lego bans, UCS turds and Amazon FBA being the worst sales platform.

[brickolodon]

Looks like with this new reward system online LEGO somehow cancelled my ban...just placed my order after 6 years long wait and it’s shipped now. ?!?!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

 

[Sandwraith]

7 hours ago, brickolodon said:

Looks like with this new reward system online LEGO somehow cancelled my ban...just placed my order after 6 years long wait and it’s shipped now. ?!?!

Yeah i had multiple accounts, main one was banned years ago, but for whatever reason the account merge moved all my points to the banned account. Account is working just fine now though!

[waddamon]

I may have to try, see if my ban from 2013 is lifted.  At least I think it was 2013.