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.

[SLL]

I am banned years ago and it will be great if the new reward system accidentally lifted it.  I guess I will know soon on the 23rd.

[thelovemachine]

5 minutes ago, superlegolover said:

I am banned years ago and it will be great if the new reward system accidentally lifted it.  I guess I will know soon on the 23rd.

Most have been unbanned with new site. 

[dbrouge]

A lot of sets now have a limit of 20, some even 99. Seems not so long ago the max was 5 w/o doing multiple orders. Maybe sales are down and they want to move stock.

[president89]

What will get you banned on Lego.com?  I've been buying stuff in lots of 10 where the limit is 99. 

[LegoMan1212]

35 minutes ago, president89 said:

What will get you banned on Lego.com?  I've been buying stuff in lots of 10 where the limit is 99. 

No one really know, but I would recommend not buying 100. 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

Wouldn't buying more than say...5 units of a set multiple times essentially label you as a reseller?  That label probably puts one in a special category that LEGO may look more closely at in certain circumstances.  Just a thought.

[Furious_george]

2 hours ago, president89 said:

What will get you banned on Lego.com?  I've been buying stuff in lots of 10 where the limit is 99. 

Just stay within the limit. Simples.

[Saruman]

tried to buy the tree of creativity and dinosaurs from UK with forward2me, and instead got banned from LEGO

I got this

Dear LEGO® Fan,

Thanks for your interest in LEGO® bricks.
As you know, we offer a service where fans can request replacement LEGO bricks. After reviewing your account history and the parts requests you’ve made over time, we’ve decided to no longer offer this service to you. As a result, we’ve cancelled your order.
We don’t take these types of decisions lightly and we take great care to run extensive checks. However, once we’ve decided not to accept any further orders from an account, that decision is final.
You can still buy LEGO bricks and sets elsewhere, but orders placed through LEGO.com, for both LEGO® Shop and replacement parts, online or over the phone will be automatically cancelled from this point on.

Kind regards,
LEGO® Customer Service

 

I'm like, WHAT THE HECK. I have NEVER done anything suspicious on LEGO. Now I gotta go talk to a CS rep on Monday. (sigh)

 

EDIT: are they banning me from the free pieces service(which I have NEVER used) or from normal sets. Because technically I am ALREADY banned from LEGO for free parts, because I did something, I honestly don't remember what but I know it was trivial, and they banned me. However, that was like 3 years ago, so maybe they unbanned me(never told me) and and now banning me again. Thoughts?

Edited May 23, 2020 by Saruman
I forgot to add something

[LEGOscum]

13 hours ago, Saruman said:

so maybe they unbanned me(never told me) and and now banning me again. Thoughts?

Around a week ago Customer Service unbanned everybody. No notifications went out but LEGO Ambassadors were informed so they could share the news with their communities. 

[KShine]

19 hours ago, Saruman said:

tried to buy the tree of creativity and dinosaurs from UK with forward2me, and instead got banned from LEGO

I got this

Dear LEGO® Fan,

Thanks for your interest in LEGO® bricks.
As you know, we offer a service where fans can request replacement LEGO bricks. After reviewing your account history and the parts requests you’ve made over time, we’ve decided to no longer offer this service to you. As a result, we’ve cancelled your order.
We don’t take these types of decisions lightly and we take great care to run extensive checks. However, once we’ve decided not to accept any further orders from an account, that decision is final.
You can still buy LEGO bricks and sets elsewhere, but orders placed through LEGO.com, for both LEGO® Shop and replacement parts, online or over the phone will be automatically cancelled from this point on.

Kind regards,
LEGO® Customer Service

 

I'm like, WHAT THE HECK. I have NEVER done anything suspicious on LEGO. Now I gotta go talk to a CS rep on Monday. (sigh)

 

EDIT: are they banning me from the free pieces service(which I have NEVER used) or from normal sets. Because technically I am ALREADY banned from LEGO for free parts, because I did something, I honestly don't remember what but I know it was trivial, and they banned me. However, that was like 3 years ago, so maybe they unbanned me(never told me) and and now banning me again. Thoughts?

I wouldn't suggest spending (wasting) too much time trying to resolve things with a cs rep - but good luck.

[KShine]

20 hours ago, Saruman said:

EDIT: are they banning me from the free pieces service(which I have NEVER used) or from normal sets. Because technically I am ALREADY banned from LEGO for free parts, because I did something, I honestly don't remember what but I know it was trivial, and they banned me.

Sounds like you are saying that they previously banned you for something that you NEVER used, but at the same time, it is something that you did (but don't actually remember)?

[DadsAFOL]

22 hours ago, Saruman said:

tried to buy the tree of creativity and dinosaurs from UK with forward2me, and instead got banned from LEGO

Are you a member of your local LUG?  If so and you can get the ambassador to vouch for you, there might be a path to get unblocked that way.  The AFOL Engagement Team can at least look into it.   They may not be able to un-ban you but, its your best shot to have someone review it.

 

[Saruman]

20 hours ago, KShine said:

Sounds like you are saying that they previously banned you for something that you NEVER used, but at the same time, it is something that you did (but don't actually remember)?

No I never used the free parts. I think LEGO just uses the same email to ban everyone regardless of HOW you got banned. I sent an email to CS and hope to hear back in 10 days.

[stuco191]

Is anyone banned from target? If so what type of order consistency or qtys did it take to get banned?

[redcell]

2 minutes ago, stuco191 said:

Is anyone banned from target? If so what type of order consistency or qtys did it take to get banned?

Yes.  I got sloppy one morning last year and put an order through for around $16k.  Everything after that was cancelled.  Before then, the highest order I'd placed was probably somewhere in the $8k range and never had a problem.  

[thelovemachine]

I thought you got unbanned at target..

[stuco191]

Yes.  I got sloppy one morning last year and put an order through for around $16k.  Everything after that was cancelled.  Before then, the highest order I'd placed was probably somewhere in the $8k range and never had a problem.  

Right on thx!! How long did it take for you to get unbanned?

[RightDwigt]

20 minutes ago, redcell said:

Yes.  I got sloppy one morning last year and put an order through for around $16k.  Everything after that was cancelled.  Before then, the highest order I'd placed was probably somewhere in the $8k range and never had a problem.  

Dang!! I've spent just over a grand at Target in the past month and I was worried... but my spending pales in comparison!

Edited June 17, 2020 by RightDwigt

[redcell]

16 minutes ago, stuco191 said:

Right on thx!! How long did it take for you to get unbanned?

I'm still banned and it's a fairly hard ban.  I tried a number of ways to get around it, but none worked.

[redcell]

10 minutes ago, RightDwigt said:

Dang!! I've spent just over a grand at Target in the past month and I was worried... but my spending pales in comparison!

I wouldn't worry about it for a minute if I were you and you're placing orders in that range.  Before 2019, I was routinely placing orders for $1k-$5k with no problem.

[thelovemachine]

11 hours ago, redcell said:

I wouldn't worry about it for a minute if I were you and you're placing orders in that range.  Before 2019, I was routinely placing orders for $1k-$5k with no problem.

How did u get those anakin starfighters?

[redcell]

2 hours ago, thelovemachine said:

How did u get those anakin starfighters?

Through a new source that I've gotten in place over the last few months.

[thelovemachine]

i would imagine different address would work.. no?

[gmpirate]

new address, cc, ip, mac address, etc . . .

[asharerin]

On 6/17/2020 at 4:21 AM, stuco191 said:

Is anyone banned from target? If so what type of order consistency or qtys did it take to get banned?

Yeah hard banned. Ridiculous sums spent every month. Easy to get around just get creative. Not sure it is worth the hassle though just stay above board and pay full retail and you will still do well these days. Free money is everywhere and people are spending it like it is going out of style (which it is).