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.

[MrSam]

Hi folks, 

After ~8+ years, I'm a tad concerned about my LEGO account. 

They seem to be declining my credit cards, despite the accounts having money. I have 3 cards with one bank, all 3 are being declined. The cards seem to be fine with other retailers. 

I have one card with another bank which goes through fine at this stage. 

I called LEGO and they couldn't figure out what was going on, and said I should talk to my bank. They didn't see any red flags. Could this be the point where LEGO puts down the hammer? Have placed ~25 orders in the last week or two, but always within limits.

Keen to know if others have been through similar?

[$20 on joe vs dan]

40 minutes ago, MrSam said:

Hi folks, 

After ~8+ years, I'm a tad concerned about my LEGO account. 

They seem to be declining my credit cards, despite the accounts having money. I have 3 cards with one bank, all 3 are being declined. The cards seem to be fine with other retailers. 

I have one card with another bank which goes through fine at this stage. 

I called LEGO and they couldn't figure out what was going on, and said I should talk to my bank. They didn't see any red flags. Could this be the point where LEGO puts down the hammer? Have placed ~25 orders in the last week or two, but always within limits.

Keen to know if others have been through similar?

it's weird that the retailer rarely flat out tells you you're banned

it's like the 'ol..."it's not you it's me..", in this case, "it's not us, it's your credit card company"

euphemisms like that just puts folks in denial 

[iahawks550]

54 minutes ago, MrSam said:

Hi folks, 

After ~8+ years, I'm a tad concerned about my LEGO account. 

They seem to be declining my credit cards, despite the accounts having money. I have 3 cards with one bank, all 3 are being declined. The cards seem to be fine with other retailers. 

I have one card with another bank which goes through fine at this stage. 

I called LEGO and they couldn't figure out what was going on, and said I should talk to my bank. They didn't see any red flags. Could this be the point where LEGO puts down the hammer? Have placed ~25 orders in the last week or two, but always within limits.

Keen to know if others have been through similar?

That's Wal-Mart'ish ban dialog. 

[joch29]

might be something new they put in place in addition to current stock limits?

I had similar experience with Walmart in the past...

 

[House Schubert]

I think I read in a recent Blocks magazine that there weren't any hard bans anymore, just hard purchase limits.

 

[Vodium]

6 hours ago, MrSam said:

Hi folks, 

After ~8+ years, I'm a tad concerned about my LEGO account. 

They seem to be declining my credit cards, despite the accounts having money. I have 3 cards with one bank, all 3 are being declined. The cards seem to be fine with other retailers. 

I have one card with another bank which goes through fine at this stage. 

I called LEGO and they couldn't figure out what was going on, and said I should talk to my bank. They didn't see any red flags. Could this be the point where LEGO puts down the hammer? Have placed ~25 orders in the last week or two, but always within limits.

Keen to know if others have been through similar?

For me, lately when checking out my credit card works 1 in maybe 10 orders. Never used to have issues. But PayPal always seems to work. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Furious_george]

9 hours ago, MrSam said:

Hi folks, 

After ~8+ years, I'm a tad concerned about my LEGO account. 

They seem to be declining my credit cards, despite the accounts having money. I have 3 cards with one bank, all 3 are being declined. The cards seem to be fine with other retailers. 

I have one card with another bank which goes through fine at this stage. 

I called LEGO and they couldn't figure out what was going on, and said I should talk to my bank. They didn't see any red flags. Could this be the point where LEGO puts down the hammer? Have placed ~25 orders in the last week or two, but always within limits.

Keen to know if others have been through similar?

I’ve bought near $20 grand worth of sets from LEGO over a few years and blown the limit heaps of  times. They just cancel it and annoyingly , hang onto my money for a week. Your not banned, it’s your card.

[Banjoman]

15 hours ago, MrSam said:

Hi folks, 

After ~8+ years, I'm a tad concerned about my LEGO account. 

They seem to be declining my credit cards, despite the accounts having money. I have 3 cards with one bank, all 3 are being declined. The cards seem to be fine with other retailers. 

I have one card with another bank which goes through fine at this stage. 

I called LEGO and they couldn't figure out what was going on, and said I should talk to my bank. They didn't see any red flags. Could this be the point where LEGO puts down the hammer? Have placed ~25 orders in the last week or two, but always within limits.

Keen to know if others have been through similar?

And most importantly....what did you buy?   

 

[MrSam]

7 hours ago, Banjoman said:

And most importantly....what did you buy?   

 

Lol. All sorts. Let's just say I was inspired by the new retiring soon list + free gingerbread house + 5% VIP + 7% cashback 😉

 

22 hours ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

it's weird that the retailer rarely flat out tells you you're banned

it's like the 'ol..."it's not you it's me..", in this case, "it's not us, it's your credit card company"

euphemisms like that just puts folks in denial 

 

13 hours ago, Furious_george said:

I’ve bought near $20 grand worth of sets from LEGO over a few years and blown the limit heaps of  times. They just cancel it and annoyingly , hang onto my money for a week. Your not banned, it’s your card.

 

Interesting, thanks guys. Will keep an eye on things and see how they play out. Might be worth getting a new card number and seeing what happens. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by MrSam

[joneyyy1981]

39 minutes ago, MrSam said:

7%

 

 

 

 

only 7 %, don't let the certain people here that... you can't be here unless you get everything at a minimum of lego pay you to take sets...

[Banjoman]

There was a code in 2019 for 7% cash back but havent seen one in a long time

[Darth_Raichu]

Does anyone know if Walmart.com bans accounts that place several orders of 2 of the same set?  

[gmpirate]

16 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Does anyone know if Walmart.com bans accounts that place several orders of 2 of the same set?  

There are many posts on this site where people say they get their orders cancelled for just that.  It seems the bans are not permanent, but you do get taken out of the game for a bit.  Generally what I gather is to buy no more than two (the most allowed) in a day.  But you don't want a bunch of orders piling up in "pending" status either.

Edited July 23, 2020 by gmpirate

[redcell]

37 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Does anyone know if Walmart.com bans accounts that place several orders of 2 of the same set?  

Not in my experience.  Before they imposed the quantity limits, they were putting a soft ban on some accounts that cancelled most orders placed on the account, but that seems to have gone away with the quantity limits.

[joch29]

seems like walmart is slower to respond to increase their supply based on the demand for LEGO when it comes to quantity limits.  You notice this also with how much lego they currently stock.  My purchase at walmart have dropped dramatically compared to prior years.

[Darth_Raichu]

24 minutes ago, joch29 said:

seems like walmart is slower to respond to increase their supply based on the demand for LEGO when it comes to quantity limits.  You notice this also with how much lego they currently stock.  My purchase at walmart have dropped dramatically compared to prior years.

Is it slow or is it smart?  If the objective is to prevent resellers from buying from them, then it seems to be working.

[joch29]

9 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Is it slow or is it smart?  If the objective is to prevent resellers from buying from them, then it seems to be working.

LOL... I doubt it. I might consider that if they had more selection to pick from. Regardless, that's a poor business strategy. I think that the person/ team at walmart that's doing the toy purchasing is doing a poor job compared to target and amazon. Somebody is not looking at the data.

Edited July 23, 2020 by joch29

[Darth_Raichu]

3 minutes ago, joch29 said:

LOL... I doubt it. I might consider that if they had more selection to pick from. Regardless, that's a poor business strategy. I think that the person/ team at walmart that's doing the toy purchasing is doing a poor job compared to target and amazon. Somebody is not looking at the data.

I thought Target has a ban list too ?  Somebody upthread said they were banned by Target.com for purchasing too much LEGO

[joch29]

14 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

I thought Target has a ban list too ?  Somebody upthread said they were banned by Target.com for purchasing too much LEGO

That's kinda my point.  many of us are buying and chancing it with Target and they continue to have more selections and quantity. Walmart on the other hand, why bother, seems like a hard limit over a certain short period of time and the selection remains limited. Look at 75214 for example.  it's been OOS everywhere except target. It was then posted here and the number of sellers have grown to 150+.   And yet target still has them in stock. That's just 1 example.  Data is vital in making decisions.

Edited July 23, 2020 by joch29

[Belac]

I'm Probably not banned but vip and account are glitching and not loading currently.  Maybe an update or something.?.

Edit:Whole site down for update now.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Belac

[$20 on joe vs dan]

6 hours ago, joch29 said:

That's kinda my point.  many of us are buying and chancing it with Target and they continue to have more selections and quantity. Walmart on the other hand, why bother, seems like a hard limit over a certain short period of time and the selection remains limited. Look at 75214 for example.  it's been OOS everywhere except target. It was then posted here and the number of sellers have grown to 150+.   And yet target still has them in stock. That's just 1 example.  Data is vital in making decisions.

Last Month it was Target. This month I've been getting sets mainly from Walmart (online..not arm sweep kind)...they even have the most rare non-retired set (Pirate Barracuda Bay) currently at RRP...when it comes to saught after sets...I think some retailers do better than others but they seem to alternate availability and best pricing.  I'd hate to be just Target, or Just Walmart, or Just Amazon...access to all three provides the best chances at sets at the best prices. SAH is also a main source but for specific circumstances.

Edited July 23, 2020 by $20 on joe vs dan

[gmpirate]

4 hours ago, Belac said:

I'm Probably not banned but vip and account are glitching and not loading currently.  Maybe an update or something.?.

Edit:Whole site down for update now.

probably just preparing for Christmas in July.  And I thought just the Hallmark Channel did that 🤪

[coelian]

I usually buy online and the nearest lego store is 2 hours away. Before I make a drive out to grab some stuff, do physical stores impose any sort of limit on purchases? 

[Alpinemaps]

probably just preparing for Christmas in July.  And I thought just the Hallmark Channel did that 

As long as Lacey Chambers continues to star in Hallmark Christmas movies, I will watch them all
July long.

[gmpirate]

4 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

As long as Lacey Chambers continues to star in Hallmark Christmas movies, I will watch them all
July long.

Lacey Chabert?