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.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

19 minutes ago, AmazonSucks said:

newish post on reddit. Someone supposedly banned from LEGO Shop at Home for having a BL store

wow...game changer

looks like LEGO may be cracking down on some obvious low hanging fruit in terms of reseller flags

if folks have a link to their "store" or some other identifier in their BPer profile...maybe now is the time to scrub?

[brickvoyeur]

 

On 11/26/2019 at 8:57 AM, brickvoyeur said:

Based on you being a Bricklink store owner... you have been flagged as a reseller as we now can use our datamining techniques to connect your fee payment on Bricklink to your VIP account. /s

All the downtime last week was just Lego moving the website to their servers. They have the best IT department in the business.

I hate being right nearly as much as my wife hates me being right...

 

Update: Reddit post is gone, and Brickset person says they posted something from a friend that they think is all fake.

Edited May 26, 2021 by brickvoyeur

[KShine]

The perma-ban letter ends with a kind request to take a quick survey.

"We want to make sure we are doing a good job for you - Please tell us how we did today".

That is just all kinds of special.

Edited May 26, 2021 by KShine

[legorunner]

I'll be curious to see any information that emerges regarding what the banned sellers were buying / what they were selling. If these are folks with big shops selling lots of NIB exclusives then I guess I'm not really surprised. Or if these were big shops sourcing a lot of their new parts straight from PAB or Bricks and Pieces then it kind of makes sense. But otherwise, are they just trying to kill BL? Only make it a destination for parts or used sets? I can't imagine that there are many BL shops that have never bought LEGO from LEGO...

Or maybe just a symbolic move to show that they are taking action against resellers in light of the Ulysses PR mess...? 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

7 minutes ago, KShine said:

The perma-ban letter ends with kind request to take a quick survey.

"We want to make sure we are doing a good job for you - Please tell us how we did today".

That is just all kinds of special.

I just opened a new laptop box yesterday and a "thank-you for purchasing..." card was included...noting what a wonderful product it is...and as a special thank-you...15% off repairs

[KvHulk]

Who could've seen this coming...

[exciter1]

Which one represents reseller and banned reseller?

[Keyser Soze]

Time to spend some VIP points perhaps.

[blueriderbrick]

Seem like it is a forward from grandma ... admitted getting screen shot forward to them and posting for a friend...

 

[tyskr28]

3 minutes ago, blueriderbrick said:

Seem like it is a forward from grandma ... admitted getting screen shot forward to them and posting for a friend...

 

Yup, it has just been removed from brickset homepage....lets just hope TLG doesn't get any bright ideas from this "hoax" lol

🤫

[KShine]

But what if the actual hoax is the claim of it being a hoax??

Fake news, nothing to see here, just another far right reseller conspiracy theory.

[Voltron]

Seems like lego is finally starting to enforce the one GWP per household online, put in an order hoping to get double VIP & Adidas promo, but got my Adidas promo cancelled as previously received one from an online order:

 

Dear XXXX,

Thanks for ordering from the LEGO® Shop. This is a really popular set. We want every LEGO builder to have a fair chance of getting it, so we limit how many of this set can be bought per household. Since your request exceeded this limit, we’ve cancelled the item(s) from your order.   How many? Article number Set number and name 1 6345472 40486 adidas Originals Superstar V29 These limits can be changed or removed so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the website over the next few months. Please get in touch if there is anything we can help with.

Kind regards,

Your LEGO Service Team

[BricksBrotha]

Between the coins and Ulysses probe, I’d expect more changes to come.

Strange how the 1 per house hold cannot be said about dickens. Seems it will be case by case, reserving this right for the more popular/high demand sets. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by BricksBrotha

[exciter1]

4 minutes ago, BricksBrotha said:

Between the coins and Ulysses probe, I’d expect more changes to come.

Strange how the 1 per house hold cannot be said about dickens. Seems it will be case by case, reserving this right for the more popular/high demand sets. 

Yeah, I'm not sure LEGO can keep up with any policy or IT enforcement, so this will probably be short lived.

[Aib84e]

Might also be them tackling it different region by region as the fine print varies by region, specifically the wording. 

Part of where is the stock of the GWP NA, EU, UK, Asian Pacific, etc. 

[Bricklectic]

So after 10 months my Target account has been unbanned. I placed a trial order every month and insta-cancelled each time. Cancellation orders even came before the order confirmations. But today my first order shipped. Gonna take it easy with them. I did reach out to CS a month ago and apologized and asked them to reinstate me and the rep said she would email the ban team for me, but im thinking its unrelated. Happened to me once before so i think it just resets after a while.

TLDR: Try making orders if youre currently banned at target.

[gmpirate]

4 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

So after 10 months my Target account has been unbanned. I placed a trial order every month and insta-cancelled each time. Cancellation orders even came before the order confirmations. But today my first order shipped. Gonna take it easy with them. I did reach out to CS a month ago and apologized and asked them to reinstate me and the rep said she would email the ban team for me, but im thinking its unrelated. Happened to me once before so i think it just resets after a while.

TLDR: Try making orders if youre currently banned at target.

I don’t know why it strikes me funny, but how did you apologize to CS?  And did she accept your apology on behalf of CS or just emailed the ban dept on your behalf and that’s it?

[redcell]

In my experience, the Target unbanning is not stable. I was banned for the better part of a year and then could place orders again. It only took about 2 weeks before I was banned again. I finally just told them to close my account because the ban on LEGO products started to bleed over to other products and became super annoying.

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

[coelian]

Does anyone know how long it takes for buy limits to be reset at lego SAH? Mine has been 6 months and I'm still getting orders cancelled. 

[KShine]

2 minutes ago, coelian said:

Does anyone know how long it takes for buy limits to be reset at lego SAH? Mine has been 6 months and I'm still getting orders cancelled. 

Cancelled? Your lucky - I am at the go over the limit and your banned threshold.

[BrickLover80]

Just now, coelian said:

Does anyone know how long it takes for buy limits to be reset at lego SAH? Mine has been 6 months and I'm still getting orders cancelled. 

I don't think anyone knows for sure. In my experience, they only reset if the limit changes. Up or down.

For example, the Tuk Tuk started at limit 5 (I think) and was lowered to 2. I ordered one when it first came out and then another two after the limit changed. But the Razor Crest has been limit 3 for as long as it has been out, so it still gets cancelled.

[coelian]

1 minute ago, KShine said:

Cancelled? Your lucky - I am at the go over the limit and your banned threshold.

I hope they don't take my purchases in store into account anytime soon. 

Just now, BrickLover80 said:

I don't think anyone knows for sure. In my experience, they only reset if the limit changes. Up or down.

For example, the Tuk Tuk started at limit 5 (I think) and was lowered to 2. I ordered one when it first came out and then another two after the limit changed. But the Razor Crest has been limit 3 for as long as it has been out, so it still gets cancelled.

That's an interesting observation, I'm eyeing some brickheadz and the limits have always been 5. For 80107 it's been 2 I think. 

[gmpirate]

28 minutes ago, coelian said:

I hope they don't take my purchases in store into account anytime soon. 

That's an interesting observation, I'm eyeing some brickheadz and the limits have always been 5. For 80107 it's been 2 I think. 

Store purchases don't count.

S&H limits randomly change.  Just be on the lookout when people mention some here.

[Bricklectic]

2 hours ago, redcell said:

In my experience, the Target unbanning is not stable. I was banned for the better part of a year and then could place orders again. It only took about 2 weeks before I was banned again. I finally just told them to close my account because the ban on LEGO products started to bleed over to other products and became super annoying.

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk
 

Interesting. My ban was sitewide. My last unbanning lasted till black friday and that quidditch sale  

we'll see how disciplined I am. Ultimately target isn't a great source for me so it's not a great loss either way.

 

Separately, is there an official way to know when amazon buying limit resets. I hear ppl saying one week, but is that confirmable in any way?

[Bold-Arrow]

3 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

Interesting. My ban was sitewide. My last unbanning lasted till black friday and that quidditch sale  

we'll see how disciplined I am. Ultimately target isn't a great source for me so it's not a great loss either way.

 

Separately, is there an official way to know when amazon buying limit resets. I hear ppl saying one week, but is that confirmable in any way?

7 days from order date