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.

[TheBrickClique]

32 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

I was going to say 10000% but I wasn't sure if it was possible to go over 1000%.

But they do collect DNA samples in the store to ensure only one GWP per family. 

[coelian]

4 hours ago, TheBrickClique said:

But they do collect DNA samples in the store to ensure only one GWP per family. 

I have to start roping in my neighbours. 

As with the other folks here, I don't think lego merges in store and online purchases. I have bought a dozen at a time in store and they did not bat an eyelid. Then again, I visit a store only a few times a year when I'm in Lyon or Paris. 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

13 hours ago, TheBrickClique said:

But they do collect DNA samples in the store to ensure only one GWP per family. 

never blow your nose and throw away tissue at a LEGO store

 

 

 

 

...and ALWAYS wear a hairnet

[coelian]

I went into the lego store last night just before closing and picked up 5 Santa Sleighs (tried more but the limit was 5), going back today with a disguise. 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

21 hours ago, coelian said:

 going back today with a disguise. 

white beard and santa hat

they will never know

[gmpirate]

22 hours ago, coelian said:

I went into the lego store last night just before closing and picked up 5 Santa Sleighs (tried more but the limit was 5), going back today with a disguise. 

That's awesome.  What are you doing to do tomorrow?

[coelian]

13 hours ago, gmpirate said:

That's awesome.  What are you doing to do tomorrow?

I got 5 more yesterday morning, none of those on late shift on Friday were working on Saturday.

[CsabaLazlo]

On 10/26/2021 at 10:15 AM, coelian said:

I have to start roping in my neighbours. 

As with the other folks here, I don't think lego merges in store and online purchases. I have bought a dozen at a time in store and they did not bat an eyelid. Then again, I visit a store only a few times a year when I'm in Lyon or Paris. 

A lot of it will come down to how much the specific store member cares, if there is an arsey manager in on that day and so on. When I worked in retail, my attitude towards bending the rules varied depending on who was running the store at the time.

[severalads]

Has anyone been blocked by Smyths in UK? I very rarely ever buy from them, maybe 5 orders with 2-3 items over the past year. Yet I cannot buy from them anymore

[Bricklectic]

any data points for repeat walmart orders?

personally ive done 5 duplicates within 1 hour but has anyone pushed beyond that?

[carini26]

49 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

any data points for repeat walmart orders?

personally ive done 5 duplicates within 1 hour but has anyone pushed beyond that?

Pretty sure this sort of activity is what got us to the 2 per order thing in first place.  So, by all means, please continue.  You are the data point.

[$20 on joe vs dan]

14 minutes ago, carini26 said:

Pretty sure this sort of activity is what got us to the 2 per order thing in first place.  So, by all means, please continue.  You are the data point.

I think this type of argument is often used about how unfair it is to enforce climate change rules on 3rd world countries

older resellers have gotten "theirs" with such practices and now scoff at the newer resellers trying to do the same thing

[sorry for OT..I'll take it to the complaints thread]

[Bricklectic]

3 minutes ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

I think this type of argument is often used about how unfair it is to enforce climate change rules on 3rd world countries

older resellers have gotten "theirs" with such practices and now scoff at the newer resellers trying to do the same thing

[sorry for OT..I'll take it to the complaints thread]

Yes. I dislike the fake piety. As if everyone sticks to limits perfectly. Lego one gwp per customer only etc.....

 

[carini26]

1 hour ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

I think this type of argument is often used about how unfair it is to enforce climate change rules on 3rd world countries

older resellers have gotten "theirs" with such practices and now scoff at the newer resellers trying to do the same thing

[sorry for OT..I'll take it to the complaints thread]

How much resellers decide to push it are risks they should be willing to assume.  If the upside of snagging an extra 12 - 14 units of one SKU outweighs getting the ban hammer, go nuts. 

My reply had more to do with this sense of entitlement.  I read it as: 'Hey, for everyone who already f*cked up, how far did you go before you f*cked yourself?  I am in the middle of skirting the line and need to know.'

[redcell]

any data points for repeat walmart orders?
personally ive done 5 duplicates within 1 hour but has anyone pushed beyond that?

It's been about a year since I've ordered from WM, but I used to do 50-60 orders back to back without any problem.

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[redcell]

Pretty sure this sort of activity is what got us to the 2 per order thing in first place.  So, by all means, please continue.  You are the data point.

That doesn't really make sense...there was no need to place multiple orders when you could order 100 at a time.

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[LegoBro]

On 11/3/2021 at 10:31 AM, Bricklectic said:

any data points for repeat walmart orders?

personally ive done 5 duplicates within 1 hour but has anyone pushed beyond that?

Personally the limit of 2 has kept me from over doing it on any one unit.  You start early enough in the retirement season, you can pretty much pick up the quantities you want without raising flags. Because of that, I stopped wondering how hard anyone pushed it before getting the hammer lol. 

[redcell]

On 11/3/2021 at 2:44 PM, Bricklectic said:

Yes. I dislike the fake piety. As if everyone sticks to limits perfectly. Lego one gwp per customer only etc.....

 

I've always taken a "pedal to the metal" approach with my buying, but I never saw the sense in not ordering as much as a store would allow me to order out of some sense of beneficence towards the collective good.  Sure, that type of ordering causes retailers to change their policies, but it's not like my holding back is going to make a huge difference when there are plenty of other people out there taking the same approach.  The buying latitude that we get from any retailer at any point in time is inherently temporary...nothing good lasts forever so take full advantage of something that's good when it's available.

9 hours ago, LegoBro said:

Personally the limit of 2 has kept me from over doing it on any one unit.  You start early enough in the retirement season, you can pretty much pick up the quantities you want without raising flags. Because of that, I stopped wondering how hard anyone pushed it before getting the hammer lol. 

Has anyone been banned by WM since they instituted the 2 unit limit?  I was quasi-banned before that went into place with orders being cancelled randomly, but had no problem with any orders with WM after that new limit went into effect.

[Bricklectic]

9 minutes ago, redcell said:

 

Has anyone been banned by WM since they instituted the 2 unit limit?  I was quasi-banned before that went into place with orders being cancelled randomly, but had no problem with any orders with WM after that new limit went into effect.

I was temporary banned by wm last year but it was when they had the $10 GC promo with HS and beauuxbatons carriage. Im 99.99% sure the gc invites more scrutiny, otherwise ive been fine.

[brickvoyeur]

  

On 11/1/2021 at 11:00 AM, tyclin said:

 

My order was confirmed but received another email stating" it We’re really sorry, but your order didn’t pass our order validation checks and has been cancelled as a result."

Called the customer service, but they could not give any reason and needed to check with another department. And it will take at least 24 hours to know the reason.

Customer service asked me what the code Lego emailed, anyone knows what E13 is.

 

 

 

 

On 11/1/2021 at 11:15 AM, RedBaron said:

E13 for me was the ultimate ban code.  It took 3 calls to customer service to get someone to actually tell me what it is.  I can't write here what I thought at the time, and I still feel that way.  They will still let you buy in the stores, but not online.  It has definitely affected my buying since I am an hour from the nearest store.  I think this is all about GWP limits, and not product limits.        

 

On 11/1/2021 at 11:23 AM, brickvoyeur said:

E13 was my ban as well. 

 

  On 9/30/2021 at 12:27 PM, brickvoyeur said:

Last year Amazon was dropshipping direct from Lego. They counted that against your personal quantity limits and linked your Amazon orders to your address.

I placed 3 diner orders directly from Lego and they were canceled a couple hours after ordering. My ban didn't actually get put into place until almost 6 months later randomly between purchases. I reached out to them many times trying to figure out why I was banned, as I never over ordered from them and the best they could give me was that my Diner and Hidden side castle orders went over the limit and that flagged me as a reseller. When I  told them I ordered the Diner's from Amazon, and Lego dropshipped them, that didn't seem to matter. Even worse were the Hidden Side Castles that they canceled each time for being out of stock, then the fourth order was canceled for being over the limit. So I never got a single castle from them, but that was held against me. Got all the castles from Kohl's, who shipped directly.

They did get it right, as I certainly meet the definition of a reseller. I'm just glad they didn't ban my other accounts or the addresses I ship to, just my main account to my house.

 From a post I made back in January, months before my random ban.
  

  On 1/9/2021 at 6:12 PM, brickvoyeur said:

Interesting. I never successfully ordered any of the Diner's from Lego. But had some dropshipped from Amazon directly from Lego. Got the "over limit" email from the Diner's I just ordered. 

Apparently when they dropship... they count them against you without giving you the points or promos. 

 

@tyclin Did they provide you a reason yet? Curious if E13 continues to be the death mark. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by brickvoyeur

[exciter1]

Went back for more stuff at Kohl's on Sunday, no Kohl's Cash yet.

[landphieran]

Shopping at kohls is the most frustrating experience in existence. I put through quite a few orders over the black friday sale.

Half were cancelled? Half shipped?
Every time i got a cancellation they forced me to change my password and that numerous login attempts were made and they suspected my account was breached?
I was able to spend 30% of the kohls cash before my orders began being cancelled (following the same password reset process process above).
The kohls cash seems valid (which is different than the permaban I received on an old account of mine).
 May just go to the store and buy 10 dyson vacuums and call it a day.

[Bricklectic]

7 minutes ago, landphieran said:

Shopping at kohls is the most frustrating experience in existence. I put through quite a few orders over the black friday sale.

Half were cancelled? Half shipped?
Every time i got a cancellation they forced me to change my password and that numerous login attempts were made and they suspected my account was breached?
I was able to spend 30% of the kohls cash before my orders began being cancelled (following the same password reset process process above).
The kohls cash seems valid (which is different than the permaban I received on an old account of mine).
 May just go to the store and buy 10 dyson vacuums and call it a day.

process includes one more step:

getting your order in 17 separate shipments of 1 and 2 sets each, lovingly smashed in polybags.

although, in their defense, last year when i tried to return because of condition they said just to keep them. so theres that.

[Robb]

Any info on Costco bans?

My wife wants me to do multiple orders for the advent calendars.


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[iahawks550]

I can't imagine Costco cares if no limit is listed.