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.

[coelian]

27 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

Interesting question.   I would gather they are tracking by accounts, addresses, names, cc's and ip's regardless.  If that's all different, fire away.

In parts of Europe you can send items to pick up points on a guest account, however you forgo vip points. I wonder if they are able to link your accounts together even if a disposable cc is used. 

[Bricklectic]

Anyone successfully order more than the limit from Barnes & Noble? asking for a friend

[Banjoman]

May be the wrong place to add this but Walmart (for the fist time ever) has cancelled some of my repeat order and my account is (hopefully temporarily) locked

[Pseudoty]

1 minute ago, Banjoman said:

May be the wrong place to add this but Walmart (for the fist time ever) has cancelled some of my repeat order and my account is (hopefully temporarily) locked

How many orders and on what set/s

[skinsfan0521]

41 minutes ago, Pseudoty said:

How many orders and on what set/s

I'm in a similar situation. Since the changed the limits to 2 (instead of 100) a few years ago, I've consistently placed multiple orders of 2 and never had any canceled. I ordered a bunch of the Star Wars 3 packs the first night that they dropped to $50 and ended up having some of the orders canceled. I also had my Walmart+ canceled. I tried placing more orders the following day for those same sets and each order got immediately canceled and my Walmart+ got canceled once again. 

Today I tried placing an order for a qty of 2 of a completely different set that I haven't purchased in over a month and it got immediately canceled for going over the qty limits. Soo... I'm definitely in some sort of bad spot with Walmart after not having this issue for the past few years but I'm not sure if I should just wait it out for a few days and try again or if I should contact them to see if they can/will allow me to place orders again. Right now, I'm planning on waiting for a few days. But if there are still issues then, I'll contact them. There are supposed to be some upcoming sales happening at Walmart all next week so I want to be sure that I can take advantage of those deals.

[freakchem]

32 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

I'm in a similar situation. Since the changed the limits to 2 (instead of 100) a few years ago, I've consistently placed multiple orders of 2 and never had any canceled. I ordered a bunch of the Star Wars 3 packs the first night that they dropped to $50 and ended up having some of the orders canceled. I also had my Walmart+ canceled. I tried placing more orders the following day for those same sets and each order got immediately canceled and my Walmart+ got canceled once again. 

Today I tried placing an order for a qty of 2 of a completely different set that I haven't purchased in over a month and it got immediately canceled for going over the qty limits. Soo... I'm definitely in some sort of bad spot with Walmart after not having this issue for the past few years but I'm not sure if I should just wait it out for a few days and try again or if I should contact them to see if they can/will allow me to place orders again. Right now, I'm planning on waiting for a few days. But if there are still issues then, I'll contact them. There are supposed to be some upcoming sales happening at Walmart all next week so I want to be sure that I can take advantage of those deals.

Maybe try a different credit card. Or just create a new account. Hope it helps.

[skinsfan0521]

25 minutes ago, freakchem said:

Maybe try a different credit card. Or just create a new account. Hope it helps.

A new credit card is my next try, but this account is set up tax exempt so I'd prefer not to open a new one.

[imirish11]

11 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

A new credit card is my next try, but this account is set up tax exempt so I'd prefer not to open a new one.

Tax exempt for resale is a violation of terms of walmart+. They somehow allow it, but once someone actually sees the activity going on, they will give it the axe.

[Average Guy]

1 hour ago, skinsfan0521 said:

I'm in a similar situation. Since the changed the limits to 2 (instead of 100) a few years ago, I've consistently placed multiple orders of 2 and never had any canceled. I ordered a bunch of the Star Wars 3 packs the first night that they dropped to $50 and ended up having some of the orders canceled. I also had my Walmart+ canceled. I tried placing more orders the following day for those same sets and each order got immediately canceled and my Walmart+ got canceled once again. 

Today I tried placing an order for a qty of 2 of a completely different set that I haven't purchased in over a month and it got immediately canceled for going over the qty limits. Soo... I'm definitely in some sort of bad spot with Walmart after not having this issue for the past few years but I'm not sure if I should just wait it out for a few days and try again or if I should contact them to see if they can/will allow me to place orders again. Right now, I'm planning on waiting for a few days. But if there are still issues then, I'll contact them. There are supposed to be some upcoming sales happening at Walmart all next week so I want to be sure that I can take advantage of those deals.

How many Star Wars bundles did you try to purchase?

[skinsfan0521]

2 minutes ago, Average Guy said:

How many Star Wars bundles did you try to purchase?

More than 50, less than 100

[Average Guy]

3 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

More than 50, less than 100

yikes

[exciter1]

[skinsfan0521]

33 minutes ago, Average Guy said:

yikes

I've bought plenty more than that of sets in the past (2 at a time) without ever having them canceled due to qty limits. So, something definitely changed.

It used to be a mysterious black art to avoid bans back when they had limits of 100 and then the process of when/why/how many you could order on the next order was also something that everyone and their brother had theories about. I have actually been happier since they put in the limit of 2 per order because I never ran into issues. Sure, the processing of the inbound shipments was more annoying than getting one box with 30-50 sets in it, but it was a price I was willing to pay to avoid getting banned. Now, it seems that has also changed.

[redcell]

Try setting up a new account just to see if the ban carries over.  In the past, Walmart hasn't been particularly efficient at enforcing bans and simply setting up a new account was all it would take to get around the cancellations. 

[Banjoman]

5 hours ago, skinsfan0521 said:

More than 50, less than 100

Same boat and same story as above.  Just realized after reading my Walmart+ is cancelled as well.  Also being tax exempt, it might be hard to start a newer account.

[chaozz]

17 hours ago, Banjoman said:

Same boat and same story as above.  Just realized after reading my Walmart+ is cancelled as well.  Also being tax exempt, it might be hard to start a newer account.

even when they cancel the + for abuse your account should still work, 

[neal2828]

Got banned by Walmart as well. Sent email to

[email protected]

and got unbanned. Took 2 tries until it worked. Said I would do better in future- now abiding rules. 

[LegoBro]

7 minutes ago, neal2828 said:

Got banned by Walmart as well. Sent email to

accountreview@customercare.walmart.com

and got unbanned. Took 2 tries until it worked. Said I would do better in future- now abiding rules. 

What does abiding by rules mean now, ordering 2 at a time and waiting for prepare order or shipped? What do you think triggered your ban?

[neal2828]

Nothing too crazy like 100 of the same set. Exceeded limits by 4-5 fold. For the time being, I’m not going to exceed limits by more than 2 fold (4 sets). In the past, I only ordered Lego from Walmart.  In the future, I’m going to try to purchase some non-Lego items as well.  I am not using a Walmart+ account.

[cmartin33]

Thanks for your advice. I was scared to look at my account and noticed I had the same. Got my Walmart + canceled and tried to place an order, and it was immediately canceled. I will try the email route. Thank you!

[Pseudoty]

46 minutes ago, neal2828 said:

I am not using a Walmart+ account

So just to clarify, you were not using Walmart + when you got banned? Not sure if you meant you are no longer using it. Also, did you place multiple orders for the new Star Wars 3 pack? 

[redcell]

For what it’s worth, in my experience, WM was always supremely inconsistent in implementing its bans. Even when my account got tagged in the past, I could still slip orders through every now and then or get around it by creating a new account or changing my payment information or…you get the idea. I don’t know if things have changed, but WM was never as strict as stores like BN or Target.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[neal2828]

Correct - I was not using Walmart+ when I got banned. Yes - placed 4 order of SW 3 pack and 3 other sets. 

[TheBrickClique]

I got banned for hatchimals years ago but could order anything else. So they seem to be item selective as well. 
I would be very interested in finding out what “limit 2” means. I’ve stuck to 2 a day and haven’t had any troubles but that’s not very useful to scoop those short-lived deals. 

[Bold-Arrow]

forgive me for stating the obvious but you order this much you know the risk. Not saying dont go all in, but at the same time the risk involved should be taken into account