LEGO lost my order! 🔗
I ordered the 910016 Sheriff’s Safe V39 from BrickLink (designer program) last year (2021). 2022 July, I was told by TLG (The LEGO™ Group) that they shipped it on July 27th. Been patiently waiting several weeks for it to arrive. After six weeks, they declared the order lost and issued a refund. While I confirmed the refund, I’d rather have the set. After all, that’s what I waited over a year to get. Problem here is LEGO’s policy not to resend Bricklink sets. The Bricklink designer program only provides a limited number of sets. Now, if I wanted to get this set, it’s only available on eBay for over $150. That’s over three times what it would have cost me if LEGO had delivered their promise.
Bad shipping options 🔗
There was a rumor that many of their shipments were getting stolen in the States. If this is happening from the same carrier, I don’t understand why S@H[1] doesn’t offer a choice in carriers. I’m not a big fan of FedEx. I know I’m ranting a bit… But why doesn’t LEGO offer other carriers? Did they sign an exclusive deal with FedEx?
Jaded enthusiasm 🔗
Ever since LEGO nerfed the VIP system, I’m less a fan of the company. Still love the LEGO bricks, but my love for the company has dwindled over the past decade. What annoys me is that I’m among the AFOLs[2] that have over $190k worth of LEGO sets that I’ve accumulated over 30 years. Most of that within the last 10 years. I’ve seen LEGO though the bad times with Bionicle and Mindstorms. I’m the type of customer that doesn’t blink when I buy over $4k worth of LEGO.
Race to zero value 🔗
You still can’t claim more than one reward per purchase. And most of the rewards are not worth the effort. And, in my experience of buying within Japan, you can’t get both the VIP reward and the special promotions for buying over a certain amount… Furthermore, if you want a discount more than $100, you can’t get it… I can easily accrue over $300 worth of VIP points. But the system is designed such that you can’t just get a $300 set for “free…”
This strikes me as a greedy ploy to get customers to buy more… And when you do request a VIP reward, they give you about 60 days to use or lose. And for points you save, you have less than two years to use them… otherwise, they are lost. The new VIP system is designed to burn points faster and make them harder to use. Similar to many inflationary systems.
Rewards favored country? 🔗
I’ve noticed that the points awarded vary by country. Comparing the USA to Japan, I see that Japan gets far less on return. And, that’s before you consider the recently inflated value of the dollar. LEGO recently increased the price of their sets across the board. But that doesn’t really help customers earn more. Australia seems to get the worst value while those in Europe appear to get the “best.”
Not to mention how the promotional awards for buying over a certain amount also vary by region. Sure, LEGO could claim that some promotions don’t make sense in some regions due to cultural issues. But this often leads to scalpers reselling those sets at a huge markup on various resell sites. LEGO has stated they will end regional exclusives, but that promise goes unfulfilled. Just recently, they started selling their LEGO House sets online. Sets that should only be available at the LEGO HOUSE in Denmark. As a business, I presume they are trying to move old inventory and increase sales. However, they do this at the expense of their reputation.
