Is this the way LEGO Company treats their volunteer workers?

[LegoBuster]

Hi

Here's a sad story I wrote about my experiences being a volunter worker for Lego in Childrens Dream City event in Finland

It can bee seen here: http://legobuster.livejournal.com/

But I guess I better paste it to here as well:

I’m writiting this to tell my expirienses working as volunteer worker for Lego in the event Children’s Dream City in Finland. If you have time to read everything you’ll notice Lego’s Event Manager has arrogant and careless attitude toward volunteer workers. It took 2 and half months to received reimpursements for our own money we spent on expenses during the event. So if Lego Company asks you to work for them as volunteer, you may wanna think it twice cause you may end up to same situation as I did.

Last autumn LEGO Company contacted my friend (we are both adult fan of legos) and told they need two volunteer workers who would assist them in the event Lego Children’s Dream City which would take place 4-5th and 11-12th in Heureka, Finland. We both had those weekends free and were glad to help them. The person who “hired” us instructed us to send all the expenses (hotel, travel etc) during the event to LEGOs Event Manager who would then process the reimpursements for us.

The event went fine and smooth, no problems at all. After this we asked from Legos Event Manager via email how to proceed with the expenses. After four days we finally got answered to send her all the expenses with the receipts. I sent mine 25th October via airmail to the address instructed.

After this the problems began. October 26th my friend received a mail from Event Manager who asked him to choose Lego sets worth of 1000 DKK (per weekend helped) as reward from helping in the event. She also asked him to fill feedback form from the event. The event manager never sent me those mails about choosing free sets and filling the feedback form. Luckily my friend informed me about these things.

29th October I sent my list of wishes to Lego Event Manager as instructed. She didn’t reply. On November 3 I thought I could also fill the feedback form they asked from my friend and sent it to Event Manager via email. I also asked how long it would approximately take for the sets to arrive. I never received any thanks or answer about the feedback form she received, neither answer to my question! She sure received those ( I use delivery confirmation when I send important emails)

Both me and my friend had spent 200e ( 270 USD) to our expenses during the event so you can imagine that money is really important for students like us who have limited income. On 10th November neither of us had not received the reimpursement money. My friend emailed to Event Manager asking about this delay and she answered “ in a big concern as lego things take time”

So more waiting. 24th October still neither of us had received the money. My friend emailed the Event Manager again asking about the situation but she totally ignored the question about the money saying they have a christmas rush with the sets (which we also didn’t had received yet) I emailed the Lego Executive Assistant/Consumer Experiences asking if she could help us and get things rolling. She promised that Event Manager will contact us soon and let us know when finally would receive our money!

As usual, nothing happened on behalf on Event Manager. On December I’m begin to feel suspicious will I ever get my money from LEGO. In the first week of December we finally received the sets we asked and my friend also received his reimpursement money. But for me still no sign of the money. Because the Event Manager had not replied to my recent emails my friend decided to call her and she promised to “look into it”. On 16th December I again sent email to Legos Executive Assistant/Consumer Experiences person explaining my situation and tell her that I need to get my money before Christmas if she could help. She replied to me and said she will be in contact to Event Manager regarding this matter. On 17th December the Event Manager finally contacted me via email saying that they have misplaced the invoice which included the receipts and expenses!!! What the heck!

She asks me to send me the invoice again. I luckily had made a copy from it so I sent it to her 17th December via email. Then she immeadetely replies she has now sent my invoice to account department. I wonder why she couldn’t answer my emails before and take responsibility regarding this matter as she should have?

29th December. Still no money received and my christmas is pretty much ruined thanks to this Event Manager who seems to have pretty arrogant and careless attitude towards volunteer workers on Lego! I send her one more email about this matter on 29th . Finally after 2 and half month waiting I received my reimpursement money on 6th Januari.

[Natman8000]

ummm... welcome? That is a really depressing story, and Im glad it worked out in the end.

[CopMike]

Hi!

I´m sorry to hear this. I was in charge for the volunteers during that event in Sweden and I know it took a while before people got their stuff & money but I´ve haven´t heard of anything like your experience ! I´ll send a message to the people in charge and tell them to get back to you. Can´t promise anything but still .....

Here´s the thread here on Eurobricks about the event.

Sincerely CopMike

EDIT -> E-mail sent to the person in charge at TLG

[Derek]

Wow. That is just terrible. I can't beleive that your volunteered your time and money, and were treated so horribly. Not to mention your Christmas was ruined. I am glad you finally got reimbursed, and it worked out. It is still a mess of a situation though...

[Freddie]

While I personally didn't experience a similar situation, I do know of a few who experienced at least something similar. I will leave them to tell their own stories, if they wish, as it wouldn't be fitting for myself to retell them.

However, I remember there was a lot of clutter regarding e-mails. Several of my LUG are regulars on our IRC-channel, and as such we can exchange information very rapidly. I was one of the first to receive the e-mail regarding the sets, a long with some people who shouldn't. And a few who should, didn't. Thanks to IRC, I could forward the e-mail to its rightful receipents, and the mess cleared up very quickly (or, at least, my impression of it). But this is thanks to the communication that some of us Brikkelauget-members use.

As for asking questions, I was stunned when I got answers within five minutes of sending them. And that was from an international represantative! I was expecting a day at the very best.

I have to say that the museum at which I was voulenteering was far beyond expectations. We were treated, if not as employees, with a great deal of respect, and got free food and drink to boot! I have nothing bad to say about the museum, and the sheer workload aside, wouldn't mind participating again.

[Front]

This is just a sad story, I can't believe you had to wait for that long to get your money.

Thank Copmike for emailing someone at TLG, I guess that is Jan. What should be done is telling the CEO about how some fans are treated, fans who put their spare time up for free for TLG to use.

TLG should make it up for our Finish friends, by sending them an extra present. That would be good karma.

Front

[CopMike]

Thank Copmike for emailing someone at TLG, I guess that is Jan.

Hi Front! It´s not Jan, it´s another person and I got a phone call this morning from that person. Without knowing what have happened etc I can´t comment on the issue more than they are going to look into it.

CopMike

[Camilla]

Hi

I am sorry for all the inconvenience caused to you.

There were more than 60 people (more than 30 volunteers) taking part in the event and most of them have stated that they had a positive experience.

When it comes to your situation, I believe mistakes can happen and it seems that the lack of communication from our side has been the main reason which has caused all those unfortunate coincidences.

We are happy to get all kind of feedback from the event (both positive and negative) and, of course, we will learn from yours.

I am glad that you helped out in the event and that the matter was solved in the end.

If you have any other comments or input please feel free to contact me.

Camilla

Edited January 12, 2009 by Camilla

[CopMike]

Hi Camilla!

Thanks for coming here and replying to the issue at hand! And welcome to Eurobricks, now you can go here and introduce yourself !

CopMike

[LegoBuster]

I believe mistakes can happen and it seems that the lack of communication from our side has been the main reason which has caused all those unfortunate coincidences.

Camilla

Hahah, Gimme a break.

More than just a couple mistakes, this whole scenario clearly shows how arrogant attitude this Event Manager has. And like Freddie mentioned there were some others who experienced something similar.One thing was really really strange me and my friend wondered a lot; When my friend emailed her she quickly answered, usually within a couple of hours.

But would it have been so hard to answer my emails also?

Edited January 12, 2009 by LegoBuster

[CopMike]

LegoBuster, I appreciate that you feel something has been misshandled here, but please take this to an e-mail or phone thing with the TLG rep for further discussion - this forum isn´t the place for that.

Best of luck.

CopMike

[LegoBuster]

LegoBuster, I appreciate that you feel something has been misshandled here, but please take this to an e-mail or phone thing with the TLG rep for further discussion - this forum isn´t the place for that.

Best of luck.

CopMike

I bet somebody from LEGO called to Copmike and told him to stop this conversation here?

But like Frieddie said there are also others who experienced something similar. And we all would like to hear

what they have to say!

So do you mean we cannot continue open conversation here about this matter?

Cause the blog I made to livejournal stays, and if we can't have open conversation here in Eurobricks, we must take this to other forums.

[CopMike]

I bet somebody from LEGO called to Copmike and told him to stop this conversation here?

Somebody from TLG called me - YES

To stop this conversation - NO

LegoBuster - you can have your conversation here, but I just don´t think you´ll get somewhere using posts as a form of communication. Send a pm to Camilla and get in touch with eachother by phone, it´s a lot more easy to discuss things like this in real time !

As for you coming to Eurobricks with this, that´s fine. I hope to see you around in other threads also talking about LEGO which is our common glue here. If your only intention by joining here was to "discuss" this in the open, well then I think you have made your point now talking about your bad experience. Next step would to bring it into a direct conversation with TLG as I wrote above. Whatever result you think you get from that, come by and post it here!

But like Frieddie said there are also others who experienced something similar. And we all would like to hear what they have to say!

So you speak for everybody when you say that And we all would like to hear what they have to say! ? Ok, I didn´t know that you´ve been made the spokesperson for "all".

So do you mean we cannot continue open conversation here about this matter?

Cause the blog I made to livejournal stays, and if we can't have open conversation here in Eurobricks, we must take this to other forums.

Please feel free to continue your conversation here, but please try to get rid of that chip on your shoulder, we´re not the enemy you know !

CopMike

[Lasse D]

Being at the said event (Aros, Denmark), I recognize some of the points, namely the time it took for the sets to arrive, but we had been informed about that already Nov. 18. This was delayed because many AFOLs were late at handing in their wishes.

I did not have any expenses, but have had at other events, and it does take a lot of time for refunds to get through large companies like LEGO.

It sounds like there has been some confusion about whom should talk to whom in your case.

It was one of the volunteers who was the AFOL contact in Denmark (a former Ambassador). This contact was responsible for all the communication back and forth between us and the event manager. This included info, forms, feedback, status updates and so on.

It almost sounds as if this was the role that your friend had. I hope this will get sorted out for you, but I would have liked that you waited until you what exactly had happened so that us outsiders wouldn't be left guessing here.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Lasse D

[Hinckley]

Hahah, Gimme a break.

More than just a couple mistakes, this whole scenario clearly shows how arrogant attitude this Event Manager has. And like Freddie mentioned there were some others who experienced something similar.One thing was really really strange me and my friend wondered a lot; When my friend emailed her she quickly answered, usually within a couple of hours.

But would it have been so hard to answer my emails also?

I bet somebody from LEGO called to Copmike and told him to stop this conversation here?

But like Frieddie said there are also others who experienced something similar. And we all would like to hear

what they have to say!

So do you mean we cannot continue open conversation here about this matter?

Cause the blog I made to livejournal stays, and if we can't have open conversation here in Eurobricks, we must take this to other forums.

OK. Count to ten and relax please. I understand you're upset and I'm glad you didn't just stay quiet about it. If there's a problem, get it taken care of. But CopMike is trying to help you. He brought your concerns to the Ambassador forum and to the program and discussed the matter with LEGO reps. Even registered Camilla so she'd be able to respond directly as part of this discussion. Don't accuse him of stopping the discussion while it's still going. If it was to be stopped, the topic would be locked, wouldn't it? Please don't make false and unfair accusations against people who are trying to help you. We'd like to see you get the matter resolved but will not tolerate this type of behavior.

Now, the best thing to do is respond to Camilla like a mature adult and see if you can get the issue fully resolved and if you don't get the results you want, report to us the circumstances in a responsible manner. If you had fun at the event, I'd imagine you'd want to participate again. Here, a mistake has been made, your friend was paid and received her sets. You received your sets. The company, the ambassadors and now the whole of EB is aware of the problem. Don't burn any bridges. Worse things have happened to people and there are several people trying to see to it that you are re-imbursed.

I know your reactions were a result of frustration. I hope you've calmed down and will continue to try to resolve the matter in a rational manner.

[LegoBuster]

Now, the best thing to do is respond to Camilla like a mature adult and see if you can get the issue fully resolved and if you don't get the results you want, report to us the circumstances in a responsible manner.

In general it would be better that people who comment here would read the whole story I wrote in the first page (and in the blog) to prevent making wrong interpretations.

I wanted to bring this to everybodys attetion, so It would not happended again to someone else. And sure I'm frustrated. I tried so many many times to work things out with Camilla, but it didnt work.

So should I now call to Camilla and cry out why you have treated me this way? No way, I'm not here to ask Camilla's apology. I say this again: I wanted to bring this to everybodys attetion, so It would not happended again to someone else!

Edited February 2, 2009 by LegoBuster

[TheQ]

Setting aside the communication problems (or lack of communication), it can still be noted that the set wish lists and money receipts took a long time to travel inside TLG's own inner workings. I can understand the problems of gathering few dozens of wish lists but still took nearly five weeks to for the sets to get posted to the volunteers. I have not personally ordered anything from the Shop@Home but I think their delivery time is much shorter than that. If the main reasons for delay were missing wish lists, telling about the issue to the fans might have had worked better than just the silence.

I believe that majority of the problems are caused by fan's involvement. Big corporations like TLG aren't always "up to the date" with recent deveploment and their inner practises can forget to mention something important. In this case, the whole process of asking the fans to involve the project and giving them some payment could possibly be rather new concept to TLG (I don't know how often fans help around with TLG's events or when was the first time it happened) and they simply don't yet know how to deal with them. After all, they aren't employees but a customers also. I think this is particularly true in this event where fans used their own money and wanted the reimpursement. All kinds of finansial things should be taken at the upmost priority and care and after all, this was rather large sum we are speaking about. Companies shouldn't pay the employee's wage 6 or in this very case, over 10 weeks late.

I do hope that other people who might have similar experiences share their stories with us the fans and TLG. Only by interaction and feedback we can improve things.

Oh, and Copmike.. Well, I want to thank you for showing the best possible attitude Ambassador could show. Making a phone call to help fellow fan of LEGO in trouble and talking about the issue directly to TLG makes me feel proud to know that your kind of people are representing us AFOLs :)

[Hinckley]

In general it would be better that people who comment here would read the whole story I wrote in the first page (and in the blog) to prevent making wrong interpretations.

I wanted to bring this to everybodys attetion, so It would not happended again to someone else. And sure I'm frustrated. I tried so many many times to work things out with Camilla, but it didnt work.

So should I now call to Camilla and cry out why you have treated me this way?

You can do that without being rude to CopMike or Camilla. Now please do what is constructive in working towards a solution.

Camilla did apologize to you. If you still feel done wrong by perhaps you can present your specific concerns to her in a rational manner. You are more likely to attract flies with honey than water. Not that Camilla is a fly...or that you would want flies...did I get the saying wrong? Is it not flies? Perhaps, it's just a silly saying. Anyway, please try to be a little nicer. Despite your frustrations, which are completely understandable, when someone just starts insulting people in a public forum, they tend to lose sympathy. Especially when the other person is apologizing and staying calm. So, you have a public platform to discuss this with a LEGO rep. Great work! Like you said, there are others who didn't and maybe wouldn't be this persistent. Use this to your advantage...and be nice, because we can't let members attack other members...

[Admiral Blockbeard]

I am hesitant to say anything here, so I will just say what I see as necessary and hopefully nobody takes what I say wrongly.

CopMike as I read this story I was saddened, I am sure you were to. But as soon as I read you had gone to the trouble of contacting the lady I thought "Could we ask for a better Ambassador! Never!" You went to a great length to get this member in contact and issue resolved. You should feel proud. I am.

Camilla. Coming onto a forum after what had just been written must have been incredibly hard thing to do. I only hope that you do not see Eurobricks in a Bad light after this incident. If you ever have the time you really should stop by and look at other parts of our forum. (Thats not advertising, I just feel as if you may enjoy seeing the fruits or your labor).

Hinckley, I believe you are refering to a bee to honey, flies are normally attracted to something brown and smelly

LegoBuster. I feel for you. You are obviously torn over this. Look on the bright side, you have new Lego and you have your money as well as an apology. Even an entire topic devoted to you telling the world of how you got hard done by. Now I am saying this as nicely as possible. Humans make mistakes, organizations are made of people. Stress can lead to mishaps, mishaps can lead to hurt. Truth be told, the company probably did make mistakes, like not answering your emails right away... Perhaps they where trying to find your invoice (the reason of no quick reply). You were smart to keep a back up as things do often get lost in the post. I truely hope you now feel as if the issue is resolved. I am sure the human behind it feels sorry.

Regards, Cpt. PB

Edited January 16, 2009 by Cpt. Pegleg Blockbeard

[greedo]

this is a typical story of how the lego company behaves.

6 years a go i participated in a student lego building contest.

10 groups of students were invited to berlin to show what they build.

afterwards we had much trouble t get our money which we spend on renting a car, fuel, parking tickets, etc.

it was badly organised by an advertising company.but the worst thing was the contest was a cheat.

after seeing that a tv team filmed only three of the groups buildings (the exact 3 groups who won) before the committee who should decide who win even saw them, it was clear that the winner was already set from the beginning.

what i also didn´t liked that many groups cheated.

you got exactly 5000 lego pieces from the lego company in advance and you were not allowed other pieces.

many groups ordered other pieces via ebay or brought anything they like.

also the measures of the buildings was defined and some are build higher and wider.

we were really angry about all of it, in fact so that 2 of my group never bought any lego since then.

i am still a lego fan but i never participate in a lego contest again.

[KimT]

I am not sure that turning this topic into a rant on "Where TLG went wrong" is such a great idea.

The problem has been solved the way I see it and perhaps this topic is better off closed.

This is a global site and I am sure that several members have had bad experiences - but equally many and even more are sure to have had no trouble at all dealing with TLG.

Often topics like this are only voiced by the bad experiences, leading to the common misunderstanding that TLG only offers bad experiences when attending or helping at cons and events.

[Hinckley]

I would like to leave this topic open, but I agree 100% with KimT that it shouldn't be turned into a TLG-bashing thread. This topic is about one incident and a LEGO rep has registered just to have a public conversation about it.

People have a tendency to want to bash the company we all love, for some reason. Let's resist that temptation, at least in this thread, since we've come close to loosing our heads in it already more than a few times. Thanks.

[CP5670]

People have a tendency to want to bash the company we all love, for some reason.

Many of us love the products, not necessarily the company.

Although I certainly agree with you that this issue has been dealt with and dragging out the hostility further wouldn't achieve anything.

[hollisbrick]

I agree!

Don't bite the hand that feeds you

[LegoBuster]

I am not sure that turning this topic into a rant on "Where TLG went wrong" is such a great idea.

The problem has been solved the way I see it and perhaps this topic is better off closed.

This is a global site and I am sure that several members have had bad experiences - but equally many and even more are sure to have had no trouble at all dealing with TLG.

Often topics like this are only voiced by the bad experiences, leading to the common misunderstanding that TLG only offers bad experiences when attending or helping at cons and events.

I agree!

Don't bite the hand that feeds you

This is indeed a good question. It's up to admins to decide wheater they allow also sharing both negative and positive experieces or just positive (like chinese democracy) .I don't know does Lego sponsor this site some way so in that case it would be understandable. But negative/controversial feedback also would help them improve their service, which some of us agree would be necessary ;)

I don't see any problems that we hear more experiences related to mine like Greedo told us. But ofcourse we must remember this place is full of fans who swear to Lego's name no matter what would happend. And telling them a bad expierience is like sticking your head into bees nest if you don't mind.

Edited January 17, 2009 by LegoBuster