LEGO - A downward slide in service & "promise"

[Tray]

I'm not an active internet community member, but have played with LEGO since I was a child 20 years ago (exactly 1995 when I got my first set), and continue to do so today for myself and as gifts for children around me. Like most fans, I'm willing to pay a premium for LEGO because it's associated with quality and wholesome fun. It's cliche, but the LEGO promise of "only the best is good enough" has remained important to me through the years.

However, yesterday I got an email saying that my 1st Jan order has been cancelled. I know this affected many others, and I try to be understanding. If they had sent the email a few days after my order, saying it was a mistake and they're out of stock, I can understand and accept. More importantly, I would also have a chance to make my purchases elsewhere. However, the 3 Castle sets I ordered, all remained available on their website for 2+ more weeks (it only became "sold out" last week).

I know LEGO cannot produce every single set indefinitely, and they have production schedules to keep. But to say that an order they ALREADY ACCEPTED cannot be fulfilled, is like saying they've ran out of bricks. Since they own the factories, this can only happen if LEGO closes down. It seems to me that they simply decided not to honour the sale, and most importantly fail its own promise. Its promise of "only the best is good enough" and its promise of "will ship within 30 days".

Why does this anger me so much? Because as a toy company, it should understand that such "promises" to children are special. I promised my nephew that if he stayed with his grandmother (my mother) over the summer, we can build a big custom Castle together. As an uncle, I can't even begin to break this promise to him, but the toy manufacturer LEGO itself has done this to us.

Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe this experience, which is why I'm taking the effort to "rant" and also to see what others are feeling about this.

Also just to clarify, my disappointment is not so much about not getting the sets (although that is disappointing), but in how this issue was handled and the fact that it could even happen - a large toy company failing to honour its direct orders en mass.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Tray

[jodawill]

I'm not an active internet community member, but have played with LEGO since I was a child 20 years ago (exactly 1995 when I got my first set), and continue to do so today for myself and as gifts for children around me. Like most fans, I'm willing to pay a premium for LEGO because it's associated with quality and wholesome fun. It's cliche, but the LEGO promise of "only the best is good enough" has remained important to me through the years.

However, yesterday I got an email saying that my 1st Jan order has been cancelled. I know this affected many others, and I try to be understanding. If they had sent the email a few days after my order, saying it was a mistake and they're out of stock, I can understand and accept. More importantly, I would also have a chance to make my purchases elsewhere. However, the 3 Castle sets I ordered, all remained available on their website for 2+ more weeks (it only became "sold out" last week).

I know LEGO cannot produce every single set indefinitely, and they have production schedules to keep. But to say that an order they ALREADY ACCEPTED cannot be fulfilled, is like saying they've ran out of bricks. Since they own the factories, this can only happen if LEGO closes down. It seems to me that they simply decided not to honour the sale, and most importantly fail its own promise. Its promise of "only the best is good enough" and its promise of "will ship within 30 days".

Why does this anger me so much? Because as a toy company, it should understand that such "promises" to children are special. I promised my nephew that if he stayed with his grandmother (my mother) over the summer, we can build a big custom Castle together. As an uncle, I can't even begin to break this promise to him, but the toy manufacturer LEGO itself has done this to us.

Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe this experience, which is why I'm taking the effort to "rant" and also to see what others are feeling about this.

Also just to clarify, my disappointment is not so much about not getting the sets (although that is disappointing), but in how this issue was handled and the fact that it could even happen - a large toy company failing to honour its direct orders en mass.

Lego's quality and customer service seems to be going down the tubes these days.

Anyway, you can order those sets off BrickLink. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=70404-1

[Baelyrn]

Same thing happened to me, I ordered 4 castle sets and received none. I did receive the free gift, 40140 Flower Wagon in mail though, but it's not much of a comfort.

I was already feeling a tad sceptic about LEGO quality after christmas, when I built the Tower of Orthanc which had a couple of bent 1x8 bricks.

[MAB]

I know LEGO cannot produce every single set indefinitely, and they have production schedules to keep. But to say that an order they ALREADY ACCEPTED cannot be fulfilled, is like saying they've ran out of bricks. Since they own the factories, this can only happen if LEGO closes down. It seems to me that they simply decided not to honour the sale, and most importantly fail its own promise. Its promise of "only the best is good enough" and its promise of "will ship within 30 days".

It is actually saying that they oversold what they have left, and it is not profitable enough for them to make extra sets to sell at a discount, not when they are at capacity anyway. Why make discounted sets when they could make full price sets that are still flying off the shelves? Only the best is good enough ... so long as it makes LEGO the largest profit.

What they have done isn't right. Unfortunately many retails make similar errors, not controlling stock effectively. But they get away with it as if you stop buying from them, someone else is in your place ready to buy.

[tkatt]

It a shame they did that. I had an order cancelled once, due to the website claiming they had it in stock. It took about 3 weeks for them to contact me to say I wouldn't be getting that part of my order. I too was dissapointed, but I got over it quickly. I think a big part of the dissapointment came from feeling a personal connection to the brand. It's almost like being betrayed by a friend. But they are a huge multinational corporation and have all the responsibilties that go along with that. If some people get their feelings hurt it is just business.

There should still be a chance to get what you want. I saw all of the Castle sets today at the Lego store at the Mall of America, and I'm pretty sure they are still on the shelves at TRU. Or, Like Jodawill mentioned, since you were planning on building a custom castle you could get a lot of parts from Bricklink for the same cost as the Castle sets you were going to buy.

[Tray]

Thanks everyone, I feel better knowing I'm not alone. Cheers also for the bricklink recommendation, except I'm not an expert builder so we planned to start with the standard sets and just expand a little from them.

Even before your replies, I too had a suspicion that they simply didn't want to honour the sale and that "system error" was just a convenient excuse. Quite a poor way of doing business, enticing customers into a queue for items they don't intend to produce.

If it were a real "system error", many good brands cop the loss and live up to their commitments. An example I have in mind was a reputable international airline that had to honour underpriced tickets in their booking system.

It just hurts more as a toy company. It's one thing telling the wife our washing machine isn't gonna arrive, it's another telling a child the much awaited toys have been cancelled.

[ummester]

Bricklink is great and most store owners are genuine LEGO lovers, so do their best to provide good parts and service to buyers.

I very much enjoy LDD and my little plastic bricks - but I also feel LEGO is pricing up and providing down lately. I think TLG has reached a turning point where quality has become secondary to profit, I'm not sure what this means for the future of the brand. I brought the Mos Eisely Cantina recently and the instructions and stickers were just squished into the bottom of the box, so that some stickers had come off the sheet and stuck to the instruction manual, ruining them both. I wrote to TLG and they are sending me a new sticker sheet and instruction manual but I have never encountered this before and I have brought heaps of sets for myself and children - it's like the set was pushed into the box too quickly or aggressively or something.

[MAB]

Bricklink is great and most store owners are genuine LEGO lovers, so do their best to provide good parts and service to buyers.

I very much enjoy LDD and my little plastic bricks - but I also feel LEGO is pricing up and providing down lately. I think TLG has reached a turning point where quality has become secondary to profit, I'm not sure what this means for the future of the brand. I brought the Mos Eisely Cantina recently and the instructions and stickers were just squished into the bottom of the box, so that some stickers had come off the sheet and stuck to the instruction manual, ruining them both. I wrote to TLG and they are sending me a new sticker sheet and instruction manual but I have never encountered this before and I have brought heaps of sets for myself and children - it's like the set was pushed into the box too quickly or aggressively or something.

It probably happened during transport. But for the price of a piece of cart and cellophane wrap around the manual and stickers, they have an unhappy customer that needs to complain.

[ummester]

I also got the Sandcrawler and the Republic Gunship last year - both of those had the sticker sheets flat packed on card with the instructions. The Cantina cost almost as much as the Gunship (it came with an orange brick tool) so I don't see why the instructions and stickers for the Cantina couldn't also be flat packed?

I got the little T16 Skyhopper just the other day and it's instructions and sticker sheet seemed better packed :D

Edited February 11, 2015 by ummester

[Jared]

Lego's quality and customer service seems to be going down the tubes these days.

LEGO first and foremost is a company, and like any company, they will realize they have to cut quality to produce more quantity, as much as it sucks. :(

Soon LEGO will realize how powerful they are and stuff like LUGBULK will be taken away because of lugs abusing the privilege and LEGO realizing it doesn't need AFOLs to promote its product anymore. Look at the store window displays, they were shut down because of a bunch of idiots who abused the program. So it's a little on both sides. It's really annoying when people bring this up, because yes, quality is decreasing, but LEGO is a company, to say that this isn't expected is like saying the sun won't rise tomorrow (it's night as I write this). The best thing you can do at this point is pray they don't start suing Bricklink for some reason or other.