LEGO Service

[Mr Hobbles]

I've had three dealings with LEGO Service recently and am constantly amazed by them. They are always so nice, and very eager to help. I haven't had a bad experience yet. Anyone else had any experience with them? Share your stories here!

Heres mine: When I bought the new firestation it had a missing piece. I went onto the website, selected the piece and filled in my details. Sure enough, a week later a packet dropped through my letterbox along with some extas: 4 flower stalks, 3 sprues of 4 flowers to go onto it, and an extra 16x16 roadplate!

Secondly I bought 4512 Cargo Train from BrickLink, from a seller in Germany. Being in the UK, we have a different type of plug socket. So I sent an email off to them trying my luck to see if they'd send me a British power adapter out. Sure enough they did, and they didn't even have to, or charge me!

Finally, last week I got 10001 Metroliner from eBay, and it had a problem where four of the windows were the wrong colour and one of the females had the wrong colour hairpiece. This was apparently a common problem with the set, so they had made service packs that you could phone up to get. So I phoned them up, and the very nice lady (Maria, very helpful!) explained that although she could see the entry on the system for the problem and service pack, they no longer made the service pack because it was a very old set. However she got me to read out the instruction pages that the parts were on so she could find the pieces individually.

It wasn't over though, as when she tried to find the train windows she found out that they aren't made anymore. She also said that she would phone down to the warehouse to see if they had any lying around, but the manager was off ill and wasn't due back in until Monday, which was four days away. She would have to do it then.

I usually don't have much faith in promises made by customer service people on the phone, but again, this morning, there was a little packet dropped onto the doorstep with the four windows and the hairpiece.

I LOVE LEGO Service!

[Starwars4J]

When they lost a set they had sent to me, that they didn't even bother mentioning was lost (although they track it and knew it had been sitting in a post office for a week), and I asked them about it, they basically said "oops" and sent out another one. No apology. Nothing promising it wouldn't happen again. They just chalked it up to "the new shipping service"

Which makes little sense as DHL isn't exactly a new company :-| They should know how to deliver packages by now. And when I sent Lego a letter of complaint (they still had the nerve to charge me for shipping), they basically made excuses and that was it. I used to love lego shipping and services, not anymore though.

[captaintau]

I think we'll mostly agree that LEGO service is excellent. The issue is that there be so many problems in the first place.

[snefroe]

my experience with Lego direct is the same. they're always friendly and willing to help out.

[Scouty]

I remember one time, when I had Lego Studios, I had it for the old Windows computer, I asked if they had any versions for XP, they did, I recieved the package in a couple days...hooray! Though, I don't use the program anymore.

Offtopic: Why is there so much space in sne's and captaintau's posts?

[captaintau]

Offtopic: Why is there so much space in sne's and captaintau's posts?

Can't you see the thoughts swirling around in there? ;-)

[Starwars4J]

Offtopic: Why is there so much space in sne's and captaintau's posts?

I'd say it's a lack of a sig to take up the space equal to that of their location, flags, tags, etc :-P

[gylman]

Always have found their phone service good.

Internet services not as good (contact through web site), but OK.

The main flaw in Lego customer service is the S@H shipping. About 50% of the time it is fine. The rest of the there are problems ranging from minor to major, the most common of which is damaged internals. They use very flimsy boxes, and I routinely get dinged sets.

Most recent example was last week- it took way longer htan usual to arrive - I assume it was lost and then found. When it finally got to me at the 3 1/2 week mark, the box was badly dented, and at the bottom of it sat my Ferrari set, the side of it busted open, although no bricks poured out.

Sigh.

[hewkii9]

I've never had to deal with something like that, but I checked out the service part of their website and it looks very well done.

[hans-thegreat]

Has any one said they were missing a peice, just to get a new one? I've tried it with lego and mega blocks, so far, only mega-blocks was that gullible.

[Hinckley]

I placed an order once and after placing it realized it was too big to deliver it regular mail and would have to come UPS. We have a PO Box and UPS doesn't deliver to PO Boxes. So I tried to change the address but I couldn't so I e-mailed customer service. Well, they sent another order to the right address assuming the other one would come back. Well, UPS figured it out and delivered both and LEGO so appreciated me sending one back they sent me a little bag of pieces and a key chain!

LEGO service is great.

[snefroe]

Offtopic: Why is there so much space in sne's and captaintau's posts?

well... i AM the space mod after all X-D

[highlandcattle]

I never had the misfortune of having a piece missing. (Only with second handstuff which claimed to be complete! gah). But these days I only built train stuff the rest of the sets are for parts so I never really build them.

[Shadows]

I placed an order once and after placing it realized it was too big to deliver it regular mail and would have to come UPS. We have a PO Box and UPS doesn't deliver to PO Boxes. So I tried to change the address but I couldn't so I e-mailed customer service. Well, they sent another order to the right address assuming the other one would come back. Well, UPS figured it out and delivered both and LEGO so appreciated me sending one back they sent me a little bag of pieces and a key chain!

LEGO service is great.

As another plagued by the lack of UPS to PO Boxes, I'll just forewarn you. S@H has primarily switched to DHL shipping, which uses the post office to do the real delivering. Since I had always let UPS deliver to my street address, when I placed my last order, I didn't change that (no idea of the change) and instead of delivering the package, USPS left a note indicating that if I wanted it delivered, I would need to sign the slip and wait several days. Had I known, I would have just had them deliver it to my PO Box (it was literally sitting in the same post office). Only complication is having to get there while the inside is open to claim it.

On the good side, it arrived quicker and in better condition than any previous order ever.

As for LEGO service, I've had a lot more missing pieces lately, but in every case they've taken care of it immediately and usually included a few extra parts for the bother. If someone can get the colours stabilized a bit more and keep introducing great sets, I see a very bright future for the company.

[ScottManDeath]

Yeah, they are good. I got 10 clone trooper packs, but one pack was missing a torso and had a engine thruster instead and the other had a tile instead of a 2x2 plate. I went to their web page and 2 weeks later I got the missing parts. :)

[MatthewUSA]

So far, I haven't had any sets missing pieces. So I haven't talked with a customer service rep yet. But I have heard that TLC is very polite and helpful. I am glad to hear the great experiences you have had with them. This is comforting to know that if I run into any problems they will be there to help. Thank you for the information Mr. Hobbles. Model On.

[xenologer]

We'll, I've just now had them be unable to help.

Though this was no surprise to me, so ohwell.

Basically I've recently purchased 3403 off ebay for the now rare pippin reed minifig head. ( after seeing the beauty paegant topics, who wouldnt want one? )

The set was New and Sealed, however that very head piece had a bad print -the hairline was a bit... missing paint in spots.

After explaining the situation, they've told me that since its so old and no longer in production/inventory they can't help.

This I was expecting, but I was at least half-hoping they'd be generous and substitute some Alternative female minifig head (not a common one that i have 5 of hopefully).

ohwell

The bad hairline is coverable by hats, or the ponytail hairpiece. And its not like the wavy hair looks *that* great with the other fem-hairpieces(which wont cover the flaw). So I guess I'm not furious, just mildly dissapointed by it and the fact that they didn't break my prediction of inaction...

Lets give them a second chance and see what happens:

I've replied that while I understand that part is kinda unavailable now, I'd be ok with some other female head as a substitute. even suggesting that the more recent maryjane head from spiderman has a similar design (wavy hairline) except in orange instead of brown....

UPDATE:

Hah, yeah they failed.

I got back a form letter pointing out Digital Designer and Pick a Brick, and the various bulk brick packs online.

None of which related to my original point of the rarity of female minifig heads and why having a damaged one is such a problem... Sure, pointing someoen to PaB+LDD is a plausible way of brushing someone off for Normal bricks replacement; minifig parts however are quite lacking in that area. I'm feeling they just sent me the usual 'go buy your own bricks' form letter.

Maybe it's just because I'm on the USA side, but customer service has never been quite as good as some of you have had.