New VIP system

[Kit Figsto]

This thread reminded me, did anything ever come of that survey a couple of years ago mentioning a subscription service for retired sets?  I know that nothing exists as of yet on that front, but have there been any rumors or even follow-up mention by LEGO about anything of the sort?  

[MAB]

On 11/25/2023 at 8:08 PM, Kit Figsto said:

This thread reminded me, did anything ever come of that survey a couple of years ago mentioning a subscription service for retired sets?  I know that nothing exists as of yet on that front, but have there been any rumors or even follow-up mention by LEGO about anything of the sort?  

I remember it differently. I remember there being the idea of a subscription service and I remember mention of sets from the archive, but not necessarily these being the same thing. I know some people took the latter to mean that you could get any set from the past, but I highly doubt that would be possible. Whereas the recent GWPs are sort of sets from the archive, reimagined / updated. I believe this is what they meant when discussing past sets - new versions of past sets.

I imagine that instead of the subscription service, they have gone down the route of offering sets only available through the VIP centre for points and the more normal GWPs. That gives both exclusivity for VIPs (for the redeemable sets) and also more orders for them. I cannot really see a subscription service working. It would need to be costly to justify the postage price, but then needs to be decent builds to keep interest. I wouldn't want to pay £8-10, for example, to be posted a polybag set worth £4-5 every month. I also would want to pay £50 to get a £50 RRP random set of their choice every month. They are probably better off doing the GWPs the way they do to generate orders. If they were to do the recent GWPs such as the Blacktron, Forest Hideout, Pirate Island, Houses, Botanicals, etc, as a subscription I imagine they'd need to charge £30/$35 for the set to include shipping. At that type of price, I think I'd prefer to choose what I buy and add it to an order, rather than use a blind subscription package.

Edited November 28, 2023 by MAB

[Black Falcon]

7 hours ago, MAB said:

I imagine that instead of the subscription service, they have gone down the route of offering sets only available through the VIP centre for points and the more normal GWPs. That gives both exclusivity for VIPs (for the redeemable sets) and also more orders for them. I cannot really see a subscription service working. It would need to be costly to justify the postage price, but then needs to be decent builds to keep interest. I wouldn't want to pay £8-10, for example, to be posted a polybag set worth £4-5 every month. I also would want to pay £50 to get a £50 RRP random set of their choice every month. They are probably better off doing the GWPs the way they do to generate orders. If they were to do the recent GWPs such as the Blacktron, Forest Hideout, Pirate Island, Houses, Botanicals, etc, as a subscription I imagine they'd need to charge £30/$35 for the set to include shipping. At that type of price, I think I'd prefer to choose what I buy and add it to an order, rather than use a blind subscription package.

As far as I understood the survey, the suscription wasn´t meant for you to pay to get sets but to get other perks, among them you would be able to purchase retro sets - but you would still have to buy them they wouldn´t be included.

[danth]

I have to complain again.

I bought some Lego sets in a Lego store and they couldn't find my account at all, which means I couldn't use or get any points. They said they sometimes cancel accounts that have been inactive for months. Which is an insanely short amount of time.

But yet I can log in at home and see my points. No idea why the store couldn't connect to my account.

This all reinforces my opinion that VIP points are supposed to be as difficult as possible to use.

[smazmats]

On 2/14/2024 at 4:16 PM, danth said:

I have to complain again.

I bought some Lego sets in a Lego store and they couldn't find my account at all, which means I couldn't use or get any points. They said they sometimes cancel accounts that have been inactive for months. Which is an insanely short amount of time.

But yet I can log in at home and see my points. No idea why the store couldn't connect to my account.

This all reinforces my opinion that VIP points are supposed to be as difficult as possible to use.

On a similar note, If the stores are operated by a third party, they aren’t plugged into the official VIP system. I recently had a similar experience when I visited the new Lego store in Sydney and they also couldn’t find my info because they used a different system. It was kind of annoying that even though it was officially licensed by TLG (and even promoted by them), they couldn’t seem to bring the loyalty program over as well 

[danth]

1 minute ago, smazmats said:

On a similar note, If the stores are operated by a third party, they aren’t plugged into the official VIP system. I recently had a similar experience when I visited the new Lego store in Sydney and they also couldn’t find my info because they used a different system. It was kind of annoying that even though it was officially licensed by TLG (and even promoted by them), they couldn’t seem to bring the loyalty program over as well 

Weird, is that a thing? This was an official Lego store in a mall, which I thought were all operated by Lego.

[smazmats]

10 minutes ago, danth said:

Weird, is that a thing? This was an official Lego store in a mall, which I thought were all operated by Lego.

Up until last month, I thought the same. If you still have it, look at the receipt. When I got mine, I did notice they were different than the ones I got from “true” Lego stores in the past. It had more info about the company operating the store 

Edited February 16 by smazmats

[JesseNight]

Can't you just contact TLG customer support, show them a picture of your purchase ticket, and let them solve it?
Even if TLG claims they're not official stores or they're excluded from the VIP program (which wouldn't be nice), at least that clears things up.

[danth]

8 minutes ago, JesseNight said:

Can't you just contact TLG customer support, show them a picture of your purchase ticket, and let them solve it?
Even if TLG claims they're not official stores or they're excluded from the VIP program (which wouldn't be nice), at least that clears things up.

Yeah no thanks. Last time I tried to get a problem solved by TLG customer support I got disconnected twice and it took hours and in they end they couldn't fix the issue without me creating a new account. Not worth the frustration which is the whole point.