What happened to Bricks & Pieces?

[Bricktrain]

I have been having the same problem since the B+P went back on, I usually order every couple of weeks but now it wont process payment at all, been trying for 4 days.

[suffocation]

Still not working

[ForeverSorting]

Any update on this?

[MAB]

 

There is a more active thread on bricks and pieces here, any updates as to when it starts working will probably be posted quicker on that one.

 

[ForeverSorting]

Thank you ?

[suffocation]

I eventually relented and bought 42099 from Amazon DE, since they were letting it go for a decent price and I really wanted those planetary hubs. I tried the new bluetooth/battery hub and motors and it turns out channels A & B on the hub don't work. I contacted customer service requesting a replacement part and was just told that the part isn't available and they have CANCELLED my request.

Is this what TLG has come to? Even at a great discount the set was still bloody expensive and the least I could expect was to have everything working or at least count on TLG to replace any flawed parts, even if it means waiting until they restock. But to have my request cancelled is an insult.

Edited September 2, 2019 by suffocation

[Chiaroscuro]

Hi guys! After spending more than 2 hours late night yesterday trying to order a single set (not even a P&B order) and getting the same payment error at checkout (“cannot authorize your payment at this time, please contact service support”) that I was having since the july system update of S@H, I finally made my order went through and I discovered what was causing the error (at least for me, please test this and see if it will help you too).

The error happened at parsing the billing address to start the charge. The charge did not start yet, the system was preparing the fields to start the process. After messing with the billing address a lot of times I discovered that the update messed with some fields lengths. 

My country use a 5+3 ZIP code. That was the address stored in my profile that the system was trying to use (and also it was the shipping address). However, when trying to enter a new billing address I found out that the system only allows 4 digits ZIP codes tom y country now (!). The number of digits is specifically for each country, but my country was set wrong. I could not fill a 5 digits ZIP in a new billing address without the system returning an error in the field.

So what I did was to create a new billing address with a ZIP code made of only the first 4 digits of my address. Attention, I did not change the shipping address, just the billing address. After that there was an error when the total of the basket was 0 and checkout wasn´t available. I just emptied the basket and put everything again on it. The order went fine and I was charged in my Credit Card.

Hope this trick may help some of you guys with problems at checkout.

But as a last note, if that works for you too, it shows that Lego TI doesn´t care. Simple as that. They were not working on a solution, because a simple checkout debug would show where the erro ris (parsing a field). Such a great TI support for a large company!

[MAB]

1 hour ago, suffocation said:

I eventually relented and bought 42099 from Amazon DE, since they were letting it go for a decent price and I really wanted those planetary hubs. I tried the new bluetooth/battery hub and motors and it turns out channels A & B on the hub don't work. I contacted customer service requesting a replacement part and was just told that the part isn't available and they have CANCELLED my request.

Is this what TLG has come to? Even at a great discount the set was still bloody expensive and the least I could expect was to have everything working or at least count on TLG to replace any flawed parts, even if it means waiting until they restock. But to have my request cancelled is an insult.

If you bought it from amazon, then you probably should have returned the whole set to amazon.

The part you requested from LEGO is the most expensive part of that set, and LEGO have no proof you bought the set, so them denying it is not so surprising. If you had bought through them, then they might have been a bit more sympathetic although they might have said to return the whole set to get a replacement.

[suffocation]

32 minutes ago, MAB said:

If you bought it from amazon, then you probably should have returned the whole set to amazon.

The part you requested from LEGO is the most expensive part of that set, and LEGO have no proof you bought the set, so them denying it is not so surprising. If you had bought through them, then they might have been a bit more sympathetic although they might have said to return the whole set to get a replacement.

Are you kidding? Returning the whole set to Amazon would mean tearing down the model, repackaging it and queueing at the post office - I think that amount of time is worth way more than what a hub costs TLG. As for the proof of purchase, all they need to do is ask me for access to my record of Amazon purchases, or a copy of the receipt from Amazon, or my credit card records or whatever they want..

Incidentally, it's the first time I've ever requested a replacement, whereas I've placed countless orders on B&P, so it seems they've always been quite happy to take my money.

[MAB]

43 minutes ago, suffocation said:

Are you kidding? Returning the whole set to Amazon would mean tearing down the model, repackaging it and queueing at the post office - I think that amount of time is worth way more than what a hub costs TLG.

No, if Amazon sold you the defective unit, then that should be your first point of call.

LEGO are normally good at replacing small parts that customers say are broken or missing, and I imagine if it was a cheap part they would have done so here. However, the hub is the key electronic part of this set and is expensive. I imagine they get people claiming they have a defective one without even buying the set.  So it probably makes sense for them to fall back on consumer law here - although they really should have told you to go back to the retailer rather than just cancelling a request, that is poor customer service.

I'd contact Amazon. If they ask you to return it, don't both breaking it apart. Just break it into smaller chunks where possible. If you cannot break it any further quickly, then use a bigger box to return it in.

[suffocation]

It appears someone at TLG "found" a hub with a different part number (), so my replacement should be on its way. Interestingly, the e-mail they sent me this time was written in impeccable Italian and not the usual Google Translate or "i haz a degree in forren langwidges" gibberish.

[Hive]

Anyone manage to buy from Bricks & Pieces? I managed to get all the way to processing my payment before it fails. I even tried both with creditcard and PayPal.

[suffocation]

No luck here, either. Don't even have the Paypal option, but I guess this varies from country to country.

[Hive]

Amazingly enoough, just as I had given up all hope, I decided to try one last time - and the order went through! I really didn't expect it to.

I didn't get my preferred payment method, but eh... as long as it works.

[BrickyDwelve]

22 hours ago, Hive said:

Anyone manage to buy from Bricks & Pieces? I managed to get all the way to processing my payment before it fails. I even tried both with creditcard and PayPal.

I placed an online order on the 7th while it was temporarily up and was successful in providing payment.  US region for me and it looks like my order status has changed to “in warehouse” now.  Just waiting for it to permanently come back up to order more stuff.

[suffocation]

Managed to complete my order at long last. B&P still can't be accessed through support BUT you can worm your way into it, fill your cart, pay and hope for the best.

[Hive]

It's up here again now.

[Gomek]

It was up yesterday in the US and is now down again.

[coinoperator]

On 9/2/2019 at 5:13 PM, suffocation said:

credit card

Just ask Visa to refund it since the product is faulty and the support fails.

[suffocation]

3 hours ago, coinoperator said:

Just ask Visa to refund it since the product is faulty and the support fails.

As I wrote in a later post on this very page, TLG eventually agreed to replace the defective hub.

[coinoperator]

Sorry missed that