10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery Discussion

[firetech]

39 minutes ago, Seasider said:

Sold out in the U.K. ... now that is VERY frustrating as I’d been trying to get onto the page since before 9am! 🤬

Limited releases online always end up being connection lotteries, since the servers usually never have near enough capacity for all frustrated buyers constantly reloading to get the correct page.

As a software engineer, I find it a bit sad that no good solution for this has emerged in the many years of e-commerce (however, I also realize it's an extremely hard problem to solve properly)...  

[CDM]

Wow, this sucks even if completely expected. Hoping for the best come 9:00am.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

3 hours ago, firetech said:

Limited releases online always end up being connection lotteries, since the servers usually never have near enough capacity for all frustrated buyers constantly reloading to get the correct page.

As a software engineer, I find it a bit sad that no good solution for this has emerged in the many years of e-commerce (however, I also realize it's an extremely hard problem to solve properly)...  

Didn't Lego implement some queue system for last Black Friday? That might help with highly-anticipated releases.

[Friscorays]

9 am in US and like clockwork Lego VIP offline for maintenance.

[thorin]

18 minutes ago, Friscorays said:

9 am in US and like clockwork Lego VIP offline for maintenance.

It finally showed up. Lasted about 2 minutes... wow.

[jusvans]

Same thing happened to me in the US. Been waiting since 7:30 am central time and about a minute before it was set to go live, whole VIP section went down. By the time I finally was able to get in 20 minutes later, sold out. Then I find this: Guess how much the LEGO Ulysses Space Probe is already selling for on eBay (brickfanatics.com) Come on Lego maybe not make what seems like every VIP exclusive these days super rare? I understand event exclusives that were supposed to be in person last year, like the Nebulon B, but not these general rewards. Same thing for the classic space coin. Both are selling as a bundle on ebay for hundreds of US$, PREORDER.

[azog]

I believe I got it! (Knocks on wood intensely) the order is glitching a little but it says the money was taken out of my bank account so I'm going to assume everything worked okay! I was also on the phone with Lego and he told me once you redeemed it it's yours regardless when you place the order.

I'm really sorry for anyone that didn't get it! Lego did not handle this well and really should stick to selling sets of free promo's with sets. This is really irritating and they need to fix their VIP rewards! There are too many scalpers out there for Lego to be encouraging this false demand.

[jusvans]

6 minutes ago, azog said:

There are too many scalpers out there for Lego to be encouraging this false demand.

I have a theory and someone please correct me if this is completely off base, but could it be that there are a lot of fake/duplicate VIP accounts creating this excess demand over previous years? Maybe it's me, but it feels like the last year perhaps anything VIP related from set releases to rewards just go in a snap. Sets used to sell out after a couple days/a week but now it's hours. Lego does order limiting based on addresses and could scalpers/resellers be using next door addresses, etc. to bypass the system thereby gobbling everything up before the rest of us?

Edited April 14, 2021 by jusvans
Edited grammar

[Shiva]

Next door adresses etc? Could be. + Mom, dad, sister, brother, etc.

[azog]

2 minutes ago, jusvans said:

I have a theory and someone please correct me if this is completely off base, but could it be that there are a lot of fake/duplicate VIP accounts creating this excess demand over previous years? Maybe it's me, but it feels like the last year perhaps anything VIP related from set releases to rewards just go in a snap. Sets used to sell out after a couple days but now it's hours. Lego does order limiting based on addresses and could scalpers/resellers be using next door addresses, etc. to bypass the system thereby gobbling everything up before the rest of us?

Honestly I wouldn't doubt it for a second! I know we are discussing something not relevant to this forum so I'm sorry about that!

I really feel like that these scalpers have multiple VIP accounts tbh. They order so much Lego (Winnie The Pooh, any UCS set, etc) where they would have plenty of VIP points on each account they own. Giving them more VIP promo's such as the Ulysses one and the coins. Overall I hate scalpers!

[jusvans]

9 minutes ago, Shiva said:

Next door adresses etc? Could be. + Mom, dad, sister, brother, etc.

Very true too I guess. I only found this address thing out when I stayed with my parents for a bit due to covid and we both buy legos and had a couple orders cancelled because of shipping to the same address before I called customer service.

[CDM]

18 minutes ago, jusvans said:

I have a theory and someone please correct me if this is completely off base, but could it be that there are a lot of fake/duplicate VIP accounts creating this excess demand over previous years? Maybe it's me, but it feels like the last year perhaps anything VIP related from set releases to rewards just go in a snap. Sets used to sell out after a couple days/a week but now it's hours. Lego does order limiting based on addresses and could scalpers/resellers be using next door addresses, etc. to bypass the system thereby gobbling everything up before the rest of us?

While it may be possible to have multiple VIP accounts, they'd still be making the appropriate purchases to accumulate points so I'm not sure I see the point in going to the trouble. Who knows though...people will go to incredible lengths to save / make a buck. I get the impression the issues are due to 1. incredibly high demand and 2. embarrassing IT issues for a company of LEGO's size and stature.

[ShaydDeGrai]

Well I got exactly what I expected.  Site goes down just as offer is about to go live, by the time it comes back up, kit is sold out.  Such a failure on so many levels.  As a bonus tie-in to the space shuttle rollout they should have just bundled this to actual space shuttle purchases (and produced more kits).  As a VIP bonus, this is worse than a SDCC exclusive.  It doesn't make customers feel "very important" at all it makes one feel like a hungry duck in a pond fighting with dozens of other ducks over a few crumbs of stale bread while some kid with an entire loaf laughs at us plucking each other tail feathers out from the shore.  It's a bad business model that offends and disappoints far more loyal customers than it "rewards."

I can't really say I'm disappointed though, I've long since passed the point where I'd even hope this scenario would play out any differently than their past fiascos.

Seriously, the only thing the revamped VIP system has done as far as I'm concerned is to increase the amount of money I spend at Amazon and Target. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by ShaydDeGrai
Fixed typos, too early to type...

[Friscorays]

Managed to redeem Ulysses probe and bundle it with shuttle and double VIP points but as expected from past experience every step in the process was glitchy and stressful.  The pandemic plays at least some role but I have to believe by this point in time that a huge business like Lego could and should be doing better with things like this.

[azog]

1 minute ago, Friscorays said:

Managed to redeem Ulysses probe and bundle it with shuttle and double VIP points but as expected from past experience every step in the process was glitchy and stressful.  The pandemic plays at least some role but I have to believe by this point in time that a huge business like Lego could and should be doing better with things like this.

Idk if you mind sharing with me but did your order already process through lego? Cause mine still doesn't have any official lego confirmation. Just the pending on my bank account

 

[Friscorays]

Order initially glitched at checkout phase with message along line of "Something went wrong try again." coming up but after waiting a little while the order now shows as "In process" in the "My orders" section of my account.  I'll keep an eye on it but expect it to proceed normally from here and hopefully show "In warehouse" sometime later today or tomorrow.

 

You could also try putting in the Ulysses probe code for another order.  If the system will no longer accept it, it indicates Lego shows the code as already redeemed which should indicate your order has gone through.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Friscorays

[CDM]

9 minutes ago, azog said:

Idk if you mind sharing with me but did your order already process through lego? Cause mine still doesn't have any official lego confirmation. Just the pending on my bank account

 

Give it some time. It took a while for me to get the order confirmation email. If your bank / card says pending you should be fine.

[TheMainBricker]

In many respects VIP is fairer because it requires previous spend, but can be unfair if you don't have the points (or recently redeemed them). Scalpers have spent the money, the problem is the people who go on eBay and buy from them, as it's only encouraging it.

Lego could kill off the problem by producing more of the set. Lego could announce a new production run, it will upset those who've paid $150 on eBay, but it would also teach them a lesson not to buy from scalpers.

[ShaydDeGrai]

23 minutes ago, TheMainBricker said:

Lego could kill off the problem by producing more of the set. Lego could announce a new production run, it will upset those who've paid $150 on eBay, but it would also teach them a lesson not to buy from scalpers.

If it didn't take so long to package and distribute the sets, they could really throw a wrench into scalpers' plans by doing a VIP pre-order scheme where the offer goes live for a week or so EVERYONE who tries (and has the points) gets a coupon code for the set and then TLG produces enough sets to satisfy all the issued coupons (and then some) and ships them out at a later date.   Sure, it ruins the whole immediate gratification thing (for those lucky few who actually get a set under the current system) and makes the kits less "exclusive" but it takes the whole "overloaded server" and connection roulette tech issues off the table and feels more like a company making a true "offer" to a customer rather than pitting customers against one another battling for a prize.  

Besides, if you _know_ 250,000 loyal customers want a set given set (because they spent their points to get it) you'd earn a lot more good will if you actually produced enough to keep everyone happy rather that a paltry 5000 (or whatever) to make 2% of your customers really happy while disappointing/angering everyone else. 

[Friscorays]

Amen to TheMainBricker and ShaydDeGrai's excellent suggestion.  As per link above, a large number are already up on Ebay and a few have bids well over $200 US but I would not be surprised at all if a good proportion of those buyers back out as more and more sets show up; driving secondary price down.  

[Seasider]

Had a look on eBay earlier today after my many failed attempts to get it in the U.K. some crazy prices on eBay that I’m not even going to bother with.

TLG needs to work out better ways of doing these releases

[jus1973]

I too am so totally annoyed at the outcome of this.  Feel like there must have been only a few hundred of these sets, and most of them appear to have been had by scalpers for future eBay sales.  Grrrrr.  I thought the VIP system mean this reduced this problem.  Apparently not.  

[jusvans]

6 hours ago, jus1973 said:

Feel like there must have been only a few hundred of these sets

I read somewhere this morning, and I cannot confirm this, that each region had something like 3000. Either way, totally inadequate.

[JunkstyleGio]

@jusvans I guess that it were less then 300 per region... Too bad I missed out on it. Would be a nice addition to the spaceshuttle.

But then again lets go back to the Spaceshuttle itself.

Quick video

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by JunkstyleGio

[Shiva]

Wait for building instructions for the Ulysses and bricklink the parts.

Or build the Shuttle scale Ulysses, from the Bricks in Space facebook group.