LEGO Bans - Open Discussion

[TheBrickClique]

As for operating with a single account to stay within the vendor’s technically-enforced limits, I believe this is the current state of things.
 

Cliff notes: you’ll be fine as long as you don’t go on a spending spree at Target.com, and try not to bring attention to your buying patterns by dealing with online customer service for small gripes that can be dealt with in store instead.

Target - the easiest place to get banned based simply on purchase volume online and the most aggressive against resellers in store — employees trained to identify resellers loading up carts for example.  Can still use red card in store after online ban, but using with a new email account will result in repeat ban — start receiving auto cancellations and email about possible issues including payment purchase method.  Some people have bans lifted after a period in timeout. Others indefinitely. The amount of purchases that may identify you as a reseller and get a ban? One data point: I have been unable to purchase online going on 18 months now after two months of $5k purchases on the red card. Same red card still works fine in store.
 

LEGO shop at home — with the purchase limits mechanics implemented a few years ago, it is much more difficult to get the SAH ban hammer. If you exceed a limit on any item based on past purchases of the same item, they will cancel your entire order. Be warned that if they cancel an order with a VIP Rewards purchase, the reward is not automatically credited back to your account. Also, if they cancel an item due to inventory issues, the system still tracks it as qty purchased. Qty purchased in brick and mortar stores that are purchased with VIP accounts are not counted towards SAH limits and and limits in store are done at the individual store’s discretion. If you do have to call customer service to resolve an issue, they do have easy visibility to all of your previous orders and will make comments about you “really liking LEGOs”.  No indication that that is how the ban process starts, but unless you really have an issue that needs CS, might be best to just let the small things go. 
 

Amazon — shop away. Their limits are tracked to the second on a 168-hour FIFO.  Limits apply and are tracked in that window only to items sold and shipped by Amazon.com. Buy as many third party items as you wish. Anecdotal stories of bans for excessive returns, but no clear information on the metrics used. Generally, probably best to save the returns for the really bad boxes.  Creating multiple accounts will get noticed and is the quickest way to get the warning shot emails. 
 

Barnes and Noble — similar to LEGO, has a five qty per item lifetime limit online. Exceed that amount and just that item will be cancelled from the order. No reports of bans. In store purchases do not appear to be tied to online memberships as far as adding to your 5-count quantity.  
 

Walmart — most LEGO are limited to two per order, but they won’t say how often that limit is reset.  Doing a couple of multiple limit orders in the same day has worked.  Doing dozens has resulted in order cancellations of those specific items but no bans that I am aware of. Generally, I have found one limit order per day has never resulted in a cancellation. 
 

ShopDisney — some items have limits but they are selectively enforced. If you put in multiple limit orders at the same time, they might cancel those items. If you space them out, they will be fine. I ordered a dozen castles (limit one per customer) last year and they all went through. Sometimes two in two consecutive days. 
 

Costco — has item limits on some items, but I haven’t seen any on LEGOs. Even with items with limits, possible to space them out without issue.  In store limits are usually “per day”. 
 

Best Buy — unsure on LEGO as I’ve never pushed the limits on them. In the past, I would make 50 purchases at a time of 2-dollar items that had limits and they would all go through.  I have tried to make multiple purchases of Xbox consoles and those were cancelled.  So YMMV. But no reports of bans.

Anyways, those are my observations.

[landphieran]

5 minutes ago, Jessekidd13 said:

What kind of rough volume are you talking about here?  

The address ban was from earlier this year, July, when i was flipping sets on Amazon. The volume was 7-8 orders on 3 accounts a day. With orders under 300-400$. Relatively minimal, considering two years ago I placed orders for 600 Iron Golems, 120 B Wings, 600 Sh*tter Robots, etc. I suspect my accounts were flagged from high volume last Christmas. Target has a fraud team according to customer service rep's i spoke to on the phone, who research and determine reseller activity.

It's pretty hard to avoid being spotted if you are a mid sized reseller. Imagine the number of people who buy over 5000$ of Lego from Target, 10K from Target, 20k? Run a query and you can see the top 100 people who ordered Lego from Target.

Target has more aggressively filtered "fraudulent addresses" as well. I'd open multiple accounts with variant addresses. Sometime in the summer Target data corrected all my variants to the USPS standard address (probably another reason I was flagged).

This spring I'm going to setup a more robust method for buyer account protection to maintain longevity in this business. Companies are going to continue to become more and more strict. They will begin to get smarter as well. With the improvements in capturing data  and data processing, fraud or unwanted buyers are very easy to spot.

[redcell]

58 minutes ago, Jessekidd13 said:

What kind of rough volume are you talking about here?  

I got banned from Target during their online clearance sale in October 2019.  I placed one order for $16k and another for $5k.  Both went through, but nothing after that until about a month ago when orders started flowing through again without issue.

[gmpirate]

1 hour ago, redcell said:

  I placed one order for $16k and another for $5k.

That's awesome.

I used to place $2k - $3k orders back in the day until I got "the letter".  But never got banned.

Edited November 23, 2020 by gmpirate

[redcell]

3 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

That's awesome.

I used to place $2k - $3k orders back in the day until I got "the letter".  But never got banned.

It was stupid and I knew better, but I hadn't ordered anything from Target up to that point in the year and had gotten in the habit of making every order with Walmart really large since I never knew when one would actually go through.

[gmpirate]

I just lost my Target Debit card for 12 months.  I thought it was linked to a different checking account than it was and had multiple chargebacks.  Target Credit Card has such a low limit for not using it for so long that its basically unusable.  At least they take Apple Pay and get 2% there.

[Mark Twain]

I had the same ban from WM from 2018 to 2019.  I was able to get a few orders through here and there during that time, but it was really inconsistent and I definitely missed out on some great deals.  I haven't had an issue with multiple orders back to back since the quantity limits went in last year, but never really pushed it until last week and haven't had any orders cancelled yet.
However, it is pretty clear (to me at least) that sourcing Lego through online retail is not likely to be a viable strategy over the long term if you're operating at any appreciable level of scale.  If it weren't for Amazon intermittently loosening their quantity limits last year, I would probably have half as much inventory to sell this year.  Even some of the secondary online retailers are starting to wise up and impose quantity limits.  Between quantity limits, buying bans, and retailers going out of business, it's becoming a heck of a lot harder to operate at scale.  I'm usually not one to fall for the "sky is falling" perspective, but, in this instance, I do believe that the days of sourcing large amounts of Lego through online retail are winding down (at least for now).  Smaller scale operations don't have as much to worry about, but larger sellers will have to find alternate sources to tap into if they want to keep the gravy train rolling. 

Honestly, I’m shocked Walmart didn’t hire people to hunt us down after the store pickup clearance price glitch fiasco a few years back. I was a noob then knew nothing and was buying with cash on hand when I should have maxed out every credit card I had.

[BrickLegacy]

Honestly, I’m shocked Walmart didn’t hire people to hunt us down after the store pickup clearance price glitch fiasco a few years back. I was a noob then knew nothing and was buying with cash on hand when I should have maxed out every credit card I had.

How is that $10 kayak btw ?

[redcell]

9 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Honestly, I’m shocked Walmart didn’t hire people to hunt us down after the store pickup clearance price glitch fiasco a few years back. I was a noob then knew nothing and was buying with cash on hand when I should have maxed out every credit card I had.

Those were such great deals.  I ordered so much that when I went in to pick it up, the clerk helping me said "Oh, so you're [FILL IN NAME]" and then 3 or 4 others standing around were like "we were wondering about you."  And that happened in a few stores.

 

[Mark Twain]

How is that $10 kayak btw ?

I think that if I nabbed anything that big my wife would remove what is left of my manhood.

[president89]

On 11/23/2020 at 3:05 PM, Mark Twain said:

 

I think that if I nabbed anything that big my wife would remove what is left of my manhood.

 

So it's currently partial?

[Airbear282]

Out of curiosity, can you get banned from a LEGO store if you keep trying to buy the same item on days of restock? I got some iffy vibes from the workers who noticed I bought the same LEGO the week prior. Just curious if you guys have some tips. Don’t want to piss off my local store

[ravenb99]

Lol no

[iahawks550]

9 hours ago, Airbear282 said:

 I got some iffy vibes from the workers who noticed I bought the same LEGO the week prior. Just curious if you guys have some tips.

Zip your fly. They probably didn't want to say anything.

[gmpirate]

9 hours ago, Airbear282 said:

Out of curiosity, can you get banned from a LEGO store if you keep trying to buy the same item on days of restock? I got some iffy vibes from the workers who noticed I bought the same LEGO the week prior. Just curious if you guys have some tips. Don’t want to piss off my local store

There is not "official" ban at the Lego store and LEGO Shop at Home is a separate ban.  The can, do and have banned people from stores however.  At the least they may start putting limits on what you can by.  The "iffy vibes" are real indicators.

Edited November 26, 2020 by gmpirate

[thelovemachine]

break out the hat and sunglasses... and use cash... time to go stealth mode...  wig helps.

[exracer327]

19 minutes ago, thelovemachine said:

break out the hat and sunglasses... and use cash... time to go stealth mode...  wig helps.

Multiple wigs and a change of clothes in the car also helps.  Good luck!

On a more serious note, asking for a gift receipt may help calm their consciences.

[Darth_Raichu]

34 minutes ago, thelovemachine said:

break out the hat and sunglasses... and use cash... time to go stealth mode...  wig helps.

Don't for get this:

[Airbear282]

I’m honestly just trying to flip to pay for my hobby, so I appreciate the advice (and the great laughs). I wouldn’t say the lady was aggressive, she just said “you were in here last week getting the same one right”? I said some line on the spot like yeah my wife saw what I got for my sister for Xmas and wanted it too. Just curious since next time will be the 3rd time I attempt to buy the same one and assumed you guys have ran into this situation when you find a LEGO store only item that’s a good flip 

[appchasers]

Walmart put my ass on time out because of this. Who knew getting enough sets to build your own real life size carriage isn't allowed. 

I got banned from Walmart online in January 2020. Anyone know if bans are forever? Or do they have an expiration?

[Banjoman]

1 hour ago, appchasers said:

I got banned from Walmart online in January 2020. Anyone know if bans are forever? Or do they have an expiration?

Care to share what caused the ban?  I placed 10 orders for Slaves when the limit was 2, and have pushed this a few times lately....

 

[cladner]

11 minutes ago, Banjoman said:

Care to share what caused the ban?  I placed 10 orders for Slaves when the limit was 2, and have pushed this a few times lately....

 

putting back to back to back orders of the same set on the same day can easily get you banned at walmart.  ordering the same set limit 2 one time per day every day is how i avoid getting banned at walmart  but very slow way of accumulating stock.

[carini26]

I had a few non-LEGO Target orders insta-cancelled last night when attempting to use their 10% off Circle offer.  This is after I had successfully got through approx $15K worth of BF week orders last Sunday morning before they started cancelling subsequent orders.  Tried another small LEGO order a few days ago using something other than red card and it went through. 

Thinking the Circle offer may have triggered something?  I dunno.  FYI.

[cladner]

Just now, carini26 said:

I had a few non-LEGO Target orders insta-cancelled last night when attempting to use their 10% off Circle offer.  This is after I had successfully got through approx $15K worth of BF week orders last Sunday morning before they started cancelling subsequent orders.  Tried another small LEGO order a few days ago using something other than red card and it went through. 

Thinking the Circle offer may have triggered something?  I dunno.  FYI.

ever since i clicked on one of the circle bonuses when it first started last year, i have been unable to place any orders through the app without being instantly cancelled.   

[carini26]

Just now, cladner said:

ever since i clicked on one of the circle bonuses when it first started last year, i have been unable to place any orders through the app without being instantly cancelled.   

I always skipped the Circle stuff @ checkout knowing it was bad news.  Should have listened to my inner-self instead of trying to save $5 bucks buying my daughter a jacket and board game.

Target is still taking my $ in-store without issue whenever I find Slave I's and Land Bounty's.

[exciter1]

I've been using Circle without issue.  Maybe my orders have been under an acceptable threshold.