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.

[auctionbrokers]

On 10/6/2022 at 8:09 PM, cmartin33 said:

Thanks for your advice. I was scared to look at my account and noticed I had the same. Got my Walmart + canceled and tried to place an order, and it was immediately canceled. I will try the email route. Thank you!

Did you end up emailing Walmart and getting your account unbanned?

[Redtree]

My Target.com orders are getting canceled as soon as I place them. Looks like I’ve been banned. I have enough credit available to place the order but it’s canceled immediately using my red card

I did place an online order using a gift card and it went through.  Anyone else get banned but could still use gift cards to place orders online? Wonder if using gift cards is a way to dodge the ban hammer? 

[Bold-Arrow]

1 hour ago, Redtree said:

My Target.com orders are getting canceled as soon as I place them. Looks like I’ve been banned. I have enough credit available to place the order but it’s canceled immediately using my red card

I did place an online order using a gift card and it went through.  Anyone else get banned but could still use gift cards to place orders online? Wonder if using gift cards is a way to dodge the ban hammer? 

I just use my wife's account for now. When that will eventually get banned, time to find a girlfriend or something. 

[exciter1]

16 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

I just use my wife's account for now. When that will eventually get banned, time to find a girlfriend or something. 

I’ve always used my wife’s account, never made one for myself.

[redcell]

49 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

I just use my wife's account for now. When that will eventually get banned, time to find a girlfriend or something. 

I'd like to see that conversation go down:

You: "Look honey, I love you and everything, but Target has now banned your account so I really have no choice, I have to take on a mistress so that I can keep buying on Target."

[Mark Twain]

I just use my wife's account for now. When that will eventually get banned, time to find a girlfriend or something. 

Mistress, phew, subscribe to an OnlyFans model. For $39 a month I’m sure they’d open an account for you under their name and then advertise the service as brick kink.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Achilles]

4 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Mistress, phew, subscribe to an OnlyFans model. For $39 a month I’m sure they’d open an account for you under their name and then advertise the service as brick kink.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"brick kink" - Genius. If only I were a reasonably attractive woman. Or a reasonably attractive man, for that matter...

[CsabaLazlo]

Has anyone used different accounts registered to addresses in different countries to get around SaH order limits? Not sure if it's asking to have my accounts banned or not.

Edited November 25, 2022 by CsabaLazlo

[gmpirate]

7 hours ago, CsabaLazlo said:

Has anyone used different accounts registered to addresses in different countries to get around SaH order limits? Not sure if it's asking to have my accounts banned or not.

If you order from the same place.  IP/MAC addresses are tracked.

[gmpirate]

So, what is the point of Walmart terminating "Walmart+".  My only use that I am aware of is to check prices in stores and "scan & go".  

My only guess is for "free" small deliveries??  I never place small dollar amount orders but Walmart seems to break them up into a bunch of smaller deliveries.  Guessing that's the issue?  On Amazon I can choose an option other than Prime but I don't see the option on Walmart.

[TheBrickClique]

59 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

So, what is the point of Walmart terminating "Walmart+".  My only use that I am aware of is to check prices in stores and "scan & go".  

My only guess is for "free" small deliveries??  I never place small dollar amount orders but Walmart seems to break them up into a bunch of smaller deliveries.  Guessing that's the issue?  On Amazon I can choose an option other than Prime but I don't see the option on Walmart.

I just went ahead and set up a second account for online ordering that doesn’t have Walmart+. 
I guess the benefit of early sale offers and Walmart rewards might apply. I’ll start using w+ for those opportunities since that volume should be low. And I’ll use the second account for the bulk of my orders. 

[gmpirate]

8 minutes ago, TheBrickClique said:

I just went ahead and set up a second account for online ordering that doesn’t have Walmart+. 
I guess the benefit of early sale offers and Walmart rewards might apply. I’ll start using w+ for those opportunities since that volume should be low. And I’ll use the second account for the bulk of my orders. 

All same info for second account? 

[TheBrickClique]

1 hour ago, gmpirate said:

All same info for second account? 

Yes.  I try to keep them on the up-and-up.  I.e. not order the max of the same thing on both of them.  We'll see if this keeps them happy with the Walmart+ usage.

[RyanK328]

Hi all, new here to this forum. Been collecting and investing for a few years now. I stupidly was purchasing from Lego.com in Australia under 2 accounts (my name and wife's name) for the same address. Got myself banned back in June 2022. Has anyone successfully got themselves unbanned? Do I have to write a plea email to Lego?

[Bold-Arrow]

2 hours ago, RyanK328 said:

Hi all, new here to this forum. Been collecting and investing for a few years now. I stupidly was purchasing from Lego.com in Australia under 2 accounts (my name and wife's name) for the same address. Got myself banned back in June 2022. Has anyone successfully got themselves unbanned? Do I have to write a plea email to Lego?

Lego has been pretty lax with their bans over the last couple of years ( at least here in the US), as long as you don’t circumvent limits , they even unbanned a lot of accounts on their own. Can’t hurt to give them a buz

[ravenb99]

15 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Lego has been pretty lax with their bans over the last couple of years ( at least here in the US), as long as you don’t circumvent limits , they even unbanned a lot of accounts on their own. Can’t hurt to give them a buz

You really can't get banned. They just cancel everything 

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, ravenb99 said:

You really can't get banned. They just cancel everything 

our friend from down under was using two accounts to the same addy .

[RyanK328]

On 2/10/2023 at 2:18 PM, Bold-Arrow said:

Lego has been pretty lax with their bans over the last couple of years ( at least here in the US), as long as you don’t circumvent limits , they even unbanned a lot of accounts on their own. Can’t hurt to give them a buz

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I guess I might just send them a plea email to try and get them to unban me. Worst case is they say no, but with Lego sales presumably dipping due to inflation, maybe I stand a better chance. 

[gmpirate]

2 hours ago, RyanK328 said:

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I guess I might just send them a plea email to try and get them to unban me. Worst case is they say no, but with Lego sales presumably dipping due to inflation, maybe I stand a better chance. 

IF they were worried about sales they would not have their strict limits.

[iahawks550]

1 hour ago, gmpirate said:

IF they were worried about sales they would not have their strict limits.

I get your point, but they ARE always concerned with sales. They can have strict limits and also meet their sales goals, because people are buying. IF there was an actual depression and 90% of the population that would buy, aren't, we would see that limit disappear.

[gmpirate]

28 minutes ago, iahawks550 said:

IF there was an actual depression and 90% of the population that would buy, aren't, we would see that limit disappear.

exactly my point

[starwarsxpress]

4 hours ago, RyanK328 said:

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I guess I might just send them a plea email to try and get them to unban me. Worst case is they say no, but with Lego sales presumably dipping due to inflation, maybe I stand a better chance. 

good luck hope it works : )

Edited February 18, 2023 by starwarsxpress

[ryzenoctavian]

What exactly triggers the ban from TLG? I already know your email address and home address is blacklisted because once you're banned any other order you make you're greeted with the deadly "Information about your order" email and told the exact same thing that you were told when you got banned (that also includes different email addresses but same home address). I also know that the very first line of 'defense' TLG has is an automated system, once you're banned and you place an order the system (probably) cross checks it with TLG's database to make sure the order wasn't made with a blacklisted email or home address. I know this because that's what it says in the ban email - "the validation process is automatic". But I decided to contact CS over live chat and they obviously gave me the same response but also told me that it happened because "our team reviewed your account order and history", so... who's lying? I still believe that a computer does it as I tried making another order with a different email address, name and home address (literally just my neighbour's address) with the intent of using DPD's 'deliver to neighbour feature' (i.e me) once it was shipped, but got instantly banned again. I hope my neighbours aren't LEGO fanatics. (sorry!) I know them well, and in all honesty they've told me they or their kids don't like LEGO so it's not a total loss? But really, what else? Is the whole street put on an alert list?

On the other hand I did manage to get an order through by contacting customer service with again different details and my other neighbour's address, and guess what? It went through, I managed to get DPD to redirect it to me and now I do have the order.

But that begs the question... what about other ways people could abuse the system? As far as I know, if you ordered something and it doesn't arrive within the given timeframe, you can either ask them to resend it or refund you. I have actually asked them to resend a missing order before (this was before I was banned) because DPD decided to leave my order ontop of my rubbish bins instead of literally handing it to me at the door, and they delivered it at the same time the school next to me finished so... it got stolen by some pesky kids (yay) as by the time DPD told me it arrived (I think their system is crappy as every time I recieve something from them it takes them about an hour to confirm I got it) it was gone when I checked. Oh well, TLG sent me a replacement completely fine, no issues, they just needed my order number. I don't know what they do in the background, be it check using the tracking system on the courier's website the same way a consumer would use it or they just have loads of logs from the courier telling them if it was delivered, the time, where it was put or and an image of where it was put (if that's what your courier does), but DPD took a picture of my parcel on my bins, yet I got the re-order just fine, so that just makes me wonder... couldn't someone just order something, tell the courier to leave it somewhere vulnerable (but collect it the instant they see/are told it's delivered), wait for the delivery timeframe to pass, and then ask TLG to resend the set so they now have one for free or refund the whole order so they got the set for free? I'm not saying you should do it and I'm not saying I will do it either (ever since the price increase I've been put off buying sets at retail price on the LEGO store forever), but I'm sure someone's tried it once and maybe/maybe not got away with it. It's a weird thought, I know, but it got me really curious. 

[Cheese]

huh?

[Bold-Arrow]

Is there a cliff note version ?