Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

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nami
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Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by nami » Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:15 pm

Just received an email from Lego that they cancelled my VIP order from Friday. I had ordered from Lego US and had my order shipped to a parcel service in the US as usual. Lego apparently has a new policy that the're not alloing this anymore.

"Thank you for your recent order In an effort to protect personal consumer information, LEGO Systems, Inc. has elected to no longer process shipments to Third Party Shipping Vendors.

We have determined that because your order is scheduled to ship to such a vendor we must, accordingly, cancel your order."

I called them and they really didn't have any good reason for this. When I also asked them why Canadians are paying 20-30% more for Lego when the dollar is at par, again, no reasonable answer.

I feel like lego is just being greedy forcing me to order from the Canadian site, so they can gouge me. Really disappointed!!!

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by ricefields » Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:19 pm

which location/parcel service are you using? How about switching it to another service?

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by nami » Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:27 pm

This was Menke's Parcel Service in Neche North Dakota. I feel that they are also taking away income from the Parcel services as well. Maybe I shouldn't of had "Parcel Service" as part of the shipping address, but I didn't thing Lego would stoop that low. I have spent over $10,000 on Lego and I feel as if Lego really let me down this time. My billing address was my Canadian address of course.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by legohunter » Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:31 pm

It happened to my previous order, too. The reason they rejected the order was due to historical credit card fraud transaction on your provided shipping address. You may try another shipping address that has never experienced any cc fraud.

I remember that our members discussed this incident few months ago on this forum. It was related to several lego ebay auctions that was too good to believe.

If you are interested, you could read the discussions from another forum.
http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion ... ment_67300" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by ricefields » Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:52 pm

maybe try kinek - they have a borderpoint near the manitoba / north dakota border, though $7.50 per package.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by darbee » Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:18 pm

I also got the same cancellation notice for a parcel service in the US, but this one on the west coast in Blaine. The shipping address is basically to myself and to their address which is a street address (does not make mention of it being a parcel service provider).

@nami, if our orders have been cancelled, if we were to try another address, would Lego still honor the early BF discounts? I'm thinking not, but not sure if you were able to speak to them about it.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by nami » Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:44 pm

I spoke to Lego, and any address provided other than your home address is still a third party address. However, they seem more concerned with freight/parcel services. I somewhat understand about the credit card fraud, but there are other ways to go about it. If Lego finds out the card is stolen after the the order has been shipped, they should advise the parcel service of this. The parcel service has explained that they will contact border services if they suspect any wrong doing, and there's only one way back home.

What I don't understand is why Lego has to just flat out cancel the order, with just a lame generic email. Would it be too much to ask for them to call me, explain the situation, and make other shipping arrangements?? After all, I do have this "elite" VIP status and a long history of orders.

I was really looking forward to my son getting the fire brigade and holiday set for Christmas :(

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by sadowsk1 » Sun Nov 18, 2012 8:39 pm

Looks like it's time to boycott Lego.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by pbb99 » Sun Nov 18, 2012 8:43 pm

someone posted a few weeks ago about Lego no longer shipping to freight forwarders so I knew ahead of time not to try using one for this sale. Makes me sad. I only ordered the Haunted House and Rockband minifigs this time around and with HH having a lower than usual Canadian ripoff factor, just ordered from Canadian S@H.

What I haven't tried out yet is ordering with my CC and Canadian billing address but shipping it to the apartment of a buddy that lives in the US. Hope they allow that but not counting on it.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by ricefields » Sun Nov 18, 2012 9:53 pm

I always thought freight forwarders were expensive, so I ship to hotels and make a trip to the US as part of long weekend, and I am going to michigan this time to pick up the maersk train that I bought from lego.com and other sets bought through amazon and yoyo. When you have $800 allowable per person, that should be enough to haul back some decent sets. I don't think its a blanket "your shipping address is not the home address" policy that they use to cancel orders so likely lego is just targeting the forwarding services. I also use usaddressinc and kinek in new york which is not a forwarding service but receives/stores packages so I think those are safe too.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by pbb99 » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:37 pm

I heard they're also targetting the places that receive packages, too :( Haven't tried with the place I normally use though... but don't want to take a chance missing a sale because of it.

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cupishalfempty
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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by cupishalfempty » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:53 pm

Hey nami

I also live in Winnipeg. I'm going to be down in Minnesota next weekend send me a pm and maybe I can pick up a fire brigade for you.

Billy

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by darbee » Mon Nov 19, 2012 12:07 am

pbb99 wrote:I heard they're also targetting the places that receive packages, too :( Haven't tried with the place I normally use though... but don't want to take a chance missing a sale because of it.
Pbb99 - I used Mailboxes International on H Street for my shipment and they also receive packages, but looks like Lego doesn't ship to them...

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by legohunter » Mon Nov 19, 2012 12:50 am

darbee wrote:
pbb99 wrote:I heard they're also targetting the places that receive packages, too :( Haven't tried with the place I normally use though... but don't want to take a chance missing a sale because of it.
Pbb99 - I used Mailboxes International on H Street for my shipment and they also receive packages, but looks like Lego doesn't ship to them...
This address was possibly blacklisted by lego.com. Many package carriers located at Blaine and Point Roberts have been blacklisted.

Some members were mad about lego.com for the mess; however, I don't agree with that it was the fault from lego.com. It was reasonable for them to protect their customers and business. The finger should be pointed to the theft instead.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by sadowsk1 » Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:37 am

Well thought out response legohunter.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by pbb99 » Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:13 pm

Does anyone know if Toys R Us ships to the Blaine/Point Roberts package holding locations?

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by Tjones » Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:36 pm

Yes, I've done a couple shipments to Point Roberts as well as to Bellingham. Both with no problems.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by cookiemonstr69 » Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:50 am

nami wrote:When I also asked them why Canadians are paying 20-30% more for Lego when the dollar is at par, again, no reasonable answer.
I think that's the true rip off.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by sadowsk1 » Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:35 am

It must be in response to Mega Blok. Only kidding Canadians. Hope you can find a way around this.

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Re: Lego Shop@home Ripping off Canadians

Post by mah4546 » Wed Nov 28, 2012 1:04 am

cookiemonstr69 wrote:
nami wrote:When I also asked them why Canadians are paying 20-30% more for Lego when the dollar is at par, again, no reasonable answer.
I think that's the true rip off.
No, it's not.

1) Taxes are higher in Canada. That factors into the cost.
2) Competition is less free and less numerous in Canada. The factors into the cost.
3) The population is significantly smaller,meaning fixed costs (like hiring HQ employees, running a distribution warehouse) are spread over a much thinner population base. That factors into the cost.
4) Speaking of which, labor and utilities are much more expensive in Canada. That factors into the cost.
5) Oh, and transportation costs are significantly higher in Canada. There's more costs.
6) Did I mention Canada has high import tariffs while they are virtually zero for the United States. Is LEGO magically supposed to make pretend that doesn't exist?

Canada is a highly regulated country extremely high operating costs, like most of Western Europe, while the United States is the complete opposite. It enjoys significantly more consumer freedom, less taxes, less regulation, cheap energy and more competition. That makes consumer goods cheap. If you think the extra $20 a Canadian pays for a Hobbit set is a rip off, what do you think of the extra $10,000 a Canadian pays for a basic import luxury sedan like a G35?

People have it all mixed up - consumer goods are priced normally in Canada. It's that the United States offers a market that allows them to be dirt cheap.

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