Customer Service #Fail

[sjhapke]

Does anyone have contact information for the office in CT?

I have a problem with a Shop @ Home order and their customer service people are not answering emails, and the phone number reports that customer service has been closed due to unforeseen circumstances.

I am quickly becoming upset and want to speak with someone in authority.

Thanks,
Stephanie

[Legobrandon]

Just wait a few hours or a day or two. They'll respond sometime soon.

[sjhapke]

It has been two days already. Thus why I am getting upset.

[Legobrandon]

Address:

LEGO Systems, Inc.

555 Taylor Road
P.O. Box 1138
Enfield, CT 06083-1138
USA

Phone information:

For assistance in English:

Customer Service: 1-800-838-9647

We are available 8am to 10pm EST Monday - Friday and 10am to 6pm EST Saturday and Sunday.

The best time to call us is between 10am - 8pm (EST) Monday - Friday.

Shop At Home: 1-800-835-4386

FAX: 1-888-329-5346

For assistance in French, in North America:

Customer Service/Shop At Home 1-877-518-5346

We are available 8:30 am to 4:30 pm (EST) Monday – Friday.

[sjhapke]

Thank you for reposting the information I have already attempted to use (several times).

The message earlier simply said that they were closed due to unforeseen circumstances, and to try contacting them online. Their online auto-reply said for immediate response, call them.

A recent re-attempt mentions that weather conditions have closed their customer service. Better to know that, but it does not solve my problem.

Why is a company with worldwide coverage affected by local weather conditions (I assume this is because of the east coast snowstorm from last week - the only weather event I can think of that would have caused a shutdown of their customer service organization). My friends and co-workers who live in New England have all had their power and other services returned, so I am at a loss to understand why they might still be down.

[sadowsk1]

Thank you for reposting the information I have already attempted to use (several times).

The message earlier simply said that they were closed due to unforeseen circumstances, and to try contacting them online. Their online auto-reply said for immediate response, call them.

A recent re-attempt mentions that weather conditions have closed their customer service. Better to know that, but it does not solve my problem.

Why is a company with worldwide coverage affected by local weather conditions (I assume this is because of the east coast snowstorm from last week - the only weather event I can think of that would have caused a shutdown of their customer service organization). My friends and co-workers who live in New England have all had their power and other services returned, so I am at a loss to understand why they might still be down.

I can sympathize with the frustration. Their customer service had me on the phone for nearly an hour last week. On the plus side, at least they haven't outsourced the call center. That would be a nightmare.

[natelite]

most of Connecticut is still without power.

[sjhapke]

Let me start with a public apology to @Legobrandon, who was only trying to help. I let my frustrations come through in my reply to you, and I should not have.

Thank you @natelite, I was unaware that CT was still affected by the Nor'easter that they received a week ago. It helps a little to know that there is a valid reason for the lack of contact.

@sadowsk1 - I was under the impression, based on previous communications with them, that they had contracted customer service to an outside company, but thought they were still based here in the U.S. Interesting to know that they have retained that function in-house.

I guess my frustrations, as an I.T. and Customer Service professional, exist on a couple levels:
- TLG is a global company - while I appreciate their dedication to local markets and apparent retention of customer service in-house, business continuity is a major issue, and there is no logical reason why they cannot simply relocate their customer service function (temporarily) to one of their other regions - many markets deal with English-speaking customers.
- Even if there was a compelling reason for not relocating the CS responsibilities, why do their telephone messages and auto-replies not reflect the reality of the situation - tell us that you are out of commission due to a major snowstorm rather than cryptic messages about "unforeseen circumstances" and "due to weather"?

I have read here and on other forums about TLG's legendary customer service, and I go for multiple days with no reply. What am I supposed to think, especially when there is no indication from them as to why I have not heard back from them?

I will admit that this whole situation is fueled by a week in which I have had nothing but customer service fails from a number of directions. This was just another level of frustration to add to my already heaping pile.

I have spent a scary amount of money on LEGO this year, after re-discovering my love of the infernal bricks. I am admittedly addicted to LEGO, as they are my outlet for stress - other people use alcohol or drugs, I have my LEGOs. When someone gets in between me and my LEGOs, I get irritated.

Thanks for letting me vent, apologies again to legobrandon, and thanks to those who enlightened me to the real situation with Customer Service.

[natelite]

Thank you @natelite, I was unaware that CT was still affected by the Nor'easter that they received a week ago. It helps a little to know that there is a valid reason for the lack of contact.

seems like CT is the worst affected.

http://news.yahoo.com/tempers-flare-ove ... 59326.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

parts of my town is still without power, and i'm not even in ct. this is almost as bad as irene.

[sjhapke]

Thank you @natelite, I was unaware that CT was still affected by the Nor'easter that they received a week ago. It helps a little to know that there is a valid reason for the lack of contact.

seems like CT is the worst affected.

http://news.yahoo.com/tempers-flare-ove ... 59326.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

parts of my town is still without power, and i'm not even in ct. this is almost as bad as irene.

I have friends in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The ones in NH were affected the worst, and have power, cable and phone all restored as of earlier this week, and they are in small towns. I have been part of a multi-day power outage due to a major ice storm, and would not ever want to relive that experience.

[Brick & Blue]

Western Ma and northern CT have been destroyed by this storm. This storm is 100 times worse than Irene for the area. I was out of state, but my family ONLY lost power for 36 hours. 6pm Saturday to 6am Monday. Most people didn't start getting the power back until yesterday, and many still don't have any power.

It's worst than an ice storm, there are still leaves on the trees, and it brought everything down. It looks like a weak tornado came across the whole state.

If you can't understand why they are closed, then I pitty you. It's LEGOs people, and people have been without heat, and water for a week.

[anthonyj8]

Let us all keep the citizens of Connecticut in our prayers.

[pterribilis]

I understand your frustrations, but I have NEVER had a problem with Lego Customer Service. I also believe that patience goes a very long way. Sometimes a subtle but understanding approach to your complaint can get you positive and unexpected results that put you ahead of what your original expectations were. At least that is my experience...

Love my lego...and yes I too have spent more on Lego this year than some people have spent on the purchase of their car.

[atmail35]

I'm in MA and there were folks here that are still just getting power. I think other NE states are sending crews down to CT to help out.

I totally understand your frustration, however it sounds like TLG is trying to safeguard their employees by not requiring them to come to work to a job that is not "critical". Perhaps CT has declared a state of emergency and they have asked non-essential (i.e. if you aren't a medical person, fireperson, police) employees to stay safely at home.

I agree with pterribilis, when you do get them on the phone, try and be understanding, don't fly off the handle at them, have some sympathy for their situation and I think that will get you more than yelling and expressing your frustration.

What was the issue with your order? Could it be that it was being sent from an area affected by the storm?

I hope you are able to get it resolved soon.

[meyerc13]

This was a nasty storm. My company has offices in CT, and most of our employees there are still without power. Our company is allowing employees to bring their families to the office to use the showers and get a hot meal, since apparently our office has power restored or backup power (I'm not sure which).

I work in IT Risk Management, and while I'm not part of our business continuity team, I'm familiar with the subject. I can understand your frustrations because a good business continuity plan would have a contingency to move customer service to another site, but to be fair this is about as bad of a disaster scenario as you can get short of physically losing a facility or loss of life. Not only are many company's facilities offline, but many employees are unable to work due to dealing with their own personal safety issues. You can be sure many companies will be using this example in future Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning exercises.

What I can almost guarantee is that LEGO will make it right once they are back online. With their stellar customer service, having customer service be unreachable is no doubt as unacceptable to them as it is to you.

[sjhapke]

I appreciate everyone who replied and wanted to reply to a few...

For all those that discussed the disaster in New England, please understand that I am sincerely concerned for those people affected, and only wish the best for them. As I explained above, I have been in a weather disaster once (a week-long power outage due to an ice storm) and the Good Friday tornado here in St. Louis passed within 2 miles of my home and affected several friends and acquaintances. I would not wish either of those on anyone.

I was unaware of the fact that Customer Service was located in-house (a big rarity in business these days), and was located in CT (most customer service vendors have geographically diverse call centers). I was also unaware that CT was still reeling from the storm to this extent.

I have calmed down quite a bit after learning about these things, and customer service did reply to my first email this morning. I will definitely be more reasonable and patient going forward.

While I am certainly happy for the reply from them, I did face an additional frustration - they asked me to call them to confirm some details, yet their phone lines still have the "unforeseen circumstances" message playing. I will reserve final judgement until I can get this situation rectified. I truly want to believe that you are all correct when you praise the LEGO customer service organization. As this is my first real test of their abilities, I remain skeptical.

My main frustration with this entire situation is not with those LEGO employees located in New England and affected by the storm, but with company leadership and the lack of business continuity planning. Perhaps such planning is not a major part of doing business in Europe. Maybe this is the first time they have faced such a situation. I just don't know. I only hope that this causes them to look into doing such planning.

Thanks again to all that chimed in on this.

Stephanie

[sjhapke]

Alas, patience was NOT a virtue in this case. Very disappointed. After learning about the snow storm issue, I calmed down and changed my approach with TLG.

They are replacing two of the damaged items, but the third - and the main reason for my order to S@H - the 2011 Holiday Promotional Set 1 of 2 - is no longer available and cannot be replaced. I wasn't even offered an alternative option, it was just "sorry, we ran out of those."

I have sent a snail mail letter to Enfield, but at this point, my business with S@H is done, and I will have to re-think the amount of money I spend on LEGO. All I wanted was replacement of my item(s) - I didn't want anything free or any special treatment - I just wanted my order, undamaged.

One majorly disappointed AFOL,
Stephanie

PS: According to a forum post on Brickset, people who qualify for set 2 on Black Friday (in the UK, apparently) are being allowed to purchase set 1 for a price. Interesting.

[pumbaugh]

Shocked to hear about damaged items from S@H. Everything I get comes impeccably packed...

US and UK markets are two totally seperate business divisions for LEGO....why is the fact that a different region is being offered the set interesting? This stuff happens often in all lines of business. The promos run between the two regions are often very different. Some product comes out there months before the US and vice versa. I am a pretty hard to please customer and have never had a problem with LEGO customer service....prob the only company I can think of.

On a side note what is wrong with your Holiday set? Crushed? Water damage? I am looking for one for my son to open...and if you are totally disappointed in yours maybe we could work something out...

[Toronadian]

At least you got one. I was missing the promo set from my order.

[1brickshyofcrazy]

My 1 of 2 holiday set was slightly crushed but no big deal for me...
I've also have never had a problem (knock on wood) with LEGO CS.

Oh well you win some and loose some... Move on if you can...