New VIP system

[merman]

This system is a mess. Safari on my iPhone doesn’t keep me logged on for the VIP program so I have to keep on signing up. If I do so I keep on getting back to the signing up page. Only managed to see my points once and it still doesn’t see me as logged in for the program. 

 

Also: having to buy 3 €5 vouchers with 3 codes for a €15 discount is so much hassle. 

[merman]

Just called them. Harley is available around 10am CET. Have them a polite piece of my mind regarding the new VIP program. 

 

They wanted to make things fairer by giving pounds the same value as euros in VIP points. Yet they still think it is fair sets in Germany are cheaper than in other countries, like Holland.

Edited July 17, 2019 by merman

[BrickG]

14 minutes ago, merman said:

Just called them. Harley is available around 10am CET. Have them a polite piece of my mind regarding the new VIP program. 

 

They wanted to make things fairer by giving pounds the same value as euros in VIP points. Yet they still think it is fair sets in Germany are cheaper than in other countries, like Holland.

I'm a small business owner and let me tell you, making things the same price across regions is basically impossible for multiple economic reasons almost always due to the local laws of a said country. I bet they're in a position where they cannot reasonably make the prices the same without taking a big hit due to shipping/taxes/market size/whatever. So you can't really fault them there IMO. There are very real and self-imposed (by the countries, not by LEGO) reasons the prices vary wildly and that extends to VIP rewards which could be subject to the same laws.

[MAB]

13 hours ago, The_Chosen_1 said:

So, just to clarify, the money off redemptions can be stacked…there’s just no easy way anymore to redeem for the entire purchase price of an item?

Example: If someone has $100 worth of VIP points and wants to purchase an $80 set using only VIP points, they would have to redeem for a combination of $50, $20, or $5 off, where before they could simply apply $80 worth of points.

Do you have $80.00 sets or $79.99 sets? As this might be important as they say you cannot use more vouchers than the cost price. So if you buy a $79.99 set, then you would only be able to use $75 of vouchers. Of course the way around it online is to buy a 5c pick-a-brick piece to send the order over the $80 threshold for the vouchers. In store it is not so easy to find something as cheap, but you could add a CMF or a key-chain.

I believe this is the same as the old scheme, although I never tried it as I tend to use my vouchers as I get them rather than build them up.

[legoSDR]

Lots of messages to read so sorry if this has been answered already, but does anyone have any idea what the situation with Wishlists is? Mine is very very empty and I never got a response from LEGO themselves

[The Island Chronicles]

1 minute ago, legoSDR said:

Lots of messages to read so sorry if this has been answered already, but does anyone have any idea what the situation with Wishlists is? Mine is very very empty and I never got a response from LEGO themselves

What theme are you making wishlist for? 

[legoSDR]

Just now, pooda said:

What theme are you making wishlist for? 

Sorry I should have clarified, I used to have a very full Wishlist, but since the launch of the new and improved VIP system it has become empty

[ShaydDeGrai]

I am sooooo glad I spent down my points and picked up Hogwarts Castle and the Bugatti Chiron before I left for vacation.  If I'd gone into this conversion with $800+ dollars in rewards sitting on the table I'd be so stressed right now.  My wish list is still missing (~100 items) but the few thousand points I had left over after "buying" the big ticket items seem to have finally converted over.

I can understand localizing conversion rates between points and local currencies, and the _concept_ of redeeming points for VIP-only rewards has potential (though the offerings to date do not inspire confidence), but the whole voucher system just sounds like a disaster in progress.  The old scheme was simpler, cleaner, scaleable and just plain worked.

Would it kill them to just have a line pop up at check-out (on-line and in person) to that says "You have $XXX in VIP rewards! Would you like to apply some/all of of them to today's purchase?" and take it from there.  Program the system to do what's it good at and stop wasting our time making us jump through hoops to claim rewards we've already earned.

 

[Vindicare]

2 hours ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

I am sooooo glad I spent down my points and picked up Hogwarts Castle and the Bugatti Chiron before I left for vacation.  If I'd gone into this conversion with $800+ dollars in rewards sitting on the table I'd be so stressed right now.  My wish list is still missing (~100 items) but the few thousand points I had left over after "buying" the big ticket items seem to have finally converted over.

I can understand localizing conversion rates between points and local currencies, and the _concept_ of redeeming points for VIP-only rewards has potential (though the offerings to date do not inspire confidence), but the whole voucher system just sounds like a disaster in progress.  The old scheme was simpler, cleaner, scaleable and just plain worked.

Would it kill them to just have a line pop up at check-out (on-line and in person) to that says "You have $XXX in VIP rewards! Would you like to apply some/all of of them to today's purchase?" and take it from there.  Program the system to do what's it good at and stop wasting our time making us jump through hoops to claim rewards we've already earned.

 

Overall, this new system seems pretty good. I never did get that VIP “card” & store promo that is(or was a few days ago) up on the rewards page, so I’m tempted there.

 But I will never like this voucher idea. Now, I haven’t personally used it yet, but I can already tell it’s going to be a headache. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, as I’ve said this already, as of right now, I need four vouchers just to redeem the dollar amount that I currently have. What a hassle when all I had to do was answer “yes” to the cashier asking if I’d like to use my points. 

Edited July 17, 2019 by Vindicare

[BenderBrau]

On 7/14/2019 at 12:49 PM, BenderBrau said:

The points are there, but not all of them - if my math is correct, I haven't earned any points from a purchase I made during 2X points last week. I already sent an email to the customer service, hope it'll be sorted out soon.

It took three days, but the missing points have been added. Good to know they haven't been lost Doesn't change the fact I'm still afraid to use them with all of the trouble everyone's having I don't want any issues when I'll visit the store next month.

[LAKAbricks]

Well... It did not take long from I explored the new system until I wrote an email to customer service uttering my dissatisfaction regarding the new coupon system, as well as the new geographical limitation on buying bricks from Bricks & Pieces where only residents of four (4) countries can buy there now.

I think it is great that points can be spend on other things now (not that I plan to do that), but this whole coupon system seems very annoying and certainly not very clear.

[MAB]

9 hours ago, LAKAbricks said:

 as well as the new geographical limitation on buying bricks from Bricks & Pieces where only residents of four (4) countries can buy there now.
 

If this is a long term plan to keep it as it is then it does seem strange that, out of all the people in the world, the people of Denmark are excluded.

[Shiva]

USA, Switzerland, Great Britain and Germany.

What the .....

If this stands permanent, I might have to forget a build I was going to do. For that I would need Bricks & Pieces.

[MAB]

2 hours ago, Shiva said:

USA, Switzerland, Great Britain and Germany.

 

It is actually the whole United Kingdom. They are still allowing people from Northern Ireland to buy as well.

 

[Shiva]

MAB, ahh, cheers. On the swedish page it said Storbritannien, so I mixed it up with Great Britain, the island. Instead of Storbritannien = United Kingdom

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storbritannien_(ö) vs https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storbritannien.

Would suck if Sweden and other countries will not be able to order pieces anymore.

 

Is

too old to post on?

Edited July 18, 2019 by Shiva
added Bricks & Pieces forum post link.

[MAB]

There is a much more active thread located in licensed about Bricks and Pieces, that discusses both licensed and non-licensed parts.

10 hours ago, Shiva said:

MAB, ahh, cheers. On the swedish page it said Storbritannien, so I mixed it up with Great Britain, the island. Instead of Storbritannien = United Kingdom

Would suck if Sweden and other countries will not be able to order pieces anymore.

Yeah, the Northern Irish are often left out. At least you didn't translate it as England!

I believe the shut-down is temporary, but time will tell.

[LegoFjotten]

Since they write to check back in a few days there is no reason to believe it is anything but temporary.

The LEGO Iconic VIP Set they have now for 500 points is very nice, it is a pretty substantial promo even if it comes in a (large!) polybag. Right now (at least in Norway) the Space ride promo is also back for a limited time (regular GWP).

I made the mistake of redeeming points for 3 of the VIP Sets before they added the only one physical promo per order text to the redeem page, 2 down 1 to go... 

[Vindicare]

It’s been kicking me back to the “sign in to the rewards center” page again the last few days. 

[LegoFjotten]

5 hours ago, Vindicare said:

It’s been kicking me back to the “sign in to the rewards center” page again the last few days. 

Try another browser or use the incognito/private mode, worked for me.

[jus1973]

13 hours ago, Vindicare said:

It’s been kicking me back to the “sign in to the rewards center” page again the last few days. 

Me too, and it makes no difference how I get there, and on what browser.  Such an absolute pain as I was about to spend my vip points.  Doh!

[Accio Lego]

Does anyone know how redeem points for in store credit works now? The description on the rewards site says you still present your card in store. So do you redeem points and then they show up when they scan your card at the register? Or do you get coupon codes like with the online credit? Anyone tried using their points this way yet?

[AFOLguy1970]

I had the misfortune of having my sons with me on vacation when the switchover happened.  My son had a spending budget of $20 when we found a Lego Store on our roadtrip.  He had $15 in rewards before the switchover and silly me told him he effectively now had $35 to spend if he wanted to use the rewards.  Of course he did and we brought $35 worth of stuff to the register.  That is when we got the "surprise".  First of all, their system was down, and they could not access any rewards balance.  Then, I found out about the whole voucher thing, and I think my jaw hit the floor.  We could not get Wifi in the mall, so I had to call my wife to create the $15 worth of vouchers and text them to me so they could scan the barcode.  The fact that we cannot redeem points in the store without the added hassle is mind boggling to me.  Almost in a New Coke or International House of Burgers kind of way.  

[Sinthoras]

On 7/20/2019 at 7:09 PM, jus1973 said:

Me too, and it makes no difference how I get there, and on what browser.

Same thing happened to me. I had to manually log out and log in again. I think the problem is if you stay logged in longer than an hour your VIP account and your LEGO ID get separated and can't reconnect by themselves.

[jus1973]

33 minutes ago, Sinthoras said:

Same thing happened to me. I had to manually log out and log in again. I think the problem is if you stay logged in longer than an hour your VIP account and your LEGO ID get separated and can't reconnect by themselves.

Yeah, perhaps true, but now they don’t look like being reconnected at all.  Mine seem completely unaware of each other, so I can’t get my hands on the treehouse......ggggrrrrrrrr.

[Jack the Nipper]

^Same here - what a load of poop!

Edited July 24, 2019 by Jack the Nipper
Clarification