LEGO's Replacement Parts Site

caperberry

I think this is new anyway... a much needed minor improvement to TLG's Bricks & Pieces site has been implemented.

You can now enter element/design ID directly, without having to enter the set number first.

LostInTranslation

I've noticed that recently too. Good improvement.

CCC

It has been like that for a couple of days. I still haven't tested which way is better for adding more parts. If you choose parts by sets, you are limited to a certain number of sets rather than parts.

I hope they improve it by just combing with PAB. Guarantee availability of all parts sold, no removing anything because they deem it licensed although let you add it, and VIP points. That would be perfect.

TheOneVeyronian

^ I agree with you on the comment about PaB. They really need to include all parts not tied by license to their online PaB. Okay, shipping will be twice as much, but you'll get points on your purchase. And you won't have to spend time ringing up Customer Service to pay for your order (which I find annoying, not least because I submit quite long orders sometimes and I insist that the guy/gal on the other end go through all the element ID's to make sure none have been removed!)

And the license thing gets a little ridiculous, last year Lego stopped me from buying this part in trans-green because of apparent license agreement: http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=4653552
I thought that was a little ludicrous giving that there are 4 other variations (I know Brickset only shows 1 other, black) and they're all from non-licensed sets. That really is overkill imo. Is it just the fact that the part is involved in making Green Lantern's weapon?

Anyone else had problems buying this or similar parts through Bricks and Pieces you wouldn't have guessed are restricted by licence? I'd like to know :-)

Yeah, I understand with minifigs and licensed printed parts, but that? Really? I ordered Captain America's shin guards in red (only appears in that set) with no hassle!

But yeah, this searching by element ID is a great improvement, but even better, they should let you browse parts by category and colour too.

Diggydoes

TheOneVeyronian said:

And the license thing gets a little ridiculous, last year Lego stopped me from buying this part in trans-green because of apparent license agreement: http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=4653552
I thought that was a little ludicrous giving that there are 4 other variations (I know Brickset only shows 1 other, black) and they're all from non-licensed sets. That really is overkill imo. Is it just the fact that the part is involved in making Green Lantern's weapon?

Anyone else had problems buying this or similar parts through Bricks and Pieces you wouldn't have guessed are restricted by licence? I'd like to know :-)

Yeah, I understand with minifigs and licensed printed parts, but that? Really? I ordered Captain America's shin guards in red (only appears in that set) with no hassle!

I've had the same when i've tried to order the Reddish Br.Hose/Flexible from the UCS R2-D2,i've got a mail which said i can't order the piece due to licensing restrictions! Kinda dumb since it's a Hose!!!! There's nothing printed on it or some! I guess TLG tries to avoid that people buy up their stock of pieces which are exclusive in a licensed set!

caperberry

TheOneVeyronian said:

Anyone else had problems buying this or similar parts through Bricks and Pieces you wouldn't have guessed are restricted by licence? I'd like to know :-)

The answer is undoubtedly yes, yes and yes and you can search previous threads for extensive commentary on this! My impression from users' posts is that availability from the Replacement Parts system can be best described as pretty darn random. My two pence worth - I was recently refused the new Gothic arch; reason given was licensing (I guess because it was coming in 2 LotR sets) but that really made no sense as at that point, it was already available in a City set!

CCC

Yeah, I tried to get gothic arches too and failed.

TheOneVeyronian

So this is far more widespread than I thought, and most definitely not an isolated case which I thought I had.
And completely random too: this part in this colour only appears in 1 licensed set, yet they had no problem with me buying 6 of them and sending them all - FREE OF CHARGE: http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=6001100

But hey ho, if Bricks and Pieces disappoints, that's when you turn to other sites like BrickLink and Brickowl I guess. bad thing about that is when the part is rare and only found 7000 miles away from your house - then charge $7 to get it to you - OUCH, my wallet! :-)

Cheaper than collecting it in person though! :-)

But may Lego continue to operate this useful service in the years to come and hope they actually start indicating more effectively a part's availability. Don't get me started on that! :-P

CCC

I have found service is also completely inconsistent. If they refuse too many parts, I try again a day later and the order often gets through. Although I have noticed they are now very strict on getting fleshie heads.

Paperballpark

Personally I've never had a problem with parts being unavailable because they're licensed, but maybe that's because I don't tend to buy those kinds of parts?

I did a huge order from them when 'bricklinking' GG, and they emailed me to say there were 3 parts out of stock, but that's the only issue I've had.

My annoyance with it at the moment stems from the fact they don't have part number 2417 in Dark Orange, which is new in set #79006 Council of Elrond. I want lots of that colour!

TheOneVeyronian

^ Similar problem here, I want to get lots of those Dragonfly Bugs from the GS theme, but they're not available either!

rancorbait

If you ask me, a better improvement would be a wider selection of pieces and colors. A few weeks ago I requested this part in white because the clip was broken, http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=x54&colorID=1&in=A and when they responded they said they would send me a black one. :-(

CircleK

Paperballpark said:

Personally I've never had a problem with parts being unavailable because they're licensed, but maybe that's because I don't tend to buy those kinds of parts?

I did a huge order from them when 'bricklinking' GG, and they emailed me to say there were 3 parts out of stock, but that's the only issue I've had.

My annoyance with it at the moment stems from the fact they don't have part number 2417 in Dark Orange, which is new in set #79006 Council of Elrond. I want lots of that colour!

I did a huge order with them as well while sourcing the parts for GG. Difference was in my case they DIDN'T tell me they had removed three unique parts from my order and that accounted for over 100 bricks. I would have canceled the entire order if I would have known that bc it made the price per piece too expensive at that point. I could have done much better on BL.

I was pissed but didn't complain. It was the first and last time I will ever sign off on a price without a confirmation of what I'm getting though. That one mishap really screwed my GG budget up bc it lead to multiple orders on BL that I obviously hadn't planned for.

Paperballpark

^ Yeah one of the 3 items they said was discontinued was the Sand Green 'Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Groove'. From Lego they would have been about £6 in total, but as I had to BL them, they cost about £30.

It was slightly annoying that they didn't have them, but there was nothing I could do about that.

GIR3691

It's so disappointing when parts get denied. Apparently if you do your whole order over the phone, they'll sometimes let you get away with more. It just takes a long phone call listing off numbers to the rep, which is more than my socially awkward self can handle.

CCC

It seems they have now removed all prices from bricks and pieces, and they say they will let you have a price for what you order in a few days. Looks like this is going backwards.

TheOneVeyronian

^ They shouldn't do that without a good reason for doing so. That's disastrous for those of us who like to shop around to see where the bricks are cheapest in quantities you want them. Like me.

First we're denied discounts on exclusives, now we're being denied upfront prices on their Bricks and Pieces selection? What is happening to this once harmonious world? :-(

CCC

^ Yes, it was seen as such an advantage when they started pricing them, now to lose it. Maybe they are just getting too many orders this way.

I'm glad I have kept numerous prices in dummy orders I never placed.

TheOneVeyronian

^ Sounds really silly that they'd remove something that was generating them MORE business and more sales, doesn't it? I used that feature to make sure I wasn't spending too much! :-)

Well, Lego, looks like you've just lost yourself a good bricks and pieces customer! First swapping black for grey pieces without my knowledge (and a long phonecall before you accepted you were in the wrong), now we're back to the bricks and pieces stone age, where the order total is a surprise again. No thanks.

CCC

^ I imagine it is quite labour intensive - it requires checking orders for licensed parts, answering a phone call and then picking individual parts.

Not that what they are doing now is any more efficient. But it might help cut down orders.

Paperballpark

I might just have to order every single brick separately in future, then get the price for the pieces, not take up the option of purchasing each individually, and go back in and order everything I do want in one order.

What a silly policy - they'll just make more work for themselves.

fizicyst

I must have missed something, you used to be able to see the price for each piece online?! I have always had to wait for the email with the total and call to verify that they had not removed things (piece number by piece number). I am in the US if that makes a difference.

Paperballpark

In the UK you could see how much each piece cost (rounded up or down to the nearest penny). You still had to wait for the email with the total and whether they'd removed anything, but at least you had a good idea of what it would cost.

CCC

I thought I was in luck this morning, as a few of the parts I wanted came up with no price. In the past ones with no price have gone through for nothing. Then I realised none of the items had a price, and I tried a dummy order without placing it and they just say they will contact you with the price.

It is a shame, especially if they are going back to the no breakdown of the costs either, just one total.

canon03

Paperballpark said:

What a silly policy - they'll just make more work for themselves.

I agree. I'm from the US and I don't believe the prices have ever been stated. I've just submitted my order and when I receive the total amount (usually higher than I would've expected), I call up customer service and have them detail out the cost of each item. I have them remove the bricks which are priced higher than bricklink.

Surely it would cost them less to just state the price.

prof1515

Prices aren't really relevant as it's intent is as a replacement parts service regardless of how AFOLs abuse the system. Pick-A-Brick was intended as a means of purchasing parts themselves, hence why there are prices listed for those.

Paperballpark

I'd be quite happy to use PAB if the PAB prices were the same as Bricks & Pieces, or if the range were as big.

As neither is the case, I continue to use the Bricks & Pieces service.

Besides, no-where do TLG describe it as a pure 'replacement parts' service. It clearly states:

'Try Pick a Brick if you need lots of parts. It’s quick, it’s easy and often cheaper than Bricks & Pieces.
But for unusual pieces, building instructions booklets or sticker sheets, go to Bricks & Pieces.'

prof1515

Been over this before, the page was listed under replacement parts, not under sale categories like Pick-A-Brick was.

The line you quoted is newer but the service is pretty much still based on the initial design which was not intended for what most people used it for.

Paperballpark

As far as I'm concerned it doesn't say I can't order from it, so I will continue to do so until they start questioning me as to exactly which sets I'm needing 50 replacement tree limb pieces for.

Oh and the page is under Customer Service, not replacement parts. In fact, I can't find the term 'replacement parts' anywhere on the site (although I might be missing it).

CCC

It is not replacement parts, it is missing parts.

It is also available through Customer Services, where they say "But for unusual pieces, building instructions booklets or sticker sheets, go to Bricks & Pieces."

Although I have never seen instructions or stickers in B'n'P.

caperberry

It's always been a Jekyll and Hyde beast. If it were replacement parts only, why would it have drop downs offering quantities of 200?
My guess is that orders are on the increase and the staff can't cope, and they don't want to invest more in it so are trying to limit it. Or they're pissed with a handful of BL sellers abusing it and are punishing all.
@Huw or anyone: has someone been able to scrape the price list before this change? Would be great to have that data even it becomes inaccurate in future.

TheOneVeyronian

Well, here's the thing: they could always make Bricks 'n' Pieces a feature on their [email protected] online store, you can buy them without having to pay over the phone and you can collect VIP points?

Wait a minute... They do that already? :-P (I'm joking!) I'd love to see the PaB selection in the online store increased to something more like the Bricks 'n' Pieces selection, that would almost certainly alleviate pressure on Lego customer service wouldn't it? The online PaB is very popular already, I can't see why they can't expand their inventory to include many more non-minifig parts. I'd love to see something like that happen more often, as it is the selection of staple parts in colours like New Dark Red is, well, poor to say the least.

Just my 2 pence.

dougts

^ we've been having this same discussion as a tangent to the exclusive/discount threat, here:

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/6868/discounts-on-lego-exclusives/p7

starts with Pitfall's comment near the bottom, then continues on for a couple pages

Paperballpark

Ah, I mostly stopped reading that thread about 5 days ago.

I have prices for most of the plant pieces, but very little else unfortunately. Basically if you want a limb element or one of those plants with three large leaves, they're cheaper through Bricks & Pieces.

CCC

Yeah, I also have prices for the leaves! I received a nice parcel of dark red and orange ones today.

leemcg

I wonder if they are fed up with too many failed orders. I've put several "orders" through, but not yet phoned to pay and confirm the order.

The most recent example was where my son wanted a duplo leopard cub, apparently available via bricks and pieces for 1.50, but I added a lot of other pieces for myself (mostly new dark red tree limbs) so that he didn't have to pay too much postage (my son is obsessed with leopards and was using his own money). The adult leopards were flagged as not available, so I had already bought a couple of them from BrickLink (actually from @RichSelby).

However, once they emailed me back, I was told that they had everything except the Leopard. So I didn't proceed. Something like that has happened pretty much every time to me.


The other possible explanation though is that something else was going screwy with the system. I'd recently seen prices for single parts of thousands of pounds (but random numbers), so I wonder if there was a bug (or somebody not realising that prices were used for something downstream) and the quickest way to deal with it was to turn the prices off.

Paperballpark

@leemcg I don't think it's a temporary thing, it says on the bit to select a part or set that they'll send the total price once you've selected parts.

thenos

I put in a request awhile ago for new instructions for the Black Gate (mine had pages 5-12 printed twice, missing pages 13-20). Got this email yesterday:

Hello,
My name is Sophie Patrikios. I’m the Senior Director for Consumer Services, which means I am overall responsible for all the communication we have with our consumers.
Today I am writing to you because we have not yet responded to the email you sent us. I’m very sorry about this situation. It’s not at all the level of service that our fans are entitled to. I hope that we’ll be back to our normal high standards very soon.
Last Tuesday we replaced our entire phone and computer systems to a new setup. Although we anticipated some teething problems, the situation is worse than we expected. Our talented LEGO Service Advisors would normally be able to answer at least five or six emails an hour but at the moment they can only manage two. That’s why you’ve been waiting for a response for much longer than our normal 12-24 hours.
The message you sent us is in a queue and every email will be answered in the order that it arrived, oldest first. We have brought in extra staff in the US and our team in the UK are also helping us to get back to you as quickly as possible. However, it could be up to two weeks before you receive a reply because of the backlog that has now built up. Our technology team are working around the clock to make our new system faster.
In the meantime, I will ask you not to send a follow up email or to call us unless your situation is absolutely urgent, as we’re also struggling to answer all phone calls at the moment.

----


It could be prices are missing because something else got goofed up.

thenos

@leemcg said that too. I need to learn to read.

leemcg

@paperballpark Yes I can see that it's permanent, but it doesn't change the possibility that the reason was some internal mess up - maybe the prices were set internally and something changed and whoever did the change didn't realise that they were being used downstream. Maybe quicker to get rid of the prices and change the text than to fix the underlying problem. But it's just supposition.

CaptAPJT

I don't see why if parts are available through Bricks and Pieces they can't just be added to PaB. It'd be interesting to see if there are parts known only to be available through Bricks and Pieces now available on PaB.

On a funny side note I did order once through Bricks and Pieces and as I live in Austria had to go through the process in German, after taking my reference number and other details we swapped to English and it transpired we'd had a trading places scenario as she was in Slough, so about 25miles from where I'm from in the UK!

Yellowcastle

Paperballpark said:

As far as I'm concerned it doesn't say I can't order from it, so I will continue to do so until they start questioning me as to exactly which sets I'm needing 50 replacement tree limb pieces for.

Oh and the page is under Customer Service, not replacement parts. In fact, I can't find the term 'replacement parts' anywhere on the site (although I might be missing it).

Doesn't it say it in the URL?

https://service.lego.com/en-us/replacementparts#BasicInfo

Paperballpark

^ I might have missed that...

Still, the fact they don't refer to it anywhere on the website as 'replacement parts' speaks volumes.

prof1515

Paperballpark said:

^ I might have missed that...

Still, the fact they don't refer to it anywhere on the website as 'replacement parts' speaks volumes.

No, it actually doesn't. If they meant it as a sales feature, it would be listed as such like Pick-A-Brick.

Yellowcastle

^ Actually, you're wrong. In order or use this feature, you have to go through a few questions.

How old are you?

Where are you?

1)Do you want to buy a piece?
2)Was a piece missing?
3)Was a part broken in the box?
4)Did a part break during building?

1)Do you want to use PAB?
2)Do you want to use Bricks and Pieces?

It seems pretty clear to me that all are welcome to use this feature...

prof1515

And that's comparable to the process by which they normally sell their product?

Yellowcastle

I'm not in their marketing meetings, so I wouldn't want to speculate on their sales techniques. I can only go by the instructions they provide me online. And they asked me my age, location and whether or not I wanted to buy pieces or replace some. When I indicated I just wanted to buy, they said "What would you like?"

CCC

Online PAB is not comparable to how they normally sell their product. Normally they sell boxed or sealed bags of parts which make a specific model. Online PAB is completely different.

cheshirecat

whilst lego clearly dont have a problem with using bricksandpieces to just buy what you want i think we all know that it wasnt the initial purpose of the programme. They had no problem with me buying 182 tan panels with windows a few weeks ago when it clearly wasnt a replacement order (in fact they adked me what i was building) and im sure we can all list similar bulk buys weve experienced and enjoyed. At the moment lego dont xeem to have a problem with this, so nor should we. However if lego change their mind and start to impose limits we equally should not be surprised nor offended.

drdavewatford

prof1515 said:

And that's comparable to the process by which they normally sell their product?

Irrelevant. By any reasonable standard it's clear from the website (and @Yellowcastle's synopsis above) that LEGO are quite happy to provide buyers with parts via their Bricks & Pieces site. Might it not therefore be a good time to just acknowledge that and move on ?

PS. The prices are back on the site, in case anyone hadn't noticed....

Yellowcastle

Now all I need is for someone to help me identify those nice pieces not available through PAB. :o) I saw a great MOC at Brickfair with maroon and white leaves but wasn't sure if they were custom.