LEGO's Replacement Parts Site

madforLEGO

Well an update here, it took LEGO replacement parts about 4 weeks to send me an cost total email from when I placed my last order and no longer has the order number in the subject of the email anymore.
Now the subject says: "Your order from LEGO® Bricks & Pieces"
It appears the have updated their forms that are sent via email now.
So to those that are waiting be patient as it appears they are still updating systems.

CCC

Looks like lego have removed all the prices from the replacement parts service again.

madforLEGO

^--never had them for the US buyers.. so we cannot miss what was already not there :-)
In all of my orders the prices only showed as totals, and I need to break out the arithmetic to figure out price per part, unless I ask during the payment

madforLEGO

So a few updates.
LEGO is now reporting that your part orders will appear like normal orders in your list of orders placed at [email protected], so you can see it now via your account. (though I do not see it in mine)

You will get a shipping notification from LEGO once the parts are sent out. This will have at least the QTY, part number, and description, in the order summary email received.
That all being said it sounds like they are still updating their systems for replacement parts and set ordering

caperberry

Where did they say this?

madforLEGO

The rep told me (in the US) about the order being in the Order status section of [email protected], though I do not see the order in my order status on [email protected] As for the notification, I received the confirmation email reporting my order shipped with the list of parts.

CCC

I just placed a test order (in UK). They sent an email with the prices for each part. So it looks like if you want to know how each item costs then you fill in an order, get the price, then pick the parts you want and do a second order. It seems a rather silly way of doing it, making people place at least two orders only to take one of them.

jdylak

madforLEGO said:

The rep told me (in the US) about the order being in the Order status section of [email protected], though I do not see the order in my order status on [email protected] As for the notification, I received the confirmation email reporting my order shipped with the list of parts.

I was told the same thing even tho it never did show up in my order status section. My parts DID finally arrive and I received the email AFTER my pieces showed up. The email just stated my bricks order shipped. No invoive of what I ordered or how much per piece. Heck, I still don't know what each piece did cost. Luckily I will never have to use this function again. Only reason I went wit the order is the amount of pieces I needed was needed would have cost more to get them from how many different BL sellers then it did from Lego.

kor

I placed an order last night and they just emailed me this morning with the total. Last time they shipped right away so we'll see if there is any delay with this one.

madforLEGO

Well I will say that it appears they are still updating their system so expect buggy-ness.
Also, I usually only saw a parts list and price total for those parts via a paper invoice that comes with the parts, but I am in the US.
Not sure how that will change now. I would imagine it will not.

kor

madforLEGO said:

Well I will say that it appears they are still updating their system so expect buggy-ness.
Also, I usually only saw a parts list and price total for those parts via a paper invoice that comes with the parts, but I am in the US.
Not sure how that will change now. I would imagine it will not.

Here's the breakdown of prices I got from their email this morning. I'm also in the US.

CCC

That's pretty much how the UK ones looked too. Although our tax would be way higher!

madforLEGO

My email did not show costs. Again I think it is still evolving. Should be interesting to see what it looks like in 30 days from now.

scottwb2010

^ Here's hoping it returns to the format that had the price per part listed with the part.

TheOneVeyronian

Something's going on with (UK) Lego Customer Service: I've tried several times to pay for a replacement parts order this week, but I can't even get through, every single time saying they were in training!

Anyone else having any problems?

Thing is, there isn't even one message on the CS website saying the lines were closed due to training purposes - that is exceptionally poor! (and I thought you had to post that info on the CS website anyways!). I've pretty much had it with this service - no prices, no one to answer the phone when yiu were ready to pay - I'm going to Bricklink even though everything I want is twice Lego's prices over there! I don't like ordering over the phone anyways!

CCC

I wonder what they are training for. To remove licensed parts before we try to order them maybe? :-)

legomatt

To become Jedi, or they're being fitted for their mickey mouse ears...

*whispers* (i mean, that's where it's all going to end up right? Every license is gradually becoming a mouse property, and once dependence occurs, the mouse could force a takeover/threaten to pull the rug from out under).

I've said too much! They're onto me! RUN!

But that's a whole 'nuther topic and best forgotten, save we have nightmares about it. Lol

TheOneVeyronian

^^ I know, I thought they already had all their training for all their new systems (or that's what the CS homepage suggested to me anyways). Kinda caught me by surprise the first time. Mind you, there's a little widget at the side saying how busy the lines are. Ever since the systems have been updated, it's always said 'exceptionally busy' - all the time, even at night when the call centres are closed! (yes, I do hang around Lego CS at night!) Coincidence - I'm not sure ;-)

I wouldn't have cared too much, except I was trying to order a pearl gold horse saddle: 55 pence from Bricks and Pieces, but £3.50 on BL! Ouch :-( but no way I'm paying five or six times the price for a saddle :-P

*shrugs shoulders and clicks 'purchase' button on BL multiple times*

Matthew

What's going on with Bricks and Pieces at the moment? Have they reverted to not offering a purchase feature? I just visited the website for the first time in several months, filled in age and country, and was then asked to choose between missing piece, broken piece or piece broken while building, even though the sidebar says "Was there something wrong with your new set? Tell us about it and we’ll do our best to help. – Or buy a new police officer minifigure if the dog buried yours in the garden again. You may also find that really special part you need to complete your building project."

madforLEGO

I still see the buy a piece option in my browser. I am using FireFox and in the US if that matters.
The only thing I can offer is they fixed whatever was wrong at the time you checked, or there are weird issues with some people looking at the site lately, as someone could not submit a CS email the other day.

Paperballpark

The 'buy a piece' option is there for me and I'm in the UK.

Matthew

I'm in the UK using Chrome. I've also tried setting my country to the US and to Denmark, but getting the below:

Paperballpark

Odd. This is mine in Chrome (It's the same in Opera too):

CCC

Does anyone get replies when they place an order? Three weeks and counting for one of mine.

cheshirecat

^ i placed an order the other day and was surprised to get a reply within 24 hours. I haven't yet paid though - really must do that.

Matthew

...and it's working now. No idea what that was about!

madforLEGO

CCC said:

Does anyone get replies when they place an order? Three weeks and counting for one of mine.

I got a relatively fast reply when I put an order in, but that was about two weeks ago. On the site they say it will take time due to holiday demands on CS.

Matthew said:

...and it's working now. No idea what that was about!

Weird, but glad it is working for you. Again there apparently have been some weird site issues with LEGO CS site

scottwb2010

I phoned 3 times on Friday before getting through to confirm my online order and that was after hanging on for 12+ mins each time. Made another online order on Friday nigth, got the reply on Sunday morning and phoned jsut before 10am today. ot through to CS after 12 mins. I have noticed though that the side bar on the CS page constantly says calls busy and 5 - mins and recently they put up a statement saying emails could take upto 2 weeks to be answered. Maybe they have had a lot of people leaving CS and are in the process of recruiting new personnel. Just a thought.

SirBen

CCC said:

Does anyone get replies when they place an order? Three weeks and counting for one of mine.

I get email replies/quote within a few minutes. The order I placed on 11/14 is being reported with an estimated shipping date of today, 12/9.

jasor

scottwb2010 said:

I phoned 3 times on Friday before getting through to confirm my online order and that was after hanging on for 12+ mins each time. Made another online order on Friday nigth, got the reply on Sunday morning and phoned jsut before 10am today. ot through to CS after 12 mins. I have noticed though that the side bar on the CS page constantly says calls busy and 5 - mins and recently they put up a statement saying emails could take upto 2 weeks to be answered. Maybe they have had a lot of people leaving CS and are in the process of recruiting new personnel. Just a thought.

They are busy from all the loads on Hold/Processing over the Brick Friday, trying to find people that abused their promotions/protect consumers. I talked to CS just yesterday, and they said the amount of "Hold" orders was way way more than previous years.

CCC

SirBen said:

CCC said:

Does anyone get replies when they place an order? Three weeks and counting for one of mine.

I get email replies/quote within a few minutes. The order I placed on 11/14 is being reported with an estimated shipping date of today, 12/9.

Yes, mine are now coming through in minutes. They are obviously not checked by a human.

I must have previously just caught them at a time they were switching over.

scottwb2010

They are busy from all the loads on Hold/Processing over the Brick Friday, trying to find people that abused their promotions/protect consumers. I talked to CS just yesterday, and they said the amount of "Hold" orders was way way more than previous years.

It is good in one respect that the Customer service as so busy due to so much sales.

jasor

^That's one way to look at it. Another is the CS Policing their online promo deals more than they have in the past. I dont care either way, as long as my package gets to me on time

BTHodgeman

^ Correct. They need to invest in their systems. Amazon.com and the like have computer systems that automatically do this policing...

Brent

CCC

They need to fix the ordering system first. Most retailers can limit promos to one per account (if that is what they want to police) so why can't Lego?

BTHodgeman

@CCC - I suspect it's because they don't necessarily want to prevent "abuse" consistently. They probably want to be subjective, and base it on how well the promo went overall, how well a specific set sold, etc.

That does obviously make it a bit trickier to police, but ultimately they want to avoid a situation where "regular customers" can't get the item they want because a reseller bought 5,000 sets. If it's a set that no one wants, they don't care if the reseller buys it... a sale is a sale.

Brent

scottwb2010

^^^^ like you I hope my package from Bricks and pieces comes soon too.

CCC

BTHodgeman said:

@CCC - I suspect it's because they don't necessarily want to prevent "abuse" consistently. They probably want to be subjective, and base it on how well the promo went overall, how well a specific set sold, etc.

Yes, in other words they do not know what they want until how they see people take to their offers.

They need to make a policy and stick to it.

Matthew

There's no end to the problems with this new computer system... They're now unable to accept emails until Christmas eve, and (presumably a related issue) the link to buy pieces (which I only just got to work!) has now been replaced with a link to PAB, though they are still taking requests for lost/damaged pieces. Surely the customer should never have to know they they are transitioning to a new system, we've been being asked to bear with them for months now...

madforLEGO

I think the problem is they use the same CS for the replacement parts emails, and LEGO apparently is not hurting for holiday sales.

Matthew

But honestly, unable to accept emails to CS on the 17th December, for a toy company!

madforLEGO

Matthew said:

But honestly, unable to accept emails to CS on the 17th December, for a toy company!

Hey, I did not say it was the brightest thing in the world to do, just offering a possible explanation. :-)

BTHodgeman

It's probably linked to their ability to reply before Christmas, which many people contacting them this time of year would expect.

They certainly could explain that, though...!

ninjagolightly

I didn't see this officially posted, but B&P has this disclaimer up in the US:
" Our extended Bricks & Pieces parts catalog will be back on December 24th."
Good news is, sounds as if it will definitely be coming back, seems like they don't intend to get rid of it completely, just want to avoid that extra hassle when their whole CS operation is basically broken during Christmas.

CCC

So much for good customer service. A large company with online presence that closes it's customer service email down for a few weeks at the busiest time of the year needs to employ more staff.

There is an easy way around it if the extra problems are caused by bricks n pieces. Display prices. That way a customer does not need to place five orders to work out prices before placing one order. Although that seems to be automated now, as replies come back quickly. So I doubt bricks n pieces is the problem. I reckon they are just short staffed and refuse to take on enough staff to cover customer queries. So much for good customer service.

ninjagolightly

I think I read somewhere it was a busted (and obviously ill-timed) system upgrade that caused the problem, not staffing.

Matthew

^ That's what their website has been saying for a while, and while it may play a part, the system won't magically fix itself after the 24th, this is related to Christmas. Maybe they're short staffed, maybe it's taking existing staff longer to answer emails due to the system upgrade, but staff are the issue here. It isn't a new concept that they will be busy in December! The system upgrade isn't a new issue either, the message asking us to bear with them has been on the site for ages.

CCC

As it will be fixed after the 24th, all I can propose is that Santa works at Lego CS. Once he finishes his main job for the year, he'll be back at Lego CS. And he is obviously a more efficient worker than his Lego CS colleagues. It must be all the experience he has had delivering presents.

legomason

So now that it's the 24th, I checked the site and now it says:

Our extended Bricks & Pieces parts catalog will be back on January 15th.

ninjagolightly

Ugh. I hope this is not a death of small cuts in progress. Who's running the show at TLG's web operation these days, BrickLink? Get it together, people!