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Benefits of the Exclusive Millennium Falcon VIP Card
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Comments
I seem to remember reading about lots of American customers really struggling to secure theirs months down the line.
Barely legal is still pretty shady in my book. It's been a shambles. People expected to get something meaningful and exclusive out of the promotion in exchange for buying with no promotion, and they've been seriously let down.
From a public relations point of view, surely the people you want to piss off the least are those willing to shell out that kind of money on one set and knew they'd bought it within the intended time-frame for black card eligibility.
If that's true, it's odd that LEGO have decided to apply this policy to customers who've purchased their most expensive product.... yet they seem totally happy to continue with limited editions/availability elsewhere (e.g. Exclusive T Rex, Percival Graves etc)!
In all honesty, I've been extremely disappointed by LEGO's handling of the release of the UCS Falcon; firstly in the massive pre-hyping, the decision to allow multiple purchases on the first day of release (combined with a dismal website)… and, as others have said, the mediocre benefits which we've 'enjoyed' in 2018.
I've spent a lot of money at [email protected] in the last 8-9 years, and I'm beginning to wonder why.... a couple of weeks ago I could have purchased a #75192 for £130 less than I paid, from a friendly UK company who seem to appreciate their customers.
Perhaps it's time that everyone voted with their wallets - I'm tempted.
I understand why people are miffed at LEGO as there have been better giveaways throughout the year without even needing a VIP card (60 years set, Hans Christian Andersen book build to name two).
I also don't mind admitting that I'm disappointed with the lack of promotions that having the Black card were hinted at card holders getting (I believe the words "year of Star Wars related promotions" was used at some point) and have informed Lego C.S. as such.
According to the C.S. rep, I have been one of many that has also done so.
Of course it would have been nice to get double VIP points or a good discount on the set at a later date as opposed to what has been offered for the promotions, but I made a choice at the time and there's not a whole lot I can do about it now.
Yes it turns out it was not the most cost effective way to buy this set, but do I regret it, hell no.
If it had been store exclusive for it's entire shelf life with no available discount, I would still have purchased it regardless, it's really is an amazing set and one I'm proud to own.
It's not fraud. On a base level, they did offer a few exclusive benefits - so there is no tangible cause of action. But do we all agree this promotion stinks and ought to be remedied for those that did pony up at the beginning and qualify for Black VIP status? Yes, of course they should.
Fraud, in most jurisdictions, is taking money on the basis of a misrepresentation or material omission. As I noted above, the money is being paid for the product, not the promise of potential future freebies. It'd be different if we were buying a subscription to a monthy 'freebie' and then received nothing.
- Extend the promotion and produce more exclusive products to meet demand.
- Give out the existing exclusive products to holders of black VIP cards, thereby potentially frustrating those who missed out because #75192 was unavailable.
- Lessen the benefits for holders of black VIP cards, potentially frustrating those people but minimising the irritation of those who missed out.
It seems very likely that more people tried to purchase #75192 during the promotion, but were unable to do so, than those who have black VIP cards. On that basis, I do not agree with the integrity of LEGO's actions but they do seem logical in my opinion.I was referring to the customers who wanted to purchase #75192 Millennium Falcon and acquire the black VIP card but were unable to so because it was out of stock, not general consumers who had no interest in the card.
As I understand, LEGO produced a quantity of #75192 that was expected to last until the end of 2017 but that quantity sold out within the first two days of sale. It therefore seems quite likely that the number of people who wanted to purchase the set but were unable to do so outweighs the number who succeeded.
I agree. LEGO has run successful promotions with chase minifigures that drove sales in the past, the most notable example being Mr Gold. However, the distribution of Percival Graves remains a total mystery to me. There was no marketing about one minifigure being rarer than the others so its only obvious accomplishment has been to frustrate fans.
The difference between those examples and the black VIP card is that LEGO's failure to anticipate demand is directly responsible for many people missing out on the black VIP card. Percival Graves, on the other hand, is presumably a bizarre marketing tactic that I do not fully understand rather than an unintentional error.
Once again, I am in complete agreement. There are numerous offers that LEGO could have run which might have alleviated some fans' frustration. Double or triple VIP points and further exclusive posters are perfect examples.
I am certainly not trying to excuse LEGO's actions and agree that a lot more should have been done to satisfy those with black VIP cards, myself included. However, I think we can rationalise their actions to some degree, despite not agreeing with them.
everything else seemed to be available to everyone, often regardless of whether you had a black or normal vip card.
this doesnt feel like the actions of a company doing something for fans that decided not to stick their falgship product on ebay for double the price...
That is terrible customer care imho.
I just refuse to believe if they did that and had to do promos for all those people it would have been a financial detriment to them.
I think people understand that?
It clearly isn't. They're the world's leading toy manufacturer.
I just meant even if they had to do great promos for every single person that bought a Falcon they'd be fine....I mean the barrier of entry here is a fraking $800 purchase.
We come back that day, and a different salesperson says, "We can give you $50.00 off the price."
We walked out.
Later, the first salesperson stopped by our house, apologized and then actually made it worth our while.
So - what would a reasonable person expect when spending $800.00 on a LEGO set? If a typical polybag giveaway is tied to a $75.00 purchase - that'd be approximately 11 polys. Sounds reasonable to me! And throw in a couple of 'special' drawing for things @samiam391 collects, everyone ought to be happy.
Instead... we get a half-baked smattering of promises and non-exclusive promos. (And one substantial giveaway.)
Not this..
Okay, thank you. Didnt know about that one. Now I want one. Who do I complain to that I didnt get one?! :)
Coincidentally, I felt a strong sense of deja vu when this thread started gaining traction and remembered all the people complaining of not winning a Bat-Pod even though they bought a Tumbler (or two) to qualify.
*I may have made this up.
The lack of promotions makes me regret spending the VIP points I had been saving up, but the unfortunate fact is I made that choice (and did not fully think it through based on means of purchase - but that's my screw up and no one else's).
I hadn't noticed until this week just how much I drifted away from spending directly on Lego though. I ended up purchasing the 60th Anniversary set from Bricklink instead of making a purchase. I did finally buy the Camper Van to get the Hans Christian Andersen set and bought some on sale sets for the May the 4th promotion, but outside of that I believe my only other purchase has been the seasonal Brickheadz. I do not see myself making any purchases for the upcoming Christmas promotional items either. Recently I purchased the Brick Bank from Target as opposed to Lego directly - normally a purchase I'd make direct from them.
In the past, I'd jump on a lot of promotions in a heartbeat and felt that I was valued customer to Lego. Recently, not so much. The lack of promotions for this special VIP card was part of it, but not the only thing. Back in May, the lack of double points for the UCS Y-Wing was also something I took issue with. A lack of information on how to obtain the Harry Potter Bricktober set has also been disappointing to me, although some of that blame lies on Barnes and Noble.
So in conclusion, this debacle combined with some other recent events have caused my usual favorable opinion of Lego as a company to become more neutral despite still enjoying their product.
I've already said how I feel about buying from Lego directly, but I'll be doing it even less if I can't trust promotions like this and get a far better deal (and possibly better customer service) elsewhere. It's a shame really because a lot of the people that make the business work and create the sets are great - but their marketing/pricing departments have not been getting it right so often lately. It's not putting me off Lego as a whole but it's definitely... frustrating.
For people wanting answers, I think we will reach a point near the end of this year or going into the next one where time's run out for the 'year of benefits' and TLG might be more compelled to say something, particularly after the Xmas sales period.
- Han's dice - brick built (no new parts needed)
...or if "giving away" actual real LEGO parts is a problem for some bizarre reason, I'd even be interested in the 'tat' side of things...What about the good old promotional standby of a T-shirt (ask me about my MilF, honey have you seen my 75192? What a Hunk of Junk.)?
Any of that, mixed with postcards/posters, double points on SW purchases, as previously suggested above.
For what it's worth, for the effort of emailing them, I got 200 VIP points (which I think is their standard response to valid complaints) and they also sent me a polybag and a minifigure keyring. So, nowhere close to equalling the double points or the discounts we have now seen available, but they really weren't obliged to do anything. I think I can live with that, but I'm still hoping there is at least one worthwhile promotion coming.
In the end, I made the purchase, no one made me do it, the very most I could say was that FOMO was to blame.
Ideal T-Shirt Print, Front: 'I joined the Exclusive Black VIP Card Members Club'
Back: 'And all I got was this lousy T-Shirt'
:)
my 2-cents on this topic. Just talked with CS over the phone and told me that the promotion is over and they are not gonna offer anything more. It's a shame that this promotion had potential and at the end all the offers were not enough or disappointing.
With this injustice, and the fact that they re-released the Taj Mahal brick for brick, made me re-think my direct LEGO buying, and after reading the above posts I checked my [email protected] LEGO account today, and can see I haven’t ordered anything since April.
In fact the only new LEGO sets I’ve purchased since April are the SDCC ones..