Contents of Lego boxed swapped out - from Lego!?

SparkyHam

I opened up the Avengers Tower exclusive that was a freebie with a recent online order, and discovered that the contents have been swapped out! Inside was a zip-lock bag full of old Lego pieces and two brochures for a German hotel and a tourist map. I've sent an email to Lego and was wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

SumoLego

So... whatcha gonna do with those pieces and brochure?

(That is very, very odd!)

SparkyHam

SumoLego said:

So... whatcha gonna do with those pieces and brochure?
(That is very, very odd!)

I've put them all back into the box and will wait to hear back from Lego. Could be worse though. My wife reminded me that whoever did the swap could have put something much worse in!

Problem is, I now feel the need to open up all the unopened sets that I've ordered from Lego over the years. I'm a sucker for all the IDEAS sets and have not opened a single one since the BTTF Delorian. A bit saddened by this, 'cus there are some sets I've been saving to open with my son when he's old enough to appreciate 80's movies like BTTF, Ghostbusters, Tron, etc.

SumoLego

I prefer not to think about that possibility.

Baby_Yoda

If it's direct from Lego, then I'm sure they will apologise profusely. Look forward to $10,000 in store credit.
Seriously though, they'll probably send a replacement. This is a one-in-a-million stuff-up.

Charmiefcb

Some of those wheels look pretty old. How do old Lego pieces and German travel brochures end up on an assembly line? That's what I want to know.

klinton

Charmiefcb said:

Some of those wheels look pretty old. How do old Lego pieces and German travel brochures end up on an assembly line? That's what I want to know.

Someone at the plant or warehouse wanted the set for themselves, obviously. These are clearly parts culled from thier own random Lego collection at home, and swapped out for the set's bricks and instructions. I've heard of this happening before at the store level (on a much larger scale, to the tune of several thousand dollars worth of new sets at a single store), but this is the first I've heard of it coming from S@H. 

SparkyHam said:

Problem is, I now feel the need to open up all the unopened sets that I've ordered from Lego over the years. I'm a sucker for all the IDEAS sets and have not opened a single one since the BTTF Delorian. A bit saddened by this, 'cus there are some sets I've been saving to open with my son when he's old enough to appreciate 80's movies like BTTF, Ghostbusters, Tron, etc.

Yet another (albeit highly unlikely) point on the side of my "only buy it when you intend to build it" mantra, hahaha. This is absolutely not a concern for me, as I always set to building them within a day or two of purchase. Not that I think this is really anything to sweat about. The likelihood of this occurring is so miniscule in comparison to the sheer volume of sets that ship out.  ;)

Brainslugged

Can you tell if the original seals were intact when you opened it? I guess there's a small chance someone received it, carefully cut the seals, then taped them back over and returned to Lego. This seems very unlikely and risky, but equally, I just can't see this happening at a Lego factory or warehouse.

SparkyHam

Brainslugged said:

Can you tell if the original seals were intact when you opened it? I guess there's a small chance someone received it, carefully cut the seals, then taped them back over and returned to Lego. This seems very unlikely and risky, but equally, I just can't see this happening at a Lego factory or warehouse.

On closer inspection two of the seals have corners that are slightly 'whitened' and turned up. They don't stick to the box completely anymore, but it's only slight.

Charmiefcb

I don't know why Lego continue to persist with the tape seals. They are easy to open and re-seal which has led to minifigures and bags being stolen or in this case the contents taken out and replaced which has happened before. Just an old Youtube video I saw saying they bought new sets from a store and found the contents replaced.

The perforations in the box where you open it with your thumb seem much better security. That way you know if a set has been tampered with.

ersi

I have alot of unopened brickheadz not directly from lego, now I want to check them too because it is easy to open box without damaging them. 

ryjay

Charmiefcb said:

I don't know why Lego continue to persist with the tape seals. They are easy to open and re-seal which has led to minifigures and bags being stolen or in this case the contents taken out and replaced which has happened before. Just an old Youtube video I saw saying they bought new sets from a store and found the contents replaced.

The perforations in the box where you open it with your thumb seem much better security. That way you know if a set has been tampered with.

....or they could easily use pilfer proof tapes, too

ReesesPieces

Charmiefcb said:

The perforations in the box where you open it with your thumb seem much better security. That way you know if a set has been tampered with.

With these boxes, I believe they can open it where the box is glued together and just be reglued.  

LuLego

I didn’t realise LEGO would recirculate returned items. Although come to think of it, I never really considered where all of their returned sets (whether sold by Amazon or other retailers) go. 

I once bought a red sticker reduced to clear set in Asda but got home to find a similar scene - random bits thrown in a box to make up weight. I presumed this was a returned set as it was in the reduced section.

Do most retailers just stick it back on the shelf?

SumoLego

LuLego said:

Do most retailers just stick it back on the shelf?

Yes.  Unless it looks like an elephant sat on it.  Then they mark it 5% off and put it back on the shelf.

(Most retailers have their own discretionary policies for returned items.)

SparkyHam

Thanks for all the feedback. Here's a quick update:

Lego CS have sent me an email, apologising for what has happened and arranged for a replacement to be sent to my home, for which I am grateful.

They've asked for the photos, which I've sent, and they will be included in a report to their Quality Team, which is reassuring.

The person writing the email said she has never heard of a story like this one before, so I have sent her the link to this thread. Hopefully LEGO will see that there ARE individuals out there who, sadly, steal the contents of sets and return boxes as if unopened.

When the replacement set arrive, I will definitely be videoing myself opening up the package from DHL/Courier incase it happens again!!

daewoo

ReesesPieces said:

Charmiefcb said:

The perforations in the box where you open it with your thumb seem much better security. That way you know if a set has been tampered with.

With these boxes, I believe they can open it where the box is glued together and just be reglued.  

That's harder to do in a store.  With the tape, careful peeling will yield up the contents easily.  A scam that I've seen is taking a more expensive set and switching the contents with a less expensive set.  Fortunately when I picked up the more expensive set, it felt too light, so I took it to the Customer Service desk and they opened it to find the less expensive set inside.  Whoever did the switch was a master at peeling the tape because you could not tell it had been altered at all.

ersi

I have checked all of my sealed brickheadz with scale, all of them had the same weight(+-1gram) as on bricklink but darth vader has 4 grams more :D Do you think it is good way to check it like this or ?

CCC

The best way to check is to open them. If you want to keep them sealed, open with a knife, check, then reglue them - just like the thieves do it!

Aleydita

Some adhesive tapes can be removed easily with heat. A hairdryer works well, as do those reusable handwarmer gel packs. And no, I don't steal Lego :)

ersi

I will check it with hairdryer, hope there wont be any swapped legos.

Astrobricks

Brainslugged said:

Can you tell if the original seals were intact when you opened it? I guess there's a small chance someone received it, carefully cut the seals, then taped them back over and returned to Lego. This seems very unlikely and risky, but equally, I just can't see this happening at a Lego factory or warehouse.

This theory doesn’t really hold up for a GWP set. There is no return value since it wasn’t purchased. It was free to begin with.

ReesesPieces

Aleydita said:

Some adhesive tapes can be removed easily with heat. A hairdryer works well, as do those reusable handwarmer gel packs. And no, I don't steal Lego :)

Remind me not to purchase anything from @Aleydita on the marketplace forums. :)

CCC

Astrobricks said:

Brainslugged said:

Can you tell if the original seals were intact when you opened it? I guess there's a small chance someone received it, carefully cut the seals, then taped them back over and returned to Lego. This seems very unlikely and risky, but equally, I just can't see this happening at a Lego factory or warehouse.

This theory doesn’t really hold up for a GWP set. There is no return value since it wasn’t purchased. It was free to begin with.

It depends. If you return a set you bought to get the freebie, then they can insist you return the freebie too or charge you for it. They don't always, but sometimes they do.

pharmjod

ersi said:

I will check it with hairdryer, hope there wont be any swapped legos.

I wouldn't. The likelihood if there being s problem with brickheadz is close to zero. The likelihood of you jacking up your boxes is much higher.

CCC

Funnily enough the only time I have had parts swapped out was in a BH. My Boba Fett one had just standard bricks, 2x2s, 2x4s in. I found it weird that they replaced them with genuine LEGO that looked new. If I was going to do that, I'd put clone / MB / beaten up junk inside.

Pitfall69

daewoo said:

ReesesPieces said:

Charmiefcb said:

The perforations in the box where you open it with your thumb seem much better security. That way you know if a set has been tampered with.

With these boxes, I believe they can open it where the box is glued together and just be reglued.  

That's harder to do in a store.  With the tape, careful peeling will yield up the contents easily.  A scam that I've seen is taking a more expensive set and switching the contents with a less expensive set.  Fortunately when I picked up the more expensive set, it felt too light, so I took it to the Customer Service desk and they opened it to find the less expensive set inside.  Whoever did the switch was a master at peeling the tape because you could not tell it had been altered at all.

I know that most of the Walmart stores I've been to have the Lego asile specifically monitored to prevent anything like this from happening. 

The "bait and switch" is a time honored tradition for thieves. My mother used to be an assistant manager at a Walmart and they caught so many people doing so many different scams; some complex and some stupid. The one she remembers is a woman bought several iPads, went out to her car, switched the iPads with then books that weighed relatively to the same and walked right back in to return them. I don't think she expected them.to be opened right in from of her as they were processing the return. 

Tozis

Did you buy this set from Official LEGO site?

SparkyHam

Tozis said:

Did you buy this set from Official LEGO site?

Yep, but the set is an exclusive free-gift which was added to my order.

Tkatt

It depends. If you return a set you bought to get the freebie, then they can insist you return the freebie too or charge you for it. They don't always, but sometimes they do.

I'm guessing this is likely what happened. Someone bought a set just to get the Tower, all the while planning to return the purchase and keep the freebie. When they discovered the Tower would have to be returned too, they made the switch.

MugenPower

How long was that promo around for?  That must've been some really quick turnaround, if it was indeed return fraud and not assembly line fraud.

If the original "owner" placed the order the moment the promo was available, they'd have to wait for the order to ship and arrive at his address.  If he immediately shipped it back out to Lego, there's still another bit of time for it to arrive at the warehouse.  Then, Lego would have to process the return and presumably put it back into stock before it's available to fulfill another order.  So let's say that turnaround was about 2 weeks based on shipping times at the very least, the OP would've had to place the order 2 weeks into the promo before that particular set would be available to be pulled from the shelf and shipped to him.

SparkyHam

For those who may be interested, the replacement set arrived today and I'm pleased to report that everything is as it should be. The set was a lot lighter than the tampered one I originally received, so whoever did it didn't try to approximate the weight.