Subject:
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Re: Formal Letter to TLC?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Sun, 20 Aug 2000 01:16:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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1416 times
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In lugnet.general, Tim Courtney writes:
> Hey everybody...
[Warning! Long message!]
G'day Tim and other folks,
I stumbled upon your post because it appeared on the new-style
LUGNET homepage. After reading it, I did a scan of recent
postings to this group, and dug up those made by Brad Justus
of TLC. I did this to try to understand what all the ruckus
was about. I knew this group existed, and when I first
became aware of it and Mr. Justus' involvement, I was very
pleased that there seemed to be a forum for communication
between consumers and TLC. I had meant to follow the group
regularly, but that never happened. I always wind up in the
marketplace groups for some reason... :]
Anyhow, from your post and others', I can definitely see that
a number of people are displeased with some things, and are
being very vocal about it. However, I do not know anything
of the things being referenced here:
> I've noticed a lot of frustration recently by Lugnuts about TLC's lack of an
> explanation for 2001 set actions, neglect to do anything about copyrighted
> stolen images, and lack of communication in general to the community. From
> the outlook, it doesn't appear to me that progress will happen any time
> soon, and its disappointing.
Could someone post a summary of what these issues are about?
It might be handy to help put everyone on the same page before
trying to get them all to sign on to a public letter to TLC.
For myself, with what I've read, I'm very much sitting on the
fence. As much as I like LEGO products (or at least the concept),
I regard TLC just as any other company. They're out to succeed
in making a profit, high ideals or not. If you don't make a
profit, you go out of business, it's that simple. Occasionally
you have to "sell out" your ideals just to make ends meet.
That's business.
Having said that, what I think when I read the posts here, is
that a lot of people are complaining because some company
somewhere is doing things they disagree with. They want the
company to listen to them and do what they want. Again, I'm
somewhat of an outsider as I don't know anything about the
issues being mentioned, but I think that in itself is very
important: as I have no knowledge of where you're coming
from, I'm pretty neutral at the moment..., much as someone
at TLC may be. But after reading the post(s), all I can
think is man, here's a bunch of fanatic collectors who don't
like how we're running our company and think they know better
than we do where we should be heading.
See the problem here? As a new witness to the discussions,
my opinion is already leaning "in favour" (as if there's
"sides") of TLC. They have a company to keep afloat, and
a great number of people to keep employed. Us? We just have
a hobby. Our general day-to-day grumblings about this and
that should not have to go across the desks of the people
at the helm of TLC. Do you realize how much mail someone
in that position receives? And then how much of it simply
gets pre-sorted by assistants and directed elsewhere, often
to the trash.
Personally, I am very interested in hearing about the things
that you reference have been "done wrong" recently. Maybe
there are one or two very specific items there that should
be brought to TLC's attention, particularly if there are
legal ramifications (which I gather there may be). But they
should be brought pointedly to the attention of those at
TLC tasked with the responsibility of addressing them. They
should not all be pasted together into a massive letter,
combined with general rants of "we don't think you're listening
to us", and then sent to TLC executives. That will accomplish
nothing but aggravate those who have to focus objectively
on the company's bottom line.
My suggestion: if there is a specific legal concern regarding
an incident, then contact the appropriate TLC representative
to present the issue. If there is a concern over theming,
set skill levels, etc., then contact the appropriate people in
the product marketing area to let them know your thoughts and
suggestions. Or if there are things you think could be
improved in a TLC venture, such as LEGO Direct, then contact that
entity.
I've read in posts that "TLC is not listening to us!". Well,
that's probably true. A bunch of posts on the internet with
people griping out loud probably hasn't gotten their attention.
Heck, I'm *on* LUGNET, only a "few pages over", and I didn't
even hear all the ranting going on..., how are the appropriate
people at TLC supposed to have heard anything? If consumers
are griping about my product, but not to the right people in
my company, then we don't hear anything about it. That means
we think we must be doing a good job, and so keep doing the same
things. Marketing researchers can only do so much.
I'm just getting into a general ramble here now I guess, so I'll
wrap things up:
1) Could someone please highlight the specific items of concern
in one post? Call it an issues list if you wish, but at least
it's something we can all look at.
2) I agree contacting TLC about some issues is a good idea,
or at the very least it doesn't hurt to try. However, please
do it with singular purposes (one per letter), and to the
appropriate people. And if nothing happens (unless there's
a legal issue), then don't badger it. Just let it go..., it's
their company.
Guess that's all I have to say until I can better understand
where everyone is coming from.
On an amusing note, if I think about the letters that TLC
must usually receive, I bet most are along the lines of, "Dear
LEGO, your toys are great! Please make a minifig in kid size,
with brown hair. I can pretend it's me!". This is a letter I
would have written over 20 years ago. Now, in the past months
that I've been participating on LUGNET, I've seen fights over
auction anouncement posts, smoky LEGO, international swipes,
and posts about TLC doing it all wrong.
What I wouldn't give to go back to that simpler time I knew
as a kid. Of those two very different worlds, who's input
would you prefer were influencing the company?
KDJ
________________________________________________________
Kyle D. Jackson, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, LUGNETer #203
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Formal Letter to TLC?
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| "Kyle D. Jackson" <flightdeck@sympatic...mblock.ca> wrote in message news:FzKGvp.5qA@lugnet.com... (...) That's *not* what is happening right now, and its *not* just gripes on our part about how their company is run. Brad Justus came to us last (...) (24 years ago, 20-Aug-00, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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