Subject:
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Re: Small Shop Horror Story (Trying to post to correct newsgroup)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Sun, 9 Jun 2002 19:36:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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2059 times
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In lugnet.dear-lego, Laura Gjovaag writes:
> Hi all.
>
> As some of you know, I recently went to work for a small educational toy shop
> in North Seattle. I actually found the job thanks to LEGO! The owner was
> considering starting to carry LEGO, and was at a SeaLUG meeting.
>
> Well, it took quite some time, but we eventually got our order in. Ordering
> was, in itself, a fairly painless process. Mostly because the owner wanted to
> start out with a bang, so we ordered A LOT (for a small store).
>
> The order arrived... mostly complete. However, there was one box that was
> labelled 4702 but inside were 4792. We didn't order any Alpha Team, nor do we
> believe it will sell well in our shop.
>
> The receiving clerk called LEGO. The normal process when a company sends you
> the wrong thing is that they send you the correct item and you either send them
> the mistake back (if you can't sell it/don't want it) or they add the cost of
> the new item to your invoice and you keep it while also getting the correct
> item.
>
> We deal with literally hundreds of vendors. They ALL have this as a policy.
>
> But not LEGO. No, apparently it's OUR fault for receiving the wrong items in a
> mismarked box. So if we want the correct item we will have to reorder it and
> pay for the shipping ourselves. As for the unwanted item, well, they will
> credit us for the difference in price - but WE have to write them a LETTER to
> explain the problem and why we deserve credit. They refused to even discuss us
> returning it.
>
> Not so oddly enough, the owner of the shop is royally peeved at LEGO. The
> shipping clerk, who used to like LEGO, has sworn she will never buy or even
> touch another piece of LEGO. Chances are very good we will never order from
> them again.
>
> So now I'm in a bit of a quandry. I want the shop to carry LEGO. But if they
> aren't even going to do the absolute basics for a vendor, there is no way it'll
> happen.
>
> Any ideas, folks? Anyone know who I should call to discuss this? This mistake
> MUST be fixed. I want to know who to talk to in order to get it fixed. If I
> have to talk with the president of LEGO USA I will. It may be a small mistake,
> but it's evidence of extremely irresponsible and, frankly, stupid business
> practices.
>
> Any business that refuses to fix its own mistakes is not a business worth
> dealing with. I'd hate to stop buying LEGO new, but if this is how they treat
> small shops, perhaps I'll find another hobby to spend my money on.
>
> -Laura Gjovaag
> tegan@eskimo.com
Sounds like the other situations regarding small shops. The real problem
now adays, if I read correctly is BIG places like Toys R US and Walmart have
special status with Lego. They get breaks, and LEGO caters to them (they
even redid their fulfillment centers to help them out).
The smaller shops get the royal screw from LEGO. Its not enough that you have
to buy a certain amount of LEGO when you are first starting out as their
official reseller, but they also send you items from all their current lines.
So, as a matter of policy, whether or not you ordered Alpha Team, you'll
probably get it anyways, because its part of their "retail kit".
What really shocks me about the story, is that Lego expects smaller shops
to "eat" the cost of having obsolete inventory, like "Alpha Team" in your
case.
Personally, I would never want to be an "official reseller" because of the
many problems and really aweful policies LEGO has.
Case in point: Those aweful Jack Stone and Creator sets. They discontinued
fan-favorites like LEGO Basic, etc and decided to go with these. The
prices are outrageous, the sets look terrible, and they end up sitting on the
shelves (or in the warehouses)....
definitely not LEGO's finest moments....and people expect us AFOL's not to
be too critical of LEGO or wonder why LEGO has had bad years. If Lego had a
good year thanks to Bionicle (and Harry Potter), just think how good they
could have had it if the Star Wars sets were as good as they came out, and
LEGO decided not to come out with Jack Stone....
hmmmm.... points to ponder
Benjamin Medinets,
who is apologizing that this reply is turning into a hateful-sounding
rant.
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