Subject:
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Thanks
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Feb 2001 01:32:13 GMT
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Viewed:
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1388 times
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Thanks for the post, Jake.
It's good to have a status report!
:^)
~Mark "Muffin Head" Sandlin
--
Mark's Lego Creations
http://www.nwlink.com/~sandlin/lego
Jake McKee at jacob.mckee@america.lego.com wrote:
> Greetings All!
>
> This is your friendly neighboorhood LEGO producer/AFOL again.
>
> My apologies for taking so long to put this response together. I wanted to
> make sure I can get as much detail as possible, to avoid any
> misunderstandings, miscommunications, or other confusion.
>
> I have been a little concern lately that SO much of the discussion here has
> been focused on LEGO bashing. (Up until a day or two ago, all but one of the
> home page spotlights were about how LEGO sucks) As several people have
> pointed out in this thread, in a large company like LEGO change takes time.
> We are trying to participate as much as possible in discussions on LUGNET,
> but please understand that when certain threads are driven off course by
> discussion of how LEGO is not doing the right things, it becomes hard for us
> to participate.
>
> Let me also comment on the issues a number of people have brought up
> regarding the LEGO.com web site and Online store. Please understand that the
> new web site has gotten a HUGE amount of traffic in the few months that it
> has been live. It has completely blown through the numbers from the same
> time last year. Additionally, the online store has a *massive* foundation in
> place at this point. We are able display different prices, availiablity,
> in/out stock status for multiple countries and multiple currincies. Further,
> the tie in with order fullfillment and processing is amazing. I have
> actually ordered as a consumer from the online store at 3:30p Thursday and
> by 10:00a the next morning, there was a large box on my desk. This was
> shipped UPS and I was not charged additional shipping...the fullfillment
> folks are just that fast!
>
> Anyone familiar with web development knows that the backend systems required
> to do these things do not come together overnight. Further, amid a very busy
> and successful Christmas shopping season, the online store did not go down
> or offline one time. Not one time! Few web sites can actually make this claim.
>
> OK, one last thing before we get to some of the updates.
>
> I have said before that many of the LD employees read LUGNET on a regular
> basis. We respond as we feel is appropriate. We take care of issues that are
> brought to attention. This is extremely important to come to terms with. I
> know it has become a very popular view to say that noone at LD actually read
> these posts, but the more you tell us that we don't read your comments and
> that we don't work hard enough, and that we should take more work home with
> us because the 9-12 hour days don't cut it, it doesn't do anything but turn
> some of us off from answering your questions. There are a great many AFOLs
> within LD and TLC as a whole. I have never worked for a company that has so
> many people working so hard to carry out a singular vision - LEGO Play
> values. I am sure that all of you work very hard at your jobs, so imagine if
> the only feedback you get is "Take more work home with you" or "Work longer
> hours". Or worse yet, posting pointing to posters about "Apathy".
>
> (Please note, that after more than two hours catching up on the online posts
> across the site, I started working on this message Sunday evening, after
> spending more than 8 hours at the Train Summit meeting yesterday, and have
> been working for about 30 minutes today)
>
> Now, on to the updates!
>
> 1. LEGO Direct Responsiveness
>
> As with any new company, there will always be things that start out kind of
> bumpy. Again, referring to the questions above, how bad are we *really*
> doing? I would venture to say that it isn't as much as is talked about here.
> Further, in the scheme of large companies, I am very impressed with all that
> we are doing. I really couldn't tell you about another company the size of
> TLC who has a better response time or who has created a group like LEGO
> Direct to truely empower their consumers.
>
> A good example of this, is the tech support email that I once sent to Sun.
> (I tried calling their tech support number, but after 2.5 hours of hold
> music, I was disconnected and then when I called back it was busy for at
> least an hour, so I sent email) 6, almost 7 months later, I received a reply
> from one of their tech support staff...asking for more details. I responded
> with the details (although we had already figured out how to work around the
> problem). Two months later, they sent me an answer. In my experience, *this*
> is the norm in dealing with large companies. So again, ask yourselves the
> questions above.
>
> Having said that, we are discussing the best way possible to help answer
> questions and inquiries as fast as possible. Please remember that the
> original discussions of response time were based in some part on the 200 or
> so members of LUGNET, not the close to 1000 that we are currently at! We are
> working on a solution.
>
>
> 2. Troubles accessing shop
>
> We are aware that some Mac users were having some problems with the shop
> menuing. We have reworked it to make it faster. In addition, we have
> completed a round of usability testing in our ongoing commitment to provide
> the best shopping experience possible.
>
> Additionally, we just finished several rounds of usability testing on the
> shop and will be making improvements immediately for future launches (Again,
> outside my projects, so I am not exactly sure when these will go live or
> exactly what they will all be)
>
> As has been stated before, no company in their right minds works on
> modifying their online store code around or during the Christmas shopping
> season, which extends _well_ into January. (Think returns, gift
> certificates, etc.) Now that the season is past, we have started working on
> improvements. As the details of this become more solidified, I will pass
> this info on.
>
>
> 3. Mosaic gray shades and Mac support
>
> I have passed this comment on the product development folks, but there is no
> simple answer here, as there is no simple solution. There was a great deal
> of thought that went into the selection of the shades. In addition, it takes
> alot of expense to change the kind of things. Not that they can't happen,
> but that they are time consuming and expensive when they do. We are
> currently working on refining the Mosaic app to make it an extremely solid
> application. All other tasks are currently secondary to that.
>
> Again, I have passed this note on to the appropriate person and will let you
> all know what the feedback is.
>
> Also, just to recap Tomas from as few days ago, the reason that there is no
> support for Mosaic on the Mac is due to the very very poor Java Virtual
> Machine (JVM) that the MacOS uses. There are so many problems with it, that
> it caused major problems in the initial coding. That is all I know at this
> point, more to come.
>
>
> 4. New instruction paper
>
> Thanks for the note! It is great to hear that we are, in fact, doing well
> with some things!! :)
>
> As far as sending a note acknowleding every post, please _know_ that LD
> employees DO read this newsgroup. There are many people who work on many
> things in the organization and personally, I would rather track those people
> down to get answers to outstanding questions, rather than spending that time
> to pass them compliments that they have already read.
>
> Once more, TLC and LD employees DO read LUGNET!!
>
>
> 5. Current Promotions Page
>
> Someone has actually answered this quite well already. There are a number of
> problems with this, including but not limited to:
>
> - regional promotions, country based promotions
> - contractual issues with certain promotions partners
> - clarity of brand message on LEGO.com (we are trying to keep LEGO.com free
> of "co-branding" or advertising)
>
>
>
> 6. Buying bulk Parts from Eurpoe/ Additional Payment methods
>
> I have asked for information on this, and I will pass it on when it comes in.
>
>
> 7. Speed scrolling and Printable "Fair Play" page
>
> As stated above, LD employees DO read LUGNET, and this should be a great
> example of this fact.
>
> As far as acknoweleding these updates, please understand that we aren't
> "blowing off" the request, or not paying attention. Rather, since we have
> many people working on different aspects of the site, sometimes, the changes
> are made or suggested to someone who isn't a LUGNET member, and therefore
> doesn't post.
>
>
> 8. Origin of 6500
>
> As Tomas mentioned in an earlier post, we were unable to dig up any info.
> Most likely, this was a set that made it as far as package design, but was
> cancelled before reaching production. This might have happened for many
> reasons.
>
>
> 9. Slow load times on S@H
>
> Please see the answer for question #2 above.
>
>
> 10. Brown Bricks
> The point here was that someone should respond even if all they could say
> was "We are working on it". I somewhat disagree. As of late, the number of
> rumors flying based on that exact statement have been overwhelming. Look at
> the Train Summit post from Larry P. yesterday. There is no correct answer
> unless we are sharing the actual details of the question.
>
> As far as the brown bricks, I am not sure what the rollout schedule is right
> now. I believe that Brad will be discussing that in his next post. If I find
> out anything in the meantime, I will pass it on in the Building section.
>
>
> 11. Official congratulations for every posting in the media of a LUG or LUGNET
>
> Todd, come on man, I would rather see LEGO Direct employees working on
> enhancements to the web site, improving communication with the community,
> and other LD goals.
>
> We are extremely happy to see success of everything LEGO, but some press
> coverage that includes LUGNET is not necessarily worth congratulations. In
> the "LEGOs Online Dream" article, your quote "A lot of people are worried
> that the Lego Company is spreading itself too thin" was shown by the
> reporter to show that the leader of the largest online LEGO community is not
> behind the TLC efforts.
>
>
> Alright, this message has taken more than an hour to put together, so I will
> cut it off now! (Plus if you read this far, you must getting really tired! :)
>
> I am sure that this message will generate a great number of responses and
> opinions, but hopefully has answered many questions.
>
> Now let's get back to the business at hand...building! In fact, I am off to
> build the new Dragon sculpture!
>
>
> Thanks!!
>
> Jake
>
>
> ----
> Jake McKee
> Sr. Producer - LEGO Direct
>
> The views expressed in this message do not necessarily reflect those of my
> employeer
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