Subject:
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Re: Bad Policy #1 (What's the deal, LEGO Direct?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Sun, 6 May 2001 18:23:05 GMT
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Viewed:
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719 times
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In lugnet.lego.direct, Marc Nelson, Jr. writes:
> The recent offering of old service packs on shop.lego.com has got me upset over
> what I see as a bad policy of LEGO's: no shipping outside shop-at-home
> territories.
>
> There are people over here in the US begging to buy these old and rare service
> packs, but LEGO will not sell them to us. The only way to get these packs is to
> hook up with somebody in the UK and arrange for them to buy the sets and ship
> them to you. I actually had someone from shop-at-home tell me that this was the
> only way to get them.
>
> Is it beyond the capacity of LEGO to ship something from Europe to the US (or
> vice versa? Sellers on Brickbay and Ebay seem to handle it OK. Or is there a
> well-thought out reason for this policy?
>
> If so, LEGO Direct, please tell us what it is. Tell us why when someone badly
> wants to give you money and purchase a product from you, they are told, "No,
> you don't live in the right shop-at-home territory".
Marc,
I apologize in advance. My posting yesterday obviously left some unanswered
questions.
Your message actually touches on two different points that might seem
related, but I want to address them separately.
Point 1: Why does Shop At Home not ship everything, everywhere, all the time.
SAH in many ways is simply a fulfillment group, in that they do not actually
produce the parts, sets, etc. Therefore, they are dependent on the LEGO
Company overall for delivery of stock, launch dates, etc. Bionicle and
Studios both were split launches, meaning the company decided to release in
separate regions at different times. Therefore, SAH can't ship to all
countries as soon as the product is launched in one region.
Additionally, fulfillment has been set up based on certain market based
distribution centers. Europe has a fulfillment center, US has one, and so
on. This is to streamline fulfillment in order to get orders out as soon as
possible. As anyone who has ordered from SAH, you can see they are fast! (I
have actually gotten some of my orders the next morning without paying for
overnight shipping!)
Fulfillment of product is a make or break in manufacturing and product
sales. Without creating a solid backend fulfillment system based on a series
of business and logistic rules, things get out of hand. Look no further than
Amazon.com for an example. They are one of the strongest pure play
e-commerce sites on the web and are actually pulling in plenty of orders. So
why no profit? Because their backend fulfillment systems are inefficient and
expensive. And more importantly, how long does it take to actually get their
products?? (Sorry, still two weeks and waiting on an order that was supposed
to ship in 1-2 days...)
2. Shipping to countries outside of a region, for things like the bulk pack
finds.
To answer your question, of course we are capable of shipping anywhere in
the world, just like those on eBay or Brickbay. But again, this goes back to
my points above regarding the business and logistics rules.
I think this question is more specifically directed to the issue of the bulk
packs. As I said yesterday, there were only a few units that turned up in
the European warehouse in a standard inventory organization. They were sold
out almost immediately. As I mentioned yesterday, we are in the process of
determining what we can have shipped over from what remains.
As a general rule, we would like to see new products as consistent as
possible throughout all markets. But please keep in mind that these service
packs that turned up are extremely limited quantities. They have surfaced
only because of the inventory update. Just like the US warehouse turned up
the small number of Fort Legoredos a few months back.
I hope this helps answer your questions, and puts your mind at ease that we
haven't created a bad policy. However, if you still don't feel comfortable,
I would suggest you post any ideas on how to overcome the problem on the
Dear LEGO newsgroup.
Hope this helps!
Jake
---
Jake McKee
Sr. Producer
LEGO Direct
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Bad Policy #1 (What's the deal, LEGO Direct?)
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| The recent offering of old service packs on shop.lego.com has got me upset over what I see as a bad policy of LEGO's: no shipping outside shop-at-home territories. There are people over here in the US begging to buy these old and rare service packs, (...) (24 years ago, 5-May-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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