
LEGO Group banned user for buying bricks from official store and BrickLink - app4soft
https://twitter.com/aurorastormG3/status/1205920418793545728
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rs23296008n1
I didn't get a clear sense from her side on what happened. Or maybe I did?

She ordered something and it was lost during delivery? Some system flagged
fraud and then as penalty for this she lost access to essentially everything
LEGO. Later she found out about this ban via an email that closes all
communication without any path to further followup. Now she can't shop or use
her LEGO Account for anything.

Surely I missed something.

~~~
elif
Yes I gather:

1) her order was lost by aus post

2) she told Lego it never arrived, they made a replacement order

3) aus post found her lego after being prodded

4) some anti-fraud system decided she was trying to scamaz

5) their fraud dept doesn't care about false positives

~~~
IntemerateApe
Aus post (australia post) is the worst, especially this time of year.

I have had that happen twice with Amazon (book) orders, they get lost, then
only to arrive 2 months later (after Amazon has resent a replacement order)

~~~
cyphar
I have to disagree. AusPost is pretty good. It's not perfect but given the
stories you hear about USPS from the US, AusPost is undoubtedly doing a better
job.

EDIT: I should've said "postage in the US", not USPS. My response was in
relation to someone saying that it is "the worst". I've had much worse
experiences with private shipping companies like StarTrack.

~~~
klodolph
What stories? Most stories I hear about USPS are complaints about waiting in
line. Otherwise USPS ranks pretty high, internationally, for quality of
service.

In the Universal Postal Union’s report for 2018, US ranked #8. Australia
ranked #26.

~~~
neltnerb
And it's not like the USPS lines are meaningfully longer than Fedex or UPS,
even in a city.

I think it's just anti-government hyperbole to pretend that taking an envelope
from your hand to a farm house on the other side of the country for 55 cents
and having a line for such an amazing service is too big an ask.

It would take just as long at Fedex or UPS. They're private. They don't mail
anything for 55 cents. They're usually more expensive for packages even.

It's really pretty amazing.

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jtbayly
Make sure you read the rest here:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/aurorastormG3/status/120611793955...](https://mobile.twitter.com/aurorastormG3/status/1206117939558006785)

He doesn’t even know why they’ve banned him. And just like Google, there is no
appeal or ability to get more info.

~~~
joshstrange
I'm pretty sure it's a "she"/"her" judging from her twitter profile.

~~~
lopmotr
Seems to be her/princess. If princess is concerned about what pronouns people
use, then princess wouldn't like "she".

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deogeo
Good thing he only got banned from LEGO and not, lets say, automated grocery
stores all owned by the same company and associated with your Amazon
account...

Well, no need to worry ahead of time!

~~~
djsumdog
2020 prediction: Amazon buys LEGO.

June 2020: lead found in all LEGO bricks ... how does lead even get into non-
metal toys? Life finds a way.

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turtlebits
Maybe speculating, but possibly he ordered too many (free) replacement parts
from the LEGO store?

I had to do this once and there seemingly are no checks in place to prevent
abuse. (You don’t have to prove you own the set where you are missing pieces
from)

Also the OP bringing up Bricklink (which doesn’t use Lego account for login)
is a bit dramatic, which makes me thing the poster is skewing or omitting some
facts.

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rahuldottech
She goes by female pronouns, it says so in her Twitter bio.

~~~
elif
I understand your perspective, but 'generic he' is grammatically correct for
uncertain, unspecified or gender neutral contexts in English.

I've corrected my comment since you've informed me that gender is relevant in
this context, but it is more pedantry than correction.

~~~
neotek
To be even more pedantic, "they" has been used as a gender-neutral pronoun for
over 600 years.

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-
ye...](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year/they)

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monocasa
Damn, I knew them buying bricklink was going to be terrible.

~~~
app4soft
Yeah, same feelings.

Also _LDraw.org_ [0] (open-source digital lego community) still has no
official word from _LEGO Group_ members to _LDraw Ambassador_ about acquiring
of _BrickLink_ , as BrickLink's Stud.io app use LDraw Parts Library.[1]

FTR, Ten members of the _LDraw_ core met at the LEGO headquarter in Billund on
May 22-26, 2019. (...) they also had a meeting with people from the _LDD team
and other compartments of the company_. A request for a dedicated information
channel when it comes down to part numbers, meshes or colours was
forwarded.[2]

[0] [https://www.ldraw.org/](https://www.ldraw.org/)

[1]
[https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23768.html](https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23768.html)

[2]
[https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23439.html](https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23439.html)

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jrockway
How do you get banned from an online store? Can't you just use a different
credit card and they'll have no way of knowing? Seems quite pointless to me,
unless your goal is to make your best customers your unhappiest customers,
which seems like a pretty bad idea.

~~~
djsumdog
They could ban your home address, so you'd have to go get a post box instead?

~~~
jrockway
I thought about that, but people move, people can live in apartment buildings
with thousands of neighbors, and people can have packages delivered to their
work address or a convenience store. None of those are even corners cases.

I just find it baffling that someone would write a letter that boils down to
"We are punishing you!! But there is no way to enforce this punishment, so,
uh... umm..." Seems like a huge waste of time if you ask me.

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mirimir
He could just pay someone to order for him. Perhaps a friend. There might even
be businesses in Australia that do that.

Edit: She ...

And hey, it's never too early to learn.

Edit: Seriously, what's so horrible about working around a clearly unjust ban?

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tetra_proxy
She has said she hasn't even tried to make a bricklink account yet. Hopefully
she tries and is able to order that way.

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matheweis
The increasingly common pattern of corporations issuing ultimatums without
apparent explanation, justification, or any other kind of due process is
really terrifying. How do we fix this?

~~~
bagacrap
"Due process"?? Buying Legos from the official store is not some kind of
inherent human right. They can sell to whom they want. No doubt this person
was breaking the terms of service. Explaining why he's banned would likely
give away something about how they know he was cheating the system, which
makes future fraud easier.

~~~
app4soft
Seems like it's new reality of online services, for example Instagram just
rolled out "offensive captions checker"[0], that's look like beta-release of
Orwell's «Thought Police».[1]

[0]
[https://twitter.com/instagram/status/1206637381224259584](https://twitter.com/instagram/status/1206637381224259584)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Police](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Police)

~~~
neotek
Ah yes, the well known Orwellian police state tactic of politely asking users
not to call each other stupid.

