When we posted that the Gingerbread House promotion was live we got a few messages from people asking if there were going to be any other offers. There was a chance that the Australian site just hadn’t updated with all of the offers yet. Surely when they went live on the UK site we’d get them too, right?
Based on the current status of both sites, it looks like Australia isn’t getting anything others.
I was extremely disappointed that Lego offered VIP members nothing in today’s sale.
UK store offer 5% discount and US store offer free shipping on all online order. Sad…
And we are paying more than US and UK!!!
Shame on you Lego!
The whole experience was disrespectful to Australian buyers. I turned to the Myer sale and got the palace cinema and detectives office at a good discount.
I have sent a response to customer service at Lego to see if they care to explain why…
Will post their response back here.
FWIW, it probably costs more to ship to Aus. If you look at NZ, they get the worst lego deals… even worse than us that is.
Official Response from LEGO –
Thanks for getting in touch with us.
I am very sorry to hear you are disappointed with our current promotions for Australia. We try really hard to make sure all our customers, across the world, are happy and I’m sorry we didn’t get it right for you. We offer different promotions to countries based on quite a bit of research and feedback from our fans. I appreciate your comments however, because the only way we can make our dedicated and loyal fans such as yourself happy, is by hearing what we’re doing wrong. It’s upsetting to hear that our Australian fans feel slighted by our promotions as that is never our intent. I will send your comments to our VIP promotions team and let them know that our Australian fans feel they are treated unfairly. If I get any information or updates on promotions for the future, I will be sure to let you know!
I apologize again, but our VIP team is working on your case!
It is certainly a well worded reply … be interesting to see if it bears any fruit.
As for shipping, that would certainly be a factor, but I would suspect most of us (I certainly do), ensure I have at least $200 prior to making a purchase to the Lego store. It would be interesting to know the mark up for Lego in Australia – since we do often see a 20% discount here – which if shipped directly from Lego would also be included in their online prices.
Whilst I don’t disagree that we get a pretty bum deal from LEGO S@H when other territories are offered extra discounts, and/or have far less ridiculous shipping charges/free shipping thresholds, and I’m all for sharing this feedback with LEGO Customer Service, I think sometimes we get so clouded by this, we forget that we are actually pretty lucky with LEGO buying and prices here in Australia.
Provided you’re prepared to be patient and do a bit of leg-work (most of which is already done for you by Michael on this site), once we do a currency conversion, we often have the opportunity to get LEGO sets – particularly expert and UCS exclusives – at far deeper discounts than our European, and even American counterparts can from LEGO S@H/Brand Stores.
We’re crying injustice over the UK’s 5% discount at S@H/Brand Stores, when barely a week goes by that some Aussie retailer or another isn’t offering a 20% discount on at least one LEGO theme, and due the the lack of Brand Stores here, these other retailers are able to stock and offer discounts on the ‘exclusive’ sets.
I realise we get less choice/opportunity when it comes to the smaller D2C sets (e.g. the small seasonal vignettes) and promotional polybags/sets (e.g. the Christmas Train and Gingerbread House), etc. as the shipping costs, or need to buy up big on other sets at RRP to qualify for the free shipping, often negates the value of any bonus, but as long as you plan ahead, you can often still maximise the benefit of these deals by timing your S@H purchases when multiple offers stack, or taking advantage of double VIP points promotions that can later be cashed in when the next promo deal that appeals to you comes along.
I was in the UK recently, and worried that the Christmas seasonal vignettes might sell out on S@H before my next planned order (when the Brick Friday/Gingerbread House promotion would come into effect), I decided to buy these from a Brand Store. Factoring in exchange rates (but not OS transaction fee, as I pay that fee with AUS S@H as well), I paid a little over $18.00 for each set, when through AUS S@H, they are priced at $15.99, so even with their current extra 5% discount (which is only for purchases over a £100 threshold, so even if offered here, would probably have required a minimum $200 spend that we would then have found reason to complain about), I would still have been financially better off including them in my AUS S@H order.
The kind of sets I buy from S@H are ‘exclusive’ enough that I would usually not have any trouble justifying buying them at RRP, or large/expensive enough to meet the imposed free shipping threshold (even when it increased by $50.00), but perhaps I’ve just been conditioned by LEGO S@H to be selective in what I buy and when I buy it, so that I perceive extra value from the various VIP points and GWPs promotions that outweighs the discounts I could obtain from local retailers, especially taking into account any delays in release to local retail.
Would I be complaining if I’d been offered an additional 5% off my latest S@H order? Of course not, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s such a minimal once-off (or even annual) discount that I’d certainly rather miss out than have them offer it, but recoup their costs elsewhere by making further (permanent) increases in the free shipping threshold, and/or preventing local retailers from stocking and discounting ‘exclusive’ sets.
Just my 2 cents (or 5%)… 😉
Well put argument Niki, you portray a fair trade off between comparing S@H Australia to other S@H worldwide and our local home brew stores. It’s a catch 22 and requires a great deal of research to get the best deals but thanks to this website it makes it considerably easier for us lego fans!
I am certainly grateful the LEGO company does take it seriously and the answer they crafted back to me was very well executed. For me the best bonus from S@H is the double VIP which equates to nearly 10% discount in real terms provided you get free shipping as well always great on the super big expensive sets which are hard to get even here at a discount. And then their are the exclusive sets …
I do however wish that we saw considerably more of the bigger sets (Creator Expert Modulars) and UCS sets here on our shelves from the major retail stores – Target, KMART, BIG-W, Myers, David Jones and others but more at 20% discount of the RRP. Understandably much harder for the smaller retailers here to compete and often can see their pricing is over the LEGO RRP especially the UCS sets and the LEGO Death Star.
It will interesting to see what happens over the next few years as LEGO is becoming a much better investment than our mining shares at the moment!
LOL
Very eloquently put Niki. I agree. What bugs me though was the promise of “offers this Friday” on their website. The gingerbread house, whilst a cool little set, represents one offer, not “offers” as implied.
I’m very disappointed with Lego. It is now the first of December and Lego have not released the dr who set. How can they justify making us wait, especially as this is the last day for Australian orders to be received for Christmas delivery.