New LEGO VIP Cards

[Yegos]

Has anyone switched yet?

My local store didn't have the materials.

[mystuffiscool]

*sorely wishes he had a local store*

[nanuck95]

I was at the Potomac Mills Lego store yesterday in Virginia and switched over to the new VIP card. Seemed pretty easy, they switched over all my old stamps to points and gave me 25 points for signing up in the store, then another 25 when I did it online. I already had an existing user ID on lego.com, and it basically just let me attach the VIP number to my current account.

My only gripe is they wouldn't let me convert my 450 points into a gift card in the store and the system still says my redeemable balance from points is $0. It's not a big deal though, I'm sure it's just taking a while to get everything in the system and they will figure it out.

[Yegos]

Excellent news. Thanks.

[KarenJ]

Here is the truth... mathematically speaking. If you spend from $1 to $24 or between $38 and $49 the new VIP system is better for you. However, from $25 to $37 and anything over $50 you will be losing money all the way to infinity with the new VIP system. The more over $50 you go the worse it gets for us and it doesn't matter where you fall inbetween the $25 amounts of the current stamp cards.

For those of you that spend in those very narrow ranges I say kudos to you, you are now a VIP. I also say you don't need a discount at all (because) you spend very little money on lego. I will be losing a lot of money on this new system. I hardly ever spend less than $100.00 at a lego store and have spent over a $1000.00 at one time. When I would purchase large amounts of lego the staff would often give me an extra stamp or two. They would also do this when I was close to another $25 cutoff. This new system is automated and we won't get any extras at all.

I do not doubt that TLG is doing this to eliminate the extra stamps the employees would give out to some of the loyal customers. TLG also changed this to obviously make more money. By the way lego accountants can do math too!

I don't mean to belittle anyone else who posted. This obviously does not apply to the kids on this forum. Who drives to the mall using a couple of gallons of gas to buy less than $25.00 worth of lego? The gasoline alone is a 10 - 20% markup right off the bat. And that is if you live within 20-40 miles of a lego store. I go about 5-10 times per year and spend like an idiot when I do. It costs me $5 to $10 dollars in gas depending on which store I go to and it makes no sense to spend very little on lego when I get there.

[...] I don't order online with access to 4 chicagoland stores. The shipping cost is nuts.

Now that the facts are out will there be cheers or jeers for this new program?

Aren't we lucky to live here?

However, with free shipping currently being offered by Lego, the shipping cost is no longer nuts. We'll have to pay Illinois tax, but that is MUCH lower than Cook County tax (10%... insane... and all 4 Lego stores are in Cook county). BTW, don't forget to vote, as if it matters....

I was at the Schaumburg store on Friday when they switched me over- and somehow I feel jipped. Violated.

On the plus side- the cashier didn't give me my free pick-a-brick boxes. I called right after I got home and discovered their mistake, and the cashier told me that he was the one who wrung up my order and forgot my boxes... so he doubled them for my inconvenience! They are waiting there in the office for me on Monday. All I need to do is drive.

With the economy as bad as it is, they must know that sales need to occur. I really hope they get that.