PAB Prices; What's up with that.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

On April !, LEGO released the new PAB updates.
The Pick A Brick at LEGO Shop at Home has increased its parts selection from 1000 to 1496. On the other side of the coin, prices for these parts have increased by up to 300%.

On April 8th, due to recent concerns over the drastic price hike of LEGO’s online Pick A Brick prices, the company slashed the prices while keeping the increased selection. This was the official word from LEGO:

    Dear LEGO fans,
    Based on all the feedback over the past week regarding our new Pick A Brick elements and pricing we will reduce the pricing on LEGO Pick A Brick elements.

    There were good reasons behind our decision to raise prices of this relatively operationally complex Pick A Brick service. However, over the last week we have realised, thanks to you, that it was unacceptable to raise the prices so steeply without notice. We have acted quickly and have taken the decision to reduce the pricing on LEGO Pick A Brick elements. The prices cannot return to the original 2008 level but the increases are now much smaller. We are pleased to now offer you the biggest, most comprehensive assortment ever including:
    - More colours
    - Most recent doors and windows are now available in PAB and MOD
    - More longer beams to enable larger constructions
    - More accessories (such as hats, wigs and mini figure tools)
    - More mini-figs (now with girl and child (short legs))
    - More cool tires and rims

    We hope to welcome you back to Pick A Brick soon.

    Your LEGO team



By all appearances, LEGO as a company has been making great efforts in customer contact, communication, and interaction over the past several years. If these prices increases are correct . . . then this has been a truly colossal failure in customer relations. Let us count their fails:

1. Increasing the prices on April 1st. Really, LEGO?
2. Rolling out a half-baked website update where the ONE positive in all this (the huge increase in elements), is difficult to appreciate because all the images were broken.
3. Publishing old prices in the Spring catalog for some parts, making the massive discrepancy in prices all the more painful and obvious.
4. Not proactively apologizing for the price increase, or explaining the reasons for it.
5. Leaving the customer service reps and the LEGO ambassador program completely in the dark, so when customers do ask what's going on, they have nothing to say!


All that being said, I am still holding onto the thinnest thread of hope that this won't end up being as bad as it seems now. But even if the prices do end up being somewhere between what they were and what they are now, I'll have a hard time believing it wasn't the classic "come out with a high offer first so you can seem like you're compromising later" bargaining move.

[ab§olute_Z3R0]

Interesting. I bought 177 bricks recently, and I sure hope I didn't have the 300% price increase on my order... that was $38 of my own money.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

That would hurt...

[greethan]

I am quite glad that I buy sets only.
And minfigs.