Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 12:45 pm
It's Easter holidays here - not sure why they have broken up so early, but they have, and in the lead-up to the break, some marketing bod went around the school doling out a load of weekday cut-price Child Entry vouchers for the Lego Discovery centre at the back of what my granddaughter calls the Traffic Centre in Manchester.
Now, she's already a Lego Club VIP member and in her latest club mag was a voucher for 3 free mini-figures (you would not believe how collectible these are, apparently!) if a soft-hearted relative splurged 15 quid on Lego at the Lego Store, and the mag helpfully pointed out that our nearest Lego Store was in Manchester. So, I was bullied into agreeing to take her yesterday.
She got herself all over-excited for the day, hardly slept the night before, and given we had a handful of discount vouchers, we turned up en masse, with baby brother, aunty Roisin, the whole tribe.
Except the cut price entry vouchers are NOT valid during school holidays! We were expected to pay full price, which would have been close on 100 quid for us all. Why give out vouchers that are, effectively, useless? When can a child possibly go to the Lego Palace *except* during school hols? Unless we take them out of school for the day, which is illegal, there's no chance of them ever being able to use these worthless vouchers. It's a con!
Anxious not to uposet her too much, I said that as we couldn't spend all that money on entry to a glorified play area, we'd go into the shop bit and she could choose a new Lego kit, maybe that Cinderella Coach she's been banging on about for the last month. So, I gritted me teeth, and agreed to a 43 quid spend.
Toddle up to the counter, let them scan the boxes of Lego, then hand over the VIP Club voucher to claim her 3 free minifigures....not acceptable.
The vouchers are only valid in a Lego Store and the store selling Lego at the Lego Discovery Centre is not a Lego Store. Have you ever heard such bollocks? How do you explain that to a 4 year old?
For three lousy bits of grinning plastic, they were quite prepared to see a little girl reduced to tears. I've quite a few years advantage on her, and even I can't understand how a store selling Lego at a Lego franchise with Lego emblazoned here, there and bloody everywhere is not, apparently, a Lego store, so how is a 4 year old expected to understand.
We won't be visiting that place again, and the way I feel now, we won't be buying any more Lego. I feel conned by the whole experience - doesn't Lego have some brand value that we, as parents and grandparents, are expected to trust? Being ripped off by cheap plastic in QuidWorld is only to be expected, but when you pay top dollar for an allegedly reputable brand, you expect a reasonable standard of honesty and decency.
A whole generation of young builders and constructors will grow up thinking it's perfectly alright to dupe customers with false promises and meaningless discounts.
As I said on Twitter earlier, it's Playmobil all the way for me from now on!
Now, she's already a Lego Club VIP member and in her latest club mag was a voucher for 3 free mini-figures (you would not believe how collectible these are, apparently!) if a soft-hearted relative splurged 15 quid on Lego at the Lego Store, and the mag helpfully pointed out that our nearest Lego Store was in Manchester. So, I was bullied into agreeing to take her yesterday.
She got herself all over-excited for the day, hardly slept the night before, and given we had a handful of discount vouchers, we turned up en masse, with baby brother, aunty Roisin, the whole tribe.
Except the cut price entry vouchers are NOT valid during school holidays! We were expected to pay full price, which would have been close on 100 quid for us all. Why give out vouchers that are, effectively, useless? When can a child possibly go to the Lego Palace *except* during school hols? Unless we take them out of school for the day, which is illegal, there's no chance of them ever being able to use these worthless vouchers. It's a con!
Anxious not to uposet her too much, I said that as we couldn't spend all that money on entry to a glorified play area, we'd go into the shop bit and she could choose a new Lego kit, maybe that Cinderella Coach she's been banging on about for the last month. So, I gritted me teeth, and agreed to a 43 quid spend.
Toddle up to the counter, let them scan the boxes of Lego, then hand over the VIP Club voucher to claim her 3 free minifigures....not acceptable.
The vouchers are only valid in a Lego Store and the store selling Lego at the Lego Discovery Centre is not a Lego Store. Have you ever heard such bollocks? How do you explain that to a 4 year old?
For three lousy bits of grinning plastic, they were quite prepared to see a little girl reduced to tears. I've quite a few years advantage on her, and even I can't understand how a store selling Lego at a Lego franchise with Lego emblazoned here, there and bloody everywhere is not, apparently, a Lego store, so how is a 4 year old expected to understand.
We won't be visiting that place again, and the way I feel now, we won't be buying any more Lego. I feel conned by the whole experience - doesn't Lego have some brand value that we, as parents and grandparents, are expected to trust? Being ripped off by cheap plastic in QuidWorld is only to be expected, but when you pay top dollar for an allegedly reputable brand, you expect a reasonable standard of honesty and decency.
A whole generation of young builders and constructors will grow up thinking it's perfectly alright to dupe customers with false promises and meaningless discounts.
As I said on Twitter earlier, it's Playmobil all the way for me from now on!
