Messed up 7079 : Drawbridge Defense

[ELMAS]

So I spent like 90 min with Lego customer services over the weekend:

I got 2x 7079 sets.
I open one to build with my kids and to mi surprise there are "some" missing pieces and "some" pieces that don't belong to the set...

After doing the complete inventory, there are over 100+ missing pieces and I got about the same amount of "extra" pieces not belonging to the set.
Strangely enough all the minifigs where there.

Also I found that *all* of the "extra" pieces actually belong to the Troll's Mountain Fortress ( which I do not own)...
This was a complete disaster, when I called TLC I did not even know where to begin.
Long story short they will ship the missing pieces from Denmark, but the customer rep initially did not believe that such a mess up was possible.
It almost looks like the sorters started packing away pieces from 7079 and then switched to 7097 <-- Check the numbers are similar, except inverted 79 vs 97...

Anyway, not sure if anyone has ran into a situation like this but, makes me nervous.
Usually you *may* have a couple missing pieces here and there but nothing like this.

Is TLC quality and QA going down the toilette?

[Barbrickian]

It sure sounds like the quality has gone by the wayside between this and the low quality non-standard set minifig thread... Bummer. Hopefully they come around and fix these issues.

[nanuck95]

If you go to the customer service website http://us.service.lego.com/en-US/replacementparts/default.aspx , you can list all the different parts you're missing and how many of each. It's a pain to go through all of them and take inventory, but from my experience, they will ship you the missing parts with no questions asked and are generally pretty good about it.

The only thing similar to this that happened to me was I picked up the Sith Infiltrator a couple years ago and when I opened it a bunch of small loose parts fell out. A couple of the bags had been torn open, apparently before it was packaged as I was missing ~40 pieces. I've had several other sets that I purchased that were missing 1 or 2 pieces, but every time they've been really good about sending me the replacement parts. But I do know the feeling of purchasing a new set and putting it together only to be disappointed that you can't complete it, especially with that many missing pieces. Hope you get it straightened out.

[puddleglum]

To this day I've still only had a missing part in a set twice. However I've had to request replacements for cracked cheese slopes and headlight bricks, and scratched tiles lately.

I bought a copy of 7079 and 7097 and didn't have a problem with either. 7097 did have a random Star Wars blaster in it though, which was kind of weird.

It's probably too late to know now, but it would have been interesting to know if your set weighed the same as a "correct" 7079. At least you got some extra parts - which bag from 7097 did you get? It actually has a lot of nice parts. (As does 7079, for that matter!)

[ELMAS]

To this day I've still only had a missing part in a set twice. However I've had to request replacements for cracked cheese slopes and headlight bricks, and scratched tiles lately.

I bought a copy of 7079 and 7097 and didn't have a problem with either. 7097 did have a random Star Wars blaster in it though, which was kind of weird.

It's probably too late to know now, but it would have been interesting to know if your set weighed the same as a "correct" 7079. At least you got some extra parts - which bag from 7097 did you get? It actually has a lot of nice parts. (As does 7079, for that matter!)

At least 2 of the bags where mixed. The saving grace is that TLC will ship the pieces though I have to wait until they ship from Denmark and I got some nice extra pieces I did not expect with no major trouble other than go through the inv with customer services.
The rep did mention the issue about the weight and it is very possible the extra pieces compensated for the weight of the missing and that is why the box slipped by...
oh well.. always a first time for everything...

[gormadoc1]

I have never heard of such a mess up from TLC, and they also believe in customer care and yet you say that they didnt take you seriousley . Although some operaters cant be bothered so have you kept trying because I would want to get my money back or a replacement. Or if you want you can write to the main office and see if they'll sort it out.

[RichardAM]

Is TLC quality and QA going down the toilette?

I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. One set in however many thousands is hardly an indication of how well they're doing or otherwise.

[sir lockt]

I am also very interested in the above asked question of weight. From what I understand Lego monitors quality by weight (hence often the small pieces an extra part, because the deviation is coming close to the weight of those pieces). If the weight of the mixed bags is similar something got on the wrong conveyor or something and will not be caught by the automatic quality control system.

I had dealings with Lego Quality 3 or 4 times. One was a broken 9V rail piece in a train set. Just call it a misproduction (it was mutilated beyond the point of human strenght ) the other times was always a studded brick that was absent and replaced by a non studded brick (or visa versa).

For me it is more important how they handle such quality issues. In my experience TLC is very good in handling these issues

Unfortunately it happened to your Drawbridge defenses, but I think you can consider it as a "1 in a x times" bad "luck".

[ELMAS]

They actually handled it very well.
The only thing that bothered me is that I got the sense that the rep did not believe me when I said 100+ pieces where misplaced.
She said she'd be buying sets for 50 years and *never* had seen such a thing (implying I may have been lying about the issue)... After I set the correct tone and stated all the facts she took the inventory and placed the order to ship the pieces, so all in all, they did take care of it with minimum hassle.

[ELMAS]

Is TLC quality and QA going down the toilette?

I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. One set in however many thousands is hardly an indication of how well they're doing or otherwise.

Well, statistically I haven't bought thousands of sets. I have a very small % of what they manufacture. So, maybe I got the "lottery" on this one, maybe not... time will tell If we see more of this mishaps.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

That is more or less my thought. We have a large enough number of members that we'd likely catch something if it came up on a large scale, somewhat like the TTT and other sets appearing to be of different quality than the standard sets. I suppose we will have to see. I have helped put up two of the DBD and so far no missing pieces on this end but I can say that is messed up indeed.

Heir

[DO+1]

I recently bought the TMF from the Toys R us in the Twin Cities. 3 Whole bags were missing from my set.
It was wierd though, because all bags missing had minifig accesories but The box did not look like it had been tampered with. I got it all sorted out, and they sent me all I was missing PLUS 5 d.brown troll clubs.
I don't think I am going to buy a set from that Toys R us agoin

[RichardAM]

Well, statistically I haven't bought thousands of sets. I have a very small % of what they manufacture. So, maybe I got the "lottery" on this one, maybe not... time will tell If we see more of this mishaps.

Oh I know- i've had a few missing bricks myself.

The thing is, is this a new problem or has it always been around? Obviously there was no CC or internet twenty years ago to post if we had missing pieces or not, so i'm wondering if it really is a new problem or just one that's always been there, albeit undocumented?

[davee123]

Well, statistically I haven't bought thousands of sets. I have a very small % of what they manufacture. So, maybe I got the "lottery" on this one, maybe not... time will tell If we see more of this mishaps.

I think the lottery is getting easier to win.

I've been keeping tabs on how many sets I've gotten that have contained errors, and yes, it's gone up in recent years. For missing pieces, I've gotten:

- 1 set in 1999 (missing 1 piece, 1 extra)
- 1 set in 2004 (missing 1 piece)
- 4 sets in 2006 (missing 4 pieces, 1 extra, one of which was an egregious oversight)
- 2 sets in 2007 (missing 2 pieces)
- 3 sets in 2008 (missing 2 pieces, 4 extra)
- 1 set in 2009 (missing 1 piece)

Now, the funny thing is that I've actually bought FEWER sets starting in 2005, so my numbers for 2005 onward should be lower than previous years (my prime years would be 1998-2004, since that's when I was collecting rabidly). And prior to 1999, I've never received a set with a packing error (although I did get a 1998 set which had two deformed elements), which goes back to my first sets in roughly 1981 (but much lower volume until 1998 or so).

In addition to the sets missing pieces above, I've also had:
- 1 set from 1998 with two deformed pieces
- 1 set from 1999 with a broken element
- 6 sets from 2001 with incorrect elements (this was the Guarded Inn re-release that initially came with the Native American horse by mistake, not really a packing error)
- 1 set from 2008 with an extra bag (24 pieces)
- 1 set from 2008 with a deformed piece

For a rough idea of what that translates to percentage-wise:
1998 - 0/114 with missing pieces, 1/114 with deformed elements
1999 - 1/182 with missing pieces, 1/182 with a broken element
2000 - 0/357 with missing pieces, 0/357 with broken elements
2001 - 0/156 with missing pieces, 0/156 with broken elements, 6/156 with other errors
2002 - 0/196 with missing pieces, 0/196 with broken elements
2003 - 0/179 with missing pieces, 0/179 with broken elements
2004 - 1/234 with missing pieces, 0/234 with broken elements
2005 - 0/105 with missing pieces, 0/105 with broken elements
2006 - 4/94 with missing pieces, 0/94 with broken elements
2007 - 2/89 with missing pieces, 0/89 with broken elements
2008 - 3/64 with missing pieces, 1/64 with a broken element, 1/64 with other errors (extra bag)
2009 - 1/43 with missing pieces, 0/43 with broken elements

So, from 1998 to 2005: about 0.13% of sets I purchased had missing elements, but from 2006 to present, I've had about 3.45% of sets that had missing elements. If Lego were still at their previous quality levels, it would be astronomically unlikely that I'd get 10 sets with errors. Roughly a 68% chance that I'd have no errors, 26% chance that I would've gotten 1 set with an error, 5% chance of getting 2, and about a 1 in a million chance of getting 6. I'm not even sure of the ridiculously low chance that I'd conceivably get 10 with mistakes. As far as I'm concerned, it's sufficient evidence to show that Lego's packing facilities are more error prone now than 2005 and before.

[edit]Ahh, there we go, got a spare minute-- about a 1 in 100 billion chance that I'd get 10 with missing pieces if nothing had changed, and assuming a normalized distribution. I will point out that I typically buy NEW sets, almost immediately when they're freshly available. This may mean that I personally have a higher likelihood of purchasing something that's in the first production run of a given set, and that first runs are more error-prone than later ones. It's a long shot, but it's possible.[/edit]

DaveE

[BreadMan]

Wow, I guess I've been lucky - I can't think of a single time I've gotten a set with pieces missing. The closest thing is I once complained that the viking chess set had four figs with black speckled euro-armor that was cut just before production to save costs but still showed in the box-top pics, and they promptly sent me the four armors which made this customer quite satisfied. If I were you Elmas I'd be stoked - free polybags from a sweet, more expensive set! That'd be worth the wait for the replacements for me.