Pley Subscription Box Review – April 2015
Pley is a Lego rental service that allows your children to build as many Lego sets as they can return every month! My kids are just at the right age to start going crazy for Legos, so we had to give it a try!
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Box: Pley
The Cost: $9.99 / month, shipping both ways is free
The Products: Lego sets (rental basis)
Ships to: US only, although their website states that they plan to expand globally soon
Ships via: UPS
Our second set from Pley arrived in the mail the first week of April. The kids LOVE Star Wars, so this was an exciting set for them! They put this set together with some neighborhood friends, and they were finished in no time!
When they were finished building and playing, this is what they returned to me.
This is their “completed” vehicle they built. The kids told me that, once again, they did not receive all the pieces they needed to finish this kit. It’s close, but not quite.
They were able to complete all three minifigures, though, and they really liked these! For some reason, kids go completely nuts over minifigures!
This is a picture of the leftover pieces that they couldn’t use because of missing pieces. It looks like they made a gun (top), but they couldn’t connect it to anything.
For the record, we put this set back in the mail on April 13th, and we haven’t heard from Pley since.
The Verdict: Last month, I promised to keep Pley for another month and give them another try. You never know, sometimes you just get unlucky and have an unusually bad experience with a service. Unfortunately, the service we received last month and this month does not seem to be unusual.
I was thinking about it, and I can’t imagine how Pley could ensure that all the parts to every set were still there from rental to rental. Would they hire someone to count parts? Who would take that job? How could they afford it?
This month, we got our new set without the massive shipping delay we had last month, but we sent back our set sixteen days ago. Shouldn’t we have received a new one by now? Or at least a note saying one was on its way?
I hate to sound so harsh, but I really can’t recommend this service at this time. We are going to cancel for now.
What has your experience with Pley been like?
Written by Anna Rodriguez
Wish I had read this before signing up 🙁 Customer service is totally non-responsive. I’ve been emailing them for a week because they forgot to include a return label and the instructions for how to print your own refer to a link that no longer exists on the site. I finally emailed them today that they have 24 hours to reply or I’m having my credit card chargeback all their bogus charges (of course they still keep charging me despite the three weeks it took to get this toy delivered and the week now we’ve been waiting for their customer service to reply to a simple request. DO NOT SUB! WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!
I wish I read the comments before ordering. Although they now have another service besides Lego rental (which now includes Minecraft and other toys). I signed up for the other subscription option which is Disney princesses. They you out Disney figurines, tee shirt, and other objects related to the monthly princess. The example they have is of beauty and the beast which includes a cardboard coloring castle to go with the 6 figurines from Disney. A tee shirt. Coloring markers. Candy. And a magazine (Disney princess edition) for $29.50 bi monthly. Subscription renews on the 5th of the month your subscription shops out. So I’m guessing 3/5 I’ll be charged for the next box and will be receiving my first box 3/15 (I already paid for this one)
I’ll update after I receive it
After 2 weeks of waiting and having the kids excited about this service – we finally received our box. We got a nice large “Beachhouse” set- they were pumped to put together and got Dad promptly to open the box.
Pieces were broken on Step 3, missing on Step 6 and then they hit missing Essential Pieces on Step 8. – Needless to say this was a HUGE Flop and I’m not going to be the subject of their anger or disappointment again! I cancelled less than 24 hrs after receiving the first set.
I could not have chosen a worse toy for my son’s 5 year birtday. Pley.com Customer Service 1 (888) 812-8749. It literally took me 2 months to receive this toy which was a present for my sons birthday. After his asking me daily when he would receive it, I sent several emails and was completely shot down by the customer service acting manager Timothy and “Customer Service” rep. Amanda. They said they had problems documenting when they receive the toys back. This delayed my shipment. Problem was, I had already spoke with “customer service” 2 weeks prior about the same issue and the same toy. When I told Timothy this, he said he had no way of referencing previous correspondence with my account REALLY!? YOU GUYS CANG TRACK EMAILS?!$… Overall an awful experience which could have been remedied by the basic customer service we have come to expect in America. Definitely do not get the year contract. With one toy every month that = 6 toys a year with Zero customer service.
This company is one big NIGHTMARE. Stay clear. Seems like a good idea-would be if they delivered complete sets on time. Not worth it! Go out and buy the kids a set and share them with friends! Better idea. My son was so disappointed every month–waiting and waiting for things that never came. Then trying to get them to cancel the subscription was a nightmare-they actually refused! I had to block them on my credit card!
I had shared your review with a friend whose little ones adore Legos, before reading it (oops!). She mentioned that sets have specified weights as sold by Lego. I wonder why they don’t just use that method for at least basic accountability. It sounds more like someone running this from their home, randomly packing up pieces of sets they already have and renting them out like Netflix for Legos. It is a great idea but the execution is poor. What a shame.
So depressing to hear since the idea of this box is so good. I almost recommended this box to others but was waiting on your April review. Thank goodness I waited – missing pieces is one thing, but poor customer service is unacceptable.
Per http://www.pley.com/pricing, the $9.99 price is only for one set/month.
If there was a sub that offered Lego sets to KEEP every month but at a discounted price from MSRP, I would go for that.
As currently designed, I can’t justify getting Pley for my kids….
Whoa, thanks for pointing that out, chris!
They could get an accurate scale and weight the boxes- They could be reasonably sure that all of the parts are there. If you can count money with a scale, you should be able to count legos!
That said, the customer service is a serious bummer. Alas. This was an extra cool idea.
Anna, I don’t usually read every kid’s box review as I have no children. Fortunately, I am an aunt! My nephew, Mason, is very much into Legos (I think I’ve probably bought him at least 10+ kits over the past several years). So, I’ve definitely been paying attention to your reviews as an alternative to just sending my entire paycheck to the Lego corp! 😉 Good customer service is so important to me. It can make up for a multitude of errors (at times). So, their lack of it, would turn me off in two seconds flat. Also, you make a great point about ensuring that all the correct Lego pieces are in each shipment. By nature, those tiny pieces are so easy to lose. I would think that if this is this company’s business, they would have come up with a system to ensure a complete kit long before they began their subscription service. What’s to stop someone from ordering a specific kit because they need a replacement for one of their missing pieces? I think your reviews are fair and you definitely did the right thing in not recommending the subscription until they have a better system (customer service included) in place. Thanks so much!
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Keri!