Pley Subscription Box Review – March 2015

ByAnna RodriguezMar 24, 2015 | 13 comments

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Box

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).

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Inside

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

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Card

Since this was our first box from Pley, they sent my sons this membership pledge, asking them to "pley nice" by not losing any pieces, and by making sure we separate all the pieces before returning. It also includes this awesome bracelet that you can attach Legos to!

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Return

Pley also included a postage-paid return bag to ship the set back when we finished with it, and on the left is a Lego separator to make breaking down our creation easier. I love the convenience!

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Contents

Our first set was The Bat vs. Bane, which is Super Heroes #76001-1 with 367 pieces for those of you who have confessed to being Lego nerds! That's a lot of pieces! The pieces came in the red mesh zipper bag on the left.

If you decide you would like to keep a set, you can purchase any set you are currently renting. The cost at Pley for this set is $39.99. The cost at Amazon for the same set, new, is $55.40.

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Finished

Here's our finished product: three minifigures, a vehicle, and a hovercraft. I'm sorry to be a little vague, but I'm not very knowledgeable about Batman!

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Figures

Here are the minifigures that were included: Bane, Batman, and Commissioner Gordon (I think).

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Car

This is Bane's vehicle. This one turned out great! It shoots fire out of its exhaust, which is always cool, and it shoots little pegs from the roof!

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Batcopter

This is Batman's ride! Unfortunately, we were unable to finish it because it had several missing pieces. Sadly, this affected its functionality and it wasn't able to do all the shooting it should have. My kids didn't care and still played with the finished pieces all afternoon, but I can imagine that for real Lego fans, this would be a major deal breaker.

Pley Subscription Box Review - March 2015 Extras

These are all the leftover pieces we had since we couldn't finish the hovercraft.

Verdict: We had a fun time with our first set from Pley, but I can't recommend this Lego subscription at this time. The missing pieces would be a big deal to anyone who is really into Legos. I think my kids are sweet for not minding that the set was incomplete, but I want better for them. Additionally, part of the draw is that you get a new set sent to you every time you return one, so if your kids were complete Lego nuts, you should be getting maybe 3 or more per month. In our case, we signed up for Pley on March 3 and did not get our set until March 12. If this shipping time persists, we would only be getting about 3 sets every two months. The cost is fantastic, but I don't think the cost to keep is discounted deeply enough for a used set, even if it did include all the pieces. I hate to sound harsh, but I would love to see Pley work out all their issues and become great. I would prefer to pay $12-15 a month for complete sets with a reasonable shipping time.

I think we will see how this "pleys" out for another month so I can get a better idea of the shipping times. I'd also like to see if several missing pieces is normal for Pley. If there's no improvement, then we will probably have to discontinue.

What has your experience with Pley been like?

Posted in Subscription Box Reviews

Anna Rodriguez

Anna has been a fan of subscription boxes since joining Birchbox in 2013, but didn't become a true addict until discovering subscriptions she could share with her children. Her favorites include Kiwi Crate and Fab Kids.

Read More By Anna Rodriguez >

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13 comments

D Miller

This USED to be about legos…. I have more than 100 lego sets in my pley list right now. When I go to choose a set – there are 62 options for me…. 57 are NOT legos! They are toys for 2 year olds, dolls and such. Of the remaining options – none have 100+ pieces. They are sets my children could put together in minutes. I’ve tried to get out – but not allowed. This site is NOT what it claims. Buyer be aware – you will be disappointed unless you have 2 year olds seeking to rent used dolls.

Wendy

I paid for the highest level of this service for several months and never once received one of the big sets, even when I had removed all other sets from my queue. I feel like they are falsely advertising their service and do not provide what they claim to offer.

Daphne

It has been about two weeks since we signed up and we have not even received our first set yet. If you live on the east coast, DO NOT sign up for this. Their only facility is in CA, meaning a shipping period of at least one week each way! Definitely a waste of money if my son only gets to play one (at most two) set(s) a month!

Kristi

Hey Anna,

My name is Kristi and I work for Pley.

I want to start by saying that I’m extremely sorry to hear your experience with Pley was less than perfect. I sincerely apologize for our mistake.

We’re continuously working to improve, and we take customer feedback to heart. We want you to know that we have heard you! I’m happy to report that we recently launched an upgraded quality control system and are currently going through all of our sets to make sure they are complete. Additionally, we are checking each set before shipment, so I expect your experience will improve very soon.

If you have any questions or need anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out! My email is: [email protected]

Cheers,
Kristi

Ellbee

I’d have been interested in this sub, but the response from Pley is concerning to me. We are “currently” checking all our sets to make sure they are complete??? What were they doing before that?! I would expect this to have been part of their operation from the get go. Obviously the sets would need to be checked every time they are returned,there is no way you could expect to have every piece returned every time. Also Pley didn’t respond at all to the shipping time issue. That bothers me.

Melanie

We didn’t have much of a problem with missing pieces. The ones that were missing we were able to work around. The shipping however, was unacceptable. We returned a set and heard nothing for almost 2 weeks. When I finally emailed them they told me there was a delay because of growth (this was around Christmas) and they offered me a credit to make up for it. I was a little bothered by the fact that there was no communications about a delay until I complained. But I accepted the credit because my little one loved getting legos to “try.” But another week and a half passed and no shipping notice. I again emailed and they apologized and 2 days later I finally got a shipping notice. But then I got charged for the second month I was supposed to be credited for. At this point I gave up. I asked them to cancel and credit me. Which they did a few weeks later. I love the idea but the execution is definitely a miss.

Anna

Thanks Kristi!

PA Anna

Thank you for the review and comments. I held off on subscribing because it seemed too good to be true. My 6 year old is a lego fanatic and is an excellent lego builder. He would be disappointed if there were pieces missing. Another sub with a great premise, but still needs to work on its execution.

Jessvii

Question – how does Pley sterilize the sets inbetween users? Kids put stuff in their mouths absentmindedly, plus kids get colds, so how does Pley handle the sanitation factor? Just wondering since I’d rather pay a fee than store a million Legos at my house (unless pieces are missing, in which case, forget it).

Anna

This is from their website:
“Yes! Every set is cleaned with an eco- and kid-friendly sterilization solution. Our cleaner sanitizes the bricks to the same standards approved by the FDA for restaurants. Our proven cleaning and sanitation process ensures that 99.99% of residuals, germs and bacteria have been killed and removed from the set.”
Hope that helps!

Nicolette Christensen

I dont think I would trust my kids to keep the rented pieces separate from their own. Especially if missing pieces are a regular occurrence, because I know mine would try to find pieces of their own to fill in the missing parts.

Robin

It’t too bad the sets have missing pieces, that is so frustrating. This is a neat idea but renting would never work for us. My kids would want to keep every single set. It would be a good deal if the price to keep was less since they are used sets.

Ashley

Our experience with Pley was not any better. I signed up for a free trial period, but I would have been more than willing to continue the subscription. I am running out of space for all the Lego sets we own, so being able to “rent” them was a major draw for us.

I didn’t find the shipping times to be a problem, but the missing pieces were a major problem. When I reached out to Pley about missing pieces in our first set, their response was, “just send it back and we’ll send you a new set”. Well, isn’t that the way it works anyway? lol When I reached out to them about missing pieces in our second set, they didn’t even respond.

Also, our experience with the queue was not a positive one. Their queue is similar to any other: put the set you want next in the number one position. They do tell you that, due to availability, you may not get your first choice. Ok, I understand that. However, we got sets that were way down our list, more like position 30-something. Yes, we had that many sets in our queue. lol

I canceled the free trial before it was even over. They have never reached out to me with an offer to return. Not that I expect such an offer from any canceled sub, but they are quite common.

Bottom line, between the missing pieces, the queue, and the lack of care or concern from Pley customer service, I would not recommend this service either. Although it is a real shame because it would be perfect for our family.

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Pley Subscription Box Review – March 2015

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