The Brickhouse — Local services in Olympia

I want to start off by saying we've been to this shop twice. The first time was a fantastic experience. I believe it was the owner we had the pleasure of talking to. Our son is autistic. One of his traits is a cough / throat clearing tic. Generally not an issue anywhere we go. I can count on one hand the times anyone has ever said anything to us, much less directly to our son himself.

The first time we went, the fellow took time and answered our son's questions and even helped him find a few cool parts, and more than went out of his way to find some cool engine parts that had come in because our son is obsessed with engines and vehicles. This was extraordinary to my wife and I that he took the time to do this when he found that out. That was our sons first experience with Legos because of some of his developmental delays. That experience I would have rated 5 stars and had expected to leave a review today similarly since I failed to do so last time.

Today, however. was quite the opposite. Who ever was in today was sitting at the table working on a kit, and our son's tic started up because of his excitement and the fellow says to him directly "hey bud cover your mouth when you cough". He gets made fun of enough by kids his age about the tic. Having a grown man, say that to a child not his own completely unaware as to what's going on is just absurd. But that would have been fine, whatever, as I stated before we've had this happen less than a handful of times. Where the review earns its low rating is our son asked this same guy for some help finding something, and I don't want to outright quote him because I'll get it wrong but in short told him he couldn't because he was working on his kit.

This is where the 2 stars comes from. If our son wasn't autistic and so wrapped up with his new love of Legos (the one activity where he can remain focused and his tic disappears for a few hours no less) we would have just left the shop right then and there. Any parent of an ASD child has experienced the meltdowns that can happen when you have to change plans, this is the only reason we completed a transaction today; after all, it wasn't our sons fault. This experience was a complete juxtaposition to our first visit. It's absolutely pathetic when a 6 year old leaves a store and tells a parent they don't want to go back because an employee hurt their feelings by not wanting to help. If they were busy it'd be one thing, but we were the only ones in the store. I think the girlfriend of one of the other employees came in and they both left the store for a bit so it was only the four of us in the store until we checked out.

We went back this second time even though I found we could get bulk Lego deals for 1/3 the price online. We chose to go back to this shop because we prefer to support local businesses and man did our son get so excited to find individual pieces he wanted there. I'm sure for most people the experience is great, like I said our first visit was one of the best customer service experiences I've ever had and I was very stoked my son was able to have that happen to him but today's experience was just unacceptable. An employee that is too busy doing his own thing and unresponsive to a very excited customer is just unacceptable for us. We will be buying our bulk deals online from here on out, which just stinks because we were so impressed with that first visit and know it's not always like today but we're not going to put our kid through something as silly...

Fabulous!!! There are 3 to 4 full size table bins of pieces, whatever you can fit in the zip-lock you choose is what you bring home; if you are anything like me you will pickup several bags. It is a great atmosphere for going through the bins with other Lego enthusiasts as we look for our own pieces and keep an eye out for each other's favorites as well. You can also buy those special pieces from the assortment hanging on the wall or in the rotating tray case. The prebuilt items around the store are an inspiration as well as a good deal. They change regularly and it is clear that the folks who run the place really enjoy building items for us to take home for our personal collection or a child's enjoyment. The selection of figures is really fun to choose from as they are well displayed and fairly priced. In fact, after comparing their prices on several occasions, it has been a real surprise to find that their prices are as good or better than what I find online. A surprise because, I can go down and pick the item out, pay no postage and have it today, all for the same price or lower than I can get elsewhere. Even the selection of boxed items in this "second hand" Lego store is very respectable.

Beyond these facts, they generously allow exchanges if the pieces you bought are not right for you and they will buy your unwanted Legos as well! It is a real treat going in and the only thing I don't like about the place...

Don't bother unless you are a local who is known to them. Not much interest in helping new customers with the run of the store. I made the mistake of putting pieces into my quart bag only to be told that that tub of translucent pieces (right next to the pick a brick table) that I picked through was not part of self select. Again, no signs I could discern and no instruction from staff. There were other mini tubs of sorted pieces by color. Nothing unique or expensive. I assumed it was the result of an awesome staff that had pre-sorted pieces for the customer. Also, I was in plain view of the gentleman/staff member who was sitting down not 5 feet from me watching his tablet. I had been sorting for 10 minutes when the staff member behind the counter reprimanded me. When I was informed by him that the tub was off limits, I felt that I had been accused with trying to get away with something. I put my quart bag in the tub and left the store without buying anything. I won't be back. I traveled from Issaquah specifically to support a local lego shop and add to the projects I have for myself and the elementary students I work with. Message received, not...