Brick Borrow Avis 

When I found this business, I was quite excited. There is an issue that isn’t clear when you initially sign up.

Issues
1) the issue is the availability of sets - its difficult to get the larger more popular sets (UCS and the like). They’re almost never available and when they come available they’re snapped up again in seconds or because of the level of your subscription, you’re already borrowing and can’t borrow another. This ultimately means that unless you subscribe as a master builder (where you can borrow two sets at a time) and hold one of your borrowing slots as a contingency for when sets come available - well, you’ll be stuck in an endless loop of borrowing the smaller sets which themselves often aren’t available and missing out on the larger sets which rarely become available.
2) shipping cost - the company isn’t fully transparent in respect of the fact that every time you borrow, you have to pay a £5 postage fee - this is not crystal clear when you initially subscribe. I think the wording is ‘we’ll handle the return and provide a postage label’ without mentioning that you pay for it.

Positives
1) the customer service is very good - they respond swiftly and are always friendly - can’t fault this.
2) they do send the sets out and process returns quickly
3) it’s actually very good value for money - if all the sets were a little more available, it would be an absolute bargain.

Overall
It’s good - but if you’re hoping to be able to borrow larger sets - you need to give consideration to opt for the max subscription.

*Edit* - since providing this review I received a call from the business, I was to be clear that there was no request or expectation for me to change this review - I have chosen to update this. The business have been clear that they are expanding and growth takes time, they have also taken on board the feedback in respect of the postage. I must say - this just further solidifies my point that the business really cares, has genuine good intentions and excels in customer care. For that reason alone - the business should be supported because I can’t think of a customer service function as effective as this teams.

This is a great scheme where you can borrow great Lego sets. We’ve had a real range of sets to suit everyone in the family and it’s been great fun building together.
Always responsive from customer service and quick to post the sets out. Really pleased with the service and cannot recommend enough!

Brick borrow is the absolute best way to get a Lego building fix and not worry about having to display them afterwards. In addition to that we get to build sets that I wouldn’t normally even think about buying.

Fantastic service, we have made so many great sets and a great variety of themes. It’s a great gift too, we had a yearly membership as a wedding present! Really happy to use this as a couple who love Lego!

Brick borrow is revolutionary, I love building the sets and having the flexibility of the sets we can borrow.

Also it has saved me a fortune and space as I have no where to store full sets and this gives me the option to build so many different sets. I can’t recommend this company enough.

I've been a member for 5 months now.
The customer service has been excellent. When sending queries, the responses are fast, friendly and professional.
And it's great to be able to borrow sets that would cost over £60 to buy.
However, I have some reservations on the service itself.
(1) I rarely get to borrow the sets I'd really like. I add a request to know when sets are back in stock, but notifications come through when I already have a set - and, by the time I've sent it back, the one I requested has been borrowed again.
Not sure why the company let people borrow sets indefinitely - this seems impractical and a poor business model.
(2) The website. It's so clunky! You can't search, can't see your favourites until you're able to borrow. (There's a filter option but that operates poorly on mobiles.) A complete redesign is needed, I think.
(3) Of the 5 sets I've borrowed, there have been pieces missing in every set except one (and that was a new set). You can request the missing pieces but that loses the momentum in building your Lego.
(4) The turnaround is usually 7 days between sending a set back and being able to borrow again. Not sure if this is the Royal Mail being slow or their processing of returned sets. They raise expectations by advertising a 48 hour turnaround but this doesn't include posting time.

The jury is out on whether I'll decide to renew next year. The idea is brilliant but the execution falls a bit short - for all the above reasons.

If you are a Lego nut, young or old and are fed up with shelling out loads of money on sets and then wondering what to do with them when they are built, then BRICK BORROW is the definite place for you. For a modest membership fee, you can choose from hundreds of very different sets, you order, they ship them to you, you build them, you take them apart and send them back. When they receive them, you order again. It’s as simple and efficient as that.
The staff are incredibly friendly and helpful and do everything that they possibly can to sort out any problems that you may have.
I cannot recommend Brick Borrow highly enough
Mike Gladdng

They have great advertising and let you browse all the cool sets before you join, but once you do, you have to wait for months before you manage to get an alert for one of the cool ones and by the time you try to reserve it, it’s gone, or after managing to choose one that was back “in stock”, they tell you that was an issue and you’ll have to pick another set.

When you do settle for one of the cheaper sets, they almost always have half a dozen or so pieces missing.

If they ran it like a library, with limited borrowing time and reservations, it would likely remove all but the missing pieces issues.

A lovely company with amazing customer service. I love building Lego but have nowhere to put it so being able to borrow it is brilliant. I love seeing other sets that have been built by other customers. Very good price for the subscription with different prices to suit many people

My son loves brick borrow! As a parent I do as well! I was so fed up of Lego builds taking up shelves and gathering dust! My son has the mystery box and loves the element of surprise each month! We have a family night and all sit together and build! Such a fab idea and wish we found sit sooner!

The concept is great and execution is OK, sadly the choice is very limited. You have to have been subscribed for 3 months before you can borrow kits of higher value (I estimate this to be around >£50). Unfortunately, after waiting for this, I am now finding the availability of any of the higher value kits is extremely limited. Because you cannot see what is available until you return the set, I now find myself having no sets at home, still paying the subscription, and just waiting for something to become available. The user interface could be much improved through addition of queues/borrowing histories (so that you can see roughly how often a kit becomes available), etc. I'm not waiting for a very specific kit to become available, but don't want to be continually spending £5 postage on small kits while paying the £15 subscription with which at best I can manage two kits per month (the shipping/processing times really add up and I can only really manage putting the kits together on weekends).

The concept is great. Of the 6 kits I've had so far, 2 had a piece or two missing, but not critical, and one had been a brand new kit (which was really nice). Generally the experience has been good, I just wish the website was better and more of the 3+ month kits were available as that is obviously where the demand is. I'll stick with it for another 2-3 months, but if I'm not getting my hands on some of the better kits, I will sadly cancel the subscription.

Update following response: Thank you for taking the time to respond. As a result I ended up setting notifications but in the 2.5 weeks, every time I got a notification that a set is available, by the time I log in, it's already been borrowed again (any of the big Technic sets/few Icons). This seems to reflect others' reviews. You can also only set up notification for up to 10 sets and I can't see any way to check which sets I have notifications for once set up. The website and user interface is sadly still the biggest let down. Improving this would definitely bring my review up to 4 or 5 stars.

Great experience, recommend it!

Fabulous customer service.

In the chaos of everyday life, we forgot to cancel my wife's annual subscription that I bought her as a birthday present a couple of years ago. She dropped them an email explaining the situation and they wrote back immediately (on a Sunday) with a plan to get it done in a sensible and fair manner. This is what all customer service experience should be like. Well done guys!

Couldn’t recommend Brick Borrow more!

There were lots of sets my son and I wanted to build but we have limited space where we live, so this company is the most fantastic thing. We have now gone through our hero apprenticeship and are allowed the bigger sets!

Sometimes there are bits missing but they are brilliant in sending them out or if it doesn’t affect the build you can let them know when you send it back.

Can’t wait for our next build!

It’s a con. So firstly you pay £5 each set extra for shipping which they don’t tell you. Secondly you have to be a member 3 months to get access to decent sets. Thirdly the decent sets are never available. I was a member for 8 months and had all the email notifications on for multiple sets and never got close. I also had two sets that had parts missing so spoilt to whole build. It’s a nice idea in concept but it’s a con believe me.

Update - they tried to take this review down as defamatory lol. Just honest and they don’t like it.

Amazingly easy to order and receive! Been wanting to do this set for a while and we can’t keep buying LEGO as we have no storage for it! Can’t wait to do the other sets! Thank you

They have nearly every lego set existing (so many many choices!) and the staff seem helpful and friendly 😊. I've only subscribed recently but so far I've had a great experience with them. Fast delivery too when they post the set you choose.

As much as I enjoyed getting this subscription each month I was very disappointed when I was half way through each build and there was pieces missing. This happened on three occasions so it just wasn't a one off. I even gave the company a chance by keeping my subscription but all I was offered was free delivery which wasn't really appreciate considering I was spending over £30 a month on my subscription.

I really do wish they would do better by making sure all the Lego parts where in the box and checked which obviously wasn't because all the boxes I received the Lego parts where still together.

It's a very good idea and maybe I will try again in the future but at the moment I'm very disappointed in the amount of money I have spent on subscriptions to be only offered free delivery as an apology.

Absolutely love brick borrow I have just done my first set the Lego arrived quickly after picking the set I was halfway building when I noticed 1 piece missing and after emailing them was sent the piece within 24 hours which I was really impressed with.

I have now today returned the set, I think there is improvements to be made for example disassembly is really difficult for me as I have a disability and Lego is like glue. So I brought myself a Lego removal tool for a few pounds from Amazon which made everything so much easier, I would like to see brick borrow provide this for accessibility.

Overall though I love brick borrow and looking forward to my next set.

Simple and such a good idea! Really enjoying Brick Borrow!