The LEGO Group has always been known for high quality customer service. In the rare case when a set is missing a piece, they’ll sent you a replacement. If you break a piece, they’ll send you a replacement. Today in the age of the internet, this process is mostly handled online with typical corporate anonymity. Sure, you can still call customer service and (eventually) speak to a real person that will give their first name. But there was a time when Susan Williams singlehandedly represented consumer services in North America.

During the late 1970s to early 1990s, thousands and thousands of parents and children had the experience of receiving a personal reply from Susan. These letters from Susan were so meaningful to some customers that she would occasionally receive Valentine’s cards or Christmas cards from appreciative customers. Some children even carried on a multiyear correspondence with Susan!

It was reported that in the early 1980s, The LEGO Group received over 30,000 letters each year from customers. While some letters addressed product issues, many expressed satisfaction with the products or offered suggestions for new product ideas. All of the letters were individually answered by Susan Williams. But how could a single woman handle this huge workload? It turns out there was a whole team of women and men(?) in the consumer services department that all signed their replies as Susan Williams.

Studying The Details

I’m not a professional handwriting expert, but these four signature examples from letters I found online are clearly different. Interestingly, three of them attempted to mimic a standardized Susan Williams signature. The consumer services employee with the initials “kkd” clearly thought her beautiful cursive writing brought a needed flourish to Susan’s signature!

Communicating With The LEGO Masses

Besides answering letters from individual consumers, Susan also served as a focal point in the printed LEGO catalogs from 1978 through 1994. In 1979 the message was one of pride in the LEGO name:

By 1980 the message had transitioned to a lesson on how to pluralize LEGO bricks. Sadly, this battle continues today with many people incorrectly saying “LEGOs”:

In the later years of Susan’s infamous career, there were often more simple service-oriented messages:

Were There Others?

According to amateur LEGO historian Gary Istok, the German version of Susan Williams went by the name of Paul Pudel. I couldn’t find any further mention of Paul, or other Susan equivalents from other nations, but I suspect there may be others. If anyone knows of other international “Susans,” please let us know.

Modern-Day LEGO Customer Service

So, who will answer your questions today at The LEGO Group? Heading to the website, I was a little dismayed to see that “Sophia the chatbot” was available. (What is this world coming to?!) Fortunately, you can also still call or email LEGO with questions—though the person in the images below answering the phone and emails looks an awful lot like the chatbot! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

By now we know that Susan Williams was a pseudonym used by all of the consumer service agents. But did she ever really exist? We haven’t found a definitive answer either way, but I strongly suspect she was entirely fictional. Susan’s career may have ended with modern truth in advertising regulations, but it was nice to feel a personal connection with a large international corporation.

They say that change is inevitable. At least we can be assured that LEGO bricks made in the future will work with those made before, during and after Susan Williams’ career!

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published August 18, 2023

Do you have a story about Susan Williams? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, John A., Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, Wayne Tyler, LeAnna Taylor, Monica Innis, and Dan Church to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.