I called Lego for the first time today, to confirm my Bricks & Pieces order. Unfortunately they didn't in fact have the brown pillar in production, although they tracked down 3 of them for me. The rest is coming though, so my Flagship will soon be (99,5%) complete!
It's really excellent service, either way, tracking down individual pieces like this. Of course Bricklink is cheaper and faster in most cases, but I can't see many other companies helping with this fairly trivial (in the long run) stuff.
I mean, imagine if I called Sony and wanted a loose manual for a game I bought in 2009. I doubt they would bother.