Buildabear Anmeldelser 

I used a £10 off £30 purchase voucher and x2 £5 bonus club vouchers to get my order down from £36 -> £16. They all applied yet when I pressed pay my bank notified me BAB has taken £26. The order now doesn't show on my account, i've had no email confirmation, no order number. I feel like I've been scammed.

Quality gone downhill. I would at least expect the stiching at the back to stay together. Nope within 24hrs all open with a distraught child.

I absolutely loathe taking my child to Build a Bear. The staff are clearly briefed to be all over you the moment you step in the shop. They are so 'enthusiastic', falling over themselves to upsell everything they can from beating hearts, smelly additions, overpriced outfits and then you have to pay for a box to take the bear away with you. Usually after spending well in excess of £30/40. The staff prey on the fact that you dont want to say no to your child. Never again

Ordered Shadow the hedgehog bundle with voice box and wrstie included, when he arrived, he had no voice box, despite it being included in the bundle. They said they would replace it and I should return the one without a voice box, after 3 phone calls trying to sort the return, the DPD portal finally works and I send it back. The new one arrived today.

Much to My disappointment, this Shadow had no voice box, I am now total of 4 phone calls in and waiting for a manager to call me back. Never have I known such an inability to just simply put a voice box in a plush toy, how hard can it be?

I would recommend to stay away from Build A Bear online, unless your happy with getting pot luck and not what you paid for.

EDIT: I rebought the bear and they sent me TWO. I havent gotten a refund from the first bear that was apparently a cancelled purchase but obviously wasnt cancelled. A lady i spoke to from customer service the other day said you dont take paypal even though YOU DO. She lied saying you dont take paypal so itll bounce back. Today I have been stuck on call with this "company" for a hour and they are useless. had to ask for a manager and one called "Maddison" has been trying to help but a shipping label just WASNT WORKING. dpd was having issues with trying to return. I APPARENTLY will be getting a refund for the lied about cancelled purchase and ill get a label to return at some point. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY ONLINE IF YOU WANT YOUR SANITY. I REFUSE TO BUY ANYTHING ONLINE FROM THEM AGAIN.

been a life long customer ever since i was a young kid.

I went to purchase the online exclusive shadow and an error happened yet the money got taken from my paypal. i am getting no response from support and i am getting nothing from twitter support thats helpful.

I do not wanna do a chargeback and risk having my account blocked from purchasing again but at the same time due to this i am too worried to buy online from this company again.

I am worried by the time this is sorted shadow will be out of stock too :(

I am autistic and have an anxiety disorder and this is really stressing me out.

Please dont steal my money.

EDIT 21/10/2025:
So after the build a bear Twitter account got hacked i commented about how it must have been hacked. I then got blocked and when they got their account back I still haven't been unblocked. I contacted their online support and asked to speak to a human and they basically shrugged me off and I STILL HAVENT BEEN UNBLOCKED.

Also they have released a beautiful Kitsune plush that I would buy if it wasnt online exclusive and far more expensive than any of their other bears. What happened to this company? Used to be for kids and the bears were not too expensive so their parents would be more willing to buy them.. not too expensive for even an adult to not consider buying.

Honestly with all of these negative experiences I am highly considering never shopping again. Wish I could give negative stars.

Update on review submitted on 26th November 2024: still waiting for my refund despite me sending several emails and calling. I’ve sent photo evidence from courier that return was received on 17th November yet still being told it will take 2-4 weeks to be received??? I’ve called and spoken to a supervisor who now claims that the 2-4 weeks is for the warehouse team to tell them they have it. They asked me to give them until the end of the week but when asked if not resolved by then? They said it’ll be subject to ongoing review until warehouse confirms and meanwhile no refund until they do!!!!
Completely unprofessional and highly patronising service: make sure you want something before buying because you won’t get a refund if you change your mind.

They dont respond to emails!

Emailed a week ago, heard nothing until I got an automated email asking if I still wanted help I said yes and still nothing.

Also signed up as a UK customer, the local store on my account is based in the UK but when I got a birthday email it’s not even in £! Also, there was a note up in our local store saying they dont accept gift cards etc? Seems a little ridiculous to sell something you can’t use in store especially when this isn’t clear on the website, luckily I didn’t get one but I was going to for a gift.

Bought one as a treat to cheer myself up. It came in a battered carboard box with had little care put into it. It was barely held together with parcel tape. The bear itself feels cheap and very synthetic like the fur will fall off soon. Wont be buying from them again

Awful customer service! We've spent a lot of money collecting bears over the years but this time I've had a problem with one and they couldn't care less!
A big patch of fur is missing on a bear which I ordered online. It was reported straight away and weeks later I'm still waiting for them to sort the issue!? Their only suggestion was to go into a shop with it but I can't go to the shop which is why I ordered it online in the first place!???😡😡😡😡😡

My 12 year old daughter saved up for a very long time to purchase a build a bear from Selfridge's in London.
She had an awesome experience, super helpful staff.

However, the bear didn't live up to this level of service and the fur fell off within less than 12 months.

She reached out to customer service to explain what had happened, including photos of the bear.
Over 7 weeks later, she hasn't received a response.

Appalling customer service, in fact I'd go as far to say, non existent.

How can you deal in dreams for children and not support them or even reply to them.
Dreadful service, shame I can't attach photos for you all to see the bear

Shelly from merryhill really made the experience special for my 3 year old today🥰 best experience here so far and an absolute asset to your brand 🥰

Lots of love Jordan & Minty x

Great service from both In store and online purchases. 🫶🏻

Liverpool 1 store is especially fab

Went to Build a Bear Selfridge. We were to only customers and two staff were serving. I thought this was supposed to be an experience. But we chose a bear. The lady took it away and stuffed it. Not speaking to us at all. She then started tying it up. I asked about a heart & sound recording. She quickly grabbed a heart and stuffed it in saying they were all out of everything else but the scents. She then tied up the bear and stuffed in a bag.
Honestly you are supposed to pay for an experience. The kids used to stuff the bears themselves. Then spend time putting the heart it and writing a birth certificate.
This was just buying a bear from a shop. So disappointing, we had waiting a long time to do this as all the shops have closed locally. Now I know why. Don't waste your money.

Build a bear in selfridges Oxford street
What can I say , I took a very special young lady to buy a bear to put a message in for her Nan who’s she’s soon going to be parted from
We were treated so kindly it made our day really special and I can’t thank them enough

Where do I start! The shops can't get the same stock as online because they are two different business apparently! My daughters birthday in two weeks and have been waiting months for Pompompurin to arrive in shop! I have to buy the completed bear online and then take it into the shop for them to remove the stuffing and pay again for the bear to be remade! Rubbish uncaring service that just want to push the upsell to you at every opportunity. Go into the shop and it's not an experience getting the bear made, it's just a constant upsell aimed at the kids, putting pressure on parents with overpriced tat that they have made in the far east probably for pence! Save your money and go have a genuinely nice experience elsewhere.

Ordered a bear as a birthday present with gift box, certificate and gift message. Everything arrived apart from the gift message. I emailed them asking and they came back saying I won’t get the gift message as they can’t reprint as it was on the order slip, yet they were able to quote my entire message in the email. Super upset as I included a gift message to show the meaning for the present. Now have to think what to do instead.

I’ve recently bought three bears off build a bear since December last year and recently purchased two bears in July this year, all three bears came packed well and they are soooo cute.

I ordered 4 bears for my nieces who have sadly just lost their mother. The bears were just thrown in a huge cardboard box with no protective packaging. Not the slightest care given. For the price you pay for these products you would expect them to be carefully packed in protective, water proof packaging. The box got ripped and squashed in transit. I had to sponge dirty marks off the bears. They were squashed and smelt damp and dusty. If it had been raining they would have got soaked in the box. The certificates were shoved at the bottom of the box, not in a protective envelope so got really creased, dog eared and frayed at the edge.
When I contacted Customer Service they said I could have an email certificate replacement or get one from a branch. The nearest branch is 40 miles away. I'm grieving the loss of my sister so don't have the strength to travel all that way. I don't have a printer to print them out either.
I explained that the bears were for my nieces who were grieving. The didn't even acknowledge what I said, never mind offer a word of condolence. They just said that the boxes were just for dispatch and offered to email the certificates again, despite the fact I'd told them I don't have a printer.
It wouldn't have cost them much to send replacement certificates by post in a protected envelope, apologize for poor quality packaging that caused damage to the bears and offer their condolences.
I would never recommend this company's service, especially if you are purchasing a special gift for someone.

Delivery company they use is shocking. Paid for next day delivery but they didn't even attempt to deliver the parcel, instead they dropped it off at a local shop and I had to wait until the next day to pick it up. Then when I finally did receive the item instead of it purring and meowing like a cat it said, in a very monotone default voice, "say it with sound". Can't get hold of customer service either via the telephone or via email either.

I wish I read the reviews before we visited the store in Windsor! Could not agree more with all, VERY VERY POOR experience and complete waste of money! I was happy to pay the huge prices provided they made my 4 year old engaged and excited. The store members were more interested in pushing their add on items and did not provide any experience for the child what so ever. I prompted them few times to engage my girl but hardly any response. This is a rip off, could not believe how bad it was!!