Build-A-Bear Workshop Reviews 

Unfortunately customer care refused to contact the courier company and the courier company refused to discuss my missing parcel with me. Meaning my order is lost and may or may not turn up another day but build a bear won’t contact DPD to find out. Pretty terrible customer service and ridiculously expensive and unreliable shipping.

The stuffy is so ugly it looked like a taxidermy animal. And the voice recording is not audible. Live chat wasted my time and said they would follow up. They didn't. Eventually I chased them and just got the same useless copypaste response they gave before.

Ordered bears in their sale. Due friday. Didnt show. Now tgeyre going back to build a bear who wont resend unless i have second address! I ordered loads from them, all arrive no probs. But one incompetent driver and i dont get my hears!

If I could give 0 stars I would
Ordered a bear with my deceased grandmothers voice for my moms birthday gift
Shipping options showed standard delivery would be here with 11 days, so used that option, got an email confirmation that was 2 weeks passes my moms birthday when I wouldn’t be at the shipping address anymore to even receive it as I am going to a different province for her birthday, contacted “customer support” what a joke. They just kept saying delivery is 1-2 weeks after shipping, could not explain the discrepancy in shipping times and said they cannot make any modifications to my order
So they lied on the website and refused to do anything to help me, the tracking info they gave just says “order processing”
They clearly don’t care about their customers and just want your money, after everytime this agent told me 1-2 weeks after shipping it was can I help with anything else” like no? You didn’t help me with the one thing I’m asking for, had the website shown delivery would have been that far out I would have actually paid to have it shipped sooner 😡

Jeg har d.5 juni bestilt 3 varer. En mini haj, haj bamsen samt et sæt politi tøj til hajen. Pakken bliver leveret d.9 juni, jeg pakker den ud og har modtaget en overfyldt bamse hvor tøjet faktisk ikke passer. Min mini haj er også helt skæv, både måden den er syet og hovedet er deformt.
Jeg sender dem en mail samme dag hvori jeg spørger om jeg kan bytte tøjet i en fysisk butik, da jeg har benyttet mig af 3 for 2 tilbuddet og jo ved returnering faktisk ikke vil få beløbet jeg har betalt tilbage.
De vender hurtigt tilbage i første omgang, de svarer at tøjet passer til hajen og vedhæfter et billede af en bamse som de har givet tøjet på. Jeg svarer retur med det samme og vedhæfter billeder hvor man tydeligt kan se, at sættet altså ikke passer.
Jeg har så her i dag d.18 juni fået endnu et svar, hvor de skriver følgende “ Vores tøj passer til alle vores bamser og det er One Size, så det er sådan at tøjet skal sidde på bamsen.

Men du er mere end velkommen til at returnere tøjet - dog kun online, da det er en onlineordre 😊”

Så altså jeg kan betale for at sende tøjet der har kostet 199kr retur, men kan kun få 70kr for det, så jeg vil ende med 20kr hvis jeg er heldig.

Dette er utrolig dårlig service, hvilket er ærgerligt da jeg ikke før har haft problemer.

Bait and Switch! I tried to order a Build-A-Bear for my child. They’re already expensive, so I was excited when I received an email advertising free shipping and clicked through to the website.
After placing my order, I noticed I had been charged for shipping anyway. I immediately contacted customer service through chat, where I spoke with PAOLA. I was told that the free shipping offer didn’t apply to my item because of the terms and conditions.

I asked for a link to those terms and conditions, and while they sent me a link, they then directed me to the homepage and told me they were there. I searched the homepage from top to bottom and couldn’t find them anywhere. When I explained that I couldn’t locate the terms and asked to speak with a supervisor, the representative simply disconnected the chat instead of helping me.

This was an extremely frustrating experience. Advertising free shipping and then charging shipping without clearly accessible terms feels misleading. Disconnecting the chat when I asked for a supervisor only made the situation worse. Very disappointed.

They take the money from you bank account before you are even done ordering and claim its just a holding, but keep the money, even if the order "fails". SCAM WEBSITE!

My son and I went to build a bear in Cardiff and when we walked in the staff’s was really friendly, caring , polite, understanding, nice, helpful and kind. We both picked our new bears and staff helped us to stuff it and get clothes for my son bear.

I recommend anyone to go build a bear in Cardiff

If I could give 0 stars, I would.

Placed an order for my daughters birthday. Order confirmed. 5 days later I realised I hadn't heard anything. Called, they cancelled my order. I needed my own £20 gift card back. I was promised a call back from a manager. It's been 2 weeks and I have not been called. I placed the order again, called as soon as I did only to be told it was cancelled again. At 10.30pm I was told a manager would call me back. 2 weeks later, still nothing. They sent my e gift card to someone else!! I then drove for an hour and a half into London to buy the items only to be told they weren't available (I had called before going) and that build a bear customer service have deducted £15 from my vouchers without my consent and sent the items out. The staff in the stores are lovely, the products are great. The customer service team is beyond awful. When I explained to the first person that my daughter is autistic and this is the only thing she's asked for and I explained what could happen when she's dysregulated, he actually laughed. When I asked what was so funny about me potentially getting hit, he said he was being nice and 'should I be rude to you instead'

Clearly I won't be shopping online and calling customer service again.

Avoid their website!!

I placed an order for my granddaughter‘s kindergarten graduation. I have been buying build bears for every special occasion since her mother was a small child. I paid 35 extra dollars to have it shipped overnight, just in time for the graduation. It did not show up. Build a bear offered me seven dollars in compensation. Seven dollars for ruining a kindergartners graduation from a company that made over $500 million in revenue in 2025. I am more than shocked at the disrespectful attempt to reconcile ruining our special occasion and not even holding themselves accountable. It’s OK though, I’m sure if I tell a five-year-old they gave me seven dollars back, she should be fine with her grandma showing up with nothing in hand, right? Had I known it wasn’t going to show up in time, I could have just gotten her something else instead. I have no way to make this up to her. I will think about this every time she has a graduation. It’s sad how money is so much more important to some people than the special moments.

We took our granddaughter for a treat today and decided to bring her to BAB Basingstoke to choose a bear. I hadn't been in many years and used to bring my other granddaughter here (she had alot of BAB!) as she loved it. It used to be a real treat for her and she loved choosing a new bear and then creating a birth certificate for it, which was always printed out at the till and popped into a lovely box ready for her take away her new toy. It was a complete treat and experience and the staff were always very attentive and made the experience fun. Sadly, today, I could see a massive difference and it wasn't good. Unfortunately it was a real sign of the times, the shopping centre was near on empty (on a Saturday!) and unlike last time, when BAB shop was so full, we had to queue to get the bear filled, the shop was empty with one other customer and several staff members just standing around chatting about what they had been doing outside of work. The quality of the bears have gone downhill considerably but the prices have gone through the roof. And despite no customers, we still had to wait for someone to notice that we were waiting to fill the bear. When a guy did come over there was barely any interaction with us or our granddaughter (they always used to engage and talk to the child about their bear etc etc). All the guy tried to do was get us to buy a 'beating heart/scent/sound' add on for the bear, to inflate the price even more. And of course it doesn't stop there - you don't just get charged for an overpriced outfit for the 'bear' but each item is sold separately so you don't get an actual outfit, you have to pay for it all separately. A rucksack that was part of the paw patrol outfit set me back £10 on its own - which was more than I paid for my own adult backpack that actually has a purpose. And then to add insult to injury, I then had to create a certificate which I now have to print out at home, and had to pay for a box to bring my purchase home (or I could have paid a fiver for a 'special' bag.........! To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I used to rate build a bear so highly and loved taking my grandkids for a treat, but it has gone downhill so much, that I will in future to take the kids to the toy shop opposite where, for the same money I spent today on one bear (£56!!) they can get a whole range of toys!!

Took my granddaughter to the build a bear shop in Basingstoke. Wow...so disappointing!
The bears to me seem to not be of the same quality as they were when I used to bring my first grandchild ( 8 years ago).
The staff watched us like hawks, as if we were shop lifters and the young man who stuffed our bear was miserable. They are all trying to upsell their over priced products. They have removed all the places where children could groom their bears....£56 for an average item, didn't even print out our certificate, and you now have to pay for a box( that's now not even big enough for some of the bears! I will never go to build a bear again!

Horrible customer service. Wrong postcode. Sent by the deplorable DPD who have, without consent, left it a post office on the other side of town. Called Build a Bear to explain. They said it would be delivered the next day or they would wait for it to be returned. Didn't listen to a word, told them it had been left at a post office even though I told them not to. Still fighting for a refund. Never use again.

The staff was just excellent I got my bulid a bear from here with friends it was amazing thank you so much bulid a bear

The website is absolutely unusable. Incredibly slow loading times, seemingly incorrect stock information, and no way to receive assistance.

So a couple of years ago, I purchase two of the £10 cards in Blackpool, there was no mention of an expiry date, nor is there any on the cards, today at the Trafford center, my disabled child was told that they were out of date, over the past 5 years, we have purchased around 20 bears, sad to say that you have just lost a customer today...

Utter shambles of a company!!! Ordered a bear on Saturday with express delivery being paid so it would arrive on Tuesday - Monday night comes with no email so go on to the live chat to be told there was an error and my order was not authorised - if the money does not go back in my card to contact the bank!!!no email to state this happened and £35 down until the order gets refunded! TERRIBLE!

We came to get my little one’s first birthday bear and she was so kind towards him. Gave us a lovely experience! Thank you Kirsty for your kindness :)

Ok so don't listen to all the one stars because go to build a bear and it's completely different let me explain

So I get the price range is really high especially the clothing,sents,heartbeats,ect.but after you pick one of the animals (my son picked the capybara and the promise pug and he loves it)check for sales because there is an in-store deal that is buy one get one for £14 and if you pick two and one that has the red label that says buy one get one for £14 then you could get a really big deal,and you could really save money.

Now back to the one stars ratings

They are mostly focused on the clothing, the prices for the bears,ect but get one or just get one and buy one that has the red label and get one for £14.

So when you see the one stars ratings just focus on the bright side

PS:the staff are super kind aswell