Build-A-Bear Workshop Reviews 

I ordered the snowflake shine stitch for my son with the stitch sounds and pumpkin spice scent. It arrived today half stuffed, no scent and the sound is a personalised one of someone saying hug me, I love you.
Very disappointing from a big child’s brand.

Customer service assistant I have spoken to today was very helpful and fingers crossed our replacement comes correct this time

Appalling party on the shop floor for my daughter, no toilets, asked to go into Liverpool one yet only allowed two adults with 11 children, while public are coming in an out of the shop it just isn’t practical what’s so ever. Few occasions throughout the 1 hour experience we was getting knocked into and near enough squashed and having children aged 5-7years wasn’t practical. Asked the 11 children to pick a bear then said it’s only the ones with the balloons on the tags which they can have a really small selection out of about 30 bears is just ridiculous when staff could already have the the variety of bears to choose from rather than allowing the children to see bears that weren’t in the package especially having a child with ASD/ADHD nothing but stress from start to finish. Just wouldn’t recommend atal even paying at the end was an absolute nightmare it took three members of staff including two managers to work out the right price as they were trying to charge more, they said it was due to the system😂 and even a calculator couldn’t help😫

The money that youse must make surely you could find a bigger store to offer parties and both public visits a value of £308 for 1 hour 11 kids

We visited the Trafford centre branch today. No customer service skills from the two girls on the shop floor from the get go (one of which apparently was a manager)e and my little girl had gone with my parents who wanted to purchase a special bear for my soon to be 2 year olds birthday in December. We picked the bear dressed by it then both my parents recorded a personal message for her to be placed in the bear along with the stuffing etc.
We also took the bear which my parents had bought for my little boy when he was born 5 years ago to get a replacement battery for the recoding they had done for his as it no longer worked!
We had looked online about how this was done and as far as we were aware the little box got sent away,a new battery placed in and then you received it back in full working order! (This is no longer the case,apparently)
My mum and Dad had to record and pay for a new one to be placed in his bear!! Now this was fine as they are obviously around to do this! I asked if we could take the old recorded box home with us so that if we wanted we could try to maybe replace the battery ourselves!
We got told “you cannot take that with you as it’s not in the bear and company policy is that anything that’s bought in that respect has to be placed in the bear!”
Now my argument was
A - that’s ours we’ve already payed for it!
B - what if my parents were no longer around to record such personal message!! Imagine the heart ache been told that you cannot replace the battery!
After many questions and discussions with both girls in the shop (both whom might I add could do with going on some form of customer service education!!)
We then had to have the bear re opened to put the old “none working box” back in just so that we could take it home with us!!!
Absolutely disappointed build a bear!! I will be looking further into contacting someone about this as I just feel really sad for anyone that has had a recording done and now lost that person sadly!!

Worst party experience ever. The party before ours turned up 20 mins late and as a result ours was pushed back 40 mins. We were pushed to one side to do a birthday heart trick then had to wait 10 mins later to sing happy birthday to my child. We were yelled at by staff telling us to move out of the way so the other party could have another group photo. Then had to wait longer to get certificates because the other party was still doing there’s. Some members of the other party stood in the middle of ours so we couldn’t do games, or even take a group photo for my child. I thought this was supposed to be a special event but it seemed like the other party was allowed to push ours out. I complained and they did nothing about it. Definitely don’t recommend booking a party with these guys.

During checklist I missed the very small tick box that would allow my bear to come in a club condo box (95p). I have emailed twice to request they change my order but it is apparently something they cannot do. I find it laughable that they cannot put the bear in a cub condo rather that a brown box! Such a hard task! Very disappointed

Can honestly see why stores are closing, they have lost my custom. Been a loyal and happy customer with build a bear for years. For months i have been calling guest services snd asking the shop which is over 2 hours away about reseting a password/ using points/vouchers on the account. Was over £100 vouchers on there and was refused to use them. Today guest services finally answered the phone to be told that they won't honour them so basically lost over £100. Would have out a 0 star if I could

Appalling. The trafford centre branch won't answer the phone no matter what time of day you call them.
I need to ask them if they'll but the ashes of a loved one inside a bear for me instead of wasting the two hour round trip just to be told no.
How hard is it to answer a phone?
I worked there 20 years ago and they're a disgusting and elitist company.
Avoid.

Ordered the Snoopy and Woodstock special set - paid for the option of it coming "dressed" - it didn't. If you're not going to dress the blessed thing a) don't give the option b) don't charge people for it!
Couldn't be bothered to send it back or request a refund for the missing service but will be reluctant to use their service in the future.

$15 delivery to order one item. Placed the order on Sunday didn't hear anything. Emailed them Tuesday and they told me it is waiting to be picked up. Got the tracking number on Wednesday. It is now Thursday and still hasn't been sent. I Paid $15 delivery for one item and they take a week to send it out. This company seems to be stuck in the darkages with delivery. Make you prices fair, don't BS your custmers and get the products out for delivery. It is not hard! Very disappointed and won't be using them again. Extremely disorganized or lazy or both.

I ordered the bear with accessories on 7/22/2024. They told me when I ordered it that I would have the bear, etc. on Aug. 1 or Aug. 2. My friend’s bday is on Aug. 2 so that would make it in time. I kept checking my order every day and it never said it was shipped. A full week later, on 7/29, the order STILL had NOT shipped. I finally got an email on 7/30 saying it had shipped but they lied. They only created the shipping label. FedEx didn’t get the actual package until 7/31. Of course I received no notifications about this from the company and had not received a response to the last two emails I sent them. On 7/31, thanks to me setting up a notification on FedEx, I received notice from FedEx that the package won’t be here until 8/6, which is four days AFTER my friend’s birthday. Build a bear does NOT care about their customers at all and their “100% satisfaction guarantee” is a total lie. Do not waste your money with this company, they do not deserve you to spend any of your hard earned income with them. They certainly won’t appreciate it if you do.

Good and bad, Easy to order online and super fast delivery, really quick. The personalised voice box however was worse than useless.

Following the very sudden death of a friend, it shattered mine and his wife's world. He was a musician who wrote a song with some very poignant lyrics about saying goodbye that I managed to find on his you tube channel. Absolutely perfect for his wife I thought. The bear was eye-wateringly expensive by the time it was dressed just like him, but it was all about the sentiment and not the price.

I was shocked to find you have to upload the message via a phone line. (is this 1983?) I was expecting to upload an MP3, and you don't find this out until after payment. The phone upload was hopeless and I re-recorded it about a dozen times before it was like 'that will have to do'. When the bear turned up the voice box was worse than useless. His voice was completely inaudible and the guitar sounded like a strangled ice cream van that dropped in and out. It was downright embarrassing. I re-opened the back and ripped out the voice box in the hope I could re-record but they now use a sealed unit that can't be altered.
It went straight in the bin and I ordered one online that lets you upload a 60 second MP3 via USB. The difference is night and day.

Build a bear need to move into the 21st Century for the voice box and allow you to upload a small file with your online order. Mobile phones have voice memos, laptops have mikes, almost everyone can record it. Still have the phone as a backup for those who can't. I went from super excited to guttingly disappointed in an instant.
You could even do a premium voice box option as an upgrade. I would have paid extra (in fact I have anyway!). Can I have my £7 back?

Site Glitch prevented me from ordering Garfield When they had him online.... I tried to place the order for over an hour and then I gave up... Went on the site today and was able to get a Simba Lion King 30 year doll... NO PROBLEMS... I do feel that online only can cheat consumers out of what furry friends you want.. When the site fails.. you should have the chance to get it in the store.... With Garfield... I feel cheated....

I cannot stress enough how amazing staff at this branch were to us. Hannah, Laura & Evie. They made the whole experience so special for our little girl. They really are a huge asset to this company and we will definitely be going back to see them again. Thank you ladies for making my daughter's first build a bear experience so special.

Telford staff is super friendly and helpful and helped us make some hilarious birthday gifts, will absolutely be coming back for more!

Bear was not to the quality expected. No returns label provided.
Customer service was terrible. Could not understand English, repeated myself 5 times. Couldn’t understand what was being said back to me.
Have to wait 3-5 days for a returns label to be emailed??

Considering I just ordered Charizard and Knuckles from them and Knuckles is still pending and Charizard shipped but not going to be here until next week even though it's supposed to be here either that May 2nd or May 4th pisses me off I'm not ordering from them ever again online it just seems to me like they're being lazy

If I could give zero stars I would! I walked into the store in Braehead shopping center looking for a bear for my Niece's Birthday (who was with me btw) but we didn't even manage to get more than a few feet into the shop. A young women employee sidetracked me the moment I walked in (I walked in ahead of my family) & asked me 'why I was there?' (To by a bear obviously) and then proceeded to very rudely tell me that I was not allowed to bring my drink into the shop (it was in a sealed cup). I am a 27 year old woman, however I'm fortunate enough to look much younger and I feel this had some bearing on how I was treated. I was more annoyed by this young womens mannerisms and found her approach very intimidating. It's fair to say I walked straight back out! If employees are that rude to grown adults then I can't imagine how they would have treated my two year old niece. Never again will this company get my business. The worst thing was that my Niece was so excited to get her Birthday Bear and didn't even get to look at a single bear.

Wow - the reviews tell you all you need to know. Will never again buy another bear from this place. Total scammers. Selected a bear priced at £20, bought a beating heart (£5), bought an outfit (£13) bought a box (£1). Should have cost me £39. Cost me £59 as the bear was mis priced. Too late to back out when the thing is stuffed and there is a queue of people waiting behind you at the til. They could have made a loyal customer out of me but chose to be greedy scum bags instead. I looked at their company accounts and scamming is probably a strategy as the numbers are dreadful and dropping each year. Hopefully it closes down soon.

Poor service, I’ve recently moved house & found a build a bear gift card I’d bought when unpacking. I went in yesterday to buy birthday presents & was told the gift card didn’t work & to call the company, got home emailed them & apparently the card I bought expired in February 2024. They were very quick/polite in their response to my email. But the company wouldn’t honour it so I now have a gift card that’s useless & I will not be buying anything from them again. Such a shame as we used to make regular trips there. I visited the Exeter store

Meg at your Birmingham store inside Selfridges was amazing today! My mother took in my giant snorlax for restuffing and Meg was only too happy to help, even commenting how she had never seen one before let alone that big. She even removed some flat stuffing and replaced with fresh stuffing from the machine to make him nice and plump again! Didn’t even mind mum taking a photo so she could message me pretending to be my Snorlax and call for help as he had “eaten too much”. Where’s a pokeflute when you need one? Regardless Meg was amazing and we shall be back (perhaps next time I will bring in my Zombear for her) another discontinued bear she may not have seen and he’s kinda flat too. Give her my best happy to have my Snorlax back again, will not put him in the washing machine again…oops