Build-A-Bear Workshop Reviews 345

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

I ordered a $75.00 gift certificate online and received my confirmation/order number, and they processed my card for the $75.00 but I never received an email confirmation or my ecard for my Grandaughter. I called the next day and they told me my order did not process and that it would take 7-10 business days for my card to be refunded. So stupid me I tried again using another card and again the same thing happen and they tell me they cannot reverse the transaction and that I must contact my financial institution to get the pending charge eliminated. At the end of the day I lost $150.00 and have no ecard for my Grandaughter for Easter. Totally pathetic and really not in a position to lose $150.00 beyond livid I am.

I had never been in before and Emily in Montgomery Alabama was amazing! She explained everything and offered advance!

Just come home from a 3 hour round trip to get my son a bear and for him to have experience as he said and the bear is damaged ! Went on chat told take it back ! Then advised they send a new one out !! I spent nearly £100 on this bear not happy as I didn’t buy online so he could make a wish build him bear pick the clothes etc ! Very poor service and customer service I asked if possible get a different one as it’s very poor made told no ! Have often bought from here for my two boys but this one is special and my son will not see it as same bear he has ASD which is not a pass but a little understanding at moment is breaking his heart as I have told him they will swap it but he’s upset as not same bear anyways they are not what they used to be and poor service

As always, i'm very happy with Build a Bear Australia services 🥰

Their customer service is the worst! I literally placed an order online and two minutes later realized I had accidentally ordered 2 of the same item. I quickly got on with an agent and asked if he could take one of the items off. He said "no, we can't alter an order once it is placed". I mean, I get if it would have been processed or shipped, but the status was "pending", nothing had been done with my order, it would have been soo easy and they would have had happy, repeat customer as opposed to someone who will never shop at the store or online again. Ridiculous.

I have nothing but good things to say about Build a Bear. They filled order & shipped it out with short notice. It arrived on time and my daughter couldn't be happier! Check them out!

I got overcharged $5 for the error occurred at the Southcenter, Tukwila WA location. Instead of admitting the error, the cashier simply told me to get assistance from online customer service. I asked for the manager to go over the receipt with me but the staff refused to get the manager or there is no manager on a Sunday busy day. I reached out to the chat representative. Instead of going over the receipt to try to figure out with me why there is an extra $5 overcharged, she simply said: "I don't see anything wrong. I recommend to go back to the store and speak to someone at the store."

I email the guest service and they find out the error but refused to refund me the $5 overcharged even though they knew where the error was. The email simply told me to go back to the store and have the manager deal with your problem.

This is the type of company that families with children supposed to trust but when an error was presented, they could have resolved it easily by either refund me directly or add $5 credit to my account. Simple as that. But since the training and management is soooo messed up at Build-a-Bear corporation, the representatives have no CLUE how to resolve issues. Guest service department is USELESS pretty much. To reduce their stress, they would simply send you back to where the problem started. This company is HOPELESS!

Here's the mail received:

Build a Bear US Guest Services
5:45 PM (12 minutes ago)
to me

Hello Kany,

Thank you for reaching out to Build-A-Bear and for being our Guest! We apologize for all the inconvenience this may have caused

We are sorry to know this kind of event; this is not the kind of experience we want to our Guest. It appears that when you "added" the $5 promotional gift card, it was added as an item to be purchased rather than a discount applied. Adding $5 to that $33.06 estimate you had would bring the total closer to the $38.06 you are seeing.

We kindly suggest that you please visit the store again to speak with the management team directly. We recommend letting them know about this specific point of concern so the manager can review the transaction in person and provide the best possible assistance.

If we can be of further assistance or answer any additional questions, you may reach us directly with the information below.

For Guests in the US or Canada:

Toll-free phone: (877) 789-2327

Monday - Friday: 7 AM to 5 PM CST
Saturday and Sunday: 9 AM to 3 PM CST

Bear hugs!
Roberto R.
Guest Experience Representative.

So..buyed from their site a bear with accessories. Costed me £62. Hot the e-mail that the item was dispatched, got the tracking link. Never arrived. When I tried to see where is it, no tracking info. Good. Get in touch with customer service. They check, they apologise and ask me if I want a refund or a new order.I choose a new order. A day later no sign that the order was sent and got in touch again with them. This time they told me that the item was delivered. I tell them that is not the case. Now I have to raise a claim with dpd so I can get a refund. No present and no money. I asked them to raise a claim, they refused. Worst service ever, I do not recommend to order online from them as they are stealing money.

Went for the first time with my 3 year old.
From start to finish, the optional extras were continuously pushed on us. A pulsating plastic heart, added scents, a recorded message. No thanks, she just wanted a teddy. Then at the till - a backpack, a box, "not even a bag???". No, the poor thing just wanted to hold and cuddle her new teddy!
And of course while pushing these extras, it was never with stating how much each one was. I can imagine some parents who agree under pressure get a huge shock when it comes to paying.
Also at the till - "pay £5 today and get £10 off your next purchase!!", "No thanks" "Really, are you sure?" "No it's okay, thanks", "... it's valid for two years?..." With an expression that suggested I was an idiot.
And lastly while paying I was asked "And what's your email?" so I assumed it was for a paperless receipt. Nope. It was signing me up, without my consent, to their mailing list. I now get several marketing emails from them a day.
Not okay and I am not spending another penny there out of principle.

Appalling customer service online. Rewards from the club point scheme weren't showing and the response through the chat was terrible, unprofessional and antagonistic. Will never order on line again.

I received the wrong item in my very simple order/package, I ordered 1 thing. I have to spend 1 hour on customer service- and their chat feature is not user friendly. It cuts off after 1- 2 minutes of "inactivity" and the chat only allows certain files/sizes of pictures to be shared- taking pictures and converting files takes time - then the system kicks you off and you're back in the queue. Then after talking to 2 representatives and converting the photo to a file/size that they can actually view, they tell me I have to correct their mistake by packing up the incorrect item, and taking it to the post office. I ask how they will be compensating me for my time and gas, to correct a mistake I did not make- and they are unwilling to. I'm not sure where these corporations get off on being incompetent in their jobs, overcharging customers, and then punishing customers for their mistakes. I may just keep the incorrect item, and if they charge me- dispute it with my bank, as I saved the transcript from the chat.

Went to the store in brighton the saturday after christmas, i have adhd and austium and dyselixia so when i saw what looked like the offer 2 for 12 on the bears, i questioned it at the till. And was told yes. I had a wait before my 2 bears were made and talked to the saleslady also about how good the offer was, when i got to the till i got served my the orginal lady who must havd been the manager or something as she was serving me she was telling 2 members of staff what she wanted them to do. When she totalled by sale it came to fifty odd pounds i question how and them she came out with what the promotion actually was 2nd bear for £12. I rejected the sale and left feeling very upset and confused. Will never shop at build a bear again

Where to begin?

Problems on the website:

- Items that appear to be in stock but are not
- Items that cannot be shipped together, forcing you to pay for shipping twice.
- Problem with the bonus club

So you contact customer service, which is incompetent and unhelpful.

I ordered a Sonic the hedgehog build a bear, with sounds, shoes and the ring. The whole special package. Only available online. Granted I did order it in the end of September for my autistic son who loves sonic. Didn't open the package, as I have ordered a few times before and everything was fine. Sent it out when it came. Got notified that it actually wasn't sonic. It was shadow. With the shoes and ring. But the shoes won't fit cause shadow has shoes on(fabric part of the legs), and no sounds cause it's not sonic. My son does not like shadow. I contacted them today to tell them about the mixup. But apparently, even though the website says 90 days in store returns, doesn't mention online returns, they said there was nothing I can do. They won't return it, exchange it or anything. So he has a shadow doll that he can't stand, with shoes that won't fit, no sound effects and a ring that was meant for sonic. The workshop certificate also says he's blue with green eyes. This is extremely frustrating and they should fix the mistake they made. They should make it right. But they won't. So they lost a customer. I will never order from them again and I will never visit their store.

DO NOT SHOP BUILDABEAR.COM

You ruined Christmas. The only thing my girlfriend wanted was the giant snoopy plush. For several days you refused to take my payment information telling me try again in a couple hours. Four days went past and after countless attempts with 4 different payment methods, I could not wait any longer as Christmas approached, and phoned Customer service. 

Phone call one, cold, unresponsive, told me "system wouldnt let them connect me to a supervisor"

Phone call two, after arguing with staff I was eventually transferred to a supervisor, using my 5th payment method over the phone, bounced. Told to contact my bank. 

Contacted my banks, told by BOTH banks that they received no payment request from you, and was therefore nothing they could do about it. 

Phone calls 3-5 were also unresponsive, and told me to contact my bank (not listening to me telling them several times that I already had and shutting me down when I asked to speak to a senior)

Told by someone on the text chat system that staff in store could bypass payment walls, (without checking where I'm from) 

Phone calls 6-10 I was just getting consistently shut down by advisors and abruptly hung up on. 

Visited BaB Glasgow Buchanan Galleries. The one place I found a friendly, caring, and responsive team, despite the Christmas rush. The manager talked to me about my issues but told me unfortunately little could be done in the UK, all they could do is talk me through the online ordering process, leading to the same old error message. They told me due to UK laws, they could not provide the order in store for me, as bypassing the payment walls was a US thing only. 

Not only did you refuse to take my money for my girlfriends ONLINE ONLY Christmas gift, you also gave me rude, blunt, unresponsive, and unhelpful customer service, hung up on me abruptly when seeking advice, and gave me incorrect information consistently, sending me on a wild goose hunt for a £100 gift. 

This was all because your tech hadn't even sent a request to my bank accounts. Despite several attempts for THE SAME ORDER. Hardly scam worthy activity, I just wanted my girlfriend's favourite character as a plush.

This is absolutely disgusting and disgraceful customer service, do not dare tell me you "❤️" your customers. 

(This being said, the staff at Buchanan Galleries deserve a raise, they were all excellent)

Poor customer service combined with very expensive items is unacceptable. The products are overpriced, especially considering that similar quality can easily be found online for much less. Expensive items should come with a high standard of service, but unfortunately, the service provided did not meet even basic expectations.

Absolutely awful. Sending out half a finished bear for £60 and their customer services over in America are absolute morons and don’t care. DONT BUY FROM THEM ONLINE

Disappointing experience from start to finish. I was lucky enough to get an order in for the emo axolotl before they sold out. However I didn’t receive any order confirmation from BAB. I set up a BAB account hoping it would make my order appear but it didn’t. I contacted them via their form the next day and then called their helpline. I’m reluctant to say this but the person on the helpline was extremely difficult to understand which made the whole experience so much harder. I managed to get confirmation that my order had been accepted and she gave me my order number and assured me dispatch and tracking emails would follow. I kept trying to check my order status with the number they gave me but the page just did nothing after clicking submit.

I waited but didn’t receive anything except the delayed responses to my original question from before I called. I ended up replying to one of these emails asking for an update. No reply. Today (Friday) I received an email from DPD regarding a totally different parcel. When I clicked on the tracking for that one, I was able to see my history in the app and saw that my BAB parcel was on there and said it was delivered on the Tuesday! I saw a photo and my heart sank. It had been left in the back garden, which would be fine, if we knew it was out there and were able to get it promptly. We had no idea it was out there as we’d had no communication whatsoever. Not from DPD and not from BAB. So it was left for days in the rain.

I messaged DPD to ask why they never alerted me to my parcel and unfortunately was only able to get the bot responses BUT it did confirm that if they haven’t sent an email it’s because the sender didn’t pass that detail on. The fact that I had no order confirmation, no dispatch email, tracking or even delivered notification from BAB, says to me that it was the case and entirely BAB’s fault. As you can imagine the parcel was soaked through. The cardboard box tore as it was lifted and the toys inside were soaked through. All the tags, certificates were mush.
I called the BAB helpline and unfortunately spoke to the same lady as before and tried to relay all the info as clearly as I could. It was a very frustrating phone call as she didn’t seem to understand what I meant at all and I struggled to make out what she was saying. Eventually we got there and she offered me a £5 gift card for each toy. Frustrated at the lack of explanation as to why I never got any emails from them and disappointed with their lack of care, I told them I had no intention of ever buying from them again and just wanted to be properly compensated. She said I would have to return the parcel. Apart from the fact the parcel is mush and the contents heavy with wet - these items are now totally sold out! So completely irreplaceable. I’m ok with trying to wash and dry them and hopefully they come out ok but they won’t ever be as good as new again.
I don’t understand how the online side of this company is so bad when the shops are a such pleasure to deal with.

I’ll be happy to change this review if they do reach out and make this right but as it stands I cannot recommend buying from them online.