Build-A-Bear Workshop
Reviews and Complaints

I ordered two notebooks online 5/31/2023. The delivery date was between 6/10 and 6/13/2023. The item never showed up, no updates have been sent to me. Called the number, it is not working. Tried to send email, not valid. Chat bot just says sorry you are having issues. Cannot get a hold of anyone who can help. If they are out of business, why hasn't the online account been shut down?

March 28, 2023 - Placed the order (W5124545) through Build a Bear Website

April - May 2023 - Checking the status of the order on their website. It says "Order in Process"

May 29, 2023 - Contact "Build a Bear US Guest Services"

May 30, 2023 - Got the response back from Guest Experience Representative

May 31, 2023 - Build a Bear cancelled my order. They said the order was canceled due to a currency conversion issue with Global-e.

June 1, 2023 - GlobalE/Build A Bear charged my credit card for the order that has been cancelled.

After the long wait this is the response from Guest Experience Representative:

From: Build a Bear US Guest Services

Sent: May 30, 2023 1:45 PM

Subject: UPDATE_ORDER

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Build a Bear and for being our guest. We hope you are having a beautiful and bright day, we truly understand how important is for you to receive all the relevant information about your order. We will be more than happy to assist you!

We sincerely apologize, due to a currency conversion issue with Global-e, your order has been cancelled. We never want to cause dissatisfaction without any reason because we know how important is to receive your order and we apologize your order was cancelled. A refund will automatically be credited to your account and your you should see this reflected within 7-10 business days depending on your bank or financial institution.

We are sorry, again, for any disappointment or inconvenience this may cause. If we can be of further assistance or answer any additional questions, you may reach us directly by phone with the information below.

For Guests in the US or Canada:

Toll-free phone: [protected]

Monday - Friday: 7 AM to 4:45 PM CST

Saturday and Sunday: 9 AM to 2:45 PM CST

Bear hugs,

Ericka R.

Guest Experience Representative

I just paid almost $60 for a 12inch doll by mistake. Instead of providing me with customer service this company just decides to take my money anyway. This is a gift you can't do that to people. I just wanted the order canceled and my funds refunded back to my account. The order number is W4388975. You can force a person to accept something they do not want. I also do not have a vehicle to return the item in the store. After spending my last on this gift, I do not have the funds to reship it back to your facility either. So just cancel the order and refund my money. The order was just placed today 10/04/2022 at around 7:30pm. I got my confirmation email at exactly 7:36pm.

Hi! Recently I visited your block of orange store and had a really great visit during covid precautions with my 19 month old daughter and husband. The workers were extremely nice and it felt really nice to do something again with covid going on. Recently I decided to go again to your mission viejo 92694 location because it had reopened and its closer to where I live. I've had 2 bad experiences here with the older lady with blonde hair who works here. She's extremely rude and is very adamant that even kids under 2 have to wear a mask. The law is that kids under 2 do not have to wear a mask. I complied with her and held my daughter and didnt let her down so that we could have her go in without a mask. She was still rude our whole visit. The other works were very helpful and nice and told us the reason our daughter would have to wear a mask is because the older women who works here is immunocompromised. She reeked of cigarettes and had a smokers voice and overall looked/seemed miserable. Covid has been hard for everyone and this women is legit so rude and miserable I wont be going back to this location unless I know she isn't working or quits her job.

I think I have given you all ample opportunities and have tried to settle this, I'll have to go through a fraud claim with my bank if we can not find this package or you all fix it. I've called the shipping company several times and they do not have any record of you all wven ckntacting them about this order, much less file a claim as needed although I've sent several emails and contacted you directly through bab website. Waited in que forever to be able to order the custom the chold toy for our son.. order number W1584166. This never came in. Contacted build a bear multiple times finally told me to contact shipping company but I had already 3 times they said build a bear had to file the claim, build a bear head yet to do so and this is taking incredibly to long. All we wanted was our purchased product if they cannot do that then refund us so we can buy something else instead. Sent email from shipping company stating sender has to file claim twice already. They arw closed down on their lines so can noy get ahold of anyone there and have send elseveral emails and just see no interest in handling it at all. Very disappointed and have a child waiting for something we put a lot of effort and time in ordering. Very disheartening for them as well. This could and should have been taken care of rhe first email I sent instead of me having to keep escalating to the point of filing further complaints. Order number W1584166

On august 23 2019 I ordered the hookfang build bear I then recived it 5 days later on august 28 2019. Going over his birth certifacte I have realized that his height has said 17 inches I then mesured because he didnt look like he fit the description. When I mesaured him he came to 13.5 inches at the top of his head and when I measured from the tip of his horn it was only 15.5 inches. So as a resolution I would like you to contact me for a new birth certicate mailed to me and for the incovience this caused I would love if you could send me a stormfly or meatlug dragon and allow me to keep my hookfang. My other option is you send me a hookfang with the proper height and that will also be amazing. But if you cant do either thats fine, I would like 3 cub condos mailed to me along with 3 blank birth certifactes and a new birth certifacte

You can reach me at my email
[protected]@gmail.com
Sincerly
Haylee

Thanks in advance

Purchased 2 Bears with accessories spending over £100 on June 12th this year. On 14th June the extra ‘smell' I purchased was gone from the bear. Yesterday my daughter was very upset as her Build A Bears music was making a buzzing noise and now isn't working.
Please advise next steps to resolve this very disappointing situation
Kind regards
Tracy Burke

Hi good morning, two weeks ago I visited your location at Paramus Park with my 2 granddaughters and great grandson. I've been a loyal customer for over 35 years. The visit went well as salesgirls over excited to the sales. Of course the sale was over $125.00.

We left an went out to the mall and my great-grandson wanted to go on a child's ride that required dollar bills. I thought well I'll go into the store and ask for change of a $10 bill thinking we just made a large purchase.

The sales girl that I asked said she had to call a manager to assist. Well Ms. Manager was so very nasty to me when I asked for her assistance, quite different than how they are trained for business. She stared we dont do that but extremely nasty, I am a senior citizen. I don't expect a young manager to be so nasty, she needs to be spoken to. My granddaughter walked in with the purchases and your manager's face dropped. She never gave me a change to state that we had just been in the store. With that she said to me oh please just be on your way I have no time for this. There were customers in the store and of course started laughing. I am highly highly insulted and will forward a complaint with the Better Business Bureau for discrimination. If its not your policy why did the salesgirl refer me to the manager to be insulted infront of customers. This occurred on Saturday 7/20 between 6-7PM. I am waiting for your response on this complaint I will not let this incidence go without a response. Since you pride yourselves on such high customer service for a child's experience. Totally unacceptable.I expect a phone call or email [protected], [protected]@boutiquerealtynj.com. I am a real estate broker trained for customer service for over 30 years.

I placed an order with expedited shipping to ensure the gift would be here for father's day. We recorded the message 6/12. I called today 6/13 to check on my order only to be informed you are having complications with your recordings and don't know when it'll be fixed. I was not informed or contacted about this and had to cancel my order. Now I have to wait 2-5 buisness days for a refund and cannot use that money to buy a new gift. I'm extremely upset that I was not informed of complications with my order and I'm very upset with the customer care of received. Will never buy from here again and will encourage others to follow suit.

The sales person is Freehold Mall (NJ) one of the rudest people I have ever met.
Purchased a birthday bear for my son turning 6. Asked her about the promotion buy one get one for $10.00 dollars. She told me to read the sign! um really, , , I did but didn't understand. I WILL NOT PAY THESE PRICES ANYMORE. I can go to Kohl's for $5.00 dollars and they donate the money to a children's hospital. You should really evaluate your workers. These is a kids store. She have been dancing to help me, I mean come on!
Melissa you should be fired!

This is not a complaint about the quality of the item and more the store. I took my little boy to the Blackpool build a bear for his birthday bear. We have previous build a bears and he loves all his teddies. He helped build it although he's 1 he kissed the heart, me and my friend from out of town managed to capture the process on camera. Now I'm seeing everyone else getting an actual birthday bear and we have just a standard boring bear that I wouldn't of personally bought. There's no indication it's a birthday bear because it's not. Now his 2 best friends and his cousin all have them but my sons is the odd one out. I rang the store they told me they was out of stock to wich I replied why was I not informed of this on the day? They have agreed to exchange the bear but how can I take his current bear off him. He's only 1 I can't explain this to him and it will cause distress. Then once he gets a tiny bit older he's going to realise his is different and isn't even a birthday bear. I wouldn't be bothered if I hadn't of spend what I consider as a decent amount in this shop since the birth of my son. We have purchased bears for presents. Bought different outfits. I'm very upset by all of this and hope we can come to a mutual agreement. I just don't want my son to feel he has different or has missed out.

On sunday november 18th my friend and I made a hour drive to go to your Oshawa location to be greeted with the 3 rudest people we have ever dealt with. We drove there to buy 5 bears, we were looking for 2 of the grinch. All 3 ladies said that they were sold out and that if we wanted them we could come back on wed the next shipment day. We then asked if they could call your Vaughn Mills location at which time they told us we guarantee you that they are sold out. They would not even call and ask. And then told us we could order online but we were going to pay US prices.
So my friend and I decided to drive another hour away and in fact got to your Vaughn Mills location, and when we walked in the doors there was in fact 2 grinches in the bin. We explained to the ladies at this location of the rude service we got at the other location at which point everyone at this location apologized to us numerous times. This is a store for children, so if you are going to be a rude [censored] maybe this is not the job for you. We got there at opening so no time to already be in a bad mood. Like I said we were there to buy 5 bears with outfits for 3 of them, and they lost the sale of any of them due to rudeness. My friend and I both work in customer service and we were shocked at how rude these ladies were. But did want to make sure to also let you know how wonderful all the ladies in Vaughn Mills were.

Went to MacArthur Glen to buy a bear and outfits for my granddaughters bithday
I waited patiently for my turn
When it was my turn the assistant got up and walked away
I was flummoxed
She came back a minute later with a woman with two children
I said excuse me I am next
She told me the woman was around the corner which she would not have seen in the position she was sitting to fill the bears.
She shrugged her shoulders at me and continued to serve the lady
I complained to the cash sales assistant who also shrugged her shoulders
I am a 63 year old grandmother who is not invisable and should not be treated this way when I clearly waited my turn
I would like a response to why I was treated this was
I did not cause a scene in you shop as I am a professional person and would not upset children

I recently (September 5) went to build a bear in chinook mall Calgary Alberta with my grandson as a special treat for his start of preschool. The sales clerk was super pushy and pushed all of the extra cost items during our experience. She took my grandson to the costume wall and told him to pick out a costume which I had to decline then she told him he had to have a light saber for his bear and handed him one I then had to say no. Also gave him the beating heart I had to say no then pushed the back pack on him to take the bear home in. We are currently unemployed and I felt bad at constantly having to turn down all the extras. It should be enough just to make the bear and experience that. We have done this with all our grandkids as they start preschool and have never had such a bad experience.

I registered to get the build a bear $15 off coupon since the stores closed literally a hour after opening in the day they had pay the age of your child. Today I went to use my coupon for ky daughter since the coupon expires two weeks before her birthday so we tried to celebrate a little early. After I went through the store allowed my daughter to picked out the bear and the put to save time since the store was packed. And looking at the signs on the bear which only stated one bear was not allowed to be used with the coupon and waited in line. I was advised multiple bears couldn't be used only the ones that were available that however no one knows which ones were available due to the store closing. The store didn't allow me any other discount at the concord store and just repeating to me there is nothing they could do. Then insulting me by treating me like I'm an idiotand and reading to me what the coupon says over and over. I know had to either argue with a two year old that the bear i just got her hyped up about and said was her birthday bear is no longer hwr birthday bear and we had to repick everything and wait in a long. I feel this was unfair and vwry nad customer service. I ended up not being able to buy clothes with the bear cause of the false advertisment and rudeness.

Build a bear workshop at kemah boardwalk in Texas was not pleasant, the young lady was so lazy and not enthusiastic at all, I understand she was tired, because she was yawning throughout the process of making the bear for my daughter and son, she was not into it at all and it made my daughter very sad, with our experiences, elsewhere was very quick friendly and enthusiastic to help and serve their customer. She did not appreciate and like us being there, my daughter thought it will be very fun to build a bear, but she was very disappointed. My daughter felt like she don't care about her job.

Ordered and paid extra for next day delivery.
Over 48 hours later the products aren't here. Never been sent a tracking number either.
Tried phoning about 10 times and after being kept on hold each time I am then cut off.
What is the point of next day delivery when it doesn't arrive on time?
Why am I constantly being cut off before even being able to speak to someone on customer services?

I queued with my 2 Yr old son on Thursday in Warrington golden square shopping centre for your pay your age day event from 10am until 1pm when I decided to take my son to the entertainer instead costing me more money than I had intended to spend. After no intervention from the staff (4 staff to hundreds of people)! The shopping centre staff had to take over giving out vouchers for £12 off which is not the same discount we would have had if we had queued all day. My 2yr old didn't understand why he couldn't get a bear after waiting in line now! You should be ashamed I saw lots of tired crying children expected to wait all day. You could have had the bears stuffed prior or had pop up stands with clothing accessories to cut down the time. There was no planning at all & to have this on a Thursday when kids are in school means that siblings would miss out! You must have had an idea of numbers as people were asked to register online beforehand. Children who missed out should be given another opportunity to get their bear once the chaos has subsided or was this just a money making scheme! I would be interested to hear your response.