Build-A-Bear Customer Service
Rated 1.28 of 5 Stars
Based on 25 Complaints

Contact Build-A-Bear Corporate

Toll free phone number: 1-877-789-BEAR

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Build-A-Bear Contact Information

Report complaints to corporate and get satisfaction

  • Build-A-Bear headquarters address

    • 1954 Innerbelt Business Center Drive
    • Saint Louis
    • MO 63114
  • Company website

  • 1-800 phone number

    1-877-789-BEAR
  • Better Business Bureau rating

    A+

  • Customer service hours

    24 hours a day

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Top Build-A-Bear Complaints

Browse more than 25 reviews submitted so far

20

We got the vouchers for pay your age. Went on my sons birthday yesterday June 26th. Drove an hour to get there. Arrived at 7pm and was told they were not accepting any new customers due to the filling station having a 2 hour line. Then she told us we could buy an empty bear and come BACK to fill another day. They didnt close until 9 and there was no reason my kids weren't allowed to build their bear! We drove an hour just for this event on my sons actual birthday. He cried while standing next to other kids in line that actually got to build their bear. Shame on you guys. Disgusting being treated that way. But you have my 50 bucks I spent on 2 empty bears and clothes. So you're welcome.

20

I took 6 bears in the store to be fixed walked out with 5 not knowing that one was missing and one still not fixed. To calling to inform them of what happen and to be told that it’s not there and there is nothing they can do about it. You have poor customer service on solving problems. And I have a upset child behind a bear that was not put back in my bag. after they use the gift cards I purchase on my visit today I will no longer shop there after I been a loyal customer for over 16 years

20

My daughter ordered steam boat willie Mickey Mouse at £24.00 and got a bloody polar bear delivered instead now they are not answering the phone to get it changed its a bloody disgrace.

20

I would like to express my sadness as I was waiting 7 minutes to be acknowledge and served today this was because there was only one member of staff on. I am disappointed that only one member of staff was on when it’s a long process stuffing and the rest of the process.

Lee

20

Absolutely disgusted with your sales tactics.

Took my young son to snd his £40 voucher at your store in Bracknell. He picked out his bear, costume, heart, smell and everything else the assistant suggested. Once he had gone through the "ceremony" she went to serve another customer telling us we still has about £10 to spend.My son then found an out fit costing £14. He greed to put £4 of his savings toward the overspend. When we went to pay the assistant told me that will be £50 please. Now an overspend of £10- I expected some extra so now I am left with a dilemma, upset child or ,ore money from my pocket. I explained my feeling to which the response for the assistant and the manger next to her was shrug..........................no apology or explanation
Will not be back to your store and now understand why our local one in Reading is out of business........Shocking and underhand way to extract extra money by guilting parents into spending more money.

Kevin Trafford.

20

First I am a 71 YEAR OLD Grandma who took her Granddaughter for a 7 dollar bear last week. You know the rest.
2nd I got a 15 dollar coupon for an inconvenience on Build a Bear by your company, my granddaughter has over 25 of your stuff animals plus small ones and all of the furniture, cars whatever. Everyone in the coral square mall store knows her.
3rd I went in today thinking she would get a 7 dollar item a shark, which turned out to beb47.50. I was told the age day was a 1 time deal, that is not what it said on your corporate machine, the manager said there was nothing she could do about this. Well I want yo be reimbursed for this, you are not keeping your promise. I will never go into your store again.
You are a sad company getting people to come in and breaking a promise to a child. I could have bought my granddaughter something else because this was a lot of money that I did not have. How do you say no to a child after she put it together. My daughter is out of town so I did not want to disappoint my granddaughter.
Thanks for poor service and bad management,
Carmela Florio
954 226 3349
P.S. I CALLEDyour offices 3 Times no responses.

20

My complaint comes from the pay ur age day, I was in line outside waiting with my 4 month old son and was told line was closed, I was furious after all that time waiting and don't even get him anything in return very unbuissness like . It should have been antisapated that it was gonna be like that due to only build a bear. I am a very unhappy member and am debating on not returning to purchase anything in the future if this is how you treat your customers

20

I was at the pay your age for my 2 year old grandsons and was turned away with nothing. They are both 2 years old and one has Eosinophilic esophagitis and the other has Autism. I am a grandmother who used this offer opportunity to be able to get my grandsons a bear that I cant afford otherwise and use the time to spend with them doing something memorable. I didnt get that opportunity and think this is awful ! This was heartbreaking and disappointing . West county mall St. Louis Mo.

20

I know pay your age day is busy but why close the stores early! So not fair to all of the exited families that were counting down the days to finally go! My husband, 3 sons and myself were quickly disappointed and sad. It was hardest fo my 10 year old autistic son to understand and caused meltdowns! Shame on you build a bear!

20

I’m very pissed , I had work today & couldn’t take off for the build the bear age day for my 2 year old son . So I drove a whole damn hour to CUMBERLAND MALLafter I got off just to get told Rudly by the co manager that they wasn’t letting anyone end that they reach their limit . I’m confused how when she stated that no one has been let in the store since 11:30 am that morning but ppl where in the store . So you mean to tell me those same ppl standing their was their all day . Then on top of I’ve called every store that morning to see if their was a time it would be stopped and location no answer from any locations . Then I get a $15 dollar off like how in the hell is this a deal ?? When I showed up with my son I’m disappointed & upset the worst birthday experience for my son ! Thumbs down to all build a Bear

20

Today was supposed to be the "pay your age" event. Due to the response, the company sent an email out at noon letting club members know that the event was stopped in the U.S. due to the volume of response. This is ridiculous; what did Build A Bear expect? My children were so geared up and excited and now I have to go home and tell them that it isn't happening. I can't believe there isn't even an offer of a rain check. So disappointing!

20

Good afternoon,

Today my children, Isabella (age 4) and Kaylie (2) were looking forward to going Build-A-Bear for the pay your age. They were sadly disappointed when we were turned away due to they were no longer taking any more people. I had to explain to them that we could not go today because there was a long wait. Needless to say my children who had already picked from online pictures wanted the My Little Ponies went home without what they hoped to have. I am very upset that your company could not provide what they had advertised. I have seven children and when promotions like this come along you try to make sure you take advantage. Having a large family it is not often that I can afford to do only on special occasions like holidays and birthdays. My daughter will be having a birthday on Aug 27th and I hope that you will honor your pay your age to my children so that she can have her birthday pony.

Sincerely,

Jessica Moreno
(210)765-3208
jmoreno_05@yahoo.com

20

Closing the lines and pay your age build a bear I’m very disappointed in this my granddaughter is crying that she did not get a bear I felt you should’ve been more prepared for this there’s going to be a lot of disappointed children very sad

20

July 12 "Pay your age"

I took my 1yr old grandchild to get a bear. We stood in line for a while until the store associate said they were stopping the line. If the customers were okay standing in line why did they cut the line off. I feel build-a-bear should have gave out vouchers to be used at a different time.

20

Today was lay the age of your child day. Well we drove our o e year daughter over an hour away to get her her first built a bear. We got to the store an hour early & waited in line just for build a bear people to only take the first few people & turn everyone else away with a 15% off coupon. That’s beyond fucked up. Y’all are just going to turn away a bunch of crying kids that just wanted a bear. Great job people. We’re thinking about suing & so are a ton of other people who got told to leave because there was too people patiently waiting in line with their young kids.

20

This is utter bullcrap !!!! For the build a bear pay your age, 1. YOU OPENED AT 9AM AND NO EMAILS WENT TO THE BONUS MEMEBERS
2. THE DAMN BONUS MEMBERS AS MYSELF WALK IN AT 10AM WHEN WE ARE TOLD IT OPENS TO A MEGA FREAKING LINES OUT THE GOD DAMNED DOOR !!! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE !!!
3. THEN YOUR ALLOWING NON BONUS MEMBERS TO REGISTER AT THE GOSH DAMNED REGISTER THE DAY OF THIS EVENT ?
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE ?

I AS A BONUS MEMBER CANT EVEN ALLOW MY TWINS TO BE ABLE TO GET A BEAR CAUSE YOU ALLOW ALL WALKS OF LIFE (BONUS MEMBERS AND NON) IN THE SAME LINE AND EVENT!!! ARE YOU STUPID? THIS WAS TO BE A BONUS MEMBERS EVENT.

I HAVE SPENT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AT YOUR DAMN STORE, MY TWINS HAVE TONS OF BUILD A BEARS AND IVE BOUGHT FOR FAMILY, YOU JUST LOST AN AWESOME CUSTOMER.

IM SURE YOU DONT CARE

ANNA LYTLE

20

Today July 12 2018 Build A Bear promoted the sale of bears per age. After standing in line for 5 1/2 hours the employee came out and said we only have one registrar open so we are cutting the line off in front of me. Gave a $15.00 coupon for next visit. Build A Bear should honor their advertising. Thank you for your help. I am very disappointed !

20

Are you kidding me?!?! We got to the pay your age day event within 30 minutes of the opening time that we were given by an associate on Monday and they had already shut the line down because they had opened an hour early. AND THEN... they are supposedly handing out vouchers for $15 off. That is a joke compared to the pay your age event!!!! Half the people in line probably aren't even club members and were gonna sign up today instead of already being in it!! I have never been more disappointed in an event than I am in this.

20

I am very disappointed on how Disorganized this event was, I took the day off to take 3 Toddlers. "my Son,Niece and Nephew" Only to find out when we get there @ 9:00am "Store is Not even opened" that you had already reached your limits for people.. like Seriously How in the world are you going to advertised something this big and NOT be prepared....You guys should had have the bears already Stuffed to make it easier... This is NOT the 1st event that we have tried going too and have NOT been successful in getting what you guys have been advertising.. This is Really BAD Customer Service and not good for your company if your trying to get NEW customers. I'm pretty sure that I will Not be the Only one Complaining, because their was a Lot of upset Parents especially kids. I Hope you will get a solution for this NOT to happen again.

Sincerely,
Yari M. Echevarria
864-908-5263

20

I took my son for his birthday gift and bought 2 build a bears because the sign above the bins said 2 for 35 it didn't say only certain ones. So my son picks 2 and we finish up and the total was way more than I expected and I said to the girl that they were only supposed to be 2 for 35 her response was um no only certain ones are. I said I got them from the same bin again she said um no. I had no choice but to buy it because I could not take it back from my son. I am totally disappointed with this.

40

I work at build a bear at parkway place mall in Huntsville Alabama so when I walked in the other day I expected a great experience but however saw the new manager being extremely disrespectful to her employees. After seeing how badly she treated others I decided to turn in my two weeks because no one should work under such an awful person. I personally love BAB. But I will not return to that store if I see her in the stores treating people the way she did.

20

Dear Build a Bear customer service. My Family went to your store on 9/9/16 in Columbia Mall MD. I was very disappointed with the experience. I got to the event expecting to purchase the $5 bears along with one of your wonderful pets. We did purchase Chase from Paw Patrol and a Rainbow Leopard that day for my daughter's birthday. However when we arrived, the store was crowded with upset crying children, and angry parents. After speaking to the Manager the pets that were advertised, were sold out in an hour after the store opened.

I asked the Manager to hang a sign that said they were sold out of the $5 bears, so that families knew there was no longer available before they came into the store. She said she couldn't do that. I understand that it was Build a Bear's intent to make it a feel good day for donations, for worthwhile charity, however I believe it was unfair to not to let the public know that the promotion was no longer available before the families came into the store. Your business is interested in retaining customers and having good customer experiences especially when dealing with children, when you have this kind of promotion it is so very similar to a bait and switch.

I could tell the parents that were making purchases were not happy about it. A $5 dollar bear is a great deal and should have been offered as promotion if you buy one you can get a $5 bear. The positive feeling we usually get when we come into your store to buy pets was horrible for my children. There were several parents along with myself, that for that reason will probably not return to your store.

40

Purchased the 4 teenage mutant ninja turtles online from build a bear for my son's birthday. Along with the bears I purchased their accessories and the 5-in-1 sayings for each turtle except the Donatello one as this was not in stock yet and the Norwich branch had informed me that they where waiting on it coming into store. I phoned today to be informed that it will not be coming to the store and I can not get it on line.

This is disgusting as I now have 3 of the 4 turtles with the 5-in-1 sayings. Please can it be explained why the Donetello turtle was left without. I will have one upset boy on his birthday as Donatello is his favorite. If I had know that there was never going to be one to purchase for that turtle then I would never off had the other 3 done.

60

Went to Build-A-Bear on a date with my boyfriend and had a blast. Got to assemble a cute, Stormtrooper teddy bear complete with cute accessories. It made for a great date and the staff was friendly. I only am giving it 3 stars because we had to wait forever to be checked out. They were terribly understaffed. Such a great place but it sucks that they didn't have enough workers to help people out. 

80

Had my daughter's birthday party at Build-A-Bear and it was a great experience. They took care of everything, my girl got to get a new stuffed bear, and she was treated like a princess by everyone. Great place to get gifts and have parties. 

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