Build-A-Bear Workshop
Reviews and Complaints

I got to the mall at 11 am yesterday for the pay your age with my daughters and was told that your promotion ended at 10 am, which made no sense to me because your store opened at 10:30...smh. I was just given a coupon ...smh. I spent the entire day at the mall trying to make up for the inconvenience to my girls because they were looking forward to their new bears. As I was getting ready to leave the mall about 5:30...I stopped by again because I saw a new crowd and again was told that the promotion just ended at 4pm. Smh. Everyone on line were still getting their pay your age bears. I literally pleaded with the manager to add me to the line...showing her proof that I was there previously and she flat out told me no. I even suggested paying for the bears and getting them filled another day and again...a very COLD No!... I was so disappointed in the service that I received, especially when I've been a loyal customer both in-store and online...smh. Worst of all is the fact that she saw my daughter crying after she said no and wasn't moved at all. This literally makes me not want to do business with your company ever again!

It was a wonderful idea what you were doing for families but just like others I was very disappointed and I wanted to share my experience with you. I waited 6 hours outside the mall of the Tom's River NJ location in the hot heat with two asthmatic children thankfully the mall provided water to everyone only to finally get inside the mall and be at a stand still for another 2 hours or more I saw lots of people cutting in lines it was not organized at all and the store was only allowing 5 kids in at a time and taking their time while in the store. At this point we were so tired, hungry, dehydrated, i felt so weak and my kids didnt want to give up waiting they wanted a bear so bad and this was a great thing cause I cant afford to buy them one at regular price but my son had it he has sensory processing disorder and he couldnt handle it anymore and become so overwhelmed we weren't far from getting in the store and we had to get off the line and I left with two sad and disappointed kids with no bears and even though we got $15 off coupons I still would have to put in alot more money I just dont have. Thank you build a bear I appreciate what you offered for members but I dont think it was organized at all and this experience for my family and I was terrible something I wish now I shouldn't have even went to have a mother see her children be so upset I had to leave the line we waited in for over 8 hours for medical reasons that this caused my children

Yesterday I got up and got all four of my boys up and excited about building their own animal for the first time. We live two hours away from the closest build a bear. We arrived at the location at 9 am. Where we met up with my sister and her three children. We were all excited for our first experience with your company. The lines was already long but we were willing to wait. We got in line and were waiting. At 9:50am we were informed that they only had 300 bears and everyone else would be given a voucher.

When we received our voucher it was for $15 off. I was only going to pay $16 for all four of my boys to do the bear. The voucher should have been to come back another day and pay your age. It is disappointing that it was not advertised as such and that the stores here in Oklahoma were so unprepared. You all advertised this all over the place only to cause aggravation for parents and upset hundreds of children in the process. The 300 bears were gone berfore 10 am. Needless to say our seven children left the mall upset.

Meghan Herbert

I made prior arrangements to get out early from work to take my 6-year-old to build a bear to participate in the pay your age day when I got off work. They decided to close early and when I was asking a question the employees did not even acknowledge me. No voucher, no come another day, nothing. Very disappointed that Build A Bear was unable to honor its word and stand by their word.

Location
Westfield Culver City
Address: 6000 Sepulveda Blvd #1430, Culver City, CA 90230

As a regular customer I thought it would be nice to get my 18month old a bear for £1. It was a joke all round. Waited 6hours to get to the front of the queue to be told no more bears would be given out. It was also false advertising as the vouchers that were given out said £12 off and that was not what we had all been told. I'm an extremely angry parent and it was a major health and safety risk. Kids were getting lost and there was no organisation to the event. Police were called for no reason so they left 10minutes after being called out. The store manager and area manager could not deal with the situation effectively apart from apologise. It's not good enough! What's worse is we got to the front of the queue to get our pay your age voucher and then they had run out completely so now my son misses out totally! I traveled just for the event with my son and it was a complete waste of time. The staff need sacking and need a proper team that can organise and deal with events like this more efficiently. Not only this but I got there for 7am and didn't leave the shopping centre until 1:30!
I want some form of compensation and a voucher so my son can receive his bear like everyone else. I will be considering not using Build-A-Bear again if this doesn't get sorted!

We drove an hour to the nearest Build-A-Bear store, waited in line with four children over an hour expecting to pay their age, and get handed a $15 coupon. I'm sorry but that is not going to be equivalent to the price I would have paid for " their age". You should have given pay your age vouchers, not $15 off. Take this into consideration, your customers were willing to stand in long lines to take advantage of this offer and were sent home disappointed and short handed. All those with vouchers handed out at the stores should be "pay your age" vouchers at the very least.

My daughter is one years old. I leave for the army and took it upon myself to do this promotion you had on July 12th to make her a personalized gift before I left. I was immediately told I wasn't able to because he line was to long and got $15 off the next visit. I am SO angry at this because I would've waited and I leave soon and we aren't all rich with money to be able to afford stuff like this. Doing it for one day and not allowing everyone was highly poor on your part and I'm truly upset. I really wanted to ease my mind when I leave for the army knowing she had a bear that said I loved her from her mommy. She's the best and deserves the best and you cannot best the price of $1. You guys have ridiculous prices so this was my chance. We're not all rich and not just that but one day!? Not everyone can do one day! You literally have ruined my day and I couldn't stop crying at the fact I can't give my daughter an expensive gift not Ben at full price. We don't have much but what we have is happiness and I wanted to make her happy. I am very upset.

Drove 45 minutes to Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton CA. Waited on line and finally was informed that the store was shut down. Gate closed. Customers still inside. At 3PM! Someone half assed handing out coupons but $15 off is NOT a $1 bear that I expected my daughter to go home with. Manager was actually HIDING in the back from all the parents outside who just wanted to ask questions. Security stood outside telling us that they didn't even know this was happening until this morning. Absolutely TERRIBLE PROMO PLANNING. You have really messed up this time Build-A-Bear. You were already on your way to becoming obsolete and this "Pay Your Age Day" could have possibly been your saving grace but I'm pretty sure you've lost A TON of potential customers over this poorly planned excuse of an event. If Build-A-Bear survives this I can promise it'll be on my s**t list right next to Chuck E. Cheese. Now I'll proceed to drive home stuck in rush hour traffic for the next two hours. Thanks for nothing Build-A-Bear! Good luck with riot control!

Hey build a bear I waited in line with my daughter for 4 hours to only get told they had to shut it down. I waited outside in 95 degree weather for that. I'm so upset and would like a coupon for this so I can get my daughter a bear for her age but I refused to wait in line again for it that was going to be for my daughters birthday thanks build a bear

I took my 1 year old son and his 1 year old disabled cousin to build a bear for the first time ever. They were all excited and I was to that I only had to pay a $1 but we waited in line for over 5 HOURS and finally had to leave because we needed food, the boys were so upset and cried the whole way home... and all we got was a $15 off coupon which wasn't the deal we were supposed to get! I am so pissed off at this and will not be returning to build a bear in the future unless they will compensate what they promised to do today and give me a coupon for a dollar each bear like promised

This was absolutely the worst idea ever. I woke up extra early to head out to the store for this deal just to come find out that by 830 the lines were cut off for this deal. It was a complete waste of time and not to mention my daughter cried and cried because she was very disappointed. Try telling ur 2 year old she's not getting a bear. This was going to be her first time ever experience here and it was ruined. My email [protected]@yahoo.com.

We had made prior arrangements to participate in the pay your age day when I got off work.It never even lasted all day as it was stated it would be.No voucher, no come another day, nothing. Very disappointed that Build A Bear was unable to honor its word and stand by it brand for this event. Build a bear please find a way to fix this disappointment.

I am extremely disappointed with the way this event was handled. It was not planned properly and as a result of massive queues shops were shut early. I promised my nine year old daughter and her friend that we would go to the Basingstoke branch after school and they were very upset and disappointed when I picked them up and had to tell them that the store was closed so they were unable to get a bear.
Was a good publicity stunt for you but left many people with very upset children.
Not a good way to treat your customers

Good Afternoon,

7/12/2018

My girls were so excited about going to Build a Bear this morning. Now they are just cranky, hungry, and aggravated after having to wait 5 hours in line only to leave it empty handed. My mother brought them for the Pay your Age Day event. She arrived in line at 9:45 and left at 2:45. She was told the wait was still 4 hours from where she was standing and if she wanted a voucher she would have to get out of line...after 5 hours of waiting? So they offered her a voucher of 15 dollars off for each of my girls. I mean after waiting 5 hours in line.. for nothing ...my girls should at least get the same offer right? My girls are 9 and 7. My total should only be 16 dollars for both and for whatever bear they wanted. We have spent a lot of money at Build a Bear over the years and this experience just really upset my girls, my mother, and me. Can we at least get a voucher for what we waited 5 hours for?

Thank you for your time.
Beth Lavoi
[protected]

Build-A-Bear Workshop in Tucson Arizona really hurt our family today and the buy a bear for the age of your child. I am 9 months pregnant. I was in line since 8 AM. The store opened at 10 AM. For them to tell me that they could only give me a coupon since they had no more capacity. I had contractions the whole time. We came to spend a day for our oldest child before her baby sister got here! Guess what! I'm in the hospital in labor. My 2 year old daughter cried so much because she couldnt get her "baby" this is so sad. And I can just imagine everyone else that got kicked out of the mall by security! :(

My friend and I drove for over an hour to get to our nearest store with our 4 kids (one of which has epilepsy & was so excited to make his own bear to take to his overnight hospital visits) just to be turned away and given a $15 voucher to come back another day. All 4 kids were so heartbroken and disappointed. It was ridiculous and Poorly organized! It's terrible for a business like this to disappoint so many kids like they did today. We all should have been given pay your age vouchers to come back another day NOT $15 vouchers so we can spend another $100 in the store. This needs to be addressed and made right. If they can offer a special pay your age birthday deal then they could have done the same thing here!

Drove 2hours just to get to my nearest build a bear workshop, to just wait in line for over an hour, with my 2yr old son, to walk out completely empty handed! My son is completely devastated and hasnt stopped crying since! Its gonna be a long... Drive back home! 5 hours completely wasted! Maybe next time, build a bear should be better prepared and expect it to be slammed on a promotion like that! If I knew they would close 3hours after opening on pay your age DAY I would have left at 5am to get there! So now my whole day is wasted (EVEN TOOK A VACATION DAY TO DO THIS!) For absolutely nothing except a broken hearted 2year old son! FIX IT BUILD A BEAR! This is ridiculous! You lied.

We call into the Build a Bear store on Yesterday first of all to get all the facts straight already knowing the lines were going to be extremely long just to confirm all details... only to be turned away with 5 yes FIVE crying children after being in line for 3 hours ... maybe my phone muted on the part where after a certain amount of people were served then it was over... just like that!
NOT FAIR! I Took off work for this and all! #PISSED!🤬

I was very disappointed in the pay your age event. Try telling your 3 year old that he is not able to build a bear for him and his 1 month old brother because lines were shut down. They don't have the ability to understand that! Anyone who was in line should have been about to get one or a voucher for another day. Poor planning. Poor customer service. Won't be going back again...

I just sent a complaint without giving my name, phone #, or address. My daughter and I drove 50 miles to bring 5 of my grandchildren to this event. You can imagine how excited they were to finally be going to build a bear as some have been waiting 2 yrs to come. Well this event should've been better organized to say the least! We were here before noon and it took us at least a half hour (without any guidance whatsoever) to find the end of a line...only to be turned away as they said they couldn't allow anymore people. This was an extremely disappointing thing for my grandchildren ages 9, 7, 5, 2, & 10 months.
I hope your company will find a way to make this totally disorganized event up to all the children and parents/grandparents that had to try to explain to the upset children their special day had turned out total disappointment!