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November 2025 by Paris Sabourin
My boyfriend and I took our daughter here for her 2nd birthday on Monday. We were not greeted by the staff and the girl who “helped” us just sat in the chair waiting for us to come over to get the animal stuffed. She seemed like she didn’t want to be there and didn’t have a very enthusiastic attitude. This is the type of business where having an upbeat attitude matters. She barely said a word when we went over to stuff the animal and she didn’t direct us to what we needed to do. She told us to pick a heart and didn’t go through what I thought they usually do (make a wish, kiss the heart, spin three times) before placing it in the animal. This is what they did when I was younger from what I remember. We specifically went in there wanting to add a sound to the animal so my daughter could press it and hear our voices, but she didn’t even ask and sowed it. By that point we felt it was too late to ask, so we were disappointed. She didn’t even ask us to make a birth certificate, so I figured maybe they don’t do it anymore since it’s been a long time since I’ve been there. Apparently they still offer it, she just didn’t to us. Overall, a very disappointing experience and we really wish we had a better, more enthusiastic employee there to help us.
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October 2025 by JANE MCMAHON
Jose!!! He did an amazing job.
He kept all kids organized, engaged and happy.
He was friendly, knowledgeable and very professional to us. My daughter had a great time having her party here.
I give 5 stars to Jose.
To build a bear,
No tables?! No anything for a “birthday gathering”. What is your standard?! It Was not advertised. Not communicated clearly until I already booked appointment.
I had children sitting on a dusty floor with beautiful dresses. Not a single place to sit down?!
You know you’re completely understaffed. Your staff is overworked. They need to be appreciated and compensated for your lack of humanity in staffing.
They are the face of this company for hundreds of people to count on enjoying. If it wasn’t for Jose. I would have walked out.
Long lines and a lot of under trained staff, not helpful. Zero acknowledgement for crowd control or helping hand. Jose, He navigated and was very calm through it all. I am so grateful for him
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October 2025 by allison perse
This is an incredibly poorly organized operation. We waited in line to have our bears filled for 30 minutes while staff allowed a non-birthday party group of families to cut in front of us because “they were together.” Any kind of magic for the kids completely melted away.
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October 2025 by Andrew Beard
Jose was incredibly sweet to my son and made his birthday special
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October 2025 by Brooke Doyon
Jose MADE my 2 year olds birthday. He went above and beyond and was absolutely amazing.
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August 2025 by Han Vo
I had a wonderful experience at this location store #1036 on July 22, 2025, around 12PM. Ambar Hidalgo helped me and my two kids, and she was absolutely amazing. She was kind, patient, and made the entire experience so special for the kids. I really appreciated how she took her time helping them choose their items and made us all feel welcome. I hope she gets recognized for her outstanding customer service! Thank you so much for the help! We hope to see you again.
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August 2025 by Google Account
Visited here with our children and Robin couldn’t have been more rude. From the moment we walked in they were already appearing not excited to help us. Robin asked if we wanted sounds and we said no to which they under their breath said “ugh”. Afterwards, Robin needed more time so they asked us to go look at clothes which we did not want to do as we never buy clothes. You could see they were becoming upset. They asked if we wanted to make birth certificates and then said “you probably dont right?” which we replied “we’re all set we will wait to check out.”They didn’t say much the whole time and you could tell he was frustrated. When we asked for boxes for the bears, they said you know that’s 95 cents each right? Pigeonholing us into a category of having no money. We’ve spent thousands at build a bear. In fact, we have purchased almost every one of the giant $100 plush animals when they come out. If we don’t buy sounds or clothes, that’s our business and not something to be judged on. The past few weeks, we have been dealing with a close relative passing and did this to try to bring up our children’s spirits. This experience was supposed to be happy and fun; but rather Robin made it an absolute disaster that we were just excited to walk out from and never return.
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March 2025 by Lindsay LeBoeuf
Went to celebrate my twins first birthday. Staff was so nice and still did the bear-stuffing show even though they had no idea what was going on. A special experience for all of us, and a great deal going for a birthday and getting. Their first teddy bears
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February 2025 by Laine Trent
The staff in charge that day who talked to us, I believe their name is Roby, was so impatient and rude. They were not able to explain clearly why we couldn’t make a birthday bundle since there wasn’t one of the items in the store. Another employee ended up clarifying things to us. I didn't leave the store because it was my daughter’s birthday and she was very excited to build a bear. They should train their employees better regarding how to treat their customers with courtesy, especially due to the fact that it’s a kid's store.
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January 2025 by Jamie Sinnis
We brought our daughter in yesterday for her 2nd birthday, and we had the absolute most amazing experience! I believe the lovely woman who helped us was named Laurie, she was wonderful! She made sure our little girl had such a special time. She was patient, so fun, and so kind. She even ended up having a dance party with her at the end. Highly recommend this location! I wish I could have more encounters with such incredible people in retail settings. Thank you again Laurie, you made such a special core memory for our daughter.
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December 2024 by Jesse Robertson
The manager is great. She was super helpful and got me the Stitch stuffie my daughter was looking for.
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September 2024 by Girl Taipei
Erroneously applied charges to a 13-yr old and refusing to refund unless we bring the bear and the receipt back into the store in person, which is one hour away. I had offered to send video clips of the bear, and to send photo of the receipt. But they will not consider any of it. They also didn't seem interested in learning what actually happened. They did not ask what we bought, what time we were in the store, which staff member helped us (we have all that info, wouldn't it be easier for the staff member who helped my daughter to verify our statement?) Why did their store staff take advantage of a 13 year old girl?
They also sold an unnecessary gift card, taking advantage of a 13-yr old's vulnerability. That will also go to waste because how can we shop at this store again when their basic stand is that "we need the customers to verify their story but we will never question our staff?"
Here are more details below if you are interested:
My 13 year old daughter went in with her friend to build a bear yesterday (Sat 9/21 at 3pm) at the Natick Mall in Massachusetts. I was not there with them as I have been home self-quarantining as I recovered from COVID. So apparently nobody checked the receipt for accuracy. This morning (Sun 9/22) my daughter came to me with tears in her eyes..."OMG build a bear charged me for personalized recording even though we didn't have one.... They charged us $9 extra! Mommy can you call them to get the refund for the over-charge?"
My daughter was in tears because we have been teaching her to make smart choices. Don't waste money, don't fall into scams, etc. so she was very proud that she said "no" to the personalized recording, and I was proud of her too. So you could imagine her disappointment when she realized that the store went ahead and charged her anyway without her consent.
I called the store immediately and their position was firm. You have to come in with the receipt and the bear or else there is nothing we can do. I explained that the store is one hour away, and I am still recovering from COVID, but the store would not budge. What bothers me the most was when the store manager said:
"You have to present both in person in our store. As long as the receipt and the bear check out with what you are saying, we will process a refund"
This statement is so accusatory! It assumes that I am lying. Not once did the store manager ask me more details: who helped your daughter? What time did your daughter shop at our store. Etc. There is no interest in learning more about the circumstance so that they can avoid this from happening again in the future. His only focus seems to be get your *ss here in person before I will entertain the idea that what you are saying might be true...
I explained to him that because you are one hour away and because I am still getting over my COVID, I would appreciate another way to deal with this. In this day and age, I offered to send video clips of the bear to prove that there was no personalized recording, and to send in picture of the receipt. But he didn't want to hear any of that.
Stepping back: build a bear is a nice concept and apparently all kids have a soft spot for this. But you know you are dealing with kids, shouldn't the Manager be more interested to ensuring that that is a safe environment for the kids? My daughter is heart broken because she used her allowance which she saved up over time to buy this bear, so the lack of refund even for a mistake clearly by the store's staff was not comprehensible to her. Build a bear needs to evolve with technology and with time. Is this the store you want to do business with?
I am definitely not going to drive two hours round trip just for this. It is not worth my time. If we go back to the Natick Mall on another occasion in a few months, would I want
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September 2024 by John Drolet
We took our granddaughter here for her birthday and she picked out her birthday bear and a outfit for her bear. She is happy.
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March 2024 by Ashlee Gray
We had a great experience for our little guys 4th birthday yesterday! Robin and Julia were both extremely helpful and made my son feel super special and even went the extra mile at check out making sure all my discounts and rewards were applied to make the price as low as possible. We will definitely be back!
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March 2024 by Jack Segal
Built-a-Bear in the Workshop, felt like i was at Shien
