John Lewis and Waitrose, teddy repair and refresh
1 years
John Lewis announced this themselves for 24 September 2025 and we have found nothing saying it ended. Their own service page would not render for our crawler, so this record is built from the John Lewis Partnership's press announcement rather than from a live page. Ring the shop before you make a trip.
Since 24 September 2025, every John Lewis shop except Swindon and Canary Wharf, plus more than 200 Waitrose shops, takes soft toys in over the counter for a deep clean and minor repairs. Run by Johnsons, the Timpson Group cleaner, whose staff were trained for it by the two Repair Shop teddy bear ladies. A published price list by size, which almost nobody else in this trade offers.
Getting hold of them
- Their own site
- You can walk in at
Walk in. There is no booking and no queue to join.
If it gets lost
Not stated
This is a blank on their page, not an answer from them. We have never asked anybody in this trade the question. Of the 185 businesses we have read, 4 have written anything down about losing an item: 2 say it is insured, 2 say the risk is yours. The other 181 are silent, and silence is not a policy either way.
If you would rather not have to phrase it
“Before I send it, can I ask what happens if it gets lost or damaged while it’s with you? I’m not trying to catch you out, it just can’t be replaced. Whatever the answer is, could you put it in an email so I’ve got it in writing?”
“No, we don’t cover it” is a fine answer to get. It tells you to insure the post yourself for the full amount, both ways.
If it is lost or damaged
Their website does not say what happens if your item is lost or damaged while they have it.
Ask before you post anything you could not replace. Only four of the businesses we hold publish an answer to this.
What they take on
- Mending and seams
- Restuffing
- Cleaning on its own
- Deodorising and allergens
- Eyes and noses
What they won’t do
The part every other directory leaves out. None of this is a criticism. It is how you avoid three wasted weeks.
- Replaces the old stuffing. Whether they will make an exception is not stated, so ask
- Cleans everything as part of a repair, whether you asked or not
- Restores to as-new unless you say otherwise
- Won't quote from photos. Needs it in hand first
- Minimum charge of £20 whatever the job
- Won't value or appraise anything
- Nothing with a mechanism inside: no growlers, squeakers, music boxes or batteries
- No reweaving, so bald patches stay bald
- Won't recover a bear in new fabric, however far gone it is
Their exact words on what they refuse
Quoted from their own pages, unedited, because a paraphrase of a refusal is the kind of thing you find out was wrong three weeks in.
- “a deep clean, a 'teddy tidy' and any minor repairs”
- “The announcement describes the work as minor repairs throughout. It is a counter service in a department store, not a restoration workshop.”
Their published prices
- Small toy, clean onlyfrom £20
- Medium toy, clean onlyfrom £30
- Large toy, clean onlyfrom £40
- Small toy, clean and repairfrom £35
- Medium toy, clean and repairfrom £45
- Large toy, clean and repairfrom £55
Getting it there
- Drop-off only, no post
- You can bring it in
Money
- Minimum charge £20
- Will not quote until it is in their hands. Looking at it costs nothing
Anything else they say
- The most accessible option in the UK by a wide margin, and the only one where the item never goes in the post.
- Also the cheapest published entry price in the dataset: 20 pounds against a 40 pound flat fee at Love Keep Create and 25 pounds for a dolly spa at Diane's Dolls.
- Minor repairs and a clean. This is not the place for a jointed mohair bear, a bear whose foam crumb has gone to dust, or anything with a growler inside, and the announcement never claims otherwise.
- John Lewis's wider Johnsons repair service, which began in July 2024, had completed over 2,300 repairs by September 2025.
- Their own service page would not render for us, so this record is built from the John Lewis Partnership's own announcement rather than from a live page.
- It also explains where the best-known restorers in the country went. Bear It In Mind, the teddy bear ladies, carry a strapline calling themselves the UK's most loved soft toy restorers and run no repair service on their own site at all. They trained this one instead.