Build-A-Bear Bear Hospital
Location not stated
Their own support pages would not render for our crawler, so this record is built from their help articles and from consistent first-hand accounts rather than from a page we read ourselves. Ring the store before making a trip.
Every Build-A-Bear store runs a Bear Hospital: stitching, restuffing, a brush and a clean bill of health, free, in about five minutes while you wait. There is one catch and it is a big one. They only take Build-A-Bear bears.
Getting hold of them
- Their own site
- You can walk in at
Walk in. There is no booking and no queue to join.
If your case is urgent, say so in the first sentence. They make exceptions and they will not think to ask.
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 mail 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
- Fur restoration, de-matting and pile lifting
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
- Restores to as-new unless you say otherwise
- Won't quote from photos. Needs it in hand first
- Won't value or appraise anything
- Won't work on real fur, sheepskin, knitted items, crocheted items
- Nothing with a mechanism inside: no growlers, squeakers, music boxes or batteries
- Plush only. They don't work on dolls
- Only takes build a bear toys. Anything else is turned away at the counter
- 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.
- “They only repair their own branded bears. By a former employee's account, the number of people arriving with other brands is what created the independent repair market in the first place.”
- “Staff will not stuff or repair dyed or customised plushies, because the dye bleeds and the seams are weakened.”
Their published prices
- Repair, restuff, brush and clean bill of healthfrom $0
Getting it there
- Drop-off only, no mail
- You can bring it in
- Works on site. It does not go away with them.
Money
- Will not quote until it is in their hands. Looking at it costs nothing
Anything else they say
- It never goes in the post and it never stays overnight, which for a child who cannot sleep without it is worth more than any amount of craftsmanship.
- Optional extras are chargeable, such as a heartbeat at four dollars.
- Roughly four hundred stores in the United States, which makes it the widest physical coverage of anything in this dataset by a very long way.
- If yours is not a Build-A-Bear, this is not for you, and the answer is somewhere else on this site.