To want dd's teddy back?

[MissingTeddy]

We gave dd(8)’s favourite teddy (her constant companion for 5 years) to John Lewis’ Teddy Bear Repair & Refresh service before Christmas to be cleaned and mended.

It’s been lost while in their care (or technically the care of Johnson's dry cleaning and/or the courier and/or the repair centre, who are all involved with the service).

She’s been asking almost daily when her bear is coming home and I haven’t yet told her it's lost.

The exact bear isn’t available new or secondhand anywhere online.

I’m sharing in the hope that someone might recognise it, have one tucked away, or know where I might find an identical replacement.

I’ll post a photo below. Any help hugely appreciated 💛

Wanted an AIBU to get more traffic so: AIBU to think the £35 compensation the dry cleaning company has offered isn't going to cut it with my dd and I somehow need to find an identical bear?

Now wish I'd just taken it to our local Repair Cafe who would have mended it while I waited!

That’s shockingly poor from JL. They should not be able to loose such precious objects. I agree that £35 isn’t enough. Imm44 and would be very upset if they’d lost a bear of mine.

I don't really have any advice unfortunately, but I know the pain of a child's exact comforter not being replaceable so I'm just posting to boost your post.

I hope you get some kind of resolve OP and your DD can get her bear back.

Is there not a contract or terms & conditions about losing an item in their care? £35 seems so low and I think you should push for more. It’s not just a teddy, I’ve still got mine and I’m in my 30’s!

Might do similar on build a bear x

Oh no, that’s terrible! £35 really isn’t enough when it’s something sentimental. I hope the bear turns up at some point. I have looked on Google lens and there’s similar, I’m not convinced it’s the exact same for sale on Etsy.
my oldest nephew lost his favourite monkey stuffed toy when he was on holiday, it went everywhere with him. I think it was about £5 from mothercare but I hunted down a replacement and paid £20 for it! The only problem was it was brand new and plump whereas the original was very well loved. He was delighted to have a new one but knew straight away it wasn’t the original, despite us saying monkey had just enjoyed too much holiday food!. 😩

Have you messaged the company themselves?

https://www.bemybear.com/contact

There is a Facebook group called Little Blue cup which allows you to post an item and then hopefully people might be able to find one. And have you done a search on vinted

I'm sorry, I hope you find one.

Are you sure you can’t find another one online?

It looks like Build A bear workshop made one that is near identical to the one in your picture.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/803074809/16-build-a-bear-pink-fairy-beary-friends

The arms are different though. Where did your daughter’s one come from? That Amazon listing?

probably repeating other posters, but I hope you have luck

Etsy
vinted
gumtree
ebay
Facebook Marketplace, you can put wanted ads on
freecycle
prob too early but car boots

That's not the same bear

is this it? Think there is a build a bear one that is incredibly similar but appreciate (I have DD) it might not be the ‘same’ ebay.us/m/CfjhK5

https://ebay.us/m/gKC7xd

I second EBAY, my girls have comforters they adore and can’t be without, they were no longer sold, so I looked on EBAY, loads available there. Cross my fingers for you that this is the case for you. How upsetting.

How much more compensation would you be happy with OP? It’s so sad when something sentimental gets lost but I think it’s really hard to put a price on that

Wishing you look with this. I feel your pain. Be honest with your daughter though and maybe say the Bear has escaped and on antibiotics adventure or similar.

DD left hers in a hotel in Spain. We only realised when we arrived home. We sat here down and explained we'd do what we could be realistically near might prefer living in Spain. Lucky housekeeping found him and handed in to lost property. Cost me nearly £100 for a courier to bring it back from an extended holiday about 2 weeks later

I'd contact bemybear as ppl suggests, you might find a similar bear but with a different outfit.

Some of those links above look promising and if it's not an exact match you have the perfect explanation - that it was part of the repair service that they upgraded xyz to give teddy a new whatever. Good luck! All very stressful and definitely bad form for JL.

Dry cleaners are absolutely shocking for this. Johnson’s “lost” my beautiful wool rug from John Lewis and after telling us it was still at the specialist rug cleaning place they send them to for MONTHS eventually admitted they had lost it and offered us £100 (it cost nearly a thousand in a sale). All my children learnt to walk on that rug and it had made each house we lived in “home”. I will never go there again. As far as I’m concerned they are just not fit for purpose. Ask them what the compensation would be if they lost an expensive suit, you will be flabbergasted at their cheek.

Bemybear have the outfit on sale, in stock, princess 8"

oh, what a terrible thing to happen to a child. my mother still talks about me leaving my purple monkey (that had velcro hands to go round your neck like a real monkey, very cool and nobody else had one - i still have him somewhere) in nursery one friday, she had the weekend from hell. i hope the poor lamb gets reunited with her favourite friend soon, i would torment them until they lost the will to live if she was one of my loved ones because i know how upsetting it can be... be persistent and cross everything possible, stranger things have happened.

My son found a teddy at a charity shop when he was 4 cost £1.
He still has it at 23, it's had more stitches than a quilted blanket.
He was white now hes gray, and wears a baby grow, now he sits in a hamock in my room.
My son said it has a smell only he can smell, and would know if i tried to swap him.

I once got told to send him off to someone to have him proper fixed.
But I cant risk losing him.

@MissingTeddy the brand of your teddy has a facebok page-you can both message them but also post there as someone may have one they will pass on to your DD.

https://www.facebook.com/bemybear

If there is a similar one in BAB & you can get the lilac holographic paw fabric would the teddy cafe replace the paws ?