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!

I would contact Be My Bear. It says in this article that they supplied hundreds to Killing Eve and they’re an actual local (Welsh) company so you might have some joy?
www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/18436596.mochdre-based-teddy-company-reveals-supplied-hundreds-bears-killing-eve/

Its a TJs Teddies teddy from Donegal in Ireland, apparently. Out of stock there too, but might be worth calling or emailing them?
https://www.tjsteddies.com/product/tjs-teddies-cute-angel-wings-16/

I lost my childhood toys when my mentally ill mother threw out all bar one when I was 10. At the time I accepted it, sadly, but never forgot my favourite, a rabbit. I adored that rabbit, in my mind it had a personality and I made clothes for him. A few years ago, about the age of 60, I found a very similar rabbit on a vintage site and bought it as a gift for my younger self and it sits on a shelf by the bed with the other rabbit that escaped and I kept hidden. If you can, treat yourself.

John Lewis are dreadful. It has taken me 5 months to get a refund for a faulty item. They just give you the runaround hoping that you will get fed up. They tried to say that they had no record of the faulty item being collected. Luckily, I had the case num,ber. The elevated complaints case number. The collection number and the repair number. Plus dates of phone calls and emails. They still tried to give me the runaround. My bank got involved. They gave the bank the runaround too, saying the matter was resolved when it wasn't

p.s. John Lewis complaints centre is in Morocco. It's not great.

That is so sad. I don't think any amount of money will make up for it. I'd buy the closest possible match, buy the bear a new outfit and hope that DD is OK with it.

Don't lose hope, they may find it!

I was terrified this would happen to my daughter’s favourite toy so we sewed an AirTag into his belly. I honestly don’t know what we’d do if we lost him so you have my sympathy.

My daughter is named after the toy rabbit her father lost aged 9 when his family moved house. I remember leaving my favourite teddy at a friend's house when I was about 4 and I was terrified and heartbroken.

Favourite teddies are incredibly important to kids!

https://ebay.us/m/8XJ8MJ is this it ?

Could they give you all the stockists and see if anyone has any? Do they have a similar one you could modify?

I think YABU because the fundamental problem here is not that it was lost, but that chose to give it away before your child was ready.

I’d get her a very similar bear as some other users have posted examples and tell your daughter that the bear looks different as it’s been cleaned / fixed up x

Did you read the OP ? She didn’t give it away

@MissingTeddy didn't give the teddy away, @bridgetreilly - she says she gave it to the John Lewis repair and refresh service - clearly she means it was entrusted to JohnLewis to be repaired and refreshed and then returned!. She used the word ‘gave’ but it didn’t mean she gave it away.

How did you even come up with that interpretation? She sent it to be repaired. That's abundantly clear in the OP, YABU for not reading it.

I've seen these ads in store and the service is incredibly expensive. The people behind it should have spent a long time discussing how losing any soft toy would be their biggest failure ever and mitigated against this - esp on tracking everything to within an inch of its life. I'd be escalating to head office/s and asking them to redouble their efforts.

There are companies that can replicate a teddy bear using a photo and description, sizing etc.

Idk how much they cost it how good they are but they do exist.

ah I'm sorry this happened to you. I ahd a mentally ill mother too

Contact the production company for Killing Eve to see if they still have it?

what a genius idea!

Try Vinted for a replacement 🙂

That’s pretty poor from John Lewis, and I’d absolutely be pushing for more compensation given the sentimental value of the teddy. Have they done absolutely everything to try and find it? Asking for more money might motivate them to look a little harder. After all, it can’t have vanished into thin air. In the meantime, can you contact the teddy manufacturer directly to see if they have any surplus stock they might be able to send?

If MIL is good at sewing why didn't you get her to mend it?

I’m not sure any amount of money would cover sentimental value. Perhaps just try to replace it.