Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to often asked questions

General
How do I launch (start) an adventure of my own?

If you've just been given a Teddy who looks like he or she is already on an adventure, you need to go here instead. If you want to start an adventure of you own, read on!

 
Launching your own "Where's My Teddy?" Adventure is as easy as A, B, C
 
First, you’ll need a "Where’s My Teddy?" Passport and Bear. You can buy these at the Adventure Shop.
 
Once you receive your Teddy and Passport in the post, you’ll need to give your Teddy a name and register them on the site following the simple instructions on the website using the “Update/Launch a Teddy Adventure” function on the homepage.
 
That’s it! You can then provide as many updates as you like (blogs) before passing teddy on to someone else (as long as you haven’t decided to keep Teddy for yourself that is…)

 

What's a "blog"?

On this site a blog is simply an update about a teddy. To do this simply enter in the Passport NR and PIN from the teddy's passport (you'll need to have either received someone else's teddy or bought a teddy of your own to do this) on the Update a Teddy page, and then follow the on-screen instructions. It's good to have a digital picture to hand when you provide an update - plain text can be a bit boring! A good picture is also proof that teddy's actually been where you say he or she has been!

What guarantee is there that this will work? How many teddies simply go missing?

We have to be honest – it’s too early to tell at this stage what the success rate of this enterprise will be. We’re asking you to take a chance in return for what might be a lot of fun. (And no, before you ask, if your bear goes missing, we can’t give you your money back!) If you’re the kind of person that can live with a little ambiguity, chance, and risk, then visit our adventure shop and get started right now.

 
Still need convincing? Try these similar ideas for a little inspiration – www.flatstanley.com and www.bookcrossing.com  

 

No one has updated my teddy bear for ages. What can I do? Has he/she gone missing?

If it's been a while since you heard from teddy, please contact us providing the Passport NR and Name, and we'll chase the last known recipient of the bear by email to ask them what's going on. We can't guarantee that this will work of course – that depends on how nice the people we are writing to are - but we'll do our best to prod and remind people to do something if a teddy gets stuck or disappears. And if the people we write to no longer have teddy, we’ll ask them to chase the people they gave teddy to instead.

How do I get my teddy bear back?

If you are the original owner of a teddy bear (i.e. the person who first registered the teddy on this website) you can at any time update the status of your bear to show that you want your teddy home. You can also leave a message to future recipients of the bear saying where you would like the bear returned to. Click on the "edit my bear" link under the "My Favourites" box on the right-hand side (only the original owner can see this link, and only when they are logged in).

To protect your privacy, we suggest that when you specify a return address, you provide a public address (e.g. a school or business address) rather than a private residential address. It is then up to the future recipients to try and get the bear home. Clearly, if the bear is a long way from home, the likelihood of teddy returning home is smaller than if teddy is still doing the rounds between your friends and family. However, the theory goes that everyone knows everyone else through a chain of less than six people (see the six degrees of separation theory on Wikipedia). So who knows! Maybe teddy will eventually turn up at your home from wherever they find themselves!

What do the terms "Wild", "Family and Friends", "School" and "Private" in front of the word adventure mean?

Different Kinds of Adventure

When a teddy bear is first started (launched) on to an adventure, the teddy owner needs to specify what kind of adventure they want their bear to have. There are currently four kinds of adventure to choose from (but please feel free to contact us if you think there should be more!):  

  1. Private - My teddy travels only with me
  2. Family & Friends - A bear passed only between family and friends
  3. School - A bear passed within a class/school or between schools
  4. Wild -  Let your teddy loose on the world. How far can teddy travel?

The teddy owner will also have a chance to provide a short text to pass on to anyone who receives the teddy. For example - you might like to say that your teddy should only be given to someone who lives in your town.
 

Risks

The risk that a bear is lost or goes missing increases from the top to the bottom of this list. In other words, if your bear is only being passed between members of your immediate family, or friends in your school class, the more likely it is that the bear will remain on our radar and also (should you wish) that the bear can return home. On the other hand, the wilder the adventure is - for example, a bear that is passed on between relative strangers or distant friends - the more likely it is that the bear eventually falls off our radar, and the less likely it is that teddy will ever find their way home (see "How do I get my bear back?").

Why would I buy a bear just to give it away?

It's not as crazy as it sounds!

First, how many toys and bears do you or your kids already have? If the answer is "more than one", then you probably don't need just another toy anyway. What you need is something a little more different, weird, or wonderful. Right? Well how about this? Everyone's been tempted to leave a message in a bottle at one time or another. Wouldn't it be great if you could do that and know what happened to it afterwards? Where did it end up and who read it? What effect did it have? Well, that's the "Where's My Teddy?" concept in a nutshell. 
 
 
It's not about buying more toys. It's about having an adventure.
 
So you buy a bear and then you set them off on their travels. How? You simply pass them on to other people. The people who receive the bear after that then provide an update on this website before passing the bear on themselves. And so it goes. Each person updates the adventure on the website and everyone who has ever been in touch with the bear gets an update by email saying that the adventure has been updated. You get the picture (and if you don’t, check out our Teddy of the Day to see how it can work). Pretty soon your bear could be smiling at you from a beach in Australia, sitting atop Mount Everest, our hanging out in a hotel lobby in Tokyo. Who knows? And that's the point - it's an adventure! And all that without leaving your armchair! Now that sounds a little more exciting than your average toy, doesn’t it?
 
And finally, learning to give things away is also a great thing for kids to learn these days - a nice antidote to the general rule of always hanging on to stuff. So if you're looking for something that's more than just a toy, visit our Adventure Shop and launch a "Where's My Teddy?" adventure of your own today. 

 

What is "Where's My Teddy?" all about? How does it work?

What's it all about? In a word, Globe-Trotting-Teddy-Bears, that's what! (OK, we know we cheated!). But its more than that, because it's about fun, excitement and adventure too. Check out our Beginner's Guide to "Where's My Teddy?" for a brief explanation about the concept and how you can get involved.

I've just been given a teddy bear with a passport. What do I do?

Don't worry. It's simple. Go here and we'll tell you the simple steps needed to get involved and update teddy's adventure.

Login and Member Services
My nickname is a made up of random numbers! What gives?

In the process of creating your account, we need to assign you a temporary account number. Please go to the "My Account" page and change these meaningless numbers to a nickname of your choosing. If someone else registered on our system has already nabbed your nickname, try adding some numbers or other letters on the end to make it unique.

How do I know if I'm logged in?

If you are logged in, you should be able to see the word "WELCOME" followed by your chosen nickname if the top right-hand corner of the screen, for example WELCOME Mikey. If you are not logged in, you will instead see the login boxes where you can enter your nickname and password.

If your nickname is merely a bunch of random numbers, read this.

If you have cookies enabled on your computer (small bits of information we store on your machine to help you with the login process) then you may find that you've been automatically logged in (assuming that is that you have already created an account with us).

If the wrong nickname is displayed, then you're probably logged in as someone else - if so, please log out and log back in again. Someone may have logged into our site on a public website and forgot to log out!

How do I login? Why can't I log in?

Put your nickname or your email address in the "nickname/email address" box, and your password in the "password" box, and then click the login button. You'll find all this in the top right hand side of the screen if you are not logged in. If you can already see the word "WELCOME" followed by your nickname in the top right hand corner of the screen, you are already logged in. On the other hand, if you can see the word "WELCOME" followed by a bunch of numbers, read this.

If you are still having trouble logging in, then this could be down to one of three things.

  1. Perhaps you have not created an account with us yet? If not, then please do so by clicking on either the "Sign Up!" button above or the "My Account" tab in the navigation bar.
  2. Maybe you are typing in an an incorrect or old password? If, so please visit the "My Account" section to request a new password.
  3. Perhaps you are typing in an old or incorrect username/nickname/email address? If it is the last of these, try typing in an email address you used to have and see if it is recognised (it maybe that you have changed email addresses since you created your account - if this is the case please tell us your new email address by udating your account details in the "My Account" section).

Failing all that, please contact us and we'll help you get back into the fun of Where's My Teddy one way or another!

Postage and Delivery
What happens when I place an order?

When your order is placed on the website, you will see an "order confirmation" page where you will be asked to review all the details of your order, such as product ordered, final price, payment option, your email address and the shipping address.

If all of this information is correct then your payment will be approved over a secure connection with PayPal. Once your payment has been approved (this may take up to a minute or two) you will see a page that will have an online order confirmation number on it. This is confirmation that your order has successfully been placed. Your order will then be dispatched from Noah's Ark Factory in Cardiff. Becuase we use PayPal, neither we nor any of our suppliers ever see or have access to your credit card details.

For information about how we then send your order to you and how long it normally takes to arrive, go here.

How long does it take to receive my order?

Orders received during the week are usually batched-up and sent out every Friday via Royal Mail. Delivery times are usually within three days to Western Europe, four days to Eastern Europe and five days for the rest of the world, following the day of posting. If you do not receive your order within 10 working days, then please contact us, quoting your order number (you can find this under the "My Account" tab in the navigation bar above). If we have any difficulties fulfilling the order from our side (e.g. due to being out of stock), then one of our customer service associates will contact you by email.

Payment
What credit cards do you accept?

On our website we use paypal, so we accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and any other forms of payment you choose to use through their site. Please see www.paypal.com for more details.

 

 

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