How To Pre-Order A Bear And Follow-Up Procedures
Effective February 1, 2025, the Bears Against MS pre-order procedures changed. There is a lot of information on this page but that is because I want to be fully transparent and make sure anyone placing a pre-order request, which, while not a legal contract, should be considered a personal commitment to adopt the bear, fully understands Bears Against MS' associated policies and procedures. I therefore ask that you please read all of the information provided below before requesting a pre-order.
To Pre-Order A Bear:
Pre-order requests will be accepted from Charlie Bears Best Friends Club members once the electronic version of the catalog has gone live on the Charlie’s Secret Cupboard Facebook page. Requests from those who are not Best Friends Club members will be accepted following the official launch (usually a week later). I will try to confirm pre-order requests (or let you know if I am already fully reserved) within 48 hours of my receipt of your request. All pre-order requests must be submitted to [email protected] for the pre-order request to be officially recorded.
Requests using the "Put Me On The Waiting List" button on a bear's website listing page will now only add you to my "wish list" for that bear, not my pre-order list. In other words, if you only use this method and don't also send an email, you will be notified if and when the bear is in stock and becomes available for general adoption but the bear will not be guaranteed for you.
Requests using the "Put Me On The Waiting List" button on a bear's website listing page will now only add you to my "wish list" for that bear, not my pre-order list. In other words, if you only use this method and don't also send an email, you will be notified if and when the bear is in stock and becomes available for general adoption but the bear will not be guaranteed for you.
There continues to be no deposit required to pre-order most plush bears. Unless special circumstances apply, I only require a non-refundable/non-transferrable $25 pre-order deposit for Charlie Bears that are limited to 500 or fewer pieces world-wide (in most cases these are the mohair bears). This deposit is required to be paid (I will send you a PayPal invoice) before I will confirm the pre-order. If that invoice is not paid within 48 hours (of the time the invoice is sent), I will consider that to mean that you do not want a confirmed pre-order and will only place you on my "wish list" for that bear/character. Once the bear arrives, assuming you paid the $25, it will be deducted from the adoption fee in figuring the balance due. The $25 is only forfeited if you cancel or do not follow through on the pre-order.
Because the arrival of the bears you pre-order is not always conveniently timed (e.g. multiple pre-ordered bears arriving at the same time), layaway is still available for any pre-ordered bear with an adoption fee of $75 or more. If, when you are advised that your pre-ordered bear will be arriving soon, you anticipate needing a layaway, please let me know and see the website’s Layaway page for instructions on how to proceed. However, we also now offer a number of PayPal delayed payment options where you can pay over time but, unlike a layaway, you receive the bear up-front. Alternatively, you can still make advance pre-order deposits before the bear arrives so that he/she is paid for or partially paid for by the time he/she arrives. These voluntary payments are refundable (except for any credit card or PayPal fees which can't be reversed, which would instead be refunded as a store credit).
Wish Lists:
Once a bear is fully reserved, subsequent pre-order requests will be added to my “wish list” for that bear. If the bear later becomes available either due to a pre-order cancellation or if I can get more, I will contact those on the “wish list”. Depending on the number of wish list requests, I may send emails one at a time (in the order the person is listed on the wish list) or I may send a general email to everyone on the wish list in which case the first person to respond saying they want the bear will be moved to my confirmed pre-order list.
If you are on my wish list and are able to secure the bear with another stockist, please let me know that so I can remove you from my list.
Confirmed Pre-Order Follow-Up Procedures:
Once you pre-order a bear, I suggest you subscribe to the BAMS Blog, if you haven't already done so, to receive an email whenever I add a blog post. Then you can view my notifications on the BAMS Blog page whenever a Charlie Bear delivery is arriving or has just arrived.
Once a shipment arrives, in most cases I will send you an email advising you of any of your confirmed pre-orders that have just arrived. However, sometimes my pre-order list for an upcoming delivery is so large that it would be too time consuming to send individual emails which is why I recommend that you subscribe to the BAMS Blog.
Please note that stockists don’t always receive our full allocation of a bear at one time. In my Blog post about the bears arriving soon, I will note which bears are only a partial shipment of my order. In those cases, it may mean that I won’t have a bear available for everyone on my pre-order list until later. If you have a pre-order for a bear where I only received a portion of my order, you can always email me to check if I received your bear yet or not.
I will send a 2nd email when photos are available and it's your turn to choose your bear (from photos in the Bears Against MS Photo Gallery at https://tinyurl.com/BAMSPhotoGallery). Please note, photos may be full body shots or may only be a close-up of the bear’s face. The Bears Against MS Photo Gallery continues to have both generally available and Reserved But Not Yet Allocated folders. However, to protect individual collectors’ privacy, once a bear is spoken for, its photo is moved to a non-public folder.
Please be respectful of other collectors waiting to choose their bear and get your choice(s) to me as quickly as possible. If I do not hear back from you within 24 hours, I reserve the right to move on to the next person on my list and move you down the list. If you still have not responded by the time everyone on my pre-order list for that bear has been contacted, I will make all un-claimed bears available for general adoption, at which time your pre-order will no longer be guaranteed. If, for whatever reason, rather than you choosing your bear from the "in the fur" photos, you prefer that I choose a bear for you, you should send me an email asking that I do that for you and include any details that will help me choose (e.g. “I like happy faces with larger eye whites” or “I like sweet faces with smaller eye whites”, etc.)
When I do send emails, to avoid them possibly going to your spam folder, please add all three of our email addresses to your “safe contacts” list: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] and/or, if you don't receive the emails referenced above, keep checking your spam folder in the days following the blog post advising of a new delivery.
If, despite adding the email addresses to your safe contacts list and checking your spam folder, you still have trouble receiving my emails, please let me know what other way I can contact you (e.g. Facebook messenger) and also as noted above, make sure you subscribe to the BAMS Blog.
Charlie Bear delivery sizes vary but can sometimes involve over 200 individual bears which obviously take a long time to unpack, let alone photograph. Then working my way down a bear's pre-order list can take a number of days. So depending on how many people are on that list and where you are on the list, it could be a while after delivery before it's time for you to choose your bear. Your patience is appreciated.
I will provide updates at the bottom of the delivery blog post as and when I start contacting people about choosing a particular bear in that delivery. So if you have a bear pre-ordered, this will tell you when to start looking for my 2nd email (mentioned above).
Pre-Order Cancellations:
If, despite adding the email addresses to your safe contacts list and checking your spam folder, you still have trouble receiving my emails, please let me know what other way I can contact you (e.g. Facebook messenger) and also as noted above, make sure you subscribe to the BAMS Blog.
Charlie Bear delivery sizes vary but can sometimes involve over 200 individual bears which obviously take a long time to unpack, let alone photograph. Then working my way down a bear's pre-order list can take a number of days. So depending on how many people are on that list and where you are on the list, it could be a while after delivery before it's time for you to choose your bear. Your patience is appreciated.
I will provide updates at the bottom of the delivery blog post as and when I start contacting people about choosing a particular bear in that delivery. So if you have a bear pre-ordered, this will tell you when to start looking for my 2nd email (mentioned above).
Pre-Order Cancellations:
I understand that circumstances change but, as noted above, you should consider a pre-order, while not a legal contract, a personal commitment to adopt the bear. If you need to cancel a pre-order or a wish list request, please let me know as soon as possible. People who habitually cancel their pre-orders (i.e. request multiple pre-orders but then, during the year, cancel more than they follow through on) without good reason (e.g. “I got impatient and bought one directly from Charlie Bears” is not a good reason) or continually don't respond to my emails (see bold text above about providing an alternate way of contacting you other than email), will have any of their outstanding pre-orders moved from confirmed to wish list, so only available to that person if and when those bears become available for general adoption. Also, any future requests made by that person will be added to my wish lists only, not confirmed.
Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions regarding any of these procedures, please don’t hesitate to contact me.