Dobbies Garden Centres Reviews 32,069

The staff where lovely BUT the “living” Christmas tree I bought which was supposed to keep its needles dyed dispite watering it daily
A week till Christmas and I think it will be needless by Christmas Day.

I booked two Christmas lunches here over the festive period. At the first lunch the general meal was ok but the sprouts were very overcooked and grey looking. I later had stomach cramps which I think was the sprouts. The Manager and most of the staff were working hard but the service was slow with one waitress scrolling in her phone and eating food from the service desk. We were so disappointed with the meal that my husband sent a complaint. In the complaint he said that I had paid a deposit to go with friends the following week. We were told that the complaint would be passed on so assumed it would be acted on. The following week I visited with friends, again the Brussels sprouts were overcooked I asked for a replacement veg and was given peas which were fine. The turkey was dry and again the service slow. After years of coming to Dobbies as a member I will not be eating a Christmas meal here very disappointing. My husband sent a follow-up complaint but heard no more.

Went in the Southport Dobbbies and the restaurant needs serious reorganisation. Firstly it is confusing with all its different counters … one for hot, one for cakes and tea &coffee….one in the middle for extra cakes…one on the side for drinks and another hidden at the bottom end for serve-yourself tea and coffee. There was one poor woman on the cakes, tea & coffee side where a big queue was building up because she had to operate the coffee machine. Would be better if customers served themselves with the cakes because we had to wait for her. If we didn’t want the special coffee we could then go directly to the self-service tea/coffee at the end. This woman was run ragged and clearly very stressed out by practically throwing the cakes and drinks onto the tray (not her fault). They should have had two people on there. We were not impressed at all.

I bought around £10 worth of Christmas decorations, one very fragile - to the extent that 3 on the display were already broken. At the till I asked if they could be put in a paper bag and the glass one perhaps in a bit of bubblewrap to be told that would cost me another 10p! I didn't have my Dobbies card with me but going on past experience asked if they could trace it on my postcard - to which I received an abrupt 'No'.
This morning I bought a decoration in a charity shop which was immediately wrapped without my asking.

We called in for a drink and a snack. The table close to us looked like a chimps tea party had been there. Cake all over the floor,no attempt made to clear it.
Cakes didn't look that great, no sultana scones. Poor lady on the till was doing everything, hence the long queue. Most people ordered coffee which takes time to make. Although she was overworked she was extremely pleasant and not fazed by the situation. Young girl popped her head round the corner but then continued talking and laughing to someone else.
The whole place is soulless.
It needs a manager capable of organising the available staff.
Will never go again unless I hear that it has improved.

I would like to say Eve was so polite and helpful and is a credit to the company.

Dobbies cafe was terrible service, waited more than 20 minutes before walking out as no one would take our order, it wasnt even busy either, people arriving after ourselves was served with drinks and orders taken, appalling service, staff stood talking amongst themselves while people are sat waiting for their order to be taken and drinks served

Took my granddaughter to see Santa with the elves yesterday
What a fantastic experience, the elves were lovely and Santa was so friendly , they chatted and laughed , nothing was rushed
We took a few lovely photos
They made the whole experience amazing, well done the team at Dobbies , Swindon

Santa Paws, went today to Santa Paws, paid £25 for 2 dogs, me and my sister had a dog each, was given very short opportunities to take pictures, no Sniff-ari or none that we were show, no Obstacle course or again none that we were shown, the elves rushed us to get into Santa as quick as possible to get us out the door, should have had 20 minutes and didn’t even get 10, wouldn’t recommend.

The location, which boasts considerable potential, was discovered to be in a state of disarray upon our arrival. We had previously reserved the soft play area for our son at 11:45, yet there was no verification of payment upon entry, and self-entry into the play room was permitted. Regrettably, he was unable to access the play room due to overcrowding, with an excessive number of children occupying a confined space. The delay in getting drinks from the cafe was also noteworthy, taking 35 minutes for a simple water and coke order, despite the line not being excessively long. Furthermore, the mini train to visit Santa did not provide advance notice of its cash-only payment method, leading to a lengthy queue of over an hour, only to discover this fact at the front of the line. It was disheartening to observe children playing in the car park and on a pile of rubbish and wooden crates, given the apparent lack of risk assessment. The overall impression was one of disorganization and chaos.

Sadly this garden centre has really gone downhill. The products for Christmas are poor quality and the displays are really mediocre compared to other garden centres. The toilets were not very nice and the cafe was absolutely disgusting, filthy tables, filthy chairs and the area where they were making drinks was so dirty it didn’t look like it had been cleaned properly for weeks. I won’t be visiting again.

What a fabulous Santa experience! Appreciated we had to wait past our appointment, but when you get in you realise why. The elves are so lovely, they ensured my grandson had a nice time, showing him the animals. We had a nice game of fishing and feeding the penguin, and then played ice hockey and basket snowball. We went into another space where we found a life size reindeer. We did some colouring in to make bespoke wrapping paper. And then we went into see Santa. Such a kind gentleman. Had so much time for the children, which is possibly what causes the initial delay. I have to say throughout we were not rushed, had the place to ourselves and were shown kindness by all the elves. Well worth the money and we will definitely be back next year. Bonus Santa spoke Welsh!!

cafe! Dont bother the service is terrible filthy tables, and only one staff serving! Play area a hygiene issue it was filthy! Overpriced stock. DEFINITELY AVOID!!

I am a Dobbies customer and have a reward card. My local branch is the one in AYR. My wife and I decided to go for lunch. Arriving in good time, just after 12:00 we joined a small queue ( two people serving) after a short period the staff presence dropped to one despite the queue growing significantly. Eventually another member of staff appeared and started to everyone in the queue if the wanted cakes ( everyone was queuing for lunch. The queue continued to grow. Eventually we got served( 25 min). There was no level of supervision or support. It even got to the stage that there was no trays and none forthcoming.

We approached the manager ( Andrew) to discuss the situation. His immediate attitude was to go on the defensive. His response was 25 minutes was good it’s usually 40 min. Rather than waste time , our lunch was getting cold . I suggested he came and speak to us when he had time . He eventually did . Again I was polite. Despite this he was spoiling for a fight. Continued to give the impression he didn’t care, saying his staff were great.My issue was about him not giving them the support they deserved. He then made a throw away comment about the increase in the number of Dobbies cards being purchased !!! His final comment was the Senior Management were coming to the branch on Tuesday next week.

A number of other customers nearby witnessed the exchange and were shocked by his attitude.

I am very disappointed

Both last week and today, waited 25 minutes to be served in the coffee shop. The queue went back as far as the indoor plants. No apology when you get to the order and till area. Will not return and another store looks like it will close. They should not bother about asking to renewing my membership.

Every time you go in this store, there is never any staff on the tills, your store manager needs to learn how to use a till rather than use the tanoy to ask for more staff to help. The Waitros section is never stocked with anything helpful and over priced even for Waitros. Multi skill your till staff so they also can deal with parcel collections. I have witnessed customers walk out due to the length of the queues.

You will need to step up and change or you will end up closing like Gosforth store and many others.

The WORST Santa's Grotto experience ever!

My wife and I took our daughter to the Santa experience here and had a terrible experience. We arrived on time and had to wait 30 minutes to be allowed into the grotto. An elf would sometimes appear and explain they were having problems but then disappear (we later saw that she was disappearing to have coffee with her friends). Eventually we were allowed into the "groto". We have done many of these experiences before at different garden centres and normally they are off a high standard. The "grotto" we were greeted with in Shrewsbury however was tired and cheap. The fake animals were worn and old, clearly with very little care taken. The games, signs and photo opportunities were all worn and cheap, most being card pintouts. The first photo op was supposed to be a santas sleigh but it was a garden bench with a single blanket chucked over it and some cardboard cut outs placed around it. In comparison at grottoes we have previously visited they have real wooden sleighs to sit on and take photos with (may I point out for the same price). Next we were taken to a barn scene with a tired looking fake reindeer and an elf making reindeer food. Whilst making the reindeer food plastic glitter was poured into it, I understand this is nitpicking, but who is going to spread that in the garden or the house? There was another worn out and poorly thrown together photo op in the barn scene. I will however give the 2nd and 3rd elf we saw at the photo ops their credit, they were trying to make the best of a bad situation, especially given the 1st elf kept wandering off. We were then taken through to Santa. We weren't met with a jolly man with a big white beard as you'd expect and as advertised, but instead by a rather unhappy looking Santa with a 3 day stubble. Again to give him some credit he did try to engage my daughter in conversation but it was to do with swimming, not Christmas? an unusual choice.

We then thought we would try and salvage the day by going to the restaurant, on entry none of the tables available had been cleared. This should have been a red flag and we should have turned around. But we didn't. We proceeded to order a jacket potato with salad that was prepared in front of us and we were asked what we wanted with them, although our requests were ignored and the salad we specifically asked not to have was put on the plate. My daughter ordered a pasta dish that we were told would be delivered to the table, but never arrived. My wife then went back up to ask where it was and was told by the same lady she forgot to put it through and that if we wanted the £1 kids offer we would have to buy another meal.

Overall a terrible experience and I would encourage people to find a better grotto at a different site! It is rare I would take the time and effort to complain about something but the experience was so poor it felt necessary!

We missed breakfast by a couple of minutes but ordered fish goujon in a bun which was extremely nice.
The only improvement I would suggest is that when the waiter brought our food, he left without removing the used tray and cups, and menus. The table was very small so we had to eat with a very cluttered table while he left empty handed.

I ordered something that totalled £49.99 which was 1p off being entitled to free delivery so I thought rather than paying £5 for nothing I will buy something in addition. That additional item arrived however the item I wanted the most hadn't arrived and I waited 5 working days. When I contacted customer service they took days to respond saying my order was cancelled. They advised I re-ordered however I explained that I shouldn't have to pay for a delivery charge especially as they cancelled my order without notifying me! John said I am liable to still pay for delivery charge. So unhelpful I ordered elsewhere and wont ever buy from here again.

Phoned to enquire about a product. "Press 3 to speak to someone in store" but after 14 minutes noone had bothered to answer the phone!

Never wasting time on this lot again.