Dobbies Garden Centres Opiniones 

Just had a new patio set delivered (via DX2). Excellent service in the shop (Stockton-on-Tees) with some splendid autumn discounts. Well please with the furniture and the plants we've bought over the year.

Unfortunately, today’s visit to Dobbies Ashford was a very disappointing experience.

I spent around 35 minutes queuing in the restaurant just to order lunch for myself and my son. The queue was barely moving, and I saw several customers simply give up and leave without being served. When customers expressed their frustration, the response was: “We have training today.”

Only two members of staff appeared to be actually serving customers, while the rest of the team were gathered around the coffee machine for training.

The situation with my coffee was also very unprofessional. Staff were practising making drinks and asking the trainer whether the coffee they had prepared was correct. I have absolutely nothing against staff training - everyone has to learn. However, if my order is being used as part of that training and the person making it is not even sure whether the drink has been prepared correctly, I think it is reasonable to ask: why should I be expected to pay full price for that drink?

Staff training is necessary, but it should be organised in a way that does not result in customers waiting 35 minutes or paying for drinks that are effectively being used as training examples.

The whole atmosphere in the restaurant today felt unpleasant and poorly organised. We came simply to have a nice lunch together, but instead experienced a very long wait, frustration, and the feeling that customer experience had become the lowest priority during the training session.

Very disappointed with today’s visit.

Mia

Bought a swing from here that snapped in half and because slightly over 1 year it's not covered by the guarantee. My expectations were obviously far too high for these swings to last more than 1 year. I will throw them away and buy more swings and then throw them away. Perhaps they could start a subscription service where you get a new swing every year then chuck it in the tip when it breaks every few months. Great to see we can build high quality products still in this country. Perhaps we could make them from paper and they would be more durable and we could recycle them each week? Congratulations Dobbies on another example of outstanding British company service!

I was served with a very nice assiant ,I had bought. A garden gazebo which was on sale , excellent price may I mention , I tried speaking to a assistant before the girl that served me ,,she was a bit rude ,I only wanted to ask a quick question. ,she was having none of it really sharp reply. ,was with a customer , she was on her own then a colleague came and spoke they had a blether a giggle. , I attempted again to ask her nope. No chance cut short.im with a customer , not a gd customer. Assistant at all. ,small in height very short hair ,and was about 1-55 pm. Very rude.,

We like the Garden Centre.
Alas the plants and own brand soil/grobags can be dire.
We bought 2 own brand Grobags, 3 tomato plants and 1 cucumber plant.
Growth has been abysmal compared to last year when we had a bumper crop.
So far 1 large tomato and 4 small pixie type tomato’s
The plants do not look healthy and watering has been as required, not excessive and not being allowed to dry out, tomorite feed has been used

Background

In 2023, we purchased the parasol shown in the attached documentation from your Dobbies Milngavie store at a cost of £400, together with a £45 installation charge.

Earlier this month, I unfortunately damaged the parasol cover (Item L, Part No. 790727) and wished to purchase a replacement.

I visited your Milngavie store, where I was advised that this model is no longer stocked and that no replacement covers or spare parts are available. I then contacted your Customer Services department who, although helpful, were unable to provide any further assistance.

I also contacted Kenston, believing them to be the manufacturer. They advised that they did not manufacture the parasol and believed it had been imported from the Far East.

Conclusion

I purchased this parasol in good faith from Dobbies with the reasonable expectation that a premium product costing £400 would be supported by the availability of replacement parts, particularly a replacement canopy, for a reasonable period.

It is extremely disappointing to discover that there is no product support whatsoever. Had I been made aware at the time of purchase that replacement covers and spare parts would not be available, I would not have purchased this parasol.

I believe it is reasonable to expect that a product of this quality and price should remain serviceable and that customers should be able to obtain replacement parts for accidental damage without having to replace the entire parasol.

I would therefore ask Dobbies to review this matter and advise what assistance they can provide, whether by sourcing a replacement cover, identifying an alternative supplier, or proposing another satisfactory solution.
They did review the mater after me sending a reminder. Gave an apology and advise that I should try another company to see if I could get a new cover.
VERY DISAPPOINTED.

We go to dobbies in chirk once a week for breakfast it has always been lovely always until today it was horrible the black pudding couldn’t even cut with a knife the bacon was hard the toast was soft and not the normal bread they normally have, it was really disappointing today even the tea was cold

We had lunch in the Southport garden centre. Never again.
My husband had a tuna jacket potato with a bit of salad. The tuna was straight out of the tin with nothing added to it, so it was very dry. (Only ate half of it). I had a chicken and bacon caesar salad. The lettuce hadn't been washed and some of the leaves should have gone straight into the bin not onto the plate. Also the prices are to high for what you are getting.

We had a wonderful afternoon tea to celebrate mum's 95th birthday. The table was set beautifully and we were given a warm welcome. The food was delicious and the staff were so kind and made the her feel very special. She has been telling all her friends about the occasion.

Yesterday visited this garden centre in Swansea. Section where reduced plants were available. These plants had not been watered and were in a sorry state. Purchased various items and spent £98. Including 7 of the same reduced plants at £1.20 each. 5 had stickers two had none. The lady at the till said she had to verify their price. We then had to wait until someone came. This gave me the feeling that I was trying to pretend that the 2 were reduced when they were not.

DO NOT GO TO DOBBIES RIP OFF RESTAURANT! ABERDEEN
What an absolute disgrace. I took my elderly 83 yr old mother, just out of ARI for 7 days, for a what I thought would be a few hours of out time and a spot of lunch.
Dobbies was always lovely but had not been there for several months.
Had a bit of a wander round the store then went for “LUNCH” what a huge mistake!
The food looked reasonably presented and mum went for soup and roll and I decided to have baked potato with BBQ pulled pork.
I asked for my potato and went to get 2 glasses water with mum sliding the food trays forward.
I met mum at the till and looked down at my plate, OMG is that it i said to the very young checkout “YEAHHHH” was her seriously just about plausible response.
I was disgusted £18 circa for a small bowl soup, half a bread roll and a “3”BAKED POTATO WITH AN ICE CREAM SCOOP OF FILLING” if I wasn’t with my mum it would have gone straight back. I mean it was almost laughable the potato was no bigger than the ones i cut up for chips at home and 3 forks later the filling was gone. PATHETIC DOBBIES JUST PATHETIC.
I didn’t realise that the food bill included a fee for walking around the store as that’s the only logic I could see for charging circa £11 for this pitiful poor wee spud and baby food amount of filling ..
DESPERATE DAYS FOR DOBBIES.
Save your cash you’ll get a much better breakfast brunch lunch in Cafe 83 in Kemnay where we were the previous week, I only wish i’d travelled the extra 15 mins than waist £18 in disillusioned Dobbies.

Absolute piss takers. I've used their Altrincham sight it was amazing. Then they closed down, was gutted had to ask back for my money on a membership I just bought. .that should have been first red flag but thought genuinely nothing off it.
Then June 2025 I order geranium cashmere white paid in full online as you do, ordered x2 2L pots it's now August 1st 2026 and just been told after requesting information over 8 times on my order being told can I wait till next year 2027... are these people for real.
They will only issue me a refund in cheque form as its over a year...who ever uses cheques still? They said it will take 14 days... . I won't hold my breath.

I didn’t have a good experience with this store, I purchased pug plants online, the parcel came very little soil in the tiny pots had spilled out everywhere leave bare dried roots, they all died even after me trying to recover them, reached out to customer service, passed here and there then ignored. I won’t be buying from here again

Normally I love shopping at dobbies garden centre, however on my recent visit I was looking for sale plants. I eventually found them outside, i chose 2 to buy, one pot was bit heavy and the one negative about the centre is you can never find trolley outside. I saw one and asked if I could use it, I was shocked when staff member shouted NO, it's mine. I walked away, another shopper heard him and said to me he was just loud I replied and rude. The staff member then was shouting something to me but I ignored him. I struggled but got to till put plants down while I went outside to come back in with a trolley so I could use it to go to my car. I didn't say anything in store, mostly the staff are polite. Fortunately most of staff are lovely so it won't put me off going again.

Been to Dobbies at Barlborough today, stood in a queue for drinks and cake for 25 minutes, this is ridiculous!
One member of staff serving, which is ridiculous!! Every time we come here it is the the same. I feel sorry for the staff who are trying their best. Your prices you charge should pay for enough staff to provide an adequate service. Got to the till and there was confusion about birthday free cake and drinks so the young girl had to leave the till to find out about this!! It really isn’t good enough 🙄

We booked afternoon tea to celebrate an 80th birthday at the Ayr store. Unfortunately something had gone wrong with the booking and it was set up for 4 people instead of 6. Staff were apologetic and despite it being very busy they sorted it out for us. Staff were very helpful and friendly throughout the visit.

The food was great and we will definitely come back. The kids tea was especially nice and was a great hit. At the end we were given boxes to take left overs away with us.

A huge thank you to the staff for making sure we had a wonderful birthday celebration!

Dobbies, Orton Grange, Carlisle. Went there with a friend today Friday 24th July. Tea is self serve, only 1 small tea pot, we wanted 2, milk jug empty, no saucers for our cups, we had to ask a very nice man that was taking orders / making coffees, he gave us what was needed. Only about 5 fresh cream cakes available. The black man that took our payment was very nice. Very few tables to choose from because most were still cluttered with crockery and a mess, tables needed cleaning. In the short time free he had he was trying to clear tables, we took it that they were who we saw the only staff! When we were leaving the black man was in the kitchen doorway obviously asking 2 young female staff members to help, explaining what was needed and not done, I was shocked to see one of the girls back chatting him and appearing quite put out she was being asked to earn her wage!! I have never seen the restaurant looking so bad and badly run. More staff that are happy and grateful to EARN a wage are needed

Went to Dobbies Garden Centre, Melbourne, Cambs at the beginning of lunch time. The place looked very spacious, clean, bright but really warm under the perspex ceiling. There was about 10 min wait to order food. Got to the till was asked for a table number. I was on my own with nothing I could leave except my handbag to reserve a table. I ordered paid then had to go back to give them a table number. As I looked around there were no notices saying how the ordering worked and no reserve notices for the tables. I do wish places like this woukd give a little consideration to those users are on their own. The food was delivered promptly, it was tasty and hot and I didn't have to wait long at all. The staff were friendly and when delivering the food asked uf j needed anything else. So the food was good but the ordering process let it down

Dobbies used to be my go to for meeting friends for a coffee and to look at plants but recently not so much.
I got a parking fine a couple months ago after staying to long which was so upsetting £100 is a lot of money for a single person to find when money is so tight. I also have the loyalty card so like to at least enjoy my free drinks but on to many occasions I am let down but lack of supplies my last trip was no oat milk (this has happened before) the food order got mixed up and was very delayed it was not busy! Come on Dobbies it’s not difficult to get it right I hope things improve 🤞

I haven't been to Dobbies Royston for probably about six months. Today, I took my two Grandchildren there today. They both asked for a healthy bowl of Cheesy Chips. Now bearing in mind, that the Café was almost empty, it took 30 minutes for the Chips to arrive. Not very good, I hear you say. Well, it gets better, if you go for Cheesy Chips the cheese element costs an extra £2, I'm being generous when I say that there was about 20p worth of cheese! The standard of service and food has definitely deteriorated in that 6 months, I will not be going back.