britishgardencentres.com Reviews 

This firm seems to be unaware of the law concerning distance selling. Having been presented with evidence of the courier losing the item to be delivered they ignored two requests for a refund demanding that the non-delivered item be returned for a refund assessment. In the end, Amazon had to intervene to secure the refund.

My friend and I went to Alton Garden Centre a couple of days ago. After standing in a queue for a long time, we got the the till and ordered our coffees, they were given and paid for at the till, Coffee okish, but not very hot. And the ladies behind the till need some more training on customer service, rather surly I think is the best to describe one of them! Anyway, we tried to order a meal - and was told we couldn't do so for 15 mins. Everybody was being told the same thing. We tried again, long queue, got to the till, got told again - another 15 mins. By this time we were not only hungry, but beginning to lose our patience somewhat. So, again we go back to our table and 15 mins later queued again, only for the staff to call out to all in the queue, 'if you're waiting to order food, it will be 15 mins'!!!! That's 45 mins just to ORDER the food. Goodness knows how long we'd have had to wait if we HAD been able to order. So in disgust, we walked out. As did others in the queue. My friend who is disabled therefore walked slower than myself spoke to a member of staff who apparently usually worked at another branch. The lady confirmed that she'd seen us waiting a very long time and said it shouldn't have happened. To give her, her due, she produced a card for a free meal, free drink etc. to use at a later date. So today, we went back to use our cards. In the small print for the free meal it says it can only be used for the 'specials' guess what, there were no 'specials' on the menu today! So we had our free drink and ordered a ploughmans lunch. Not a hot meal, so expected to wait a short while, while it was plated up, but it was longer than we expected. When it did come to the table, the cheese was not a wedge, but a small portion which tasted of nothing. The ham, was so thin that I didn't realise it was 2 slices on top of one another, it looked like 1 thin slice. There was a small amount of salad, half of a small pork pie, a small pot of chutney and a couple of slices of tasteless apple. For the price,£14.49 it wasn't worth it. All in all, not a restaurant we'll be visiting again.

Went to Alton garden centre in Basildon and decided to have a sandwich and a cold drink, I queued to be served for 20 minutes and ordered a cheese sandwich (nothing fancy or hot) waited an hour for it to be served and then the bread was going stale where it had been left on the side all in all a very disappointing experience .

Arrived with my family on Sunday, as the kids wanted to visit the place again.

Unfortunately, the experience at the restaurant was disappointing. The trays were dirty, and I waited around 20 minutes for a coffee. I eventually went to check whether my order was ready and was told that I was next. Five minutes later, I came back again and found my coffee sitting there getting cold while the staff seemed to be having a great time.

Generally, it’s a lovely garden centre, but the restaurant isn’t worth your time.

Great tasting Food, Excellent service 👌 Friendly and Welcoming

As the biggest, family run garden centres I have to say that I am not impressed and would suggest that the "family" get a bit more involved in the running of your centres as you seem to have a problem with most of your restaurants.
I have been going to your charlbury garden centre for a number of years and can tell you the standard in the Gardners retreat have dropped considerably and beyond average.
The poor staff are run off their feet mostly due to lack of equipment and space in the kitchen. The menu is far to much for the size of kitchen and equipment to cope.
At times you can wait up to 40 minutes for a cuppa and over an hour for a simple jacket potato. Up to an hour and 45minutes or more for other food.
Please, please have a look at the poor facilities the poor staff have to work with.
There have been several changes, some (seating) are an improvement but others like drinks brought to the table does not work. Drink orders pile up, get mixed up and people sit waiting.
Two tables recently waited over an hour for food. They asked several times and were told it's coming. Agitated as no drink and no food. When food did arrive it was wrong, the wrong table numbers were also an issue. Staff kept arriving but incorrect orders.
You have an amazing centre and amazing staff but the restaurant is being let down as are your staff. Their poor faces . The moral is at the lowest I've seen and it's very sad. They're helpful, smiling, kind and as efficient as they can be but something isn't working and I'm worried.
This was a popular centre with not only locals like myself (most days) but passing trade too and word of mouth. The quality and price of plants is first class and most people use the restaurant but I've noticed less and less customers.
The soft play is being run without attendants which is a concern and the toilet area isn't ideal
Please take this not a criticism but as a plea from a regular who loves this place, to sort it asap because it really is a little place of pleasure - or could be.

Newton Regis Garden Centre near Tamworth. We arranged to meet someone there to return dog we had been looking after her during holidays. Meeting venue was decided because friend needed to charge car for return trip to her home near Gatwick. As specific reason for choice of meeting place was vehicle charging and lunch I emailed garden centre in advance to ask if we could book a charging time slot - no reply to email. I checked website to ensure charging points were still available - website confirmed they were so I confirmed NR garden centre as meeting place to friend. Friend drove nearly 4 hours from Surrey to meeting place only to find no charging points - they were taken away 2 months ago but still advertised on website. I complained to the manager who simply told me it wasn’t his fault and seemed to find it amusing that we’d had a wasted journey. Not at all impressed - won’t go there again. Don’t believe their website

Bought a 6 seater garden set at the end of April and it’s already showing signs of wear and tear which are not typical to only light use. This company were not prepared to do anything about this after numerous conversations and photos. Quality of goods are just substandard for the prices they charge so purchase with caution from here

Dirty tea cup and un edible food.
Sent the food back and the second attempt was graded two stars. Staff didn't really care.

My recent visit to the Alton centre ,Wickford,
I had problem with a transaction there ,and a few members of staff assisted ,were so helpful and went above and beyond to put things right ,Denise ,Gary ,Emma and the new manager,i cannot praise them enough, in spite of the distance from our home we would prefer to continue to visit Alton.A Big thank you to you All .

We ordered/purchased the lovely Andorra 6 seat table and parasol set on Wednesday 7th July, after seeing it in the showroom. It was full price at £1,339 including delivery and was not in the sale. It was delivered today 14th July with the table fully assembled, which we thought "that was nice of them" !
However to cut a long story short, they had completely lied to us and delivered the display one. We only became suspicious after the lower parasol tube was not the right size (and badly marked), none of the chairs had their protective wrapping on them and all the chair feet rubbers were badly scuffed.
We immediately went back to the garden centre and as expected the display one was no longer in the showroom.
We did get our money back without any hassle, but all along we were continually told outright lies and even worse, we were sent the display version because I quote "the manger told us to do it and we can not argue with him". The whole thing was a shambles, made worse by the many silly/stupid things we were told, like I quote "the articulated delivery lorry could not get down your street, so that is why it was delivered to the garden centre rather direct to your house".
I do not want to blame the delivery driver in any way. It is the garden centre management or Head Office, where the problem lies.
The whole thing is a real shame, as the oval shaped Andorra table was exactly what we had been looking for.

I would highly recommend British Garden Centre Leyland. After I went to several other garden centres, who did little to water the plants on sale, plus do a poor job in presentation. It was highly refreshing to find how staff took care. Well watered, good displays, lots of stock, help and advice is so simple. Try a look at a wide display of Gardening products and lovely way to spend your time whilst getting all your needs. Take time to eat in with the café.

Visited them at Gardeners World in Bham. Great stand with some fantastic staff, I look forward to visiting their centres soon.

Visted Pavers at Woodthorpe Garden Centre. All staff very friendly and helpful, particularly Kerry-Anne. She ensured i found the perfect footwear to accomodate a recent ankle injury.

I signed up to British Gardens Centres at the NEC as I knew they had recently taken over my local garden centre. The chap at the stand was very friendly and the stall was interesting and inspiring.
I have now been again to my local centre which is still as delightful as ever plus has a new range of gluten-free cakes in the cafe.
My daughter and I bought loads of plants that afternoon.

Amazing stand, outstanding plants. Brought a fab rose.

Great display at the nec but very disappointed when we went the following week to claim our free scabius plant & there weren’t any left even though the off doesn’t finish for another 4 days

Friendly and helpful staff, beautiful plants at good prices.

I have never visited the Gardeners World Live before and I was completely overwhelmed with how wonderful it was. Stalls theatre and all the professional and amateur gardens -A novice gardeners paradise- made you feel like anything was possible . Very well run thank you

The gentleman was friendly and polite. I asked a few questions and got answers.I look forward to visiting the Grantham venue.