Dobbies Garden Centre Stockton Reviews Summary

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "The staff at Dobbies are always great."
• "Staff are always helpful and polite and the plant people are very knowledgeable and give great advice."
• "Great cafe and staff are a credit to the store."
• "Excellent visit. It was a wet day and we wanted to buy Water-Butts in outside display! Helped by Mark who despite the weather was very patient and told us all we needed to know."
• "I would like to commend Cat in Dobbies restaurant in Stockton."
• "Incredibly friendly and helpful staff who genuinely wanted to help."
• "Nice garden centre friendly and helpful staff."

Cons:

• "Found to be very unprofessional with Inquires."
• "Very rude person on till today."
• "Staff in cafe could do with some customer service training, hardly ever a smile or even eye contact."
• "Staff were a bit ignorant when waiting to be served."
• "Had a query on what they stock at the Stockton branch. Nobody answers the telephone and there's no facility to leave a message."
• "The lady controlling customers to go in had not been told via the radio to let people in."
• "No one seemed bothered about assisting the poor lady even though she went to ask someone to go on to the customer service desk to assist me."

Product and Pricing

Pros:

• "A well-stocked garden centre that has a great selection of gardenware all year round."
• "Good size garden centre. Well stocked, good choice selection."
• "The garden centre itself is lovely."
• "Also contains maidenhead fish shop which has a good selection of tropical fish and the main reason we visit this garden centre."
• "Has a good selection of healthy plants for sale."
• "A garden centre rather than a plant nursery, I'm sure it sells more other garden stuff than plants but good for household plants if your looking for something different."
• "This is a lovely garden centre with a wide variety of items for the garden and the home."

Cons:

• "Pricey compared to online but a lovely garden centre."
• "For a whopping £22 pound of rubbish it’s fair to say we will never be back."
• "Found it rather expensive for a cafe!!"
• "Disgusting the prices they charge in the restaurant £2-40 for a cheese scone & £2-80 for what looked like a small Latte total cost £8-00."
• "Ridiculously overpriced food for the quality."
• "They have a large selection but are way too expensive."
• "DON'T EVER BUY YOUR GARDEN STUFF FROM THIS SHOP! ABSOLUTELY RIP OFF THIS DOBBIES!"

Cafe Experience

Pros:

• "Great reception and hospitality at Honda where the customer comes first."
• "Booked a little treat of afternoon tea for 2 while we where visiting to shop for plants."
• "I was treated to a surprise festive afternoon tea today in the cafe, table was booked and all set up, a pleasant member of staff took us to our table and took our order for drinks and let the kitchen know we had arrived."
• "Cafe was clean and the staff where very welcoming and helpful."
• "Cafe was nice, good food, drink and cake choices, can go for a light lunch, or big meal, hot or cold food n drink available."
• "The Restaurant has excellent hot chocolate!"
• "Cakes and scones are really good, coffee is very nice."

Cons:

• "In the cafe there are kids which have no clue how to converse with the customers, are sullen, mute or just plain ignorant."
• "The cafe experience was disappointing. Long queue waiting time at the food counter."
• "Long wait for coffee barista to serve people."
• "The cafe in this has gone so down hill, 10 minutes queing for food, 5 mins waiting to pay, struggled to find a clean table."
• "Overpriced, inedible, disappointing, and the cake was as bad!"
• "Went into restaurant, first the latte was cold then when jacket potato came it was cold as well."
• "Food mediocre for example, I ordered the bacon, brie and cranberry toastie at a not inexpensive price of £6.25."

Atmosphere and Layout

Pros:

• "Whether admiring the Christmas display in the winter or deciding on new ornaments and plants for your summer garden this place has it all."
• "A well stocked garden centre, many tools and plants, compost and garden supplies in stock."
• "Enjoyed the visit, Dobbies catered for all ages including the children where a soft play area was available."
• "Lovely garden centre also stocks household things and other items."
• "One of the better garden centres."
• "Good selection of plants and a wonderful cafe."
• "Great garden centre with a good variety of everything you need for your garden."

Cons:

• "It's merchandise is highly seasonal with much of its floor space given over to Christmas decoration for nearly 3 months of the year."
• "Used to love going for a visit to see the variety of items and lovely plants on sale, but it is not the same now, more like an appliance outlet with no selection of plants, just another shop."
• "Since Dobbies has took over it's now a shell of its former self. Gone are the Christmas lights and displays which children used to love and see."
• "The place has no soul and isn't inviting and nothing seems to grab your attention when you are inside, in other words it's boring."
• "Very disappointing visit today, there were no displays of nice gifts but there were shelves full of toasters, and blenders, along with lots of mops and sponges."
• "Place has none of the previous charm and it is much more difficult to move around when busy, many leaks from the roof made this even more difficult."
• "The shop is very empty and very disappointing indeed, it needs some nice displays and lots of stock pretty urgently."