Merlin Entertainments plc Reviews 

Merlin have been totally unfair to existing Annual Passholders. We used our passes once before lockdown and have been unable to use them since because Merlin has given priority to new paying customers. So, Merlin has taken our £700 and pulled the shutters down, effectively. We have had annual passes for the last 10 years, but will never buy them again. I know Merlin won't care, but I wanted to warn others that might be considering going down that route.

My 8 year old son suffered whiplash and concussion whilst on the vampire ride. I had to rush him to hospital as he was feeling confused. We stayed at the park for an hour as this was the first ride we went on. Over 3 weeks later and no one has called. The only thing I’ve been offered is to re use my tickets. I won’t be setting foot in that park again. Awful company

We have always attended the fireworks at legoland. And now you want to charge us £20 to view them what a joke. For me and.my daughter plus petrol it will now cost us £60 if we want to go. And guess what we are not going. We are going to go to my local blackheath fireworks that are just as good as legoland and there free. I understand that you may have lost money because of the pandemic but so have millions of other people. People have lost ther jobs and some of them will be pass holders your most loyal customers and yet you have the cheek to charge £20 to watch the fireworks. It has going beyond recopeing lost money it is now profiteering. I hope you at merlin are ashamed of your self's. And looking at all the posts and complaints on social media your firework displays are going to be very quiet this year.

We have 3 Foster kids. We bough Gold Passes when we we had 2. Now we can not get even a simple pass for the third foster child blocking us from giving these kids a great holiday.

Merlins customer service team show zero interest in helping us, there was no empathy just a blank no we cant help. Absolutely disgusting

We are trying to secure a Merlin access ride pass prior to our visit. My son has ASD and emotional difficulties which restricts him from queuing for long periods, meltdowns/tantrums you know what I mean parents out there of hidden disabled children!! I’m being told that these passes are for mobility disability passengers tick in one box at least they are getting that right.What about the hidden disabled passengers. I’m now being asked to provide numerous letters to help substantiate my request. Come on Merlin entertainment, let’s re-think this policy of yours to include all disabled people. Not sure if we will be attending at this point.

Update to the above: 8/8/23
Firstly apply for an access card, don’t be confused with the Merlin access ride pass this card is a recognised card in multiple places, ie airports, restaurants etc. Merlin accept this card as proof of disability and will then grant you a ride access pass. Only taken two years but got there in the end.

Me and my son were given room 331in the Safari hotel, Chessington world of adventures. On arrival to our room, we noticed there was no remote control for the T.V and the safe was making a beeping sound. We tried to phone down to reception to report this but the phone was not working and so we went down to reception. The lady gave us a remote and said someone would come to the room to fix the phone and also stop the safe sound.

We went back up to the room to drop off the remote and noticed the safe sound had stopped. We returned back downstairs and then went for a drink in the bar, followed by dinner in the restaurant, after that we went to the kid’s entertainment in one of the meeting rooms.

We then returned to our room, where we got into bed and watched a little T.V. An hour or so later I was awoken by a banging sound, I couldn’t identify the actual sound but it soon stopped and I went back to sleep. An hour or so later I was woken again. This time I got up and closed the bathroom door as I couldn’t quite make out where the sound was coming from. It then happened again a little while later. I cannot tell you how many times it happened and I cannot give you an exact amount of time in-between sounds. I tried to phone down to reception to get someone up to stop it, however the phone had not been fixed. My son was fast asleep and I did not want to wake him to take him downstairs with me. I checked the corridors to see if there was anyone present that could help. I even tried to contact hotel reception from my mobile phone.

I literally had hardly any sleep and was wide awake when my son rose. We went straight down to reception and reported to a manager immediately. He told me he will contact me shortly once he has had the chance to visit the room and inspect. He took my email address and my phone number.

A few days later and I had still heard nothing and so I started to chase. After again not getting any response I chased again, this time I got the most ridiculous email back stating that their reception is manned throughout the night, implying that I should have left my son and gone down to reception. My son is 8 and there is no way in this world I am going to leave him alone in a hotel room. I was really upset to receive a response like this from such a family orienteered company.

We were due to spend the day in Chessington but before lunch we had to leave as I was just so tired. Much to the upset of my son we left I believe before 12pm. I was worried about driving back on the motorway to Kent being so tired and so wanted to leave before I started to feel worse.

I explained all of this numerous times in my complaints and feel like the trip did not go according to plan through absolutely no fault of our own. We were offered return tickets but I have tickets and so that’s not the issue. We chose the hotel so that the experience wouldn’t be rushed and so I didn’t have to do along drive there and back all in one day. In my opinion an offer of a full refund or an offer of a free return stay would have been most appropriate.

I did everything right; I complained immediately and reported the faults. The banging sounded initially like pipes. We were opposite a stairwell that had machinery on our level right opposite our door, this may have had something to do with it, however I cannot confirm. I know the roof is above us so maybe something to do with that. All I can say is it was regular and rather loud. Loud enough o constantly wakes me up.

I don’t usually make complaints and certainly don’t persist as much as I have with this one but this has angered me, the level of service after has been shocking. Not only have I been ignored twice I was then made to feel like I should have left my child alone and gone down to reception. I have posted numerous times on social media and will continue to do so because this is honestly not right.

Don't even consider purchasing one of their annual passes. You can't use them! The only way to access the attractions when you want to is to buy a full price ticket or book months ahead.

I don't know any annual passholders who will be renewing.

FYI, There are plenty more reviews like this on another Trust Pilot page: merlin annual passes.

This company are trying to hire fully professional actors to work at York dungeons at an appalling wage of less than nine pounds per hour.

An actors fee for this type of work is either £400 per half day or £800 full. This is utterly unacceptable to even suggest that a professional actor would sell their talent and time for less than kids make in McDonalds.

Been attempting to get my refund which Merlin say I am entitled to for over 6 months. They repeatedly refuse to send it telling me I need to go into the Costco store. It is not Costco’s responsibility and they will not process the refund. I will be taking this Company to court out of principle.

My Annual Pass for 4 family members runs out 09.03.21 and it cost me £600. I have used the grand total of ZERO.... Not a single visit.

When lockdown came, I contacted Merlin and was told rudely, no refund, no way, not ever. The extension of dates is an insult and I am left out of pocket by £600 with 4 pieces of plastic to show for it.

I appreciate business has been hit hard by Covid 19 but the way Merlin has handled annual paying customers during this time, is nothing short of a scandal.

DON’T BUY A MERLIN/LEGO/SEALIFE MEMBERSHIP!
Due to Covid, time slots need to be pre booked - which is totally fine and understandable.
However, Merlin have been very calculating in making sure there are nearly always tickets available if you want to pay $$ for the pre booked ticket (unless it is a full session of course), however ZERO tickets are available for the same session to members!
We have tried since the most recent Covid restrictions were eased and can never get in. ABSOLUTELY ZERO TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE FOR MEMBERS HOWEVER PLENTY OF TICKETS REMAIN FOR THE PAYING PUBLIC!!! Instead of prioritising members, loyal paying members are disadvantaged and cannot reserve tickets even though in excess of 30+ are available for the public for the same session.
There is no call centre for members to call and despite writing to customer services via the contact page, multiple times, no response has been received for over a week!
Management have responded on previous Google reviews & comments/posts to write in regarding any concerns....NO USE, they don’t respond.
In the mean time my children miss out on attending whilst tickets are not available for members!
There is only one way around this....but tickets, as I did and then present the tickets at the counter and IF the staff are feeling friendly, the price of the tickets will be refunded....however members shouldn’t have to go to such lengths to access tickets they are entitled to.

Merlin are not freezing Merlin monthly direct debit passes or extending passes and will not let you cancel. So they want you to continue paying for something that your not getting.
I got the pass in March after the first lockdown when we kind of thought it would be ok now and have used it a handful of times. I paid £230 upfront and £49.64 per month to try and save money for our trips out to these theme parks as my children are 7 and 3 and we thought we would try it.
I am now in tier 4 and can not go and haven’t been for months now and was not able to get many slots during the holidays either.

I am currently paying £49.64 a month for nothing. My husband has just lost his job to and they want proof of that which i can not get yet. Disgusting company will never ever go to any of there places ever again. To be honest we have enjoyed time with the kids going to parks and woods for free, rather than having to queue up for hours to get on a 3 minute ride anyway. I find our children’s behaviour changes at these parks to and that they are actually bored queuing up when they could be running around for free.

I just want them to stop taking my money

I have already wrote one review along the lines of all the others, but I have been waiting over 3 months for the agreed refund only to be told it had been processed and I needed to check my statements. I then went back to them when I couldn't see it and I was told that it actually hadn't been processed and because I bought them via Alton Towers the refund request had been passed to them and I needed to be patient. It is such a joke and I have wasted so much time trying to get a partial refund when I actually can't use the passes anyway - glad to see someone has gone to watchdog over this!!

Merlin, an absolutely awful company to deal with! We were promised a pro rata refund in August for the time missed with the passes due to Covid. As of nearly the end of October we are still chasing Merlin to find out when we will receive the refund. Their initial response was it would be paid in between 10-14 days! What a joke. We have been chasing via email and live chat and we just get fobbed off every time. Phoning is a waste of time as you are just left on hold. I'm afraid other peoples reviews are correct, once Merlin has your money they simply do not care!
We have wrote to BBC Watchdog about this and will be contacting Trading Standards.
P.S. I only gave them a 1 Star rating just because without clicking on 1 you don't get the comments box!

Paid for annual membership which I wasn't able to use. Merlin agreed to refund me and then they stopped communicating and have not responded since. I have sent multiple emails and will continue to do so until I receive my refund. Appalling customer service.

Bought Merlin passes in August and haven’t been able to book in anywhere to use them!
Instead of limiting ALL numbers due to COVID they have restricted Merlin pass holders and walk in customers. Meaning we can’t visit using our passes but can visit if we go in without them and then pay full price on top of what we already paid for the passes.

When visiting Alton Towers in August we decided we wanted to become Merlin pass holders I asked for the ones when we could go whenever we wanted we got told that would be the premium passes and the only restriction was they had to be capacity in parks due to Covid 19 we went ahead a brought the passes a couple of weeks later we tried to reserve tickets at Chessington world of adventures and the website said we couldn't as no spaces available but there was tickets for sale so called to see why we couldn't go but there was space at park to be told there is 2 pots one for Merlin pass holders and one for non pass holders this is not what I was told when buying the passes I contacted Merlin asking for a refund as clearly been miss sold and they say they don't give refunds and details about the restrictions where on website I explained that we booked vin person and went on what I was told but they still refused a refund basically wasted £600

No best pleased :( and really quite upset I have spent alot of money on my passes my first year being a MAP Holder and I can honestly say I wont be doing it again the BIGGEST RIP OFF! can never get hold of tickets when I need them (unless I spend more money and book a hotel to secure the dates) I refuse to buy more tickets as thats why I brought a premium pass so that I would not have RESTRICTIONS yes I know covid has a bigpart to play but when u have tickets available for people to buy they should be there for the people that have already paid you money...... all I have had from your administrators at certain parks is "that is my choice to spend the extra money" is that right??? Unfortunately I don't get to just "WAIT AND SEE" if more tickets become available i have a sister with additional needs that i need to plan for im a carer and a single mum i just dont get the time to work around your restrictions im infuriated!!! Maybe your staff need more training in complaints maybe you should be looking after keeping your customers then making them angry honesly regret the day I brought these stupid passes!!!! Waste of money :(

Bought 3 x premium annual pass and won't be able to find any slots for any weekends this year!!! But if you want to pay full price again you'll find loads of spaces!!

Visit anytime without restrictions (Subject to T&Cs)
What a joke, visit any time as long as you are willing to pay for a ticket. Saps that pay for an Annual pass we will limit numbers as we already have your money.

Merlin very shady practice way to go to Alienate your loyal customer base. Feel a call to trading standards is on the the way

Bought 3 x premium annual pass and won't be able to find any slots for any weekends this year!!! But if you want to pay full price again you'll find loads of spaces!!
What a scam! I'm not sure how the government will allow this to happen?

I'll take them to court, disgusting!