Dobbies Garden Centres - Stirling Reviews 340

Enjoyed our lunch, but had to queue to pay while having hot food on our tray

Over the last few months there has been a steady decline in the quality of the plants on sale at your Stirling branch.
Visited yesterday and was appalled at the amount of plants being left unwatered and dieing.
It seems it’s more acceptable to put reduced stickers on, rather than give the plant some water.
Thousands of pounds are being lost as plants seem to be left unwatered.
Example- two decorative conifers in tubs priced at £200 each, reduced to £50 each - they were dead !
A staging with around 20 bush fushia plants, all bone dry, either dead or wilting.
Rows of bedding plants bone dry and dead. It seemed everywhere you looked, plants were lost for the sake of a little water. One staff member hanging around paying more attention to their phone, than the dead plants around them.
Rows of rose plants wilting and bone dry.
The place is going downhill big style, with trees and bushes laying on the ground and again, bone dry.
If Dobbies have cut back staff to save money, it’s certainly not happening.
But it seems Dobbies is trying to recoup the money lost to plants, by increasing prices in the cafe.
£1 for a pack of crisps last week, now £1.25 !
A meranque the size of an apple raised 25p to £3.95 !
It seems prices across the cafe have all been raised by 25p.
A visit to Klondyke and Torwood garden centres on the same day, showed how it should be done.
Plants were healthy, well watered and presented as they should be.
At a time when shops and stores are fighting for customers, it would appear Dobbies in Stirling have given up.
Terrible displays, dead plants and an overpriced cafe, can only end badly for this centre as customers like myself go elsewhere.

Well laid out store, plenty of stock at good prices and quality.
Tasty food in the restaurant.
Friendly helpful staff.

Great service! Picked a plant pot and plants which was made up by Lesley. Got a Dobbie’s card and had a coffee and cake while waited for plant pot to be done.

Stopped here on way back from holiday. It was 3.45pm and only food available was cake and scones. Scones were inedible, so hard that you could have broken your teeth on them. You could barely put a knife in them to cut them.

I bought an azalea, £24, on 18/04, took it out the pot yesterday to transplant and it was totally pot bound, impossible to tease any roots apart. I live 80 miles from Stirling so not easy for me to return. Very, very disappointed and upset with the state of this expensive plant.

My perfect Sunday morning at Dobbie's in Stirling. I took my husband for breakfast. They lady who took his breakfast order, was very friendly & helpful. I got the hot drinks, two lovely ladies, both smiling & helpful. But my personal best, were Jo-anne & Iona, I wasn't rushed, I was greeted with beautiful smile's & helpful tones. To the young lady, who took away our tray when we had finished our breakfast, thank you, a true gem. I finished my Dobbies morning by purchasing a plant pot & popping into Waitrose, love it. And, there I met Jane and then to the check out, also friendly. So, a lovely, pleasant Sunday morning. Thank you too all of you for a lovely Dobbies morning.x

Friendliness of restaurant staff and helpful info

Plenty of choice. Friendly staff.

Food is terrible for the price steak pie had only three pieces of meat inside. Will not be using this cafeteria again.

I recently purchased (Nov 2022) a lovely large log store from Dobbies Garden Centre in Stirling for storing my kiln dried logs to fuel my new log burning stove. Unfortunately the lid which is made up of overlapping timber is leaking and soaking my expensive and the well dried wood is getting soaked.
I rang the store to ask for advice on what we could do about it and sadly after speaking to 3 different people I am none the wiser.
Firstly I was told that there were slats in the side and that is why the wood is getting wet (I knew this when I purchased the item as I am aware that there needs to be some air flow in order for the wood to breath). I explained that this was not the problem and that it was leaking in from the lid/top of the log store.
The chap on the phone then said that he would need to speak to someone else...which he did. He came back and said I need to return the item with the original receipt. I explained that I didn't want a refund but would like to have a way to sort out the leak which would satisfy my enquiry. Just to be clear, the log store is very large and holds roughly a 1 tonne builders bag of logs which are now getting wet and are heavy. So to be asked to empty the log store, dismantle it and to return it with the original receipt is somewhat unreasonable - especially as I don't want a refund. I bought the log store in good faith and it currently is not fit for purpose.
I was eventually put on to speak with Wendy Gibney who was completely unhelpful and told me that I need to speak to Head Office in Edinburgh (she kindly provided me with the telephone number) as only they could deal with the issue.
I promptly phoned Head Office and spoke to John Gallagher who told me that it was a store issue and that I should go back to the Stirling store to sort it out.....
John said he would speak to Wendy and ask her to phone me back to sort it out. He said he was surprised that it had been handled in such a way!
I received an email from Wendy rather than the phone call I had been promised which I found very disappointing and discourteous. Her email response is below; -

Good Afternoon Mr Campbell
I have been contacted by our customer services team regarding the log chest that you are wanting to return to our store. That is not problem to return this item with your receipt at your earliest convenience.

Kind Regards
Wendy Gibney

I don't want a refund! So, not the response I expected after speaking to John who was super helpful.

I phoned John back and he said that I need to take it up with Wendy. I told John I was not happy with how the whole thing was handled and asked if I could escalate the complaint, he said he would speak to the regional manager and ask them to contact me, and also said he would contact Wendy again to ask to to call me.
I still haven't heard from her or the regional manager.
I wait to hear....
I have a Dobbies loyalty card Hmmmmm....

UPDATE......11/01/2023
I am now updating the rating as I have just been contacted by Lindsey the store manager from Dobbies Stirling, who was super helpful and respectful.
I huge thank you for your understanding Lindsey.

Warm, friendly Christmassy atmosphere. Leeann is the jewel in the restaurants crown who offers friendliness and fun in abundance.

Stirling Dobbies is a feast for the senses just now. Very festive. Great variety of gifts. Staff are always welcome and helpful. The concession shops inside are good.
I enjoy the restaurant with its great scones. Only issue is with its popularity, the triple queue. Food is cold by the time you stand for food, then drinks then checkout. Need more checkouts.

Went for afternoon tea at Dobbies Stirling. Iona made us welcome, seated us in a nice quiet area, and served us promptly. Iona was attentive during the time we were there and made sure we were happy with everything. The food was excellent and well presented. Thank you to Iona for making our visit a very pleasurable experience. We will most definitely be back.

I visited the cafe. The queue was very slow at the servery. I wanted two small hot chocolates for my grandsons but was told I would have to pay the full price of £3.35 each! 1 toasted teacake,1 Vienna cream biscuit, 2 hot chocolates, 1 coffee and 1 tea came to more than £17!! Almost every table in the cafe was piled with used dishes. We had to search for an empty table. No- one was clearing the tables at 3.30pm.

It was really nice to get out for some shopping and a coffee with my daughter who was a week and four days old. The facilities there (baby changing unit and spacious café) made it an easy and enjoyable experience. Great barista served me. They really knew how to make a coffee. Really nice member of staff at the checkout. Loved the 20% discount!

Very helpful garden centre staff, explained the different composts and advised us what be the best.

Help from a restaurant/cafe staff lady who gave me a coffee even though they were about closed