Alton Garden Centre Avis 

Recently visited Alton Garden Centre (Wickford) Arterial Road, A127 having purchased a Water Feature off line and the product having been falsely advertised needed advice on what products I needed to get the feature up & running. I spoke with a very helpful and knowledgeable lady by the name of Tina who provided invaluable support to help me get the feature working! Tina provided fantastic customer service and was extremely helpful.

The garden furniture staff are truly the best they go out of there way to help if you ever have an issue. A special thanks to Pete every business should have a Pete he went above and beyond . Thankyou . Mrs Simmonds

Shocking service. I ordered a snow blower 3 weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived. I got a call saying that it would be dispatched, but then the salesman went on holiday and forgot all about it! When he came back on holiday, he left a message saying he was sorry and would send it straight away. He apparently sent it, but didn't give me a tracking number. 5 days later and it still hasn't arrived. Best to avoid. I will be contacting my bank shortly to have the payment stopped.

A very disappointing experience at the Basildon garden Center.
Staff chatting with each other in the aisles, blocking the way.
Visited staff shed to ask some questions, rudely told to wait for someone else as he went back to chatting with his colleague.
No staff around at pay points.
Left without buying anything.

I telephoned Alton's about the new Hayter Harrier 48 -60 volt lawnmower. For those not familiar with this lawnmower, Hayters make some of the best lawnmowers, and this new version has an electric motor as opposed to a petrol engine. Online reviews suggest as Tesla are to electric vehicles Hayters will be to their electric motorised lawnmowers.

I had a 15 minute telephone conversation with the salesperson, an older gentleman, who was very helpful and agreed a package price of £1,554.00 with the upgraded fast charger and an extra 7.5aH battery.

Alton's were due to close in 20 minutes and I was 30 minutes drive away, So He invited me to come in the following morning and test it out before I paid for it. "You'll be able to start it up and hear just how quiet the electric motor is. You can then pay for it in the shop and we'll deliver free."

As agreed, I went to straight Alton's the following morning first thing at 9.30am on a weekday morning and there were 3 staff in the lawnmower section with no customers. After waiting patiently for 5 minutes at the counter whilst they talked amongst themselves, a younger assistant asked if he could help me.

I replied, "yes, I had a conversation with you yesterday and I've come into to see the new electric Hayter 'Harrier' lawnmower".

The reply was rude and almost confrontational; "Well you haven't. Hayter don't make an electric lawnmower"

I replied

"Well I had a conversation with.."

Interrupted

"well they DON'T make an electric lawnmower"

I replied:

"Its the 60 volt Harrier"

reply

"that's battery"

I replied :

"yes, and it powers an electric motor, doesn't it?"

Reply

"it's NOT electric"

My Reply:

"You know, what... let's just leave it I think I will buy it elsewhere."

The whole attitude of the assistant was pedantic, rude and argumentative. He knew full well from the outset there were only two Hayters - petrol engine or electric motor, and just wanted to make a point. Well Alton's, it was received loud and clear!

I then left Alton's, secured my purchase from Len's Lawnmowers in Chelmsford (very friendly and helpful!) and vowed never to return to Alton's having been a customer of them for 30 years even buying a swimmingpool from them and all my chlorine, and many many plants and trees.

Clearly Alton's don't need my business so I will gladly go elsewhere in future.

Very expensive for basic products and over priced against competitors

Great products and great staff, i love coming here on the weekend

Excellent product and service. Very quick friendly delivery. Trailer was flat pack which was easy to put together. Competitive price.
Highly recommend.

I ordered a chair two months ago and still not received it. I rang and was put through to three different people being told “oh that’s not me who deals with chairs I’ll put you through to someone else” finally spoke to Jan ( I think that was her name) and told it would be early November and she would keep me updated, heard nothing since

Bought garden furniture from Alton's just over a year ago spending close to £2K in total and just over a year later the tarpaulin cover split due to being overly weathered. We went to buy a new one and complain and were given a 50% discount on a new brand with a 7-year guarantee. Plus the service there was excellent again.

We had a good reception from the Weber BBQ who helped us to choose the right product at a discounted price, thank you.

The plants came to me a bit later, but still apreciated that they refunded me after charging me twice for one order. Otherwise, not exactly impressed with the plants and I order plants quite often.

Always a great Xmas display. Shame the restaurant is shut and was not mentioned on the website

A lovely environment to shop in. Helpful and friendly staff and a great selection of gifts, cards and garden things!

There seems to be so much more Customer Service available and always someone immediately there to help you . Thankyou my Shopping Experience with Alton was a very good and very helpful Members of Staff .Also I would like to add The Christmas Decor this year was just like walking into a Grotto whoever was the designer I applaud you .

We have visited Altons several times over the past months and have been impressed with the quality of the goods and the helpful staff. Example of this was when we replaced our garden furniture, and the delivery man went the extra mile to help us get it into our garden through a narrow space. It wasn’t his job but he did it. Covid secure excellent place to go to.

Always such a great place to visit. Lovely and clean and such a selection from clothes to flowers to seeds and now Christmas The selection of plants are great and any plants I’ve bought have always grown lovely

I feel very safe going to visit there in these times and even when they first opened after the outbreak of Covid their attention of cleanliness detail was perfect. Every trolley sprayed and cleaned and organisation of people

Brilliant work and thank you ever so much