The National Trust Avis 18

Bought membership as a gift for a friend. Asked if I wanted to pay by DD which I agreed. I was not informed that they would take the whole amount in one payment and not monthly as Ii understood it would be. Left me overdrawn and unable to pay other bills. Phoned them to tell the situation but they have had my money and don’t care. Spoke to a very condescending man. Be very careful what your signing into 😡

I ordered the stunning boxing hares figurine as a gift for a friend.
Unfortunately it had some slight damage. I emailed straight away & The service I received from Sarah was fantastic
From my first email to confirmation of a next day delivery was less than an hour. And delivery before 10.00am this morning well packaged & this one is stunningly perfect.
Sometimes things go wrong and it’s the way it’s handled that makes it a good or bad experience- National Trust were fabulous - professional & so very helpful so makibg it a seamless experience
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their on line shop or grounds to visit and will certainly look their first when looking for an unusual gift.
Thank you Sarah for all of your help.
Andrea

My wife bought this bar of chocolate for £3.75 from a national trust shop in Cornwall.
Opened it up and the outer box was miles bigger than the chocolate with a massive gap at one end. Nothing to do with keeping the product in one piece more to fooling people into thinking there more to it than there actually is.
Total Ripoff.

Ordered boxing hares, 1st order was delayed/lost. The time and effort it took to try to get another one was annoying due to one particular person not following up on their promises. A new one finally arrived, the following day the original one turned up!!!! I again contacted NT online was told a pick up would be arranged for today. Yet again this has not happened. I chased once again and have to try to arrange another day off work!!!!! I did suggest they allow us to keep them for all the inconvenience but that is not an option. Definitely steer clear of ordering anything unless you like to waste your time chasing false promises

Just looking at the on line shop very poor site hardly nothing on it .

A dreadful experience at Hardwick Hall. I was expecting a seasonal celebration but was met with a shabby display which detracted from the grandeur of an architectural gem. The garden was decorated with some shabby displays and the interior of the hall was shuttered up and displayed in the dark with some junior school castoffs. I spent the whole of my tour looking at the floor to avoid trip hazards and avoiding the risk of falling down staircases. I was unable to see the magnificent interior architecture and furnishings. Shame on you National Trust. No mention of Christmas but rather the woke reference to “Wintertide”.

We are senior citizen members and have been for a long time. On a visit to Scotney Castle 14th August with our 6-year-old granddaughter we decided to purchase a membership for her at the price of £12. My husband paid £12 in cash and the lady at the entrance filled out a form with his and granddaughter's details. She gave us the green copy of the form. We were told her membership card would be delivered to our home address within a couple of weeks. No, it wasn't! So I rang customer services who told me there was no trace of the application form for our granddaughter's membership. He advised I e-mail the relevant department with the details and send them a copy of the green duplicate form and the receipt for £12; which I did. Then the problem escalated. They said the name of the 'payee' requesting the membership on the green form didn't match their records. My husband goes by his second name, but his membership card has his first name printed on it. All the other details were correct; i.e. our membership numbers and address. I clarified that he is the same person who already has membership and that he inadvertently gave his second name on the application form. So here we are at the end of September, many e-mails have passed between us and still no membership card for my granddaughter. It's incredible that a difference in one name on an application form can cause so much hassle! If they are still using paper application forms instead of a computerised membership application system it's no wonder the top copy of the form has become mislaid. I will be requesting a refund of the £12 if the card doesn't turn up - but that in itself will no doubt cause problems!! What a shambles!

Sissinghurst is a relatively small NT property with amazing garden ‘rooms’ created by Vita. I have been visiting as a local resident for over 40 years. My complaint is the restaurant which always seems to be disorganised. The layout, queuing, display, menu etc badly needs overhauling considering the number of hungry visitors. Not enough staff serving at a very small counter. Sandwiches were virtually inedible - thick cardboard bread with virtually no filling. The egg mayo and tuna mayo had NO mayo. At £3.70 for two sandwiches we were disgruntled. The Manager dealt with our complaint but, come on NT, can you improve please.

If it weren't for the NT hundreds of fantastic places would be out of reach to the public as would a lot of coast and coast path. We're lucky to have them despite their faults.

Credit must be given to the hard-working gardening volunteers at Hardwick Hall, all of whom do a wonderful job. One female volunteer who was picking the apples was extremely friendly and helpful.
I must say though, that not paying these hard working volunteers and only employing 2-3 head gardeners for a very large site like this is utterly contemptible. It's really taking advantage of these volunteers (some of whom suffer from visible disabilities) and nobody should, in 2024, have to work without fair pay, especially when serving an organisation with as much money as the NT. Disgusting and Draconian!
What a sinister way to run an organisation. Manual labour is hard and should ALWAYS be paid. Shame on the NT.

We visited Mottisfont House today and our day could not have been better. We booked a tour along the river Test - a very helpful and knowledgeable guide took us along the river bank and explained the conservation work the Trust were doing along the River. We had lunch at the Old Kitchen Cafe and the food was amazing - husband had ploughman's lunch and I had spiced chicken on flatbread with Coleslaw - I would go back just for the food! Then we looked around the house - again, very helpful guides explained the features in all of the rooms. We visited the art exhibition which was well laid out again with loads of info. The Whistler Room was particularly spectacular. We also walked around the rose garden and the grounds to see all the wonderful trees. The house has an interesting history and we will undoubtedly go back again to see any progress being made with the gardens, the river and the displays. Thank you for a memorable and uplifting day.

My visit to Mottisfont cost £21 (per adult) to enter the estate and the person collecting the money tried hard to get me to gift more money which is not really on! There were queues and queues for the entrance, food and drink plus the toilets need a good clean and would definitely benefit from being refreshed - yes I know it's an old building but doesn't stop someone keeping it clean and presentable.

It's supposed to be famous for roses but many of them have black spot and some of them are looking quite sparse and sickly. Add to that the rose garden (walled garden) needs a jolly good weed.

Having said that, the walk along the river test is quite delightful but it's not worth £21! If you want to look at the roses then go to a good garden centre and then at least you will know what rose it is - that was the other thing, many roses didn't have labels.

I ordered a terracotta bird bath as well as several other items.
They arrived in a big box, with a slip of paper proclaiming they'd used extra packing to protect my bird bath during shipping.
The only problem was all of the packing was on top of the item. The inevitable result was that it was smashed. 😞
I contacted them and provided a photograph of the damage. After 4 days with no contact, I emailed the membership customer service team who replied within 24 hours, saying I should contact the online shopping email address. I replied explaining I had and received no reply.
It seems no body wants to take any responsibility.
Over 2 weeks later I'm still waiting for a reply from online shopping customer service.

I posted a review 25th October 2023 re my returned garden arch returned to them 17th October 2023.. Despite a number of emails ,telephone conversations and providing proof of receipt to the returns department still no refund of £170-00. I followed the returns procedure as stipulated. The only course of action I can take is to sue them in the small claims court. They should be banned from internet trading as a disreputable trader

I purchased a flower trug. It was damaged They kindly said they would send another one I asked them to please get someone to check it before sending. The second one was damaged. They said they would send another one, I repeated that they should please check it and pad it better as it was jiggling around in the box. The third one arrived without any packing and damaged. not only were the bottom supports damaged but the staples were coming out. I told them it's no good sending anymore as you are wasting money by sending so many. I gave it up as a bad job. I didn't ask for my money back because they had tried but I had to buy wood glue and my time to cannibalise each of them to make one. This should not happen. Even the words on the front of the last one was only half there. They should sort out the product and the packing which they had assured me they would do. I'm afraid for practically an English constitution, I was bitterly disappointed. The date I have given is approximate but was after the 16th of June

Update on 2 previously bad reviews. Well, where do i start? After being promised that somebody would call within 10 days to discuss my issues with regards to no membership pack/card being sent out after almost 5 months, I have just had a call as promised. A lovely lady called Mandy telephoned me back after missing me this morning. She confirmed that their current issues are down to a new system implementation and they are doing their best to get in touch with people. My only advice to the many hundreds of you out there is to e-mail them regularly and don't waste your time phoning them. That only costs you money and probably puts your blood pressure off the scale in the unlikely event that someone actually answers the phone. The upshot of this is that Mandy has arranged for a refund in full (by cheque as I have cancelled the direct debit). I should get the cheque in the next 14 days or so. I will also get a "single use/one-off pass" that will be valid for approximately 2 years. I probably will attempt to rejoin the National Trust but it won't be this year. I will keep an eye on their Trustpilot reviews and only rejoin when I am not seeing the sort of issues that are plaguing them at the moment. Rest assured, I will update you if my cheque is not forthcoming. In the meantime, keep on e-mailing them and don't let them ignore you into submission.

The recent N.T. AGM was a shameful avoidance of the membership's growing dissatisfaction with the way that the current Council is perverting the NT founders' intentions regarding preservation of bequeathed properties, and of the undemocratic power of the AGM chairman to sway the results of AGM resolutions via the overwhelming power of proxy vote.
The Council should listen to the opinions of the many NT members who have joined the Restore Trust organisation rather than continue their present course of denial and avoidance.