TJ W.
Yelp
Place was great when we went during summer last year. With my kids on spring break today, we figured it'd be nice to see the new blooming stuff at the gardens. Went in with my wife and 3 kids, and noticed immediately things under construction even in the room with the desk where you pay to get in. No big deal. Sign on the wall said the coy fish are not out at this time due to hibernation. Shame, since my kids loved feeding those fish last time, but all good.
We paid and went out to see that most of the bushes and trees looked dead, not having even started to bloom. Flowers are even blooming on the side of the roads in my neighborhood at this time, but whatever. Before even getting past the building we came out of, we saw a playground area my kids wanted to go play in- closed. An area to the right looks potentially neat- big sign said closed. We started down another path and saw that whatever the exhibit in the distance was, it had a sign on the path that said closed too. At that point my wife and I decided we made a mistake and should see if we can get our money back since we were ready to leave already. Kids fully agreed, so we went back into the building we'd just left.
I approached the desk and asked the same lady with glasses and black curly hair that we had paid minutes ago if I could ask her something that I hate to ask. She said yes, so I started telling her how we had something different in mind when we came for the kids spring break today but it seems nothing is in bloom and a lot looks closed. She interrupted me before I finished to say "So do you have a question or what? Do you expect me to make the flowers bloom? No, its not a good time to come here. It won't be a good year to be here. It snowed recently. What do you want me to do about it?"
Trying to ignore how awful she was, I told her we were hoping to get a refund since we just got here and are leaving. She got up and said "Let me ask my supervisor", then getting her boss's attention, she said "These people have been out in the gardens for over 30 minutes and now they want their money back". As I told her manager that wasn't true at all, the rude lady called the next customer in line over and disregarded me altogether. Her boss asked me if free passes so we could come back when the park is in better shape would be okay, and I said yes absolutely, then we left.
There was no reason for that lady to be so mean. Horrible and embarrassing experience. I probably won't ever even use these tickets because I'd never want to deal with that person again.