This review has nothing to do with the gardens the...

This review has nothing to do with the gardens themselves, which are beautiful and we always enjoy our time visiting.

This review is for the visitor services team, specifically the Director of Visitor Services.

We purchased tickets to the gardens for Sunday 8/16. After I purchased the tickets, I realized that there was an option to choose "Free Week" tickets. Unfortunately, the website did not state when "Free Week" was, it just gave you the option to select free tickets. I did not want to run into an issue when we arrived (since they were operating with timed ticket entrance during the pandemic) and I opted to just purchase the tickets at full price. Upon inquiry to the visitor services team, I was told that it is in fact "Free Week" and that they agreed that they should probably put the dates up on the website. I proceeded to ask if I could get a refund on my full price tickets, so I could choose the free ones instead.

This turned into a long email chain of back and forth with both the visitor services team (multiple staff members) AND their ticket service provider. Ultimately, the Director of Visitor Services told me that she felt that all of the necessary information for Free Week was up on the website and that it was entirely my fault for purchasing full priced tickets. She did not seem to understand that I reached out 4 days before our trip to request an exchange or a refund, that we NEVER went to the gardens and redeemed our full price tickets, and that it was ultimately my fault and "per their policy" she would not be giving me a refund. Even though there was zero exchange of value or resources.

It certainly felt like a power trip experience and I am baffled that they would not refund two tickets to two people who never even redeemed the tickets and tried to reach out more than 72 hours in advance.

10/10 - We always recommend the gardens to friends and family
0/10 - We do not recommend any interaction with Visitor Services as they are not very nice. Do not expect flexibility, understanding, or human decency.