After deciding to get this membership we were then informed that there was an under 25’s selection you could make which would make it a lot cheaper. Rather than paying the £68 per person price it would be £45. We only got the membership last week so we were hoping that they would be understanding, however after calling this morning to ask if there was something we could do we were told quiet bluntly told that there was nothing that they could do and they are a Charity so of course they wouldn’t do that. It’s a shame that there was such a lack in customer service.

I visited Nymans today with a group of friends some members some not. I was disappointed at the entrance to find I was not able to include a guest ( I have been a member for many many years but not used membership). As a member of the RHS I am able to admit a guest. I have to say that this policy is short sighted on your part as the guest may decide to take a membership themselves and it is at least another person to use the cafe shop etc. my friend tried to pay her entry but was bombarded by your staff member who would not accept no for an answer. She kept on and on about taking a membership or paying to get in and paying more for a donation. To the point where I had to say ‘what part of no do you not understand’ It was like being sold a time share. Clearly your staff are on a bonus for signing up new members but it is a most unpleasant experience for your members and their guest. Whilst you may think this policy is beneficial I can assure you it’s not and you make people question why they are bothering. Please address this unhelpful attitude and return our visits to the extremely pleasant experience they should be. Marian Wallbank

You just lost out on another £2200 here. What kind of awful awful person would do this? Have you had a change of manager or let the wrong person onto the board or something? I can't tell if you are trying to be really nasty and keep people out, or if you are just totally out of touch? You have secretly changed the rules so lifetime members have to go on their own or pay again if they want to take someone. You have absolutely misjudged why people buy lifetime membership gifts for people. It's obviously not a cost-saving exercise at over £2k a pop. You would have to live for around 25 years and buy NT membership every year just to break even. It's not well advertised, but buried in the small print you've halved the value of lifetime membership from two people / visit to one while at the same time putting the price up by 10%. That's a 120% increase in price! It was very close. We nearly paid you, but realised just in time what you had done. By removing the "take a friend with you if you want" option you've just lost another sale. We bought a lifetime membership for our son three years ago. It was the most expensive gift we ever bought him, but knew that he would always have place to go no matter where he was, no matter how tough life got and no matter who he ended up with. We bought him "happiness after we are gone". We were about to buy the same gift again but now you are selling, "be on your own", "can't invite a friend" and "the gift of loneliness". You have totally missed that National Trust is not always about the buildings, it's about the day out. It's about always having somewhere to go and it's about always being able to take someone somewhere when they just need a friend. Not everyone has £15 to spend when you just want to go somewhere for an hour with someone you care about. You've transformed "Lifetime Membership" into a voucher for a table for one at a restaurant. Who would give someone a gift of one cinema ticket on its own and expect them to be happy? And then you've cut and pasted a response to others complaining about the same thing on Trustpilot, justifying what you've done by saying it's because you want more gift-aid money, and it caused poor sales with your "2 members of the same house package". If you just want more money then sell then sell the +1 option as well and let people choose. Not everyone wants to go somewhere with the same person every month for the rest of their life. You must know that. Be honest, don't hide what you are doing like this. This policy has changed the tone (and by the look of things, the reputation) of the National Trust completely. The current custodians could do well to reflect on how they are performing in comparison to every other generation before them. I'll be keeping the £2200 for now though. There are better gifts available for £2K than making someone walk around a stately home on their own every month for 25 years! National? Maybe. Trust? Maybe not.

I was hoping to buy national trust membership for my wife’s 50th but you have put the price up from £2020 to £2195 AND stopped members taking a guest. Now I don’t feel comfortable paying such a greedy and careless organisation anything at all. You’ve saved me two grand but why are you like this now? 75% 1 star opinions. Sort yourselves out would you.

Trying to register for "My Account" so I can see details of my membership on a dashboard as advertised online. This has proved unsuccessful due to the National Trust "data base" being down and not recognising my email address ,as I was informed when I rang the help number. So this wont be fixed until mid 2024! Why advertise something that is so problematic?

Trustpilot need to get to grips with the targeting of the NT by right wing Restore Trust loons. The NT are an amazing organisation with an amazing offering. We visit sites all over the country and the kids have always been enthralled by them. Their countryside sites and work is and amazing resource for the nation.

Every property is a joy to visit, visitor facilities are usually to a high standard, but our biggest benefit of membership is free use of car parks for coastal & countryside walks (esp on holiday in Cornwall & Pembs). There are constant improvements and we’ve noticed more effort going into improving & protecting natural wildlife habitat on National Trust land as well. Latest visit was Lacock. Although the house itself was closed for winter, the photography exhibit, abbey cloister, second hand book shop and cafe (for a cheese jacket) were all open. Staff & volunteers v helpful. Shop is in the pretty village a short walk away. A national treasure.

We visited Attingham Park, Shropshire on 23/02/24. Went to cafe in the courtyard and ordered 2 hot chocolates which when arrived were luke warm. My husband took them back and was made to wait at least 10 minutes while the staff served others. Eventually they acknowledged my husband and they replaced the drinks with slightly warmer but lumpy hot chocolates. There were about 6 members of staff messing about which is not very professional. The girl that served the drinks asked another how to make a hot chocolate but as she made both of them she obviously wasn't properly trained. As you know the cafe isn't cheap. I am dissapointed that the staff weren't interested in customers and think re-training in Customer service would be a good idea. Definitely won't be going back to that cafe.

Furious that the change in life membership no longer includes the ability to take a guest. My mother-in-law just bought my daughter a lifetime membership in January on the understanding that my daughter could go along with her, or me, or(as she gets older) a friend escorting her for free. We can’t attend for free and feel utterly ripped off. It should have been really clearly highlighted that the conditions had changed when my mother-in-law signed up. National Trust are fixated on making money these days and have completely lost sight of the community which treasures the historical properties under its management. Its starting to become really questionable how the NT has gained such a monopoly on stewarding our history and government needs to start questioning and challenging their practices. Please look on line for a number of petitions that are looking to start holding NT to account for their increasingly disconnected management. I’ve seen they are justifying this action by gift aid restrictions…. Well I will quite happily not gift aid them anyway and am most unhappy that they seem to have made the changes as discretely as possible. If they claim this is standard commercial practice, then that shows just how far they have fallen….. This is an organisation that should be trying to serve its members best interests, not trying to fleece them!

Beware if you are paying for your membership by direct debit. The National Trust took £44.40 more than they should have. After several phone calls I still not have this money refunded to my account. Needless to say I will delete the direct debit. Update: I today received a cheque for the overpayment of my membership. Thank you National Trust.