Lionels Farm — Attraction in Whitchurch-Stouffville

Been coming here for years and no more! I will NEVER reccommend this farm EVER again! I am terribly disappointed in the farms front admission lady today. She was so very DISGUSTING AND RUDE especially to me in front of my excited 4 year old who was bugging me all day to go to Lionel's as I was shopping around for much needed groceries all day knowing the shops and stuff would be closed on Victoria Day (the following day)!!!! I believe she was simply "out of line!!! I was walking quickly to get in so we could get a full 15min at least in there before being kicked out to leave right at 5pm (the time Google stated to me and the lady confirmed was their closing hour for this Saturday)! Having a 10 month old baby and not wanting to have waited in the scorching 23° weather earlier in the afternoon with him I optioned to go at the end for a little! It is such a small farm, trust me you dont need longer! Plus our cousin who went earlier stated they had a REALLY long line so of course I wasn't going to bring my 10 month to sit in the heat either with no shade!!! As I was walking in to head to the front gate, there was a lady standing in the booth in a blue shirt with another man standing in front of her also in a blue shirt leaning into the booth. As we caught eyes, she began pointing a finger in a wave motion stating "No excuse me we are already closed!" I said its not 5pm yet its like 15min or 20 min still!?! What do you mean you are closed??. EXCUSE ME BUT IT IS NOT 5PM IT WAS 435PM. Her response to me is, "Well, what are you only going to be in there for only 15minutes??? I said, "Ya, actually give them their food, say a quick hello and we will leave! I know the time! The kids just wanted the kids to see some of your animals. She looked into my carriage and said, "What food? Those are too big...it's baby carrots we allow!" Before I could state to her I have purchased big carrots before and I have used a knife with a board at the other side of the counter to feed these exact animals before she cut me off to tell me that "besides it's been busy all day so if you walked around you would see all the food laying around they aren't probably going to eat that!". As much as I can appreciate her honesty of telling me it's like a waste of my time to go in, I wasn't doing it for me! I was doing it for my little who was patient with me all day and tolerated my shopping for groceries and not wanting to danger his you her brother in the heat. Even if the animals didn't want to eat his carrots we could take them home and try again another day! That's for me to decide! Telling me I am not allowed to go in because you are closed at 435pm when you clearly aren't closed untul 5pm is ridiculous and also not your business to tell me! Maybe you should make your hours until 430pm and give that last half an hour for people to scoot out! That way others wont be trying to come in either! Don't judge me when you don't know what happens before someone comes over to your business. Like c'mon! This was just mean! Very very sad! Lionel's used to be such...

The owner is a Racist and does not know how to speak to and deal with Children and adults!

I had taken my two sons to the farm last week. Its a great place but BEWARE of the owner who also handles the pony rides!!!

My children (4 & 5) along with other children were super excited to ride the ponies. So excited that they were jumping up and down and lets just say like any 5 year old and under, couldn't contain there excitement!!

The owner (Lady -Older who also handles the horses), seeing all this felt that the parents needed to CONTROL there children and started shouting at the top of her lungs. At first I thought she was speaking to the staff.

But soon she came closer to the children huffing and puffing. I quickly interrupted her and asked her to calm down and not speak to the children in this manner. Any normal person would have done the same. I explained to her that they are 4 & 5 year old's and are just excited. She turned to me and said "if you don't like being spoken to like this then you can leave".

I couldn't believe what was happening and I refused to be spoken to in this manner so again I asked her to STOP, only for her to turn around and tell me it's "only people like you who don't understand" - at this time she points with her fingers at my friend and I, both women. both wearing the Islamic head gear -Hijab.

I was completely caught off guard when she said this comment and couldn't believe my ears. As soon as she said those words the mood in the crowd quickly changed and other parents and every other concerned Canadian quickly came to our defense.

Without incident on our end she demanded we leave. We asked to speak to the owner and at this time we learned that she was the owner.

The two lovely girls handling the pony rides came to us on the side and apologized for her behavior and said that this is quite common behavior from her!

Every Year the Pickering Mosque holds an annual Kids party & Bazaar. Lionel's farm has always been invited. But if she can't deal with people like us and children then she shouldn't do business...

The MOST horrible customer service that we have experienced in years.

We understand that we must buy animal feed from the farm, but we brought our own empty ice cream cones, fearing our preschooler's hand would be bitten by the animals, and we weren't sure if the farm provided their own cones.

Later on, we learned we cannot bring the cones, which is completely fine. The problem is that their staff came to us, and yelled, "YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BRING YOUR OWN FOOD! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!" Then she REACHED OVER INTO MY BAG, took the cones, and threw them out.

That whole interaction would be 100% fine IF INSTEAD: (a) she walked over and informed us we were not allowed to bring the ice cream cones; or the front desk staff told us on our way in. She said we were supposed to know because it's on their website - aka, you are supposed to read their entire website before going in

(b) she asked us nicely to hand over the cones, which we 100% will. She did not wait for us to respond, REACHED INTO MY BAG TO GRAB THE CONES HERSELF

(c) she yelled and grabbed into my bag WITH OUR PRESCHOOLER PRESENT causing him much distress on what's supposed to be a fun trip.

Then she came again, and told us that she should kick us out but she will let it go this time. Again, we tried to explain that we were only bringing the cones so our child can feed the animals without getting his hands bitten, but every time she just YELLS: YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BRING FOOD AND YOU DID IT! Yelling at us like we are toddlers or criminals, refusing to listen to a word we say.

NEVER GOING AGAIN. Also they limit your visit to 1 hour, because honestly, there is only 1 hour worth of...