Dolphin Bathrooms

coconurtaler

My mother had a Dolphin bathroom put in several years ago but recently has needed to replace the toilet seat. As it is a non standard size - round not oval - she has had to go to Dolphin to get a seat to fit. They have charged her £112 for seat PLUS £25 delivery. I couldn't believe it.

froggy27_2

we had our bathroom done this year and i also heard bad things about dolphin and they are soooo expensive...
after a lot of research i use these people http://www.cheapsuites.co.uk/ their prices are good and their customer service is really good... worth a look i think..it's good quality too..Hope it helps.

topdoghoward

Any suggestion of any good plumbers, tiles the full works new to area looking for new bathroom suite, shower, flooring and tiling in east london/essex near Romford (RM10).
PS tried Dolphin earlier this year came out ask how much we wanted to pay then left without quotation.

MANY THANKS

funkyaardvark

I needed to do a bathroom refurb a couple of years back and went to a local store and got local tradesmen to do the work. Starting quotes for everything was around £5k. By the time we were finnished, with troubles and headaches you cannot imagine the whole thing cost £7.5k!!! Moved house last year and was looking to get another bathroom done. Shopped around and got quotes and Dolphin were £8.3K and the most expensive. Impressed with the guy that came out to give a quote so went with my gut and bought. FANTASTIC SERVICE!!!. Fiance loves the design, slight delay in fitting by a couple of days, bar that, not an single problem. Was explained that we would have to paint and we still haven't as we don't know what colour to use. Bathroom looks amazing as is. Maybe we are the lucky ones, but I have recommended Dolphin to several people and 2 others have bought, had bathrooms fitted and are as happy as we were. Wanted to come on and point this out as all you get on these sites seems to be people putting companies down. Thought I might post a positive comment for once. I would still recommend Dolphin today.

paul.s.b

i am a fitter for dolphin bathrooms,
{Dont hang me just yet!}
we are a multi fit team and have major contracts with several large companies, Yet though a years of experiance have left 90% of our customers with the wow factor bathrooms that they deserve, With dolphin bathrooms we have had nothing but headaches as the fitters!
they will always blame the fitters for everything, tell customers anything to save them getting a ear full down the phone,deduct and refuse payments to fitters if the job runs on, we have had customers screaming at us that materials wernt on site,that we were supposed to be with them weeks ago! that dolphin said it would be dolphin fitters on site! that all there fitters are in house,.
in 25 years of building houses and refurbishment we have never ever had our reputation tarnished as we have the last few months,
we as a company are disgusted with the way customers and us have been treted.
let me put it this way, you have to pay before installation! we find that shocking!
you are charged well over the price that the product is!
you have to do all the running round and chasing up.
and you are supposed to be happy about this!
I recommend that you source a local builder with good refrences and purchase directly, you will get a far better product for your money,20k for a bathroom of Bathstore standard products is not exceptable.
and you control the finaces{ie if not happy you with hold money until happy!}
STAY AWAY FROM DOLPHIN BATHSTORE AND OTHER NATIONAL SUPPLIERS OF BATHRROMS AND KITCHENS THEY WILL JUST ROB YOU BLIND AND TELL YOU THAT EVERYTHING IS GREAT!

MollyBloom

When you ask their sales rep for a quote, don't let them know how much you have to spend - they will contrive to oh-so-coincidentally make their lowest quote come out at just ABOVE what you've budgeted for! Dolphin fitted a very nice new bathroom for us this year but it took twice as long as they said it would, they didn't leave the job properly "finished" (their subcontractor said the work left undone was classed as decorating, not fitting, so we had to finish the walls ourselves) and, 2 months later, we are still waiting for a replacement cistern top to be delivered and fitted... It looks nice(ish) but was too expensive for what it is, and I won't use them again to re-fit the shower room.

tjalive

Help. I really don't know what to do. We have finally got all the problems sorted over ten visits. I have been passed on to three different people at sharps. We have had a sliding 4 door wardrobed fitted and we are paying £4000.00 for it. After all the problems we with them and now that they have finally been finished. I asked for some money back. They said they would give us a give of £124,00 for the delays we had. I said no way I think it should be a more than that. I said I would put a letter in the post so it was in black and white. A few day later she has called me back saying they would give £200.00 now. I have not put the letter in the post yet.

What do I do? They are saying the £200.00 is the best we are going to get. I don't want to lose £200.00 but I really think they should give more back ?

PLEASE HELP...................

rage707

I have been told by a fitter that the Dolphin Bathroom experience in Scotland is a lot better than in England and I am in Scotland. I booked an appointment with a designer who took me seriously despite my naive, late-20s student demeanour. He saw my dilapidated old suite and thought about saving himself some serious time - instead of starting off with £10k+ as I see other designers do, he said, "It would be about £8k." I was willing to go with them - I knew they were pricey but it was a one-stop-shop and I wanted something seriously classy as I'm that age of trying to impress the ladies....oh and I take pride in my house. Anyway, the final price was £8,900, a couple of hundred added on because that's what his computer calculated in terms of tiling area etc, and let's say £700 because he knew I was a soft touch. I would criticise him for not really exploiting the large range of products on offer. He gave me something adequate which was from the cheaper end for them to buy (better profit margin but as it so happens my small bathroom wouldn't have suited, for example, the larger, more expensive basins). He talked me into not having a light on my mirror (he should re-think that advice) to save me money and told me to buy my own mirror cabinet as ordering through them isn't cost-effective, so this kind of erodes the one-stop-shop benefit Dolphin portray (I ended up spending £218 on twin mirror lights and £220 on a mirror cabinet and the fitters put them up with no extra charge).

One idea he had as a designer though is worth a thousand pounds to me: he proposed replacing a 1700mm bath running the length of the room to a 1500mm one put in sideways, creating a lot of central floor space. Sometimes it's worth getting designers to like and trust you - I couldn't in the end buy on credit so he smoothed my path to a cash deal.

Now I think the real lottery is with the fitters. They seem to be a mixed bunch and I had a great pair, a father and son team who, fair enough, took their time (10 days from start to finish, not working full days or weekends) but had a careful approach. Three weeks later and here I am, happy.

Summary: Go in with your eyes open, don't let them dictate which suite you buy and try to ascertain how good your fitter is in the first couple of days (ask for a new one if he's no good).

hawker955

So Dolphin bathrooms. Let's see, where to start? Advertise a guaranteed fitting before Christmas, and state in your brochure that "twenty eight days after your order you will step in to your completed bathroom". So, no problem ordering six weeks before Christmas when told it will be a seven to ten-day job? Think again, dear reader. First parts arrive in the New Year. Fitters arrive in February. Or are booked to arrive but don't turn up until four days later.

Cutting a long, long story short, seventy days after the fitters first arrived, we told them not to return because we have had: fitters who have turned up on only twenty out of thirty-two days booked, and late on other days; several leaks; three attempts to fit a shower to the wall having nearly flooded the bathroom when the fitting fell off; two attempts to fix the toilet which still does not flush properly; a sink and bath that drain in to the shower basin; a sink outflow pipe that drains uphill; electrics that Dolphin's own inspector said were unsafe; a heated towel rail that does not work; grouting placed in spaces where there should be tiles; a toilet outflow pipe left uncapped so that when said toilet is flushed, outflow spills from the pipe ten feet up the outside wall; holes in the plaster around the light switch; holes in the ceiling where the wrong lights were fitted in the wrong place; a hole made in the ceiling below the bathroom that was made "to save time"; multiple fixtures that are loose on the wall; an airing cupboard door that is re-fitted so embarrassingly badly that it is almost a joke; underfloor heating-wiring that was left exposed and walked on for several weeks (not a good thing apparently), and numerous other problems and faults that are too many to list.

They took my credit card deposit twice, giving me a penalty and failed to refund it, and the wrong lights were replaced by us, but they have failed to refund us for the originals sent by them. Thank heavens for Section 75.

Dolphin do not always return phone calls, do not send project managers when they have promised, criticise each other behind their backs, and generally have made such a hash that it is unbelievable that they are still in business. Just google search for Dolphin complaints. They seem oblivious to their tarnished reputation as long as they have the money.

As for this post:

funkyaardvark wrote: »

I needed to do a bathroom refurb a couple of years back and went to a local store and got local tradesmen to do the work. Starting quotes for everything was around £5k. By the time we were finnished, with troubles and headaches you cannot imagine the whole thing cost £7.5k!!! Moved house last year and was looking to get another bathroom done. Shopped around and got quotes and Dolphin were £8.3K and the most expensive. Impressed with the guy that came out to give a quote so went with my gut and bought. FANTASTIC SERVICE!!!. Fiance loves the design, slight delay in fitting by a couple of days, bar that, not an single problem. Was explained that we would have to paint and we still haven't as we don't know what colour to use. Bathroom looks amazing as is. Maybe we are the lucky ones, but I have recommended Dolphin to several people and 2 others have bought, had bathrooms fitted and are as happy as we were. Wanted to come on and point this out as all you get on these sites seems to be people putting companies down. Thought I might post a positive comment for once. I would still recommend Dolphin today.

All I would say is that there is a remarkably similar post on a Dolphin-complaints site that is alleged to be posted by a Dophin marketing manager from Scotland. Of course, I am sure that funkyaardvark is a genuine and satisfied customer of Dolphin and is in no way related to the company at all, ever, in any way. That would be unthinkable, surely?