dolphin bathrooms - £150 voucher worth it?

oojeyboojey

Has anyone gone with dolphin before and are they a rip-off? I just saw this offer and was wondering if it's worth buying something in their half price sale:

http://www.dolphinbathrooms.com/contactus/designvisit.php

"Simply complete and submit the form below, and we will contact you to arrange your FREE Design visit and send you a copy of our full-colour brochure. After submitting your details, we will present you with a bonus voucher for £150 worth of free bathroom accessories. UK mainland only."

Princess_Coupon

A medium sized bathroom with nothing flash costs about 10K this includes tiles, tiling, fitting etc or £9,850 with your voucher.

slateblue

We had a quote from Dolphin to refit the (small) bathroom in our last house (about 5 or six years ago, so things might have changed). The initial price they came up with was around £15,000 which they quickly reduced to around £7,000 thanks to various special offers. This didn't include the replacement window and plastering that we also needed doing (we'd have to get that done ourselves first).

In the end we went with a local kitchen/bathroom fitter and sourced all the fittings ourselves. Cost about £5000 all in (including the window and plastering).

"Rip off" might be a bit harsh, but "good value" is certainly not a phrase I would associate with Dolphin (Oh, and the salesman was quite pushy, but that might just depend on who you get)

Stoopid

Many years ago we had a Dolphin salesman come to our house.
First he slagged off every other bathroom firm around by saying with their product you either got boiling or freezing water !! . Then obviously praised their own product and workmen to the skies. After 2 hours he eventually came up with a price.....about 3 times what we had budgeted for.
We said thanks for your time, but we cannot afford that.
He then tried to sell us a finance package - which we declined, and tried to say good night to him, and get him out of the house.
He turned really nasty, virtually screamed at us "Do you want to get scolded"

After he finally left, we were both shaking, and swore we would stick with our old reliable bath.
A few weeks later we met a plumber socially, and were chatting about showers - we told our experience, and he said "Was it Dolphin?"
He said that Dolphin salesmen were taught to be very competitive, but if they know they are not going to make the sale on the day, to make sure that their rivals do not get the job - hence put you off bathroom salesmen for life. He said he spoke to people who had had similar experiences to us at least once a week.
We did eventually get our shower fitted by a small business at a fraction of the cost Dolphin had quoted.

As I said this was years ago, and I am sure Trading Standards etc have made sure this sort of thing doesn't happen anymore.
Get a quote from Dolphin, but get a few others as well - and ask for the names and addresses of customers local to you, so you can check they were happy with the product, service, and the after care.
Presumably Dolphin must be ok, or they would not have been in business this long. But half of exorbitant is still pretty expensive, and although I firmly believe in every penny counts, you may find £150 doesn't even cover the cost of the taps
I try to always go on recommendations from friends and neighbours.

Good luck

Crunchiemunch

I am disgusted with Dolphin Bathrooms - My grandparents have been 'had' by these people who charged £4,500 for a special needs electric shower, some tiling and flooring. They were left without a bath for 3 weeks.
My dear grandparents didn't want a fuss made and told me 'you don't get anywhere by shouting'
Steer clear!

sarahg1969

Dolphin are the same as Moben are the same as Sharps are the same as Kitchens Direct.

Before you make any decisions (and certainly before you invite anyone round), google them for reviews. And settle down with a brew!

ETA: Here's an example -

http://www.justclaim.co.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?t=878