Dolphin Half Price? Who's kidding who

Scully's_Girl

Last night we had a dolphin designer stop by to take a look at two bathrooms, a small ensuite and our guest bathroom on the same floor. The ensuite has a toilet, sink, and shower, the other has toilet sink and bath. We want to yank both out and have two whole new suites put in. The job would include
* Ripping out old suites
* ripping out tiles, carpet, lighting
* knock down part of a wall in the guest bathroom (to take some space from a large linen closet in the hall to make the bathroom bigger)
* lights, put down flooring

As everyone knows, Dolphin is the complete package. I must admit I liked the designer very much. He used to be in finance, as I am, and seemed very aware of their costs, almost apologetic for it. He gave us two quotes, one with and one without financing
£8600 each, or £17,200 or
£7500 each, or £15,000 if we go with financing, and he did say to wait 30 days and pay it off if we can, which I respected. I know he gets a big incentive to move financing, but I still thought that was pretty cool. We usually pay that sort of way if the opportunity is there.

Assuming we go with financing, that is still £15,000 all told, and these are both very small bathrooms, although admittedly one of them would be totally redesigned. I loved his idea of turning the ensuite into a wetroom, so we're talking about alot of tiling

What worries me though is that he said this is "better" than the half price sale. Do you mean to tell me that usually 2 teensy bathrooms such as mine would be £15,000 EACH?? Am I missing something here? When I look on various forums that have discussed Dolphin, the rates they gave seem to be standard (for them), so where does the half price come in. To be honest, we're only prepared to pay about half that again (£8000 and thats REALLY pushing it)
Perhaps Im just ignorant of the business.

Canucklehead

Hi

You might like the designer but what about the fitter/s (lets assume you get the same team day after day)
If you have doubts then don't do it.
See what other quotes bring.

Good luck.

Corgi Guy.

mountainofdebt

£15K for 2 admittedly small bathrooms is alot of money in my book, whether it be better than half price or not!

Tom_Jones

Don't touch Dolphin with a bargepole, it's a lottery as to the standard of work you'll get from the subcontractor they employ for your job.

mrsbudget

Just had a plumber here in the house who gave me a quotation for my bathroom. He said he worked for Dolphin before and could not stomach the prices people had to pay them that's why he had his own business now. A lot cheaper according to him but I dont know if I'wll get him to do ours, (well, that's another story).

mikeywills

I remember a programme a while back I think it could have been watchdog, where it was reported that in order to become a dolphin fitter you have to undergo a two day induction course.

This is designed to show that you know the rudementary plumbing, and tiling techniques, lets be honest you wouldn't have time to learn anything within those two days!!

Once passed you are a dolphin fitter, as a company they expect you to already have the experience before you join them. Unfortunately the quality of individual fitters can vary greatly. You pay your money you take your chance.