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Original poster

Dolphin Bathrooms - any feedback? Good or Bad?

42 replies

Pat · 28/02/2004 18:38

I've done a search as I'm sure I have seen a conversation before about this company, but I could not find anything. We're currently planning a new bathroom and have had a visit from a Dolphin designer. All very professional so far, but it's going to be much more expensive than I thought!......
Just wondered if anyone had any experience with Dolphin or any views on them?

OP posts:
fisil · 28/02/2004 18:41

We got no further than the initial visit. They were so inflexible and basically didn't listen to us. Either you had their off the peg bathroom, or nothing. The price was horrendous too. Where abouts are you? The company we ended up going with were brilliant - based in Sussex, but came up to us in SW London.

The guy from Dolphin did make us laugh, though. He just could not understand why we wanted a double ended bath. He mulled it over and eventually said that he remembered as a kid fighting over who got the end with the taps. Hmmm.

GeorginaA · 28/02/2004 18:44

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Don't do it!!!!

Actually, saying that, the bathroom fitters we had were ace - really efficient and very clean & tidy.

HOWEVER. We felt that a lot of the fittings were very plasticy. The shower bracket broke a couple of times (in the year's guarantee) as did the toilet seat. These were replaced with out quibble but the problem came when the toilet seat hinge broke for the second time just after the year guarantee ran out.

As it's a molded unit (and we were trying to sell the house so wanted the "proper" manufacturer one not one from B&Q) we had to replace the whole seat. It cost us ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN POUNDS AND EIGHTY PENCE just for one sodding toilet seat! One useless plasticy toilet seat that was bound to break again!!

Seriously unimpressed.

Since found out that a simple internet search brought up hundreds and hundreds of complaints about shoddy workmanship and issues with it not being fitted properly with Dolphin Bathrooms including a Watchdog (I think, or similar) investigation.

twiglett · 28/02/2004 19:17

message withdrawn

suedonim · 28/02/2004 19:43

I'm not wishing to slander or libel or anything but in my neck of the woods Dolphin work hand-in-hand with Moben kitchens and I wasn't impressed with the latter when we were looking to replace our kitchen. Very expensive and not willing to listen to what I wanted.

Original poster
Pat · 28/02/2004 19:49

Oh Dear! Worried about the shoddy workmanship comments. Now you say that, I do recall a Watchdog issue. I'll do some searches.
The Designer who visited us was fine and has come up with a solution that seems fine on the face of it. But it is expensive.
We're in dire need of doing something, but I don't want to just go with the first option we have tried.
fisil - we're in SE London, so not sure a Sussex company would be interested. However, would love to hear your recommedation.

OP posts:
Grommit · 28/02/2004 20:02

I had a Dolphin bathroom put in last year - all went well until the shower wouldn't work. It seemed they had not tested our pressure properly and after 3 visits from their 'experts' we had to fork out for a pump. This cost was in addition to the very expensive overall cost. I think they are very overpriced - recommend you look elsewhere

Kayleigh · 28/02/2004 20:02

IMHO you should get at least one or two more quotes. Now you know roughly the design you want (thank you Dolphin man!) go into a couple of local bathroom places and see what they price it up as. We had a quote for a dolphin bathroom and they were about £4k dearer than the quote we eventually went with.
The dolphin salesman came round to us and we virtually had to throw him out after three hours as he wanted us to sign there and then.

Dinny · 28/02/2004 20:08

We had to virtually throw Dolphin salesman out - he got very narky. They seemed v expensive.

GeorginaA · 28/02/2004 20:14

suedonim - Dolphin and Moben are the same company throughout the UK.

Kayleigh · 28/02/2004 20:17

When we queried what seemed a very expensive quote he told us we could pay it off at just £80 a month. But that was over 20 years and it worked out at nearly £20k !!!!!!!!!

suedonim · 28/02/2004 20:37

Thanks, Georgina. I forgot to say, when the Moben man came to us, he arrived at 7.30pm and didn't leave until 12.30am!!!!!!!! I hadn't had any tea and was starving but put off getting anything to eat in case he took it as an invite to join us. Honestly, if he'd stayed any longer it would have been bed-and-breakfast.

GeorginaA · 28/02/2004 20:46

LOL Suedonim that was our experience of the sales guy too - very pushy.

I would reiterate that the fitters themselves were really excellent - but I wonder if they were just contracted out by Dolphin and didn't work directly for the company, as I've heard since that many customers haven't been as lucky with their fitters.

iota · 29/02/2004 15:25

Another vote for very expensive and pushy salesman - ours told us he wouldn't get paid if he didn't make the sale - tough luck eh?

Original poster
Pat · 29/02/2004 16:32

HHHhhhmmm - definitely going to go down the route of getting more quotes then.
Our sales person was fine though - not pushy at all. We did get the spiel about if you sign up today you'll get X off, but I think she could see that we were just not going to go there. As you say Kayleigh, Thanks Dolphin for your help in designing it!
I think if they call to push for a sale, I'll say that:

  1. We need to see the actual fittings in a showroom (only seen brochures so can't tell for sure ref. the quality). I'll still do this.
  2. It seems very expensive (maybe we'll get better discount)
  3. Have not heard good things about fittings (quality & time). I need to do some more research here and maybe ask for references from them. Just want it all to happen NOW! Our bathroom is so disgusting and I'm desperate for a new one! ,but I guess a bit of plotting and planning will pay off in the long run.
OP posts:
Clayhead · 29/02/2004 17:53

DH and I had the most awful experience with Moben salesman. We both do jobs where we're used to confrontation but he took us to the limit. As others have said, he stayed ages, he then asked us to sign up there and then and then started saying that, because we didn't we obviously couldn't afford it! When we argued that we could, we just never sign up for anything like that without sleeping on it he started to ask if it was him we disliked!! We virtually had to throw him out of the house, ended up using a local company who were loads cheaper and much more flexible with design etc.

noddy5 · 29/02/2004 18:40

My parents had a kitchen from moben in their holiday flat in the isle of wight and they did a terrible job,left it a real mess and very unfinished.I dont know if it was because they weren't there to oversee the work or if that is their general attitude took months to sort out though.

jampot · 29/02/2004 18:41

Nooooooooooooooooo! They wanted £11k to do my bathroom and my plan was the best one by far. Many of the products you can buy from other outlets loads cheaper. Where are you based Pat? If you are in the South or Midlands it might be worth trying Ripples (designer service, full bathroom experience - Jacuzzi, Samuel Heath, Grohe etc) or if you don't want to spend a lot and you are in or around Bham there is an excellent bathroom outlet called Midland Trays - let me know and I can provide the number for you. It's more a pick and mix type of place but excellent stuff at a fraction of the price you would spend in major retailers.

jampot · 29/02/2004 18:43

Pat - I see you're in SE London - sorry for not reading complete thread thoroughly. There is a Ripples bathroom showroom in Mayfair. How much are you planning on spending and contact me off line!

JennH · 29/02/2004 18:51

Dolphin came to look at our bathroom, but they were very expensive and really were not doing what we wanted.

In our last house, we had a Sharps bedroom put in, and this is the same company as Dolphin. We were very exacting on what we wanted, and thats what we got, we basically just made the salesman draw it out for us. Then he was quite pushy but we said we wanted to wait for a bit, but he kept ringing back and reducing his original quote. So we went with them and it worked out cheap and we were very very happy with the quality. I plan to use Sharps again, but it was not in the same league as the prices Dolphin charge.

gold123 · 29/02/2004 18:53

you are right GeorgiaA - my husband is a kitchen and bathroom fitter, tiling etc.. the majority are sub-contracted out, he is self-employed but has done work for a few companies. MFI approached him recently, and we have seen Moben advertising for fitters on their showroom window. Go with recommendations, look in the local paper, you never know you may find someone as reliable and honest as my husband.

fisil · 29/02/2004 19:00

Pat, this is their website

They usually do design stuff rather than smaller projects like ours, but they loved the challenge and came up with a fantastic design fully meeting our brief, and bang on budget of £5000 (significantly cheaper than the Dolphin quote). We actually ended up paying a grand more than that because we felt so confident with them that we decided it was worth going the extra mile. But they would have fulfilled our brief for less! The designer was on site full time, basically as the foreman, so we knew that everything would be done to the same high standard. I can't recommend them enough. And I'm sure they would come up to SE London (if they came to SW!)

jampot · 29/02/2004 19:00

Where are you from Gold123?

GeorginaA · 29/02/2004 19:05

I was just thinking that, jampot

gold123 · 29/02/2004 19:07

We are in Staffordshire - so if anyone needs anything doing - he's certainly one to consider.

Clayhead · 29/02/2004 19:07

North or South Staffs? (or East or West!!)