The sales work was a bit bizzare: a guy came around, told us he was an ex-plumber now doing sales for Dolphin so he really understood what the issues were, took several hours to draw up the spec, and got us to sign off on it.
We were quoted about 40% more than an independent plumber, but we would have had to get a plasterer in to redo the ceiling, have a different mirror, and buy our own flooring for him to fit.
Aside: a colleague who had his bathroom done by independent traders told me that his plumber put the pipework where the screws for the shower door had to go, so the shower door had to be moved in by a couple of inches to avoid them and now it doesn't fit. Nobody to blame guv, just one of those things. We didn't want that, so we went with Dolphin. The one-stop-shop with no arguments about exactly who should have said what to whom was a big plus point for us.
Then the surveyor came round and changed a lot of stuff the sales guy had got wrong. Amongst other things, we needed a pump, the wrong shower door was specified, and a new wall was in the wrong place on the drawings.
Dolphin won't give you a date for the work. My understanding is that they keep their teams working 100% by not scheduling the next job until the the previous one is almost finished, which means you get a day or two of warning before they turn up. Make sure your ansaphone is working!
Also, they deliver all the bits to your house a week or two ahead of the work, and you have to store them somewhere. They probably figure that anyone who can afford their bathrooms probably has a spare room or garage space.
The fitters turned up as promised and worked like smoke. They were an independent contractor plus two of his employees, and he also contracted the electrician in to fit the pump. I think they get paid by the job, so they have every incentive to polish off the job as quickly as possible to move on to the next. No corner cutting though, at least as far as we could see. They also kept the house as clean as possible with dust sheets on the stairs and landing.
The contractor did whinge a bit about some of the guarantee work he has to do (not on his own jobs) for Dolphin, and how rude and unreasonable some of the customers can be. Not very reassuring.
Since they left we've had a few teething troubles: the loo seat kept coming loose (design fault apparently), so first they came back to make a temporary fix, and once a replacement was delivered they came back to install that. The loo flushing mechanism wasn't always resetting properly (fixed) and the shower door ball catch broke (fixed). There may have been more of these niggles than we would have expected, but we can't fault the after-sales service.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We had Dolphin fit a bathroom for us about fifteen years ago - it was a disaster from start to finish and never lived up to our expectations - I expect they have improved since then.
koshkha 07.03.2007 10:59
I would be interested to know what you had done and what it cost.
gaunts 07.03.2007 09:35
Hey! Welcome to Ciao. You have made a good start to a review, with some nice personal experiences. I would suggest to any new member to have a read around some similar reviews to get an idea as to what people expect from a review... If you want any help or want me to re rate, leave me a message in my guestbook. all the best, gaunty
Advantages: Impressive finished product, great catalogue and TV advert, professional sales staff Disadvantages: Very expensive, sister companies featured on BBC1's Watchdog
Mar 7th, 2007
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