BBC Watchdog: Dolphin Bathrooms - Lawrence loves them, our viewers don't...

Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
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Bolton
They claim to be the leading bathroom specialists in the UK and they've even managed to bag Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen as the poster boy for their advertising campaign.

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So why have we received so many complaints about Dolphin Bathrooms? We thought we'd investigate...

(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Dolphin' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).

Not so 'Easy Bathing'

After losing her sight in 2007, Julie Thomas from South Wales decided that a dream wet room would help her regain some of the independence she'd previously experienced. She decided to go to Dolphin in October 2009 to discuss having the wet room installed. She'd been impressed by an advert offering the 'Easy Bathing' range, which was supposedly tailored to the customers individual needs.

Julie paid £14,000 and was looking forward to having her new wet room in December 09.

However, what started as a dream quickly descended into a nightmare for Julie. Work did begin in December, but Dolphin positioned a shower screen incorrectly and left her with leaking taps. She complained on a number of occasions, after her fourth complaint Dolphin apologised and promised to rip it all out and start again.

Julie told Watchdog:

"Since this glass screen has gone in the bathroom it has become totally inaccessible. I've had no alternative but to wash in the kitchen sink which has now been a good eight months. All the money I've spent on this meant to be fantastic bathroom which was supposed to give me my independence back and it's made the whole situation worse, washing in the kitchen sink is not good.."

Dolphin finally completed Julie's bathroom this week.

High price - low quality

Sheena Dawkins from Tadworth paid Dolphin an incredible £18,000 for her bathroom earlier this year. At first, she was told that work would begin in April and would be finished within 15 days. This proved to be slightly off the mark and following a written Dolphin apology, a new start date of 1st of June was given. Not quite the prompt execution Sheena had expected after the £18,000 price tag.

It turned out the late start date would be the least of Sheena's worries, as the standard of workmanship she's received since then has, in her words, been 'atrocious'. In the last FOUR months, it's taken Dolphin FIVE different fitters to install ONE bathroom - and it's still not finished.

How did this happen? Well, the first Dolphin fitter departed in less than a week because he was off on holiday. The second fitter was ordered to leave Sheena's home by a Dolphin Project Manager because the standard of work was so poor. The third fitter left after installing the toilet too high. The fourth didn't even last a day and the fifth still isn't able to complete the work because Dolphin have been delivering the wrong parts.

Hardly a top class service, as Sheena informed Watchdog:

"We were offered a stress free bathroom and we paid a lot of money to get that, and its totally the opposite."

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Julie and Sheena are the only unhappy Dolphin customers.

Paula Myers, has been left to wash at the local swimming baths for the past eight weeks.

Read the Manual

Paula spent £9,000 on her Dolphin Bathroom in March 2009. She was initially pleased with her installation until a few months later, when things started to go wrong.

"We were quite happy to start with because outwardly it looked absolutely fine, but we noticed after a year or so, the shower was leaking, plaster was blistering and a pool of water was developing on the tiles. Then we noticed, after a while, that the shower tray itself was actually rocking when you were in it and the seals were starting to fail and go black."

Dolphin sent out the original fitter to fix the problem earlier this year, but Paula was far from impressed by the repair work and the shower tray was still rocking. Then over 8 weeks ago, disaster struck and the shower packed in completely. Paula and her family have been left to use the local swimming pool in order to wash and were astonished to find that after numerous phone calls to Dolphin, they wanted to send out the original fitter - AGAIN.

We sent in plumbing expert Mike Griffin to make his own assessments and the results. He reported that under the bath, the plumbing was of a poor standard and the piping was badly supported. Not only that, but it was messy, there was a gaping hole in the wall and the fitter had left an electrical connection behind - and a half-eaten biscuit!

Things got worse when Mike had a look at Dolphin's own installation manual, and discovered that the fitter responsible for Paula's bathroom hadn't even followed their own instructions and therefore it was of no surprise that the shower was no longer working.

So what was Paula's final verdict on Dolphin?

"Shoddy, absolutely shoddy. It's not a quality product and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone".

Dolphin Statement

"We are deeply sorry our customers have clearly been let down badly. We are, however, very pleased to report that all the highlighted points are now being addressed and all the bathrooms will be completed by the end of next week. We have over 40 years' experience installing bathrooms and fit thousands every year - so we take customer care very seriously. That said, we are currently overhauling our customer processes Group-wide, so if there is anyone out there who has ongoing problems - please call us free on 0800 840 0118 and we will try to resolve matters as quickly as possible."


Watchdog Viewers' Responses:


We paid over 16,000 for our bathroom and it was a catalogue of errors.

Firstly the product we ordered were dicontinued (so why was the sales man selling them). We had to source our own radiators, towel rail and shower screen. The pipework to the towel rail was faulty where the pipe was nicked by the 'plumber'. The Shower was fitted backwards so did not work. 18 months on, we find the Toilet is leaking due to being fitted without the right connecting pipe and mastic'ed to the floor and wall - not a single screw. What else is yet to be unearthered!!! Unbelievable

A very unhappy Dolphin customer.


I have just enjoyed your coverage of Dolphin Bathrooms very much.

We recently invited them in to quote on our bathroom. The quote (for a bath, shower, double sink and tiling) came to a whopping £23,000 - and that was with a discount! This discount apparently was only available if we signed up within 24 hours - after which the quote went up to £34,000!!!

Suffice to say, we decided not to go with Dolphin...

Nic




Dolphin Bathrooms - Lawrence loves them, our viewers don't...