Dulux Heritage colours - big problems!

[b3taman]

Hello folks
As part of Residents Association duties, I agreed to source the paint for repainting the garage doors on the 12 townhouses in our street. Being in a conservation area, the Association agreed to paint each of the doors in a slightly different shade of blue or blue/grey, to make the street look more uniform than random colours.
We spent a long time selecting the shades from the Dulux Heritage Range, but now they have been professionally painted I have to say not one of them looks much like the actual colour chosen on the chart.
The local Dulux Decorator Center who mixed the colours has been very helpful and today they have sent off 5 of the worst offenders back to Dulux for analysis to find out what's happened.
Has anyone else experienced similar? I know that colour charts are far from perfect, but these were so far out that I felt that there must have been something wrong with their dye dosing mechanisms at the Centre.
I'm pleased to say my door came out very close in colour to the grey I had chosen - but that was after I had mixed in a cupful of black paint to the 2.5L tin supplied!

 

[dcdec]

Place a very small blob of paint from the can onto the corresponding colour on the card.
Give it a good stir first though.

 

[b3taman]

Thanks for your reply dcdec - I understand this is a sensible way to compare the actual colour to the card colour, but it's a bit late if you've already chosen the colour, had the paint mixed and paid for it.
Unless Dulux can be persuaded to agree that the paint supplied is not even close to the colour on the card there doesn't seem a lot I can do about it apart from kick up a fuss.

 

[TheDec]

You may have to wait sometime for a reply, yet if it is anyway negative either post again or send me a pm.

Dec

 

[joe-90]

If they are as bad as you say then they don't have to be persuaded as you are covered by your statutory rights. They are not 'fit for purpose'.
Do as dcdec has told you and go back to the shop.

 

[b3taman]

Thanks for your comments guys, the paint only went back to Dulux on Monday so I'll give them a few days to respond. I'll post up their reply!

 

[b3taman]

After a long delay, Dulux have agreed that 3 of the 5 were not correct but the other two were within 'acceptable limits'
So I have been refunded for three of them.
All credit to my local Dulux Decorator Centre (Chichester) who were helpful all the way through.
So, all I can advise is - use these Heritage Range chart colours as a very approximate guide only, you may not get the result you were expecting when your chosen one is actually painted.

 

[emilybronte]

b3taman, please could you reveal which particular DH shades were not close enough to the chart?

Thanks

 

[b3taman]

The worst offenders were Blue Verditer, Light Cobalt and French Grey. These three were all much paler than the chart colour and also had a slightly pinky undertone.

 

[dcdec]

So was it the tinting machine in the shop or the colour card being wrong?

Not hearing many good things about Dulux these days, i havn't used the heritage range for ages as little green are far superior and with Dulux's constant price rises i doubt there's much between them price wise now. Credit to them for holding their hands up on the 3 though, but typically let themselves down with how long they kept you waiting. Used to be a fantastic brand, now probably my third or fourth choice for paint.

 

[emilybronte]

The worst offenders were Blue Verditer, Light Cobalt and French Grey. These three were all much paler than the chart colour and also had a slightly pinky undertone.

Cheers. I used DH 'Blue Riband' (Ribbon?) recently and it struck me that it seemed to be more of a baby blue than the grey-blue on the chart, but customer liked it, so I didn't raise it with Dulux.

Worth being aware of, so thanks for your thread.

 

[emilybronte]

So was it the tinting machine in the shop or the colour card being wrong?

I bet it's the formula that's wrong.

Not hearing many good things about Dulux these days, i havn't used the heritage range for ages as little green are far superior and with Dulux's constant price rises i doubt there's much between them price wise now. Credit to them for holding their hands up on the 3 though, but typically let themselves down with how long they kept you waiting. Used to be a fantastic brand, now probably my third or fourth choice for paint.

I am inclined to agree. Homebase do have a '3 for 2' offer until end Oct, but only for retail Dulux emulsion paints (they don't do the trade ones).

 

[dcdec]

You've identified a problem there Emily, the dulux retail i wouldn't call a bad paint but the trade has better pigment, thinnable, better coverage etc so i use it over retail. But how do i explain to my clients the trade prices when you can go down homebase and get such offers?
It seems like Dulux are only bothered about their retail customers and couldn't care less about the trade