Mathmos Reviews 268

Avoid this company.

My parents bought me a Mathmos lava lamp when I was a kid. Roughly 25 years ago. Back then their lamps were of good quality. I needed to buy a replacement lava bulb and so the original bulb has given me something to compare.

The original bottle had no branding on it. Their current bottles have bright white branding, that lights up through refraction and draws the focus away from the lava and on to the branding. Which is, both completely unnecessary and ugly. In the photos on the mathmos website, these bottles are displayed with branding that matches the colour of the wax. That is not the reality. The bottles are printed in bright white and are by far the most eye catching aspect of these lamps. The originals had no branding at all on the bulbs. So this is disappointing.

The wax itself seems to be of a lower quality, as during use it produces tiny floating balls of wax along with the large balls, rather than remaining clumped together like it did in the original bottle.

The light allowed to pass through the lamp is now decreased. The previous bottle used to produce beautiful dancing lights reflected on the ceiling from the moving lava. Now they are much diminished and basically absent. I would estimate that the lamp alloiws under half the lighting it did prior to the bulb replacement.

And finally, the original bottle was made of faultless glass. This one has numerous tiny bubbles that light up bright white by the lamp underneath due to refraction and are quite distracting. I have since read on the mathmos website that the mathmos manufacturing facility is of the highest standard; yet in the same breath are asked to expect these bubbles as a normal part of the manufacturing process. There were no bubbles in the glass of the original bulb.

I sent a letter of complaint to their company. The response I received was a list of all the reasons why I was wrong. Absolutely no humility, and no care for their customers.

These guys don't deserve your business. AVOID.

UPDATE TO REPLY BELOW: This is the standard response I received previously. As you can see, it's all my fault apparently as I've not understood.

I've had the lava bulb for 6 months now, and it produces more little balls of wax than it did at the beginning. The settling in period is utter crap and obviously a standard line meant to deflect attention away from the lower quality products they now stock and get you to overshoot the right to return period. Shocking tactics.

The branding does not light up any other colour than white whichever way you look at it. It looks nothing like the bottle displayed on their website. It certainly doesn't match the wax. And, it's an obvious choice to make the product branding stand out more than the product itself. It's a choice the company has made which they can't own up to. Also, as you can see in their response below, they're calling me a liar without calling me a liar. It's my fault apparently, my eyes that are playing tricks on me, obviously.

The bubbles in the glass may be listed in their FAQs, but what they aren't is present in the original bottles from the 90s. I have one in front of me for comparison. As such, I can say definitively that Mathmos's products have declined in quality.

Not only that, but their customer service is appalling as you can see below. When almost half of the reviews on trust pilot are from angry customers who've had a dreadful experience, it's time to stop blaming those customers, and actually get to the bottom of why they're angry.

As it stands, you dear potential customers, would be better off taking your chances with a much cheaper chinese knockoff that you can buy five times over for the price of one of Mathmos' lamps.

My opinion is still please do AVOID.

It’s just a lovely relaxed atmosphere as soon as you walk through the door. And all the staff are ready to help you with your purchase and any questions you need to ask

What a brilliant experience all round. My 8 year old grandson and I visited the showroom where a very knowledgeable, patient and professional salesperson informed and guided our choice. We were under no pressure and time was freely given. The following day I returned to make my final choice and purchase. Yet again time was given to enable me to make what has turned out to be the perfect choice.

As for the lamp, I am delighted with it. In fact, my daughter in law is now keen to buy one. Most importantly my grandson loves it too.

Thank you for an amazing experience…unusual these days and most refreshing.

Love these Lamps! Had put off buying one but no comparison to the cheap ones you can get and so happy I took the plunge! Super Speedy delivery as well as super friendly Customer Support! Not to mention a truly British Business! My only concern is how many i will end up ordering! Thank You so Much Mathmos!

Excellent choice of lamps, hard to decide which to buy, but I managed it.
The young salesman
took the time and trouble to explain how they were made. Good to know they are all made in the UK.

Apaling two limited editions came and went with no answers to my emails. Never again

I did email you twice and using that email address. Your customer service would warrant a negative trust pilot score if it was possible to submit.

Be very wary of this company they are notvto be trusted at all

Reported a problem with their lamps in December. 4 months now and still no resolution. I have sent info asked for numerous times and then they don't respond or if they do, they ask for the same information again!!! Total incompetence and no way to run a business!!!

I ordered a lamp late on Sunday, I did consider next day delivery (would arrive Tuesday due to the order being out of business hours when I ordered) I chose not to pay the £6 next delivery charge as it was not an urgently needed product!! So had free delivery suggested 3-5 days. So really pleased my lamp turned up tuesday ... Without paying the extra charge!

I love my lamp, it does take time for new lamps to get going, but 3 days in we are almost there!!

I bought the Mathmos Candle Lava Lamp and at first it was good as they gave me 3 Tealight candles and it worked.
But after I had trouble getting Tealights that work from anywhere.
I would not recommend the Mathmos Candle Lava Lamp at all.
Seriously you will have trouble finding Tealights that work.
Advice from Mathmos was put a few coins under the Tealight. really. You will be sorry if you buy this item

The rating is for the lamp as customer service have been fine upto now though we haven't owned the lamp for more than 14 days since Christmas (as it was returned and took over a month to replace).
The Rokit Lamp in question 'roks' on its base (hence the name maybe!) It is taking Upto 12hrs on an 80w difficult to find expensive bulb to watch the lava wobble about at the bottom of the bottle.. My fault for not having the central heating on between 20-24 degrees as in the instructions. It looks good but really this is just another expensive item with high running & maintenance costs (so a bit like my wife). My wife is in two minds atm as to keep it or not .. Personally I think it's a waste of money and has a very limited lifespan according to some of the reviews! (which my wifes not !)
We have only turned this on for a couple of days without much happening so may have to continue a few times more to see if it gets better.. I will update if it improves with age.
UPDATE:
Mathmos appear to agree with my concerns, which is refreshing!
Unfortunately the lamp will not be in use and is stuck in the corner until the UK summer weather reaches 20 degrees which is highly unlikely nowadays!

I bought a lava lamp a few years ago, and (as one can expect) the halogen bulb stopped working after many hours of work.
This is normal wear and tear. So I bought a replacement bubl from their site. The new bulb worked for two hours and collapsed. I contacted the customer service, and they immediately sent a replacement bulb. Congratulations for this great after-sale service.

Good products but they offer discounts that are not applied. Its happened twice now. Be careful when ordering from this company, particularly if you pay with PayPal. You’ll end up paying more than you should.

In response to your reply, yes, I did get in touch again with your customer services team, and they did again, refund the money taken in error, again. But I have to say, it is boring having to chase money taken by companies in error, particularly the same company twice! Presumably you’ll be sending me a complimentary Black Plum bottle by way of compensation?

Their rating is not deserved, it should be much higher, this is the original lavalamp and it is beautiful and High quality, I live in Denmark and they delivered, no problem, customer service was very polite and quick. You can shop here with no worries

Purchased the Telstar lamp with 2 bottles as a gift back in August (it went down really well with the recipient). The quality of the product is great and looks really beautiful when in use. Today I went to turn it on and it wasn't working :( I called Mathmos and spoke with Daniel. I felt compelled to leave a review as the service was second to none. Daniel advised that this is most commonly just an issue with the bulb but they certainly expect them to last longer than 5 months. Without hesitation he confirmed they will send a couple of bulbs in the post to resolve the issue. If this isn't the case I will need to call back, but honestly I'm not concerned. No long hold times on the call and all resolved within 4 minutes. Fantastic! Thank you Mathmos!

Very bad quality of lava lamp.
I purchased 3 pod lava lamps and the
ring coil that sits on the base inside the taper of the lamp does not sit flush on the base and look bad on the eye when the wax is in motion. Phoned the company and complained, didn't seem to care. They said, that's how the make them.

Fantastic after sales service.
Mathmos replaced the sub-assembly of my lovely lava lamp outside of the guarantee for which I am extremely grateful. This was done promptly and efficiently.
Thank you very much.
Highly Recommended.

Excellent customer care.
Had a small issue with the vinyl base lamp - order no UK23277 - have contacted Mathmos over Christmas (it was a gift for someone) and received a super fast response (on the 27th Dec). Very helpful and sorting my issue out. The advisor hasn’t left his name on the email - I just wanted to say big thanks 🙏 for the great service.

Don't buy their lava lamps. They last about 2 years before the plate holding the light bulb burns out. They do not sell a replacement plate, even though it would be easy to remove the old one and install a new one. So when the plate burns out, the only thing to do is throw away the whole lamp and buy a new one. Zero after-sales support. And terrible for the environment. Avoid.

I recently purchased a lava lamp from Mathmos and have noticed many white flecks that look like they are in the glass itself. I understand a few of these getting into the glass while it's being made but not this amount. Also considering they say how they use a high quality glass manufacture I think they need to view the terms with that company as this isn't high quality, more like bog standard.