Opticians

[Willy Nilly]

I need my eyes testing and some new specs, is there much to choose between high street opticians?

[Huntsman]

Willy Nilly said:

I need my eyes testing and some new specs, is there much to choose between high street opticians?

I've found spec savers to be excellent. Very thorough, modern equipment and well trained staff.

They did get my varifocals wrong, I went back and said I was getting terrible headaches with the new specs, no problem, sat me down to have a look, I was with the chap, and the store manager about 45 mins, while they checked and double checked, then, quite out of the blue, he said, "fine, no problem, sorry, our fault, we'll make new lenses'

[Johnny Raydome]

Huntsman said:

I've found spec savers to be excellent. Very thorough, modern equipment and well trained staff.

They did get my varifocals wrong, I went back and said I was getting terrible headaches with the new specs, no problem, sat me down to have a look, I was with the chap, and the store manager about 45 mins, while they checked and double checked, then, quite out of the blue, he said, "fine, no problem, sorry, our fault, we'll make new lenses'

I hate to point this out, but your second paragraph completely destroys all the positive points that you made in the first.

[HTP99]

Specsavers here too, been with them for years and no cause for complaint.

[motco]

My Good Lady and I each decided it was time for an eye test - it had been a while. Hers was declared unchanged so no new glasses were required. Mine, however, was said to be sufficiently changed to need new spectacles. I ordered polarised varifocal sunglasses in the same prescription at the same time. When the glasses arrived they were distinguishable in performance from my current prescription only in one aspect. They were incorrectly spaced - the inter-optical distance was clearly wrong. If I looked into the distance one eye at a time alternately, in order to bring a subject into correct focus I needed to turn my head away from where it was for the other eye. That is to say they were only in focus separately, not together. In any case they were not any different from my current glasses apart from this despite being a different prescription, apparently. Given that the total bill for the two pairs was heading for £400 I told them I was not satisfied and asked for a refund. To be fair they did not argue. All the high tech apparatus they have was spoiled by a woman with a felt tipped pen putting dots on test glasses to determine the distance between my pupils. The prescription difference may have been significant in poorer lighting, I don't know and they didn't grasp the point when I floated it out to them. Previous sets of new specs have been a revelation in the improvement, but these certainly were not.

[Wobbegong]

Specsavers and Vision Express are useless in my experience.

[lost in espace]

Asda is cheap, good, and if you need variofocals and have a heavy presciption no charge for thin glasses.

[whoami]

Wobbegong said:

Specsavers and Vision Express are useless in my experience.

In what way?

[Yipper]

Which? magazine did a big survey on UK opticians a few weeks ago... the results were shockingly bad for almost all the highstreet chains... Missed eye problems, haphazard sight tests, etc... Less than 5% were rated "excellent"... Half were sh*t...

Be very careful who you visit. And consider having two tests on the same day, one at a chain, and a "second opinion" at an indy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/high-street-...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/public-share...

[TVR1]

whoami said:

Wobbegong said:

Specsavers and Vision Express are useless in my experience.

In what way?

I'll jump in on this comment.

Wobby may very well have an eye issue that they can't able to diagnose because they simply aren't ophthalmologists.

My experience? Slightly blurred vision in one eye, VE,SS, et al couldn't work out why they couldn't correct the blur.

I was on the periferal machine, measuring machine etc. Spent probably 4 hours at each shop. They simply couldn't see anything wrong. Referred to my GP. Hinted that eyes are ok but for some reason the signal isn't getting through to your brain. Optic nerve problem, brain problem etc. This means cancer, BTW.

Moorfields, few weeks later; and after literally 15 seconds into the consultation : you've an early cataract.

I quote;

'I've been doing this for 35 years. There is so much of our time wasted, by these amateur high street 'glasses fitters' who have these wonderful Ferrari machines but they have no idea how to drive them. Not only that, they don't look for the bloody obvious, in front of their eyes!'

He also commented that it was unusual to have cataracts at 46 but irrespective of that, it was so bloody obvious, that you would have to be blind to miss it. LOL.

So, job done. 15 minutes under the knife. I now have 20/15 on my right eye. My left eye also has an early onset too, so that's appointed for a fix in a few months.

The result?

I'll have better eyesight than I could've possibly had, even in my 20's.

And the shame of it? I'm 47. I'm an 'urgent' case. I'm working I guess and produce income, therefore I contribute to the taxman.

My Mum is 76 and has developed cataracts. She's not 'urgent' because she's retired. She can still see. It's only when she falls over and breaks something that she becomes 'urgent'.

Notwithstanding that she has paid her dues since she was 16. That's 60 YEARS of Contributions.......

There's something seriously wrong.

[Johnny Raydome]

motco said:

My Good Lady and I each decided it was time for an eye test - it had been a while. Hers was declared unchanged so no new glasses were required. Mine, however, was said to be sufficiently changed to need new spectacles. I ordered polarised varifocal sunglasses in the same prescription at the same time. When the glasses arrived they were distinguishable in performance from my current prescription only in one aspect. They were incorrectly spaced - the inter-optical distance was clearly wrong. If I looked into the distance one eye at a time alternately, in order to bring a subject into correct focus I needed to turn my head away from where it was for the other eye. That is to say they were only in focus separately, not together. In any case they were not any different from my current glasses apart from this despite being a different prescription, apparently. Given that the total bill for the two pairs was heading for £400 I told them I was not satisfied and asked for a refund. To be fair they did not argue. All the high tech apparatus they have was spoiled by a woman with a felt tipped pen putting dots on test glasses to determine the distance between my pupils. The high tech apparatus they have was spoiled by a woman with a felt tipped pen putting dots on test glasses to determine the distance between my pupils. The prescription difference may have been significant in poorer lighting, I don't know and they didn't grasp the point when I floated it out to them. Previous sets of new specs have been a revelation in the improvement, but these certainly were not.

With (genuinely) the greatest of respect, I am struggling with this.

Your prescription changed? But it didn't change?

Your new glasses were different? But they weren't?

What on earth are you on about?

Which Opticians did you go to?

Was there a point to this story?

Bottom Fish Banana.

[anonymous-user]

I took old ‘one eye’ to the opticians today.

[anonymous-user]

I was vey myopic, until I had cataract surgery, and have had a couple of retina detachment that needed surgery, and several laser treatment. he first detachment was repaired at Bristol eye hospital and the surgeon was surprised at how early I'd noticed the detachment, this was because my optician had spent time with me explaining that I was susceptible to a detachment and what to look for. I suppose spec savers are Ok if you are slightly myopic but I wouldn't use them, my rule if I move house is locate a small private practice that have a private room, not the frame showroom, to conduct tests and discuss problem in private. I went to spec savers once and they asked me to sit in the showroom while they conducted a glaucoma test, I left.

[Riley Blue]

Our recent experiences with two opticians have been very poor.

1) Me - Specsavers. I was having headaches with I thought might be due to wearing four year old varifocals so had a sight test at Specsavers where it was found I had poor field (peripheral) vision in my left eye. They retested it, same result but provoded new varifocals as both eyes' prescriptions had changed 'slightly'.
I tried the new glasses but rejected them within days as they distorted verticals - when looking at a computer screen, the sides sloped inwards towards the bottom, something my previous glasses didn't do. Specsavers carried out some checks (I'm not sure what they're called but they measured distance between eye centres etc.) and said they'd have another pair made. I tried those, same result - distortion.

Specsavers carried out another full sight test; right eye was slightly different from what it had been a few weeks earlier so they told me they'd order a third pair. Same result - distortion of verticals.
While all this was going on, they'd also supplied a pair of reading glasses which I'd told them were for computer use with the screens at arm's length away. When they arrived they too were wrong, focus was at about a foot away, where you might hold a book you were reading.
In the meantime Specsavers referred me to an eye clinic where I had a very thorough sight test - no problem at all with the field vision in my left eye.

Eventually, Specsavers refunded me in full (over £240 for two pairs of varifocals and two pairs of reading glases). Even after they'd issued the refund I still had two texts and a phone call telling me my glasses were ready for collection. When I mentioned this to a friend he told me he'd had a similar problem with them and had been told Specsavers had recently changed its lens supplier. Read into that what you will.

2) O/H - Scrivens. O/H wears hard contact lenses supplied on LensPlan. She's always had eye 'problems', is Type 2 diabetic and is sensitive to bright light so she's very mindful about eye care. A couple of months ago she received a new pair of lenses but couldn't get on with them, the left one gave her blurred vision. She returned it, it was checked and found to be a right one which had been wrongly supplied as a left - they're slightly different colours and have a tiny 'L' or 'R' on them but she'd been sent two with her right prescription.

A new left lens was supplied but it was still 'faulty', it didn't sit correctly on her eye, its curvature was different - I'm not sure how this is possible but that's what she was told when she returned it. A week later she was advised a further replacement had arrived. She collected the container but being in a bit of a rush only found out it was empty when she arrived home. Finally, after seven or eight weeks, a lens she could use was supplied.

She was told Scrivens had not long been taken over and was now 'target driven' which more than likely explains why the two staff who had looked after her so well for ten years had left. As far as Specsavers goes, in five visits over a couple of months, I was attended to by 19 different members of staff, never saw the same one twice. BTW - my headaches have stopped...

[motco]

Johnny Raydome said:

motco said:

My Good Lady and I each decided it was time for an eye test - it had been a while. Hers was declared unchanged so no new glasses were required. Mine, however, was said to be sufficiently changed to need new spectacles. I ordered polarised varifocal sunglasses in the same prescription at the same time. When the glasses arrived they were distinguishable in performance from my current prescription only in one aspect. They were incorrectly spaced - the inter-optical distance was clearly wrong. If I looked into the distance one eye at a time alternately, in order to bring a subject into correct focus I needed to turn my head away from where it was for the other eye. That is to say they were only in focus separately, not together. In any case they were not any different from my current glasses apart from this despite being a different prescription, apparently. Given that the total bill for the two pairs was heading for £400 I told them I was not satisfied and asked for a refund. To be fair they did not argue. All the high tech apparatus they have was spoiled by a woman with a felt tipped pen putting dots on test glasses to determine the distance between my pupils. The high tech apparatus they have was spoiled by a woman with a felt tipped pen putting dots on test glasses to determine the distance between my pupils. The prescription difference may have been significant in poorer lighting, I don't know and they didn't grasp the point when I floated it out to them. Previous sets of new specs have been a revelation in the improvement, but these certainly were not.

With (genuinely) the greatest of respect, I am struggling with this.

Your prescription changed? But it didn't change?

Your new glasses were different? But they weren't?

What on earth are you on about?

Which Opticians did you go to?

Was there a point to this story?

Bottom Fish Banana.

I was told that it had changed, sold new glasses, the benefit was nil. In fact they were wrongly made. If they had been made properly with correct eye spacing they would still have been no different in correction of my vision. Conclusion: my current prescription is adequate and the glasses I have are correct as far as eye spacing is concerned. Any change in my measured prescription is of negligible benefit to the wearer - me! Almost £400 would have given me shiny new frames and little else. Clear?

I declined to name the chain because it is the individual practitioner who is at fault. It is a chain, however.

[mikeiow]

We've actually always found Tesco opticians to be very thorough! I
I've had specs since I was a teenager, & now have varifocals....which for me was a challenge to get used to (ymmv!)....but they kept me on it for 5 weeks with the promise that if at any point I really wanted to give up and return to normal ones, they would do that with no cost. Got there in the end (sounds like many struggle with them).
Wife and kids have used them too. Often young staff, but that is no bad thing, generally means their training is fresher!

[Johnny Raydome]

motco said:

I was told that it had changed, sold new glasses, the benefit was nil. In fact they were wrongly made. If they had been made properly with correct eye spacing they would still have been no different in correction of my vision. Conclusion: my current prescription is adequate and the glasses I have are correct as far as eye spacing is concerned. Any change in my measured prescription is of negligible benefit to the wearer - me! Almost £400 would have given me shiny new frames and little else. Clear?

I declined to name the chain because it is the individual practitioner who is at fault. It is a chain, however.

Right, that makes more sense!

Apologies if my earlier reply looked a little heavy-handed (which it did, when I read it back this morning).

[motco]

Johnny Raydome said:

motco said:

I was told that it had changed, sold new glasses, the benefit was nil. In fact they were wrongly made. If they had been made properly with correct eye spacing they would still have been no different in correction of my vision. Conclusion: my current prescription is adequate and the glasses I have are correct as far as eye spacing is concerned. Any change in my measured prescription is of negligible benefit to the wearer - me! Almost £400 would have given me shiny new frames and little else. Clear?

I declined to name the chain because it is the individual practitioner who is at fault. It is a chain, however.

Right, that makes more sense!

Apologies if my earlier reply looked a little heavy-handed (which it did, when I read it back this morning).

Quite unnecessary Old Chap! I always use ten words when two will do!

[Willy Nilly]

More confused than before now

[HelenT]

I hate to say this as an Optician but like all professions we have the good and the poor, you are probably best to get recomendations local to you from friends and family, I know the majority of our new patients come via word of mouth.