Any opticians in the house, what is up with eye tests?
Discussion
I went for another eye test yesterday and it made me wonder if there is a good reason for the way they are done.
They put the silly frames on you and start adding lenses and getting you to try to read things and compare shapes while they add lenses and remove lenses and generally faff about and slowly but surely things get better and better until you are thinking. " wow, this is great I am going to have bionic vision with these new glasses"
Then when the test is finally finished you slip your own glasses back on and have a sneaky look at the test you just did and see that your old glasses are pretty much as good as the new ones are going to be.
Wouldn't the test be much quicker ( and revealing) if they started by putting in lenses that match your current prescription and then tried a couple of things to see if a slight adjustment either way was going to improve anything?
It feels like sharp practices to me, all this removing your glasses and covering one eye malarkey to show you how bad your eye sight is while they slowly bring it up to the standard you had when you walked in..
Ami I missing something?
They put the silly frames on you and start adding lenses and getting you to try to read things and compare shapes while they add lenses and remove lenses and generally faff about and slowly but surely things get better and better until you are thinking. " wow, this is great I am going to have bionic vision with these new glasses"
Then when the test is finally finished you slip your own glasses back on and have a sneaky look at the test you just did and see that your old glasses are pretty much as good as the new ones are going to be.
Wouldn't the test be much quicker ( and revealing) if they started by putting in lenses that match your current prescription and then tried a couple of things to see if a slight adjustment either way was going to improve anything?
It feels like sharp practices to me, all this removing your glasses and covering one eye malarkey to show you how bad your eye sight is while they slowly bring it up to the standard you had when you walked in..
Ami I missing something?
Shuvi McTupya said:
Mr Pointy said:
That's not my experience. My optician loads the test frame up with my last prescription & then we dick around to find out if it's changed.
I am starting to think that different opticians employ different practices 
Maybe "I should(n't) have gone to my opticians.."
A visit to the opticians:
The robot that measures your prescription with the hot air balloon photo throws a wobbly when it gets a look at my left eye - right, no bother - left *whirr whirr whirr. Puff of smoke. In the distance, sirens*
Then onto:
"Lens 1 or lens 2?"
"Both about the same"
"Ok, lens 3 or lens 4"
"YOU ARE JUST SHOWING ME LENS 1 AND LENS 2 AGAIN, DON'T TRY YOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL WITCHCRAFT ON ME! Slightly lens 4"
"Does this make things clearer, or just darker and sharper"
"Aren't those the same?"
"Ok Mr.Parsnip, your prescription is ready, due to your crap left eye, you need these ultra thin lenses for eleventy-hundred pounds. Have a nice day blindo, I'll just be over here ticking every option on my new 911."
It's my party trick at an offshore medical every 2 years - nail most of the chart with my right eye and no glasses
"Oh, you hardly need glasses at all, if you could just cover your right eye now and read the smallest line you can see"
"A"
".........Maybe you do need glasses after all"
The robot that measures your prescription with the hot air balloon photo throws a wobbly when it gets a look at my left eye - right, no bother - left *whirr whirr whirr. Puff of smoke. In the distance, sirens*
Then onto:
"Lens 1 or lens 2?"
"Both about the same"
"Ok, lens 3 or lens 4"
"YOU ARE JUST SHOWING ME LENS 1 AND LENS 2 AGAIN, DON'T TRY YOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL WITCHCRAFT ON ME! Slightly lens 4"
"Does this make things clearer, or just darker and sharper"
"Aren't those the same?"
"Ok Mr.Parsnip, your prescription is ready, due to your crap left eye, you need these ultra thin lenses for eleventy-hundred pounds. Have a nice day blindo, I'll just be over here ticking every option on my new 911."
It's my party trick at an offshore medical every 2 years - nail most of the chart with my right eye and no glasses
"Oh, you hardly need glasses at all, if you could just cover your right eye now and read the smallest line you can see"
"A"
".........Maybe you do need glasses after all"
Shuvi McTupya said:
I went for another eye test yesterday and it made me wonder if there is a good reason for the way they are done.
They put the silly frames on you and start adding lenses and getting you to try to read things and compare shapes while they add lenses and remove lenses and generally faff about and slowly but surely things get better and better until you are thinking. " wow, this is great I am going to have bionic vision with these new glasses"
Then when the test is finally finished you slip your own glasses back on and have a sneaky look at the test you just did and see that your old glasses are pretty much as good as the new ones are going to be.
Wouldn't the test be much quicker ( and revealing) if they started by putting in lenses that match your current prescription and then tried a couple of things to see if a slight adjustment either way was going to improve anything?
It feels like sharp practices to me, all this removing your glasses and covering one eye malarkey to show you how bad your eye sight is while they slowly bring it up to the standard you had when you walked in..
Ami I missing something?
It's not just opticians that are sneaky. Take butchers, for instance.They put the silly frames on you and start adding lenses and getting you to try to read things and compare shapes while they add lenses and remove lenses and generally faff about and slowly but surely things get better and better until you are thinking. " wow, this is great I am going to have bionic vision with these new glasses"
Then when the test is finally finished you slip your own glasses back on and have a sneaky look at the test you just did and see that your old glasses are pretty much as good as the new ones are going to be.
Wouldn't the test be much quicker ( and revealing) if they started by putting in lenses that match your current prescription and then tried a couple of things to see if a slight adjustment either way was going to improve anything?
It feels like sharp practices to me, all this removing your glasses and covering one eye malarkey to show you how bad your eye sight is while they slowly bring it up to the standard you had when you walked in..
Ami I missing something?
I went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
Johnny Raydome said:
It's not just opticians that are sneaky. Take butchers, for instance.
I went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
If you always bought your steaks from that butcher and he already knew how you liked your steaks that might work as an analogy, but sometimes people like different thickness of steaks for different purposes so it doesn't really workI went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
Shuvi McTupya said:
If you always bought your steaks from that butcher and he already knew how you liked your steaks that might work as an analogy, but sometimes people like different thickness of steaks for different purposes so it doesn't really work
Okay, any analogy can be dissected to the nth degree, but you get the point, which is: how is the optician going to know if your prescription has/has not changed since your last test (presumably at least 1 year ago, more likely 2) without putting up some trial lenses and asking you some questions?Some folks are lucky that their eyes haven't changed and they don't need to fork out for any new specs. It happens, regularly.
How else is the optician going to find out that there is no change to the prescription?
Johnny Raydome said:
It's not just opticians that are sneaky. Take butchers, for instance.
I went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
I went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
I had similar at my tailors the other day. I popped in for a made to measure suit, as I do every couple of years, and the guy started fecking about, trying to measure me with a tape measure of all things!
"Oi, John" I cried, "I didn't come here to get measured for my made to measure suit, I want you to look at my existing suit and then give me one off the peg that fits you complete charlatan.".
I can't tell you how embarrassed he was when he realised I'd rumbled him. How many other people has he tried this scam on I wonder? What a w
ker! Johnny Raydome said:
Okay, any analogy can be dissected to the nth degree, but you get the point, which is: how is the optician going to know if your prescription has/has not changed since your last test (presumably at least 1 year ago, more likely 2) without putting up some trial lenses and asking you some questions?
Some folks are lucky that their eyes haven't changed and they don't need to fork out for any new specs. It happens, regularly.
How else is the optician going to find out that there is no change to the prescription?
Surely your current prescription would be an ideal jumping off point, rather than starting from square one every time?Some folks are lucky that their eyes haven't changed and they don't need to fork out for any new specs. It happens, regularly.
How else is the optician going to find out that there is no change to the prescription?
Johnny Raydome said:
Those pesky tailors, I forgot about them.
Bounders and cads everywhere!
Did they look you up and down and say, let me get out my 100m tape measure, no hold on that's a bit too long, let me try this 75m long tape measure. nope still too long..Bounders and cads everywhere!
Oh look, this normal human size tape measure works just fine , I wish I had some kind of clue as to what size tape measure to start off with, I go through this process every time a customer walks through the door!
Yes - you can start with the original prescription and modify, this would be ideal as saves time.
You will normally have an auto refraction anyway (machine that measures optical status) and put that in the frames as a starting point.
Worth noting that even small differences in prescription change can not feel correct initially as the brain has to get "used" to the new images - its adapted for your old prescription until it re adapts.
Interestingly in chain high street practices the optometrists have a conversion ratio of around 70% - means they have to get 70% of their patients into glasses....
You will normally have an auto refraction anyway (machine that measures optical status) and put that in the frames as a starting point.
Worth noting that even small differences in prescription change can not feel correct initially as the brain has to get "used" to the new images - its adapted for your old prescription until it re adapts.
Interestingly in chain high street practices the optometrists have a conversion ratio of around 70% - means they have to get 70% of their patients into glasses....
Shuvi McTupya said:
Johnny Raydome said:
It's not just opticians that are sneaky. Take butchers, for instance.
I went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
If you always bought your steaks from that butcher and he already knew how you liked your steaks that might work as an analogy, but sometimes people like different thickness of steaks for different purposes so it doesn't really workI went into the butcher the other day and asked for a steak, carved from the fillet. He held his knife over the meat and asked, "this thick?"
But it wasn't thick enough! "Nooooo!" I said, "not thick enough."
He placed his knife on the meat and asked again, "here?"
It was too thick this time! "Noooo!" I said, "it's too thick!"
He tried once more, "how about here?"
"Perfect!" I said.
Is there a good reason that butchers do it this way? Wouldn't it be quicker if the butcher just offered the correct size steak in the first place?
It seems like sharp practice to me, offering me different sizes of steak until we (finally!!!!) end up with the size of steak I always have.
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