Vision Express...

[AirSniper]

Of all the robbing so-n-so's today they wanted £385 for a pair of glasses that my sons NHS voucher in the past has completely covered the cost of lenses and frames.

After shopping around, exactly the same style frames and size of lenses in Specsavers, total bill £69.50

I know where I am going when its time for my next eye test.

 

[Jamsandwich]

Should've gone to...oh, you did...

 

[RostokMcSpoons]

I've got knackered old eyeballs and need varifocals.  I found the price was much of a muchness between the two, and wasn't particularly happy with the prescription and/or quality of the lenses from either of them.  Boots didn't do a perfect job either... so having been to all 3 in succession I was disappointed by them all, and my wallet got well and truly emptied every time. 

So they're all shit.   Or my eyes are so bad I will always have to pay a fortune and get specs that don't work perfectly.  (Probably the latter - I did recently go for a check for laser surgery... That'd be £8.5K and I'd still need specs for reading and using computers!)

 

[TacticalWaifu]

Conversely, I've seen Specsavers damage folks' eyes by saying they could sleep in contact lenses that weren't suitable for continuous wear -- and that while Vision Express may be pricier in some cases, the customer service is a lot better.

Depends then "the past" is, but on the basis of NHS eye tests generally being every 2 years, everything is quite a bit more expensive now. ?

The issue with NHS vouchers is they basically cover standard lenses and the eye test, nothing more -- so while opticians will have a selection of "free" frames with the voucher, or ones that are x amount cheaper with it, it's not always a massive saving -- as they obviously can't claim it all back.

 

[AirSniper]

Conversely, I've seen Specsavers damage folks' eyes by saying they could sleep in contact lenses that weren't suitable for continuous wear -- and that while Vision Express may be pricier in some cases, the customer service is a lot better.

Depends then "the past" is, but on the basis of NHS eye tests generally being every 2 years, everything is quite a bit more expensive now. ?

The issue with NHS vouchers is they basically cover standard lenses and the eye test, nothing more -- so while opticians will have a selection of "free" frames with the voucher, or ones that are x amount cheaper with it, it's not always a massive saving -- as they obviously can't claim it all back.

My son goes to hospital because he is visually impaired. He had his natural lenses removed at 3 weeks old so that he could have some vision because he had congenital cataracts. So he was medically disabled to give him some sight with glasses but without glasses he is blind, had he not had the operation he would be blind.

I could understand the justification had my lad just got bad eyesight and still had his own lenses but to hold a person to ransom who would be blind without eye correction through glasses is utterly disgusting.

His vouchers from the hospital cover £220 of the cost and Vision Express wanted £385 on top of that, os they were trying to say that his glasses were £605 a pair.

It felt like when you take your car to be repaired and the garage don't want the work and they price the job like £600 for a £200 job.

 

[Shamal]

I'm not saying my eyes are bad but I need glasses for sleeping?

 

[MrTea]

This is part of the reason why I don't go to big chains/branches. My local opticians has 2 stores and that's it. They've always been fantastic and i've never felt ripped off even when buying designer frames but this could be because my prescription is very weak.

 

[AirSniper]

This is part of the reason why I don't go to big chains/branches. My local opticians has 2 stores and that's it. They've always been fantastic and i've never felt ripped off even when buying designer frames but this could be because my prescription is very weak.

Originally the only opticians in Nottingham that had the suppliers and facilities to make my sons prescription were Lancaster & Thorpe, they sold out to Vision Express after around 6 years which meant that VE were the only opticians with the facilities, luckily some 10 years later, other opticians have the facilities to manufacture the lenses.

L & T were a small regional opticians which were very customer satisfaction oriented, unfortunately they shut up shop and sold out to VE... VE are very profit oriented.
 

 

[TacticalWaifu]

Most places are "profit-oriented" ... that's called capitalism.

Even if other places appear to place more focus on customer satisfaction, at the end of the day they literally wouldn't exist without making profits.