PLEASE BE WARNED IF YOU SUFFER FROM DRY EYES.

Optical Express - BLUEWATER.

Had a complete disaster. My friend previously had surgery here. She was happy with surgery but didn't think customer service was up to scratch but I decided to give it a go. From first impressions, customer service was pretty awful. Staff were like robots, just reading a script. No personal service whatsoever. Next I met the optometrist. Now I'm aware I suffer from quite severe dry eyes and have done so for years. I wanted to be sure the surgery would be suitable for me. I made sure I asked about the dry eyes part but just literally got, "it'll be fine". I wasn't happy with the brief response so prodded a bit more and was just told that as I already had dry eyes, I'd have them still after, which wasn't of course a huge revelation to me. So I asked one last thing, if the dry eyes would get worse, she said no, it'd be fine.

So surgery was booked for February this year, payment made. First disappointment, surgery cancelled due to surgeon falling ill which is fair enough. Surgery was rearranged. I went to meet the surgeon, Mr Wayne Crewe-Brown, just before the surgery. This was like an hour before. The first thing I said to him was about my dry eyes concern. The man was shocked that I was sitting actually there and had got that far. I found out then that dry eyes is a common side effect of laser eye surgery which I was NEVER told. You would've thought that would've been pretty important info for me. Then the surgeon went onto explain "what if", worse case scenario which I was horrified to hear. I can't believe none of this info was presented to me til an HOUR before surgery. It was clearly a mutual agreement that Mr Wayne Crewe-Brown & myself thought that it just wasn't worth the risk for me to go ahead as I was in a vulnerable category and had I known all this info before, I would never have gone ahead. So I left hugely upset and disappointed.

I'd like to stress at this point that I couldn't fault Mr Wayne Crewe-Brown. He was completely honest and frank with me and offered me his professional opinion, which I truly value as I know he is a man with experience in the field. He was great.

So that was it basically. Just to rub more salt into the wounds, I made an official complaint to their Head Office immediately after in February. I was told I’d get a full response within 10 days. It is now nearly 2 months later and still nothing. I am SO disgusted with the whole service, it’s so unprofessional. I just want to say, especially if you suffer from dry eyes or have any other major pre-surgery concerns, don’t take it for granted they’ll give you all the information you’ll need. I actually prompted the woman to get more info but still got nothing. I’ve learnt at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Also if it matters to you that you get people that help you feel at ease about your surgery and treat you as an individual, this is not the place. Had I also known beforehand that respectable places like Moorfields Eye Hospital carry out laser eye surgery, I would’ve gone to them.

If Optical Express can EVER be bothered to respond to my complaint, I will post back here, but don’t hold your breath.

Overall - the WORST customer experience of my life and even more so disturbing that these people seem to forget that these were my EYES they were dealing with and they didn't seem to care less that they could’ve risked damaging my eyes / vision indefinitely.

ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED.