I used Optical Express at Cabot Circus Bristol, which initially seemed ok, and was referred for surgery to Bristol's Cribb's Causeway.

The Cabot Circus branch initially seemed good; new store so quick getting seen. Due to having strong myopia and astigmatism, and the fact that Wavefront offered a better correction (whereas glasses and contacts measurements use lenses measured in 0.25 diopter increments, wavefront sensors work in 0.01 diopter increments), I was sold Wavefront Intralase LASIK at over £3K. There was initially a minor mix up with admin - Cribbs called to say that their Cabot Circus colleagues should have taken the fees already, and made comments that they ought to know better and hadn't returned calls.

On the day of the surgery Cribbs had more patients on the conveyor-belt than they could deal with. It took nearly four hours whilst a tv blurted out childrens' programs to a room full of adults. Staff rushed about looking harassed.

When the Cribbs Wavefront machine was used pre-op, it didn't seem to be properly calibrated and the red light didn't focus in the way it had done at Cabot. The surgeon confirmed this when he noticed there was a difference in the Wavefront charts and said less astigmatism was showing than had been measured previously at the Cabot Circus branch, but he didn't investigate the difference or complete further checks.

I found the surgery was painful and I had to mention they were hurting me, but they just said I must have "sensitive eyes". After surgery my eyes were bloodshot for a couple of weeks.

The operation didn't fully correct my astigmatism, especially in the right eye, so everything I see now, near or far, is now blurry on a vertical axis. The optometrist at Cabot has confirmed astigmatism in both eyes, by around 0.25 dioptres. Which means somehow the wavefront machine was out by a factor of around x25. I can't currently read the laptop easily (my work is all computer-based), or bus numbers, subtitles etc, and I am also now getting regular headaches due to eye-strain. I had *far* better vision using contact lenses. It would seem the Cribbs' Wavefront machine wasn't showing the correct measurements, in which case the majority of patients that day would have remaining problems with their sight after surgery.

In both the 24 hour and 1 week follow-ups at Cabot Circus I have been frustrated that the opthalmologist isn't acknowledging a problem with the surgery. The 24-hour check was a perfunctory check at the eye surface and a wall-chart test, and I had to specifically push to get astigmatism tests included during the second post-op appointment a week later. I mentionned the astigmatism and the opthalmologist said there was some but that it wasn't something he'd have recommend surgery on, had I come in off the street (but I hadn't). When pushed, I was told I "might" need correction only in one eye, even though the correction was incomplete in both eyes (evident looking at the conflicting Wavefront charts they'd have on file). He even said that I was part of the myopic "fussy customer" group of people (as opposed to long-sighted people who generally were pleased with surgery). No explanation or apology has been offered for the inaccurate surgery. I have been told that problems are common and to be expected and a lot of people's sight gets worse. I wish I'd been told this before surgery since I would have thought twice about spending so much money. Overall I'm shocked at their casual approach to people's vision.

I can't decide whether the company has institutional problems coping when things don't go according to plan, or whether this is a specific case of an age-old problem; clever people with technical knowledge rarely have good customer skills.