I am giving this 5 stars as the result and the aftercare has been wonderful, but I have to say I would give only 2 stars for customer care prior to the surgery. My story is this: I had consultation with Dr Patel @ Finchley Road back in August, for proposed bilateral LASIK surgery. Found the initial customer service at the clinic very average and the topography consultation very quick with nothing explained. The actual consultation with Dr Patel consisted of a thorough eye test. He didn't chat much and didn't make any eye contact which left me feeling like it was an impersonal service, just another conveyor belt treatment. Also, he gave me some advice in response to a question and I later read on Ultralase's forum that it was very poor advice. Basically, if Optimax tell you it's ok to wear swimming goggles in the shower, this is NOT good advice as the pressure in the eye-cups can build up and dislodge the corneal flaps!! My surgery was booked for 5 Oct, but Optimax cancelled. They rebooked for 1 Nov. Guess what? They cancelled it again!! I was furious & complained. They told me they would send me a complaint logging form. It never arrived! Then I found this website & found some worrying stories which raised a question mark over my surgeon. I asked Optimax to provide me with a patient's telephone number who had used my surgeon. They gave me a name and number but after 2 weeks of calling I could not make contact. I asked for another patient. They promised to callback. They didn't!! I emailed Finchley Road. They did not respond. I'm sure you'll agree this does not instill any confidence & makes a patient question their decision. After a couple of further calls to Optimax Cust Svcs I heard stuff which reassured me. Dr Patel has performed more laser surgeries than any other surgeon. Also, on the cosmetic makeover TV series "10 years younger" Dr Patel is the surgeon used for all laser eye treatements. I was also told, if Dr Patel's name comes up more than other surgeons on these forums it's because he has done far more surgeries than anyone else, and people are quicker to complain than to praise. All of these things reassured me that I had made the right decision and I was 97% confident I was in very capable hands. Such a shame that the Cust Svc and admin side let Optimax down. My surgery was yesterday. Everyone was very kind and Dr Patel was lovely. He made eye contact with me as soon as I entered the operating theatre and welcomed me by my first name. He spoke to me throughout the surgery explaining what he was doing and asked me several times how I was doing. He was wonderful. The actual procedure was more uncomfortable than I'd expected but definitely NOT painful. My left eye was lasered for 60 secs, my right for 64 secs. What is NOT very pleasant is the smell of the eye burning during laser treatment! I also found the process easier to cope with if I thought of something else while it was going on. My advice to people is DEFINITELY take DARK sunglasses even if when you're leaving the clinic it is dark outside. You'll need the dark sunglasses for just sitting in a lit room. You'll want to keep your eyes closed a lot of the time. Straight after the surgery I had milky but sharp vision. Kind of like looking through a net curtain. For the first hour I had no reaction & coped brilliantly. I stayed at the Quality Hampstead Hotel just a 2 minute walk from Optimax. This was the best thing that could have happened, as after 1 hour, my eyes began to water and felt quite gritty. They were a little painful and I was very uncomfortable. If I had been travelling home when this happened I would not have coped. I had taken decongestant medication earlier and therefore I was unable to take painkillers on top. In hindsight I should have left off the decongestant & simply allowed for use of painkillers. Mind you, the unpleasantness only lasted 1 hour and when I administered my first dose of drops, it all subsided and within a couple of hours the milky vision cleared and I was amazed at the results. I couldn't get on with the eyes shields for sleeping so chose to keep my dark glasses on in bed securing them with tape. Much easier. This morning I could see amazing results. Vision felt a little unbalanced but as the day has gone on it's feeling loads better. The aftercare consultation this morning which was only 19 hours after surgery proved that I have almost 20/20 vision!! Amazing since I was -7 L & -7.25 R (from memory!). I have been able to leave off the dark glasses most of the time indoors however, for watching TV and using the computer I keep them on. I also keep them on outside to guard against dust & grit. I am thrilled with the results, thrilled with Dr Patel (thank you SO much!!), and thrilled with the aftercare. I recommend anyone to have this treatment. It's £1700 well spent. Please email me at fizzybangpop@hotmail.com if anyone has questions or comments.