I had been thinking about laser eye surgery for many years and, after seeing many Ultralase ads on the web, decided to go for a free consultation with them.

While their service was initially perfect (full brochure describing the procedure, friendly customer services team), I was very disappointed when I arrived at the Tottenham Court Road clinic.

First of all, they made me wait for at least 30-40 minutes. Then I was rushed through several rooms – in the first room the eye test machines did not seem to work properly. The consultant took me to another room, where he struggled as well. He called some of his colleagues. Very soon three people were standing behind the eye test machine, telling me to focus, blink, etc. again and again. During the whole procedure nobody explained to me what they were doing and why this was taking so long.

Once they had managed to print out the results of the initial tests (shape of my eye, cornea, etc) another consultant ran me through the procedure and explained which treatment would be most adequate for me. Granted, he was very competent and answered all my questions.

I was then asked to return to the initial test room, where they tried some more tests – again. They ended up saying it would not work today and asked me to come back a few days later. Before leaving, though, they were very eager to book me for a treatment already, at £3800 for both eyes (wavefront lasik).

I realised that this was clearly one of the higher prices in the market and, while cost was clearly not a top priority in my decision, the very mediocre impression of the clinic combined with the high price made me sceptical.

I came back a few days later to complete the tests – this time it worked out. I also booked surgery for a few weeks later.

However, I kept growing more sceptical after booking treatment as (1) I would have liked to meet the surgeon before treatment day, (2) I felt Ultralase was putting the money above everything else. I therefore ended up cancelling treatment with Ultralase and went with Advance Vision Care, who were excellent from beginning to end (and cheaper!).

Ultralase might have made me as happy as AVC, but my decision was just taken on the basis of a bad gut feeling. Making the patient feel comfortable and confident is a key priority, in my view, for this kind of treatment, and here Ultralase clearly failed.