Optical Express

I went to Nottingham store for assessment. It is at the back of the optician shop. There are a lot of patients sitting in the small waiting area. There wasn't much privacy. One of the staff gave a questionnaire to fill and it took them about 30 min before anyone came to collect it. And there was no one to give it to either. Then there is a big sales pitch video about why optical express is so good and the girl talks to you a bit about the questionnaire and the money side of things. Then she takes you to do a few of the tests. She is not an optometrist just a trained member of staff to operate the machine. Then finally the optometrist checks you out and gives the price. You go back into the sales pitch room and they incentivise with a couple of discounts and see if you will sign up. I went there because I saw online a 40% discount promotion they were offering online. They refused to give it to me for various reasons. So I didn't sign up. Thankfully. Later on on Lasik-eyes I discovered accuvision. I made an appointment with them in b ham and went along for the assessment. From the moment you walk in through the doors what a difference. I had already made up my mind I was going to sign up with them. But the optometrist there who was extremely professional assessed me and said I was not suitable! My only hope with optical ex if I did go ahead on that day is that the surgeon would have spotted the problem on the day of surgery and cancelled me. And reading the reviews on here I would also have been one of those really unhappy customers waiting for my money back few months later! I am so glad they refused me the discount on the day and prevented me from signing up. Interestingly they have been following me up with various phone calls and I have insisted I was entitled to the discount and on the day I was driving back from accuvision appointment optical ex head office called and offered me the 40% discount if I was to sign up for surgery that day itself. So I told him I had been to accuvision for an assessment and he sounded shocked! He repeated "you went to accuvision". I can only imagine this was because they only expect rivalry between optimax and themselves being the two high street chains. But honestly I think a second opinion that is not high street based is very important. It is your eyes after all! Hope this helps someone.

I had the test contact lenses fitted, but had to have them taken out immediately because they hadn’t booked the follow-up appointment and here were none available.
I was given an 11am appointment for the surgery. This was then changed to 1pm, which would have been fine except that the appointment was actually for 1.45pm.
When I came out of the surgery, I was told to book an appointment for 4 weeks time. However, the clinic was closed due to staff leave (it is only open 1 day a week anyway).
I complained to their clinic services dept who, days later, offered to book an appointment a week earlier – they didn’t and haven’t bothered to respond to my subsequent email.

A very disappointing experience , no matching at all what I was expecting after reading all the positive feed back . I was not left any clearer in regards of what the procedure implies , I was given a website to see at home instead . I felt every one ,including the surgeon , was working against the clock . Mr Dimitri K. was not able to understand or explain my concerns . He is probably a very good surgeon , I don’t put that in doubt but he has very little people skills . I left the clinic feeling more uncertain and unsure that when I went in as he could not explain what were the advantages of this procedure in my particular case and he could not tell me if my vision would be better , worse or the same than what I get with my contact lenses what it would have help me tremendously when making the decision .

My surgery got canceled with less than 48 notice leaving me having to lose my holidays and take more the following week which I don’t get paid for . I was told by optical express they would give me £600 in losses and it would be refunded in 3 to 5 days which I have confirmed in an email. I had to start chasing the money after 10 days when my bank was overdrawn then they told me it would be another 28 days till the refunded me. After ignoring all my emails and making 5 calls they have agreed to put my money back I’ll just have to swallow the overdraft charges. I would deal with these people again terrible customer service.

I went to Sheffield Optical Express in January this year. They told me that I am an ‘ideal candidate’ for wavefront lasik and that there would be no complications etc etc. Not content at the quality of their answers I have been to Moorfields today.

They said that under no circumstances would they entertain laser surgery for me because it would likely leave me with poor vision and severe problems with halos etc. Why ? I am long sighted outside of recommended and experiential guidelines. I had suspected this from reading information downloaded from the VISX laser manufacturer’s website which , while based on 2004 results is quite clear that people with long sight over +3D should not be lasered.

The ‘expreience’ today of consultation and comparison & contrast between the 2 clinics was unbelievable. Moorfields – you saw the consultant, more tests and quite frankly I had confidence that they were not only prepared to take the time, listen & treat you as a human being rather than a number on a production line.

At OE I questioned repeatedly ‘what about the percentage of patients who have problems?’ to be repeatedly told that there would be no problems. How relieved I am today because I fear that I would have been one of that small percentage who were disappointed .

Laser is not for me, but for many it is – great- good luck – but please choose your clinic, surgeon carefully and do your research.

Surgeon rushed through every aspect of pre-surgery consultation and left me a nervous wreck. The customer service was laughable and they more or less bullied me into leaving a deposit – I wish I had never gone through with the surgery my vision has improved a few lines on the chart but I still require distance glasses. All in all I wish I had paid heed to the majority of reviews on the internet which tend to be negative – thought I was getting a bargain but it’s NOT worth the risk.

I have made a complaint to Optical Express regarding the unsatisfactory service I have received. I haven’t had a reply.
I feel very let down by the company.

I just wanted to give an update after my last posting under Optical express. It has been more than a week now and my sight is really good, my left eye which was originally much worse than my right is now really good. I had my surgery last Sunday and went back to work on the Wednesday. Unfortunately since then I have suffered severe dry eyes, I have to put eye drops in every 10 mins and my eyes are constantly painful, sore and burning. I went to see my optician for my week check up and healing is good but the dryness is severe. The optician said to just keep applying the drops as it would eventually get better but could take a few months! I have to say that if I knew the dryness would be this severe, I would not have had the surgery as work is agony and I can't even go to the shops without my eyes really hurting from the dryness. I have been using gel tears which are better than the drops but still offer very little relief. When I saw my surgeon Mr Giledi before the surgery he explained that dry eyes could be releived with eye plugs if need be but unfortunately with optical express, after you have the surgery, you only ever get to see an optician for your aftercare. Also whenever I call optical express for an appointment because I am worried about my eyes etc. they can only ever offer an appointment for two weeks down the line, so unless you have a serious emergency which allows you to call the emergency number then you are left having to wait ages. In hindsight I would wish I'd have paid extra money to have my eyes done with a clinic where the aftercare was much better and where they were more willing to help you. Optical Express in my opinion, take your money and give you surgery and then aren't interested in you afterwards.

I wish I had a nice tale to relate, but unfortunately I don't. Edinburgh clinic - I had my eyes tested on 26 July, everything fine and arranged surgery. Was so looking forward to it after reading the reviews on this forum. Was called in for another eye test (I think this was discrepancy with my prescription so that was fine) which was arranged for Saturday 14 August. Again everything seemed to be fine, arranged for childcare on day of surgery, and couple of days off just in case. Surgery was supposed to be 9am on Saturday 21 August and they phoned me Wednesday afternoon of that week to cancel due to a discrepancy between Test 1 and Test 2. So, although very disappointed thought it better to be on safe side. So arranged another eye test (no 3) for 7 September (due to that surgeon being on holiday). Again, everything fine. Since then haven't heard a peep out of them - no phone call, nothing. Of course they took my £200 deposit off me weeks ago and it's no fun going through that eye test 3 times as you can't see for several hours afterwards (first time it took 24hrs to wear off). So I just feel mighty inconvenienced, extremely disappointed and don't feel I can trust my eyes to a company like that.

Did not even make it to the consultation as the company couldn't get their act together. I made an appt on 1.11.2004 for following 08.11.2004 (as had to have had contact lenses out for seven days). With less than 24 hours notice on 07.11.04 the clinic rang up to say that the appt could go ahead but one of the staff who was scheduled to be there was not going to be available. The 'unavailable' one being the person who would answer questions on the clinic, procedures the surgery etc.......quite an intrinsic part ofthe process wouldn't you say? However Iwas assured that the opticion would TRY to answer any questions I had and any other questions could be addressed by phone. So, spent the last seven days with specs on, took day off work all for the benefit of a glorified eye test. no thanks. The centre Manager was unhelpful at best and totally uncaring of the inconvenience caused.they did offer another appt at a different site an hour earlier than the one i had booked, Mmmmm whole point of appt process it is made when it is convenient-at less than 24 hours notice there was no way i could get to a completely different site an hour earlier, however the clinic felt this offer/ another appt absolved them of any lack of professionalism/blame. My point being....if they cannot get the appt right then what confidence does thatinstill in you for the rest of their processess, including surgery,incidentally, i was also told that you do no get an opportunity to speak to the consultant surgeon until immediately prior to any surgery... not the practice of other clinics I have consulted. My advice, for what it is worth, there are hundreds of eye clinics, choose one who rate their customers a little more, this is a cheap and cheerful outfit who fall at first hurdle, first impressions!!