DIM VIEW OF SPEC SAVERS!

a DIM VIEW of Spec-Savers!

Octogenarian pensioners need to be frugal with money, right? When my old bifocals didn’t enlarge the written word sufficiently I went in search of a new pair….or, hopefully, just modification of the reading lenses. No hope with modification and the “going rate” for new bifocals is around R2,500! So when Spec-savers offered me a package deal at just R999 (consultation/lenses plus new frames) I said “Yes please!” They say “if it sounds too good to be true it usually is!” Guess what? they’re right. After 20 minutes the optician says “I’m not prescribing new specs for you - you need surgery first…when you’re ready I can suggest some surgeons to you.” Then I’m handed a bill for R500 - the consultation fee! The distance part of my bifocals is perfect…it’s just the reading lenses that needed strengthening. Cataracts are just part of the ageing process and few pensioners have the R90,000 or so to risk on their removal. Instead I bought a R100 pair of trading glasses - sadly no improvement on my existing specs. So now I’m R600 down thanks to a “Special Offer”that certainly wasn’t! How do you guard against this happening to you? Don’t know - but think of something or be similarly out of pocket. Maybe ask for confirmation that if for any reason no specs are prescribed and produced there is to be no fee. Wish I’d done that! “Dim View”