Very unprofessional service from Spec-Savers Glenfair

I made an appointment with an optometrist at SpecSavers GlenFair for 11 March 2021. The main reason for the appointment was that, for a past few weeks, I have been experiencing a slight problem with my right eye: as small “blip” at the edge of my field of vision. The outcomes of the appointment were as follows: - The optometrist concluded that the blip in my vision was probably harmless – a “floater.” - To be sure, he suggested that I see an ophthalmologist. He promised to give me a referral letter. - He made up a prescription for new lenses for my glasses. The left eye apparently needed a slightly stronger lens. - I ordered the new lenses from SpecSavers and made a partial payment (the balance to be covered by my medical aid).

I did receive the referral letter about a week later – a scanned version of a hand-written note. However, I noticed that the symptoms described in the letter were not at all what I had described to the optometrist – he must have confused me with another patient.

As I did not feel comfortable visiting an ophthalmologist with a referral letter describing incorrect symptoms, I subsequently asked my GP to provide a referral instead.

I saw an ophthalmologist on 30 March. He confirmed the optometrist’s tentative diagnosis – that the blip in my vision was a harmless “floater.”

On 31 March, SpecSavers informed me that my new lenses were ready for collection. I visited them, and they replaced the old lenses in my glasses with the new ones, giving me the old lenses.

After wearing my glasses with the new lenses for a few hours, however, I realised that the multifocal area of the lenses had been cut incorrectly. This made reading or working on a computer screen extremely uncomfortable: I could only read with ease if I kept tilting my head at odd angles to align the multifocal area with what I was reading – I problem I hadn’t experienced at all with my old lenses. I therefore returned to SpecSavers and asked that they remove the new lenses from my glasses and re-insert the old ones – which they did. A person at SpecSavers examined my glasses and conceded that the multifocal area had been positioned too low. He asked me to make a follow-up visit the next day so that they could confirm the positioning of the multifocal area and have new lenses cut. I initially agreed to this.

After thinking the matter over, however, I decided that I would rather visit another optometrist. Having had two bad experiences with SpecSavers in a row (the incorrect referral letter for the ophthalmologist and the incorrectly-placed multifocal area on my lenses), I would rather spare myself the frustration of dealing with them again.

I therefore sent SpecSavers an email to enquire about their refund policy.