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Problem with Optical Express.
jennyrob669
Posts: 7 Forumite
Bit lengthy but I have complained to Optical Express over the following and they are unwilling to compensate me for the ridiculous treatment I had to endure at one of their store over the last 3 months. I think what I'm asking for is fair.
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is an email to complain about the service I have received from your company at the Trafford Center store over the last 8 weeks. On the 1st of February I went on a birthday shopping trip to the Trafford Center which is 22 miles away from my home address and takes me 45 minutes to get too. While there I purchased a set of Vivienne Westwood frames for £150 (£75 in the sale) that were 50% off and with lenses included the total cost was £172. I picked them up on the 8th of February and when I got home my partner noticed that there was a gap between the frame and the right lens. The lens obviously hadn't been cut right. I rang the call center from the number on the Optical Express website and they told me that they would not be able to do anything until the Trafford Center store had looked at the glasses. I understand that errors like this sometimes happen and returned to the store with no issue. I was referred to Imogen the store manager who took one look at the glasses and said they should never have passed the quality control. She said unfortunately my prescription wasn't in stock and I should have been told this by the call center, Imogen proceeded to order new lenses and would let me know when they were ready.
A week later the glasses were ready, I traveled back to the Trafford Center to collect them. I took them home and after three days of having them the metal piece that holds the nose pad on the left hand side completely snapped off. I had not tried to alter the glasses myself in anyway. The glasses became loose and then the pad snapped off. I contacted the call center again, and again I received the same response that they could not do anything until the store had looked at the glasses. I asked them if they could order a frame for me so I could just go in and swap the lenses over because otherwise it would mean another trip to the Trafford Center. They refused to do this so I had no choice but to go back to the Trafford Center for a third time, I left my mobile number, my work number and my email address but after a week no one had contacted me from the store and it was down to me to chase them up via the call center to confirm that they were available for collection.
On my fourth trip to the Trafford Center I sat down in the store and was given my new glasses, as I looked at them I could see that there was a long scratch along the top of the frame. The frame is black so the silver scratch was very obvious. I asked to see Imogen again and as compensation for the inconvenience and problems over the last few weeks she offered me a new frame up to the value of £150 at no extra cost. I accepted her offer although this meant another trip to the Trafford Center to collect the new glasses as new lenses had to be ordered again. Imogen offered to post them out to my home address, but due to lack of confidence in the product and the store I wanted collect them myself in case there was another problem.
On my 5th trip to the Trafford Center to collect my new Guess frame glasses I was presented with them only to find that this frame was damaged as well, with a chip on the top right side of the frame. Imogen came over and explained that they were out of stock of the Guess frame and said if I picked another frame they would also give me super thin lenses that should cost £200 and they could be made today, at no extra cost to myself. I again accepted her offer and went over to look at the frames. I expected an assistant to help me and advise me on a new frame, but the two assistants that were free, were sat at a desk chatting to each other about non work related issues. When I went over and asked to see more Jimmy Choo frames one of the assistants pulled a box from a cupboard under the display. It was now apparent why my frames had been chipped, the box contained approximately 20 frames that were not individually wrapped or packed properly. The assistant began to search through the box for Jimmy Choo frames like it was a box of Lego rather than a box of £150 frames, pushing them around without care.
Although the offer of the lenses was generous, after all the problems, I had at this point lost all confidence in the store and did not want another faulty product from them and asked Imogen for the glasses to be refunded. She told us that she doesn't usually do refunds and that she has tried everything to resolve the problem. I replied that I understood this but if I had accepted her offer this would have been the 4th pair of glasses I'd had and I didn't believe that they would be correct and that I just wanted a full refund to my partners card as he paid for it as a birthday present.
Imogen explained that they cant refund to my partners card as it is the company policy for refunds to be completed by cheque and it would take up to 28 days to be processed. I said that this is unacceptable as i will be with out new glasses and £172 out of pocket for up to 28 days. Imogen said that she would do what she can to speed up the process.
Out of the two months in which I had bought the glasses I only had a new set for three days and had traveled back and too from the Trafford Center 5 times. The only reason I bought glasses from there was because your store was recommended to me by a friend. After my two month experience I will not be recommending it to anyone else.
To resolve my issues I would like to claim my traveling expense for the amount of times I had to return to your store, and also be compensated for the inconvenience I have incurred over the last two months. I look forward to hearing from you soon, please respond to this email or a written response to my home address.
They refunded my money after 28 days, but no compensation.
I sent a second email.
Dear Karen,
I am replying to your letter, dated 11/04/2012 in response to my original correspondence to you about my glasses, dated 10 April in which I described an extensive list of problems when dealing with Optical Express.
Although I do appreciate the fact that you got back to me promptly and have acknowledged that your company were at fault, I regret that I cannot accept your offer of a just a refund as adequate and neither is it appropriate compensation for the ordeal your company put me through in my opinion.
As stated in my previous letter, it was the store's fault I had to travel back and to to Manchester so many times. The refund you have been prepared to offer me does not even compensate for the poor level of service I received. Furthermore, I had to wait another 2 weeks for glasses with the correct prescription from Vison Express and due to a refund taking 28 days I was out of pocket £172 which I had to take out of my holiday spends which I traveled on while awaiting your refund!
Therefore, I would urge you to reconsider your offer of the full refund, which I expected anyway and want additional compensation. At the very least travel expenses and the interest which amount on my credit card over the the 3 months Optical Express had my money.
I hope you will agree that this is fair and respond with a cheque within 28 days of this letter. If I do not hear from you by then, I will have no option but to seek legal advice with regard to pursuing my compensation claim further.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Declined again.
Is there anything else I can do to press the matter?
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is an email to complain about the service I have received from your company at the Trafford Center store over the last 8 weeks. On the 1st of February I went on a birthday shopping trip to the Trafford Center which is 22 miles away from my home address and takes me 45 minutes to get too. While there I purchased a set of Vivienne Westwood frames for £150 (£75 in the sale) that were 50% off and with lenses included the total cost was £172. I picked them up on the 8th of February and when I got home my partner noticed that there was a gap between the frame and the right lens. The lens obviously hadn't been cut right. I rang the call center from the number on the Optical Express website and they told me that they would not be able to do anything until the Trafford Center store had looked at the glasses. I understand that errors like this sometimes happen and returned to the store with no issue. I was referred to Imogen the store manager who took one look at the glasses and said they should never have passed the quality control. She said unfortunately my prescription wasn't in stock and I should have been told this by the call center, Imogen proceeded to order new lenses and would let me know when they were ready.
A week later the glasses were ready, I traveled back to the Trafford Center to collect them. I took them home and after three days of having them the metal piece that holds the nose pad on the left hand side completely snapped off. I had not tried to alter the glasses myself in anyway. The glasses became loose and then the pad snapped off. I contacted the call center again, and again I received the same response that they could not do anything until the store had looked at the glasses. I asked them if they could order a frame for me so I could just go in and swap the lenses over because otherwise it would mean another trip to the Trafford Center. They refused to do this so I had no choice but to go back to the Trafford Center for a third time, I left my mobile number, my work number and my email address but after a week no one had contacted me from the store and it was down to me to chase them up via the call center to confirm that they were available for collection.
On my fourth trip to the Trafford Center I sat down in the store and was given my new glasses, as I looked at them I could see that there was a long scratch along the top of the frame. The frame is black so the silver scratch was very obvious. I asked to see Imogen again and as compensation for the inconvenience and problems over the last few weeks she offered me a new frame up to the value of £150 at no extra cost. I accepted her offer although this meant another trip to the Trafford Center to collect the new glasses as new lenses had to be ordered again. Imogen offered to post them out to my home address, but due to lack of confidence in the product and the store I wanted collect them myself in case there was another problem.
On my 5th trip to the Trafford Center to collect my new Guess frame glasses I was presented with them only to find that this frame was damaged as well, with a chip on the top right side of the frame. Imogen came over and explained that they were out of stock of the Guess frame and said if I picked another frame they would also give me super thin lenses that should cost £200 and they could be made today, at no extra cost to myself. I again accepted her offer and went over to look at the frames. I expected an assistant to help me and advise me on a new frame, but the two assistants that were free, were sat at a desk chatting to each other about non work related issues. When I went over and asked to see more Jimmy Choo frames one of the assistants pulled a box from a cupboard under the display. It was now apparent why my frames had been chipped, the box contained approximately 20 frames that were not individually wrapped or packed properly. The assistant began to search through the box for Jimmy Choo frames like it was a box of Lego rather than a box of £150 frames, pushing them around without care.
Although the offer of the lenses was generous, after all the problems, I had at this point lost all confidence in the store and did not want another faulty product from them and asked Imogen for the glasses to be refunded. She told us that she doesn't usually do refunds and that she has tried everything to resolve the problem. I replied that I understood this but if I had accepted her offer this would have been the 4th pair of glasses I'd had and I didn't believe that they would be correct and that I just wanted a full refund to my partners card as he paid for it as a birthday present.
Imogen explained that they cant refund to my partners card as it is the company policy for refunds to be completed by cheque and it would take up to 28 days to be processed. I said that this is unacceptable as i will be with out new glasses and £172 out of pocket for up to 28 days. Imogen said that she would do what she can to speed up the process.
Out of the two months in which I had bought the glasses I only had a new set for three days and had traveled back and too from the Trafford Center 5 times. The only reason I bought glasses from there was because your store was recommended to me by a friend. After my two month experience I will not be recommending it to anyone else.
To resolve my issues I would like to claim my traveling expense for the amount of times I had to return to your store, and also be compensated for the inconvenience I have incurred over the last two months. I look forward to hearing from you soon, please respond to this email or a written response to my home address.
They refunded my money after 28 days, but no compensation.
I sent a second email.
Dear Karen,
I am replying to your letter, dated 11/04/2012 in response to my original correspondence to you about my glasses, dated 10 April in which I described an extensive list of problems when dealing with Optical Express.
Although I do appreciate the fact that you got back to me promptly and have acknowledged that your company were at fault, I regret that I cannot accept your offer of a just a refund as adequate and neither is it appropriate compensation for the ordeal your company put me through in my opinion.
As stated in my previous letter, it was the store's fault I had to travel back and to to Manchester so many times. The refund you have been prepared to offer me does not even compensate for the poor level of service I received. Furthermore, I had to wait another 2 weeks for glasses with the correct prescription from Vison Express and due to a refund taking 28 days I was out of pocket £172 which I had to take out of my holiday spends which I traveled on while awaiting your refund!
Therefore, I would urge you to reconsider your offer of the full refund, which I expected anyway and want additional compensation. At the very least travel expenses and the interest which amount on my credit card over the the 3 months Optical Express had my money.
I hope you will agree that this is fair and respond with a cheque within 28 days of this letter. If I do not hear from you by then, I will have no option but to seek legal advice with regard to pursuing my compensation claim further.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Declined again.
Is there anything else I can do to press the matter?
0
Comments
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so they offered to give you more expensive lenses as a goodwill guesture but you declined.
As you have been refunded and put back in the position you were before the sale i would think your chances of compo are nil.
Your "threat" to get legal advice in 28 days unless they send a cheque is laughable.
Would it not have been better to get the advice before you wrote to them?
Did you return the cheque or cash it?0 -
I didnt know Ms westwood made glasses.Feudal Britain needs land reform. 70% of the land is "owned" by 1 % of the population and at least 50% is unregistered (inherited by landed gentry). Thats why your slave box costs so much..0
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While you can sue for the traveling costs as consequential losses, you can't claim for inconvenience, you should be put back in the same position as you were if you hadn't purchased the glasses. The interest on the CC would also count. There is nothing wrong with the refund taking 28 days however as this is within the guidelines.0
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Good luck because Optical Express give nothing once they have taken your money off you - Customer Service is not one of their strong points (from experience).jennyrob669 wrote: »Bit lengthy but I have complained to Optical Express over the following and they are unwilling to compensate me for the ridiculous treatment I had to endure at one of their store over the last 3 months. I think what I'm asking for is fair.
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is an email to complain about the service I have received from your company at the Trafford Center store over the last 8 weeks. On the 1st of February I went on a birthday shopping trip to the Trafford Center which is 22 miles away from my home address and takes me 45 minutes to get too. While there I purchased a set of Vivienne Westwood frames for £150 (£75 in the sale) that were 50% off and with lenses included the total cost was £172. I picked them up on the 8th of February and when I got home my partner noticed that there was a gap between the frame and the right lens. The lens obviously hadn't been cut right. I rang the call center from the number on the Optical Express website and they told me that they would not be able to do anything until the Trafford Center store had looked at the glasses. I understand that errors like this sometimes happen and returned to the store with no issue. I was referred to Imogen the store manager who took one look at the glasses and said they should never have passed the quality control. She said unfortunately my prescription wasn't in stock and I should have been told this by the call center, Imogen proceeded to order new lenses and would let me know when they were ready.
A week later the glasses were ready, I traveled back to the Trafford Center to collect them. I took them home and after three days of having them the metal piece that holds the nose pad on the left hand side completely snapped off. I had not tried to alter the glasses myself in anyway. The glasses became loose and then the pad snapped off. I contacted the call center again, and again I received the same response that they could not do anything until the store had looked at the glasses. I asked them if they could order a frame for me so I could just go in and swap the lenses over because otherwise it would mean another trip to the Trafford Center. They refused to do this so I had no choice but to go back to the Trafford Center for a third time, I left my mobile number, my work number and my email address but after a week no one had contacted me from the store and it was down to me to chase them up via the call center to confirm that they were available for collection.
On my fourth trip to the Trafford Center I sat down in the store and was given my new glasses, as I looked at them I could see that there was a long scratch along the top of the frame. The frame is black so the silver scratch was very obvious. I asked to see Imogen again and as compensation for the inconvenience and problems over the last few weeks she offered me a new frame up to the value of £150 at no extra cost. I accepted her offer although this meant another trip to the Trafford Center to collect the new glasses as new lenses had to be ordered again. Imogen offered to post them out to my home address, but due to lack of confidence in the product and the store I wanted collect them myself in case there was another problem.
On my 5th trip to the Trafford Center to collect my new Guess frame glasses I was presented with them only to find that this frame was damaged as well, with a chip on the top right side of the frame. Imogen came over and explained that they were out of stock of the Guess frame and said if I picked another frame they would also give me super thin lenses that should cost £200 and they could be made today, at no extra cost to myself. I again accepted her offer and went over to look at the frames. I expected an assistant to help me and advise me on a new frame, but the two assistants that were free, were sat at a desk chatting to each other about non work related issues. When I went over and asked to see more Jimmy Choo frames one of the assistants pulled a box from a cupboard under the display. It was now apparent why my frames had been chipped, the box contained approximately 20 frames that were not individually wrapped or packed properly. The assistant began to search through the box for Jimmy Choo frames like it was a box of Lego rather than a box of £150 frames, pushing them around without care.
Although the offer of the lenses was generous, after all the problems, I had at this point lost all confidence in the store and did not want another faulty product from them and asked Imogen for the glasses to be refunded. She told us that she doesn't usually do refunds and that she has tried everything to resolve the problem. I replied that I understood this but if I had accepted her offer this would have been the 4th pair of glasses I'd had and I didn't believe that they would be correct and that I just wanted a full refund to my partners card as he paid for it as a birthday present.
Imogen explained that they cant refund to my partners card as it is the company policy for refunds to be completed by cheque and it would take up to 28 days to be processed. I said that this is unacceptable as i will be with out new glasses and £172 out of pocket for up to 28 days. Imogen said that she would do what she can to speed up the process.
Out of the two months in which I had bought the glasses I only had a new set for three days and had traveled back and too from the Trafford Center 5 times. The only reason I bought glasses from there was because your store was recommended to me by a friend. After my two month experience I will not be recommending it to anyone else.
To resolve my issues I would like to claim my traveling expense for the amount of times I had to return to your store, and also be compensated for the inconvenience I have incurred over the last two months. I look forward to hearing from you soon, please respond to this email or a written response to my home address.
They refunded my money after 28 days, but no compensation.
I sent a second email.
Dear Karen,
I am replying to your letter, dated 11/04/2012 in response to my original correspondence to you about my glasses, dated 10 April in which I described an extensive list of problems when dealing with Optical Express.
Although I do appreciate the fact that you got back to me promptly and have acknowledged that your company were at fault, I regret that I cannot accept your offer of a just a refund as adequate and neither is it appropriate compensation for the ordeal your company put me through in my opinion.
As stated in my previous letter, it was the store's fault I had to travel back and to to Manchester so many times. The refund you have been prepared to offer me does not even compensate for the poor level of service I received. Furthermore, I had to wait another 2 weeks for glasses with the correct prescription from Vison Express and due to a refund taking 28 days I was out of pocket £172 which I had to take out of my holiday spends which I traveled on while awaiting your refund!
Therefore, I would urge you to reconsider your offer of the full refund, which I expected anyway and want additional compensation. At the very least travel expenses and the interest which amount on my credit card over the the 3 months Optical Express had my money.
I hope you will agree that this is fair and respond with a cheque within 28 days of this letter. If I do not hear from you by then, I will have no option but to seek legal advice with regard to pursuing my compensation claim further.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Declined again.
Is there anything else I can do to press the matter?0 -
I've had no problem with my local branch, although they are making up two new pairs of lenses for me right now so perhaps I am tempting fate!
My OH got her latest pair of specs there. They got the prescription wrong, and when she took them back to complain that they were worse than her old pair, they re-tested her eyes, agreed that they had got it wrong, and replaced the lenses at their expense, as they should.
I guess she'd have been less impressed though if she had to travel 20 miles each time instead of just a few minutes' walk.Je suis Charlie.0 -
Hello customer services
For my consultation and eye test i found optical express excellent, However there was a big difference in the price advertised to the actual price, which was not disclosed to me at any of the consultations. I did then phone up and ask for a price, on receiving this i decided to cancel, i then found out that you keep my deposit for some 6 weeks, this is absolutely outrageous. this has put me off ever considering you in the future and i feel aggrieved enough to steer people away from using your company for anything. Your company is much more focussed on money than customers/patients, I am having my eyes done still just not with your company.
I feel a like i have been dealing with foot in the sales, it was not an enjoyable experience0 -
On a 2July went to Optical express free eye test as had sore eyes.The test went ok the doc checked my eyes and explain the dryness is the reason for my sore eyes and says i need different lenses and handed the prescription to the shop without giving me chance even to see the change .anyway i decided to bye new pare of glasses .was buy one get one free(the frames was £130 and the lenses as was 2 pares was £75) in total everything was £209.The important thing to tell you is i payed with my bank card and i thank to god i did it.when i payed the woman says we will call you shortly to come and take your glasses and me stupidly went out without a reciept.Week after not had a call from them so i decided to call them.The woman on a phone pretend as i never been there she cant find my name and ill call you later.later wasnt the next week.so i decided to call my bank as i have prove on my statment i payed for my glasses and required to cancel the payment .My bank contact optical express and all the sudden they remember who i am and did my glasses.But what if i did pay cash that day?Im telling my story as just i want to warned people to be careful take a reciepts and better not pay cash in this shop.Thank you for you attention.Good luck!0
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On a 2July went to Optical express free eye test as had sore eyes.The test went ok the doc checked my eyes and explain the dryness is the reason for my sore eyes and says i need different lenses and handed the prescription to the shop without giving me chance even to see the change .anyway i decided to bye new pare of glasses .was buy one get one free(the frames was £130 and the lenses as was 2 pares was £75) in total everything was £209.The important thing to tell you is i payed with my bank card and i thank to god i did it.when i payed the woman says we will call you shortly to come and take your glasses and me stupidly went out without a reciept.Week after not had a call from them so i decided to call them.The woman on a phone pretend as i never been there she cant find my name and ill call you later.later wasnt the next week.so i decided to call my bank as i have prove on my statment i payed for my glasses and required to cancel the payment .My bank contact optical express and all the sudden they remember who i am and did my glasses.But what if i did pay cash that day?Im telling my story as just i want to warned people to be careful take a reciepts and better not pay cash in this shop.Thank you for you attention.Good luck!
I'd need strong glasses, just to read this mess.0 -
Wouldn't worry they already went bust, although got saved today by the original founder..0
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