Please help/advise

Tabby026

Hi I not sure if I have put this in the right place, however my husband went for a laser eye consultation with optical express last friday and paid an £800 deposit. He has been suffering from anxiety/depression for a few weeks, in connection with his job and broke down this morning, when I took him to the doctor. He has been signed off long term sick. Is there any way we could get this deposit of £800 back? as my husband is worried sick about our finances. If anyone could help or advise us I would really appreciate it. Many thanks.

InsideInsurance

Have you actually spoken to them? What does the paperwork say about the deposit?

Is it his GP thats signed him off or his psychiatrist? If its a GP is he being referred to a psychiatrist or not? You'd be on fairly thin ice to claim he was not mentally capable of signing the contract when he did but its an outside option if a psychiatrist is involved and the normal routes fail

Tabby026

They are saying unless he has a medical condition that would mean he could not go ahead with surgery, they could not give the deposit back, as they say there is a 72 hour cooling off period, but the paperwork is very misleading and the way we read it, was that this came into place once we have made an offical booking, which we have not done yet. Is it worth us getting a note from the doctor and writing them a letter? He is due to go back to his GP in two weeks. Is there an offical body we could complain to?

tinkerbell28

Complain about what? I am presuming he is still of sound mind enough to be able to agree to a contract? He had no diagnosis at the time and I presume seemed coherent?

If it is unfair terms, then you'd have to see what is unfair. What does it actually say. You miss reading it, does not constitute is as being unfair, so what does the cooling odd bit actually say?

That said they have to quantify their losses to keep the whole £800 otherwise it is a penalty.

So how soon was he booked in? I am presuming he was not, so they can't say they booked his space, booked medical professionals, etc.

InsideInsurance

You can check which commissions the place is associated with, looking at a random surgery there is a fair few options http://www.opticalexpress.co.uk/laser-eye-surgery/care-quality-commission-and-governing-bodies.html however what you are complaining about is much more a contractual issue and is fairly unlikely to be covered by these.

A GP letter may work, a psychiatrists one would work better as GPs have far too much of a reputation of signing off anyone for anything and being underskilled