Spectacles broken - under warranty - optician won't replace

HurdyGurdy

Two weeks ago, my son's glasses just broke. Literally just broke. He was watching TV, turned his head to speak to me, and one of the arms just fell off.

He got them from Tesco Optician almost a year ago, but they have acknowledged that they are still under warranty. However, they no longer stock those frames so they are saying they can't replace them.

They did a temporary repair and glued the arm back into place, but that only lasted two days before it broke again. They sent an email out enquiring if any of their other branches still have stocks of that particular frame.

Today, they have left a voicemail on my phone (don't know why, as they have his phone number) saying

"This is xxxx from Tesco optician

I'm ringing in regard to the xxxx frame that you've got. We're still waiting on a response to the email to see if any of the other stores do have that frame. Unfortunately there wouldn't be anything we could do for you as the frame is no longer in stock with our supplier. What we can do if is we should have some spare parts in our store and to try and find two new arms to match your frame that would be the only other thing I could suggest for you.

If you do want to come in and speak to myself or one of my colleagues, then feel free. or if you do want to call back, call us on xxxx and we can explain it in a little bit more detail for you".

A repair with two matching arms would be fine, but I'm a bit concerned that if they haven't got anything suitable, they won't do anything else for him.

My son needs his glasses constantly - they are not just for reading, or just for tv etc, They are worn all the time. He can't manage without them. He can't be held responsible for their supplier no longer stocking that frame, can he?

Given that they are under warranty still, should the optician replace them with another frame if they are unable to repair or replace the existing frame? I don't know how long the "fit for purpose" rule lasts but clearly glasses with just one arm are not fit for purpose.

The odd thing is that exactly the same thing happened to my daughter's glasses a couple of months ago. Watching tv and she heard a crack and the arm of her glasses just fell off. They were also not repairable. And also from Tesco. As it happens, she needed an eye test and her prescription had changed, so she had to choose new frames anyway, but I wonder if they would have said the same if there had been no need to change the lenses.

Just wonder if we are able to argue this with the optician or if my son is destined to be blind until he can afford new glasses.

nedmundo

In my practice, if this situation arises, we start again from scratch and let the patient choose another pair at our expense.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Think what should happen is that if their supplier has no stock of these frames then they should replace them FOC with a similar set of frames, but that would mean that the new frames would be a warranty claim and the existing warranty period for the old broken frames will still apply. I think you should negotiate something with them.
If they cant repair them to standard, then they should give you a discount on the next pair of frames.

nedmundo

The fact they don't have another in stock is their problem and not yours. It doesn't absolve them of any warranty obligations in the slightest.

HurdyGurdy

Thanks all. He's just got back from Tesco and apparently the woman who left the message "forgot" that they were still under warranty

They are giving him a new pair of glasses, which *hopefully* will be here on time for him to use when he goes to Glastonbury on Wednesday. They've glued his old ones back together, so fingers crossed they will hold until the new ones arrive.

It's like a flashback to last year, when he was on edge waiting for the sunglasses to arrive in time for Glastonbury (which they didn't)