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Optician Difficulty - prescription and glasses

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MaltVM
MaltVM Posts: 1 Newbie
edited 28 August 2014 at 7:11PM in Consumer rights
Hi all,

I am new here and have been brought by confusion about what to do in my situation.
The story, in short:

1. I got an eye-test at an independent optician's shop (cost: £25 in March this year).
2. I bought glasses frames from the internet. They are of very good quality.
3. I asked Specsavers to put new lenses into the glasses frames using the independent optician's eye-test results (cost of putting these in and the lenses totaled £129).

I am now wearing the finished glasses. My vision is slightly blurry and I feel that the prescription is wrong. My old glasses feel clearer!

So, what do I do? Do I have the right to ask the independent optician to pay for the cost of putting the lenses into the glasses on the basis that it needs redoing with a correct prescription? Do I have the right to ask them to pay for a retest elsewhere? Specsavers will not pay for it to be redone as they did not supply the prescription itself.

This is causing me considerable discomfort as my old glasses are awkward to use as the frame is damaged and I do not want to have to buy more contact lenses.

Any help would be much appreciated, especially any legal stuff as the independent is unlikely to be overly impressed by a request for >£150. I fully expect them to blame Specsavers and put up resistance if I try to get compensation from them.

Thanks.

Comments

  • baza52
    baza52 Posts: 3,029 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Its possible your prescription may have changed since the eye test was done.
  • Undervalued
    Undervalued Posts: 9,553 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 28 August 2014 at 7:29PM
    MaltVM wrote: »
    Any help would be much appreciated, especially any legal stuff as the independent is unlikely to be overly impressed by a request for >£150. I fully expect them to blame Specsavers and put up resistance if I try to get compensation from them.

    Indeed.

    So, at the moment you have no proof as to whether the prescription was wrong or the glasses were incorrectly made.

    If you can get an expert opinion on this (starting with a further eye test) and if it is the prescription, the expert is willing to say that your eyes cannot have changed by this amount in the time, then you may have a claim against the first optician.

    It will be easy for a second optician to measure the lenses in your glasses to see if they correctly match the original prescription. Obviously if they don't then Specsavers are at fault.

    You will have to pay for the further test and expert opinion. If someone is at fault then you can add the cost of this to your claim.
  • rustyboy21
    rustyboy21 Posts: 2,565 Forumite
    OP


    It could be that they have not taken into account your PD when dispensing the lenses. You prescription from the independent place could be correct, but did Specsavers get you to put the frames on , instore and get a special type of ruler over your eyes and do some measurements?


    If not, then they haven't done your PD ( Pupilliary distance) so you are not looking through the lens at the correct spot. Also, when you picked them up, did they fit them to your face, or did you just walk out with them? You could just need some tweaking to the frame and all is ok.


    Go back and have a word. The original optician wont give you your PD to you, it is still one little bargaining tool to get you to buy from them. They don't legally have to give you the PD.
  • stevemLS
    stevemLS Posts: 1,067 Forumite
    This illustrates the problems that can arise when trying to do something on the cheap. I have never understood how anyone can buy glasses of the internet - or part of them anyhow.
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