Tesco Opticians - A warning

johngc

I have been a Tesco Opticians customer for a number of years and had both contact lenses and glasses from them.

About a year ago we took our then 7 y/o son to have his eyes tested and were told that he needed glasses for reading the board at school and watching television. We were also told that it may help for close distance reading so we duly purchased a pair of glasses.

At his checkup around 12 months later we were informed that his eye sight had deteriorated and that he now required glasses all the time. This was a different optician than the one who first told him he needed glasses.

We were not overly surprised as both my wife and I wear contact lenses and are both short sighted.

We purchased a new pair of more expensive glasses as we felt if he was wearing them all the time, we should get something that he liked and were not too heavy / boring. When we collected them, a different optician was in the store and he seemed a little surprised that my son had been told to wear them all the time but didn't really expand on why.


Last month I changed job and needed to have an eye test at short notice. Tesco could not fit me in so I went to Boots Optician. The optician seemed a lot more attentive and very quickly suggested that I might be wearing a prescription that was a little too strong.

At around the same time, my son lost his glasses so I decided to take him to Boots as well as I was a little concerned about Tescos by now.

I explained that my son wore glasses, that he had been tested at Tesco a few months ago but we needed a new pair. I did not take the Tesco prescription with me.

Within five minutes the optician told me that he did not believe my son needed glasses. There was an element of my son saying what he thought he should - that he could not read certain lines on the chart, but the optician very quickly identified this and spoke to us about it. He was then able to finish the examination and demonstrate that my son had 20/20 vision.

I have since changed my contact lens prescription back to the lower one and wear lenses which I find more comfortable.


I will never use Tescos Opticians again as a result of this. I can only assume that as the eye test is free there is a push to make their money through the glasses / contact lens plans and it seems to me that they push this by increasing prescriptions where ever possible. I appreciate that I was in a position to say my older prescription was ok and maybe that was my fault, but I expect an optician to take their time with a 7 y/o and know if they need glasses or not.

The Boots optician did and very quickly realised he didn't need them. The Tescos Opticians gave a very poor service and were just interested in finding a need for a prescription...

You may have more luck with Tesco, but please bear in mind when you are going for your 'free' eyesight test.

Mrs_Ryan

I had the same problem. They tested me and I bought glasses from them. However when the glasses came my vision was blurry and I was getting headaches. I went back and they insisted that the prescription was correct, so I visited my GP. My GP advised me to try a different optician so I went to Vision Express as by now I was studying and so got discount there with my NUS card. I provided a copy of my previous prescription and the optician was gobsmacked when she tested my eyes- she wasn’t quibbling that she thought glasses were a good idea for me as I was on the computer a lot but I only needed a very slight prescription and the prescription I had been given from Tesco was so strong that it could have been dangerous if I had continued wearing them! I’ve gone to Vision Express ever since and my prescription has changed very slightly in 6 years but only to the level that would be expected with age.