Specsavers and their expensive extra options - advice please?

GlasweJen

Februarycat wrote: »

Pollyanna24 - I noticed the disclaimer too, it's annoying we have to pay full price for having complex lens. I remember my local opticians doing an offer for pair of glasses plus free sunglasses with prescription lens, when I asked about it for my prescription they said Sorry not in offer!

When I worked for Asda (finished in 2008) the offer applied to prescriptions from -20 to +16 combined, cyl couldn’t be higher than 6.

Abbafan1972

Hubby has stopped using specsavers for the exact reasons of this thread, rubbish quality and expensive because of all the "extras".

Most of the staff in our local branch don't know what they're talking about and make it all very confusing and hubby gets annoyed with them.

He has started going to Asda now as well.

SARAH_H

I can say I have worked for specsavers and they we were not on no commision, the mark up is tiny after staff cost and rent, worked for 2 different stores and I was on min wage only due to pay increase on min wage I got a rise, worked for Kirkby Shopping Centre, 21 St Chad's Parade, Liverpool L32 8RD

BananaRepublic

A recent survey found most chains gave poor eye tests, whereas indies were significantly better. As for fitting, I’ve found shops useless. I recently had some rimless specs reglazed online, excellent quality. And some online shops will send you a box of frames to try.

I’ve had good experiences with Spec Savers, but recently when I tried to get hard contact lenses instead of soft, I had a hard time getting them to supply them, they were adamant I wanted soft. I loathe soft ones.

Doc_N

BananaRepublic wrote: »

A recent survey found most chains gave poor eye tests, whereas indies were significantly better. As for fitting, I’ve found shops useless. I recently had some rimless specs reglazed online, excellent quality. And some online shops will send you a box of frames to try.

I’ve had good experiences with Spec Savers, but recently when I tried to get hard contact lenses instead of soft, I had a hard time getting them to supply them, they were adamant I wanted soft. I loathe soft ones.

From Which?:

Independent optician stores and Costco are the best places to go for an eye test and to buy glasses, according to our 2018 customer survey.

Independent opticians stores received five stars for customer service, thorough eye testing, quality of products, and the store environment. Membership warehouse Costco got the same customer score as the independents, with an almost identical set of star ratings across the board, only scoring slightly less for its store environment.

At the other end of the scale, Boots, Scrivens and Tesco are all in the bottom four, joined by Specsavers, which is the most popular brand going by the number of customers.

Boots, the brand with the second-highest number of customers in our survey, scores particularly poorly on price and value for money. These two measures are where the biggest discrepancies lie between brands. Notably, Leightons receives five stars for all measures apart from these two, where it scores the lowest along with the brands at the bottom of the table. Asda is the only brand with five stars for price.

BananaRepublic

Yup, that’s the survey, thanks for posting. I’m always surprised to see so many indies and small chains around given the very high prices, then again some larger chains are pricey too.

Whilst I rate eye exams at indies, the service is not good, poorly trained staff on low salaries.

borderline

The last couple of times I went to Specsavers I brought my own frame and they still charged me £30 for reglazing .. is this common practice with all high street opticians? I used to go to independents and they never charged me if I had my own frame

pollypenny

Our Specsavers is very good. Any problem is dealt with immediately by staff who have been there for years.

They are franchises, so it's in the interest of the franchisee to maintain a good business.

roddydogs

Well I got variofocals from asda, yes much cheaper but not the lightest you can get, I want the lightest, NOT if my perscription needs it, but for comfort. I noticed they have changed suppliers so they maybe better now.

GlasweJen

roddydogs wrote: »

Well I got variofocals from asda, yes much cheaper but not the lightest you can get, I want the lightest, NOT if my perscription needs it, but for comfort. I noticed they have changed suppliers so they maybe better now.

You used to be able to pay £40 to have a thinner lens than the one Asda recommended for your prescription. I'm about 80% sure they still do this