Opticians Glasses Order - what's our rights?

caz72me

My husband ordered his glasses on the 10th March even with the cheapest frames they cost £524, he has a very complex prescription so was told it would take 2 weeks to come in. 2 weeks later & we went in, the lenses did not fit the frame properly and when my husband put the glasses on the lens was touching his eye! The dispenser agreed this was not acceptable & that the person taking his order initially should have realised the frames were not suitable for his lenses. The guy went through some options & decided children's frames would be the only option for his lens and to go for glass lenses to get the thinnest possible lens, so the new glasses were reordered with again a 2wk turnaround, 2 weeks later nothing, 3weeks later nothing, 4 weeks later nothing (with numerous calls to them chasing them up every week) Thursday we called & they said the order was in but they've received plastic lenses instead of glass and will have to reorder again, we have to go over to them today to sort this out but I just feel my husband should now ask for a full refund and go elsewhere as this is becoming a joke, my husband's current glasses are very damaged & he can't see without them. Before we go in i think he needs to decide as once he agrees to them reordering i think we lose that right for refund - am I correct? any advice on his rights would be appreciated . Thanks

LadyDee

I believe I'm right (check with Consumer Rights Act though) that the retailer gets to choose how to rectify a problem by refund, replace or repair, but only once. If the repair has failed in effect then you would be entitled to a refund.

esuhl

Which opticians is it? Some (such as Vision Express) have a guarantee that you can get a refund on your glasses for any reason if you aren't happy.

Unless you're confident that the optician will eventually be able to fulfil your order properly, I'd be pressing for a refund.

I've had countless problems with opticians as I too have complex lenses. In my local opticians, there is one person specially trained in complex prescriptions. I only ever speak to him as general staff really have no idea about the special considerations that apply to complex lenses, and how vital it is that very precise measurements are taken and recorded.

caz72me

Yes it was Vision Express and they didn't quibble one bit, just refunded it there & then. I really never thought buying glasses would be so difficult, you are correct that there is very little knowledge from the opticians on complex lenses. My husband's prescription is -14.75 in one eye , and I believe the cyl value of -8.25 is bad too, we have been trying to get him glasses since January, so now back to shopping around, although I don't really rate Specsavers, our local store does have a very knowledgeable lady working there, so may specifically go to her although they did tell us they can't get any different frames to those stocked in store, and apart from one teenage pair, they didn't have anything to fit his lenses well. Time to start talking him into laser surgery I think.