Paying for glasses with credit card, will sec 75 still apply ?

[Deleted User]

First port of call is to complain to the optician, not S75
Secondly, an eye test is reliant on the patient giving accurate and honest answers, if your prescription is wrong, get another optician to do the test again and see what they say, giving the same answers as you did before. If they are wildly different you might have a complaint against the optician.

That said, as others have pointed out, the fault was with the prescription from the eye test, which wasn't paid for on the card, therefore there is no S75 cover. S75 only covers what you paid for on the card i.e. the glasses. The glasses were made to the prescription given, therefore there is no S75 claim. As per point one, the complaint should be with the opticians who got you the wrong prescription, not Nationwide

[Deleted User]

cannugec5 said:

In Scotland all eye tests are free, so referring only to OAPs is nonsensical.

They aren't free in Scotland, NHS Scotland pays for them as part of preventative medicine.

Most 'free' eye tests in England are loss leaders for the optician that then needs to recoup that loss in a sale.

NaughtiusMaximus

MalMonroe said:

mjm3346 said:

Deleted_User said:

I'm not sure any of that is a reason to avoid paying for glasses with a credit card.

I agree what a totally useless thread title.

How rude. We're supposed to be kind and helpful on this forum, as per the rules. It really doesn't matter what title people put on a thread. If you don't think you can help (you didn't help) then you should just ignore, rather than attack. I've been 'reprimanded' for less on this site!!

The thread title is all you see when browsing through a board so of course it matters.

This particular one is thoroughly misleading clickbait and infers paying for glasses via a credit card actually puts you in a worse position than other payment methods which clearly isn't the case.

phillw

retiree said:

“Considering your eye examination was free of charge, I am unable to accept any liability under section 75 for any breach of contract and/or misrepresentation arising from the prescription. This is because your credit card was not used to finance the eye examination”

As Section 75 covers you if only part of the cost was put on a credit card, the rest you can pay with magic beans if you like, then I would like to see this one argued in court.
I would guess it depends on how the contract was worded.

pbartlett

For me, Nationwide should accept the claim. This is assuming that what happened at the opticians is what always happens when I go - you go in, upstairs for the eye test, guided downstairs to choose a pair of frames and lenses, maybe a bit of upsell for a second pair (refused) and then a week later pop in to collect glasses. In this scenario, it is all one package and the fact that one part of it is 'free' makes no difference (in the same was as if you take your car in for repair, the fact that as part of the service they wash it at the end for 'free' doesn't nullify any S75 protection).

Skint_yet_Again

retiree said:

MSE advises us to pay for services by credit card so that in the event of problems arising, we may be able to claim against the card issuer under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Nationwide Visa point out:
“Considering your eye examination was free of charge, I am unable to accept any liability under section 75 for any breach of contract and/or misrepresentation arising from the prescription. This is because your credit card was not used to finance the eye examination”

In other words, since OAPs get free eye tests, compensation cannot be claimed if the opticians compound their own NHS prescription error by supplying glasses based on that prescription.

I get free eye test due to diabetes. I had an eye test & took my prescription away to a cheap online retailer. When I received my glasses I couldn’t see through them. I went back to spec savers who did the eye test & they tested the glasses and my eyes again & concluded they had given me an incorrect prescription. They replaced the lenses in both pairs of glasses for free. 

If the optician made a “prescription error” as mentioned above I would expect them to put things right as happened in my case 

JCS1

retiree said:

MSE advises us to pay for services by credit card so that in the event of problems arising, we may be able to claim against the card issuer under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Nationwide Visa point out:
“Considering your eye examination was free of charge, I am unable to accept any liability under section 75 for any breach of contract and/or misrepresentation arising from the prescription. This is because your credit card was not used to finance the eye examination”

In other words, since OAPs get free eye tests, compensation cannot be claimed if the opticians compound their own NHS prescription error by supplying glasses based on that prescription.

It's not just OAPs who get free eye tests, some medical conditions mean younger people also receive these.

eskbanker

pbartlett said:

For me, Nationwide should accept the claim. This is assuming that what happened at the opticians is what always happens when I go - you go in, upstairs for the eye test, guided downstairs to choose a pair of frames and lenses, maybe a bit of upsell for a second pair (refused) and then a week later pop in to collect glasses. In this scenario, it is all one package and the fact that one part of it is 'free' makes no difference (in the same was as if you take your car in for repair, the fact that as part of the service they wash it at the end for 'free' doesn't nullify any S75 protection).

You may consider it a package but for a card company to accept a s75 claim on the basis of breach of contract, this entails a higher burden of proof!  Assuming that there is no formal contract agreed by the parties, it will come down to the invoicing:

If there are separate invoices for test (FOC) and glasses then there's no valid claim relating to the glasses contract on the basis that the test was allegedly substandard.

If there's one invoice and it simply refers to glasses, with no mention of the test, then there's no valid claim if it's alleged that the test was substandard, as it wasn't in the scope of the contract.

If there's one invoice and it has separate items for test (FOC) and glasses, then there's no valid claim if it's alleged that the test was substandard, as the test item was below the £100 minimum for s75 to apply.

If there's one invoice and it explicitly packages the test and the glasses together as a single item, then there could be a valid claim, but in this case Nationwide wouldn't have been able to assert that the test wasn't financed by the card, so we have to assume that this isn't how it was portrayed in OP's situation.  It would surprise me if any opticians formally packaged a free test and glasses together like this, as tests obviously may not result in a glasses purchase, or if glasses are required they can be bought elsewhere, i.e. at the time of taking the test, the customer isn't making any commitment to a purchase....

Marmaduke123

What's the actual issue though? If the glasses aren't right, surely you go back to the opticians and they check the prescription and the glasses. Are they refusing to do this? Section 75 should be a last resort.

retiree

Marmaduke123 said:

What's the actual issue though? If the glasses aren't right, surely you go back to the opticians and they check the prescription and the glasses. Are they refusing to do this?

Yes.

P.S. Thanks to whoever changed the heading. I did not intend to be provocative.