£700 worth of glasses that are of no use ...

Manxman_in_exile

@Si_Clist -  have you tried posting on the "Health & Beauty" board?  There used to be a poster on there who I suspect was an optician and who seemed to give very expert answers to a lot of threads on both sight prescriptions and spectacle dispensing.  Try asking there.  (Say you've been advised to post a new thread there by a poster here - otherwise other posters will moan about you starting multiple threads).

Who are the opticians here?  I use SpecSavers and I had a problem a few years ago with a new prescription.  I contacted them and they were more than happy for me to come in and have a free re-test.  The re-test went fine and the (different) optician who did the re-test explained that because I suffer from iritis that I might occasionally find my vision varying quite noticeably from day to day.  He explained that he thought the prescription I had been given was right.  And after a few weeks of use I was able to agree with him.  The prescription was correct.

So if your wife went to SpecSavers (or any optician) she should be asking for a re-test and explaining why.

By contrast, my wife uses a different well known chain of opticians, and I know from experiences that she has had that some of their practitioners are utterly hopeless.  

I'm also very surprised - like some other posters - that one of your wife's opticians has asked her GP to refer her to a specialist.  I won't say I find it unbelievable - but I'm very surprised by it as I'm pretty certain her optician should be able to do that referral himself.

I suffer from bouts of iritis, a condition which is usually considered to be a medical emergency.  I can't refer myself* to our local hospital eye emergency clinic, but neither will my GP!  If I contact my GP surgery and say that I might be suffering from iritis, I get told to go to an opticians and that if they diagnose iritis then they will refer me to the hospital eye emergency clinic.

So what I'd suggest your wife needs to do is to contact both (or is it three?) sets of opticians and explain what the problem is: ie she doesn't understand why she was prescribed a "prism"; she doesn't understand why her distance vision changed; she doesn't understand why a subsequent prescription didn't include a prism; the glasses don't work; she can't afford to spend £700 on prescription glasses that don't fix her vision; she can't wait for a specialist appointment in November (or whenever it is).

If they are big chain opticians, ask to speak to a manager, but explain you'd be happy for an optician to explain the technical aspect of the prescription if the manager is not an optician himself.

Emphasise that you can't afford to waste £700 on glasses that don't work, and that you can't afford to wait until November to find out why they don't work.

Of course the issue is complicated because your wife decided (or had) to use two different opticians - usually not a good idea in my view and potentially asking for problems.  Still, I'd expect any decent optician(s) to be able to offer your wife some sort of refund in these circumstances.  

If one of them is basically admitting - by saying your wife needs a hospital referral - that their prescription may not be correct, then they really ought to be refunding her until a medical diagnosis confirms it.

*I'm not meant to refer myself but my local eye emergency clinic allows "frequent flyers" like me to do so because they recognise how difficult it is to get GPs and opticians to do referrals.  Of course, post -Covid it's a miracle if you can get a GP to do anything.  And I say that as a former NHS employee

TELLIT01

As to why the problem was noticed by the customer during the eye test, the vast majority of the testing is done on one eye at a time so any problem with normal binocular vision wouldn't necessarily have been apparent.  The only thing I was asked to do with two eyes at my recent eye test was reading the text from a card.  That wouldn't show up any long distance issues.  I did have a problem with one pair of bifocals where the position of the glasses on my nose was critical for distance vision.  It seemed great when I tried them on but next to useless after the tiniest movement.  I was back and forth several times trying to get it sorted.  In the end the optician said the frames I had chosen were too shallow for varifocals and wouldn't do anything more.  I simply avoided that optician after that.

CardinalWolsey

Big chains such as Specsavers / Vision Express have terms that allow you to simply return the glasses within a specified time period for a full refund. You may now be outside of the refund period, but have you asked? VE I've never had a good experience with in terms of customer experience, but Specsavers have always been great.

kirtondm

Slightly complicated one here. The prism issue is very subjective , in simple terms the eyes are not working well together. Some Optometrists like to put in prism if they find any misalignment others put it in if you are getting double vision when tired etc. We all put in prism if you are getting double vision all the time. If you put prism in you tend to have to increase it as time goes by. If you preferred the prism in it is probably not sensible to remove it.

Sounds like the Optometrist who has referred you is concerned about the root cause of the double vision. Unless you are getting double vision all of the time it is unlikely to be anything serious and probably is related to one of the muscles controlling the eyes not working so well as it once did but if the optometrist is unsure makes sense to get an orthoptist to check it. You're local hospital may have a direct number for the orthoptic department and may be able to see you sooner? they are normally pretty separate to the ophthalmology side of things.

So if it was my patient I would probably get the orthoptists to check their was nothing serious going on ( I doubt it ) and then re-assess you and probably put the prism back in. I would cover the cost of doing that and seems a reasonable way to proceed.

I would probably contact the practice and say you are not really happy with the situation and what do they suggest?

Remember if you can't get anywhere with the practice you can contact OCCS Home - Optical Complaints - Optical Consumer Complaints Service who should take a fair overview 

RogerBareford

Si_Clist said:

newlywed said:

If the prism worked for her previously, can she request to try that with the current optician, or are they refusing?

The first two optometrists at the current optician somehow decided that no prism is required.  The third optometrist wanted to first establish whether or not my wife's eyes are working together correctly, therefore he referred her to the specialist, who as we understand it will decide in November whether or not prism is needed, and if so how much etc.

They are not refusing.  I'm sure we'll get there in the end.  The issue is simply that we have had £700 tied up since March in two pairs of glasses which are of no use, and it now looks like being December before my wife has usable glasses.  £700 is in round figures 85% of our monthly income.

Even if the glasses were perfectly fine you would still have £700 tied up in them so this shouldn't be an issue because you havn't had to pay any more.

Manxman_in_exile

RogerBareford said:

Si_Clist said:

newlywed said:

If the prism worked for her previously, can she request to try that with the current optician, or are they refusing?

The first two optometrists at the current optician somehow decided that no prism is required.  The third optometrist wanted to first establish whether or not my wife's eyes are working together correctly, therefore he referred her to the specialist, who as we understand it will decide in November whether or not prism is needed, and if so how much etc.

They are not refusing.  I'm sure we'll get there in the end.  The issue is simply that we have had £700 tied up since March in two pairs of glasses which are of no use, and it now looks like being December before my wife has usable glasses.  £700 is in round figures 85% of our monthly income.

Even if the glasses were perfectly fine you would still have £700 tied up in them so this shouldn't be an issue because you havn't had to pay any more.

I'm not sure that that is the case?  

My understanding is the the OP's wife has now bought three pairs of glasses, and that two of those pairs might have been wholly unnecessary.

The first prescription was the one with the prism, and they worked ok until the wife thought she detected a change in her distance vision.

She was then prescribed a second pair of lenses but without a prism.  These apparently did not work.

She was then prescribed a third pair of lenses and these don't work either.

I'm not entirely clear on the OP's story (so I may be wrong) but the £700 seems to be tied up in the second and/or third pair of glasses, and I think the OP's complaint is that neither pair work and that it hasn't been satisfactorily explained to his wife or him whether the second and/or third prescriptions were strictly necessary at all.

I think it depends on whether the change in vision that his wife detected actually required a new pair of glasses (or two pairs!) or whether the original prescription with the prism should still have been sufficient.  Unless someone is an optician and understands the "change" the wife has noticed, they aren't going to know what was or was not required.

Personally, I'd expect any half decent optician to refund the £700 in these circumstances.  The fact that they consider that the wife needs a referal to a specialist suggests to me that they are not 100% confident that their own prescription is necessarily appropriate.

As I advised earlier, I'd go back to the opticians who prescribed the second and/or third pair of glasses

sheramber

The optician had to refer my husband to his GP for referral to the hospital when he detected his cataracts.

Specsavers refund your money if the spectacles are not suitable but the OP's wife may be out of time for that.

The OP does say The outcome of this visit was new glasses to a new prescription, and almost exactly £700 on the credit card in March.  

So the £700 was one purchase . Perhaps she bought two pairs.

kazwookie

Does your wife actually have an appointment for Nov / Dec time yet?  if so ring up the number on the letter and ask / politely tell the receptionist or who ever answers the phone, that if they have a cancellation, your wife would be willing to take it, so she can have a earlier appointment, instead of waiting until Nov / Dec time.

They get cancellations all the time, so ring and ask, and keep ringing every 4 weeks or so. 

MalMonroe

Hi, I think the best idea so far is to ask the GP to step in and expedite your wife's appointment with a specialist.

In the meantime I'd reject all £700 worth of glasses and ask for my money back. The glasses have been prepared but they are not 'fit for purpose' because they are not correcting your wife's vision correctly. Therefore, they are worse than useless.

The GP needs to push the point with the eye specialist that your wife's vision has not been corrected and she is therefore suffering and needs to be seen at the earliest opportunity. 

What shabby, shoddy treatment your wife has been receiving.  

As others have said, we are not supposed to give medical advice here but it does seem as if your GP needs to step up.

diinozzo

Please remember what MalMonroe says:-

Please note that comments are strictly my own opinion, intended to help - never hinder. If they do not help then please ignore as the intention of the forum is to help everyone, if possible. MSE forum rules clearly state "no two people have the same circumstances or experiences and it is up to you to investigate, check and check again before you make any decisions or take any action based on information you glean from our community. Remember, don't rely on what you are reading. Verify it and protect yourself. You are responsible for any action you consequently make." It's always best to verify everything.