serious problem with a well known high street optical retailer

Benefits_Blagger

i had a very disturbing experience at the opticians earlier, so serious i would like to take it further as i beleive it is a very serious health and safety issue.

what happened is that i went into this well known chain recently for a pair of contact lenses, after having my eyes tested i returned a week later to pick up my contact lenses. when i picked them up they tested them in my eyes and it was discovered that the presciption for one of the lenses was incorrect.

so they told me to keep both the lenses and for me to return in a week time to have one of them replaced and to bring back the lens which was the wrong presciption.

i went in today to pick up the lens, i put it in my eye and was hardly able to see out of it. the vision was similar to that you experience when you fall asleep with lenses in and wake up the next day and everything seems "cloudy"

i immediatly took the lens out and was disgusted with what i seen on it, the centre of the lens had large amout tear deposits that a lens has when you take it out after a day, but also an outer ring of protein deposits, the most extreme i have ever seen!

it is clear to me the lens i had put in my eye, had been worn by someone in the past, not even cleaned and very possibly been one someone has worn for a long time.

i informed them of this, but they told me that this was not the case, but i have no doubt it is.

i then asked them "what happens to the lens i brought back ?", they told me it is returned to the manufactuer where it is destroyed. i asked if it is destroyed anyway, why dont they do it in the shop or let me do it ? they had no answer to this apart from "that is the rules"

I have no doubt about it, but this company is recycling contact lenses previously worn by customers, who do i report this to ?

ch0ccy

What sort of packaging did the lens come in? When I get my contact lens they all come in individual sealed packs, so you can easily tell if someone's tampered with them.

chocolatechipcookies

How do you know for sure they were used? Why bother warning us if we don't know who it is?

KLB

I find this just a bit unlikely. My contacts always come in a plastic container completely sealed with a foil top. How did you receive yours?

Auzelia

I work with contact lenses and if you where given new lenses in the branch as "trial" lenses. Then they would have been given to you in the sealed blister pack and the assistant would have directed you to the wash basin, had you wash your hands and then open and insert the lenses.
You should always check a lens for defects before you insert it as it can sometimes happen that a small bit of the edge can break away or a tiny flap appears in the middle of the lens.

As for the assistant saying that the lens is sent back to the manufacturors (sp) I doubt that is the case as I cannot imagine Ciba vision etc accepting lenses that have been used as they are far to busy producing millions and millions of lenses.

hollydays

You put a contact lense in your eye,then decided it had been used?
It had,by you.
If you didn't notice this before you put it in your eye,you have no proof.

How was this lense packaged?