New Glasses
Posted: Mon 3 August, 2020 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Getting Organised 3 Comments »As I said in an earlier post, I now have new glasses again. I had been due to get my eyes checked back in March, but as I was getting to the time when it was due, of course Coronavirus did its thing, and we all got locked down.
I’d known that my eyes had changed, that things weren’t as clear as they had been. It wasn’t anything major, but definitely something that needed to be sorted.
So when I finally got an email from Specsavers saying “You can book again for an eye test“, that’s what I did. The process was a pig – I haven’t seen browser-specific stuff in a long while, but it took a change of browser before things got sorted. But it got sorted, I got booked in, and on we go.
The actual eye test was smooth as usual – although there were fewer people in the store at any time, no drop-ins, and everyone wearing PPE – but it all went fine. Somehow my left eye had improved, and my right had got worse. I’ve no idea how that’s possible or makes any sense at all, but there we go. Anyway, I chose the frames I wanted, paid a metric sod-load (even with one set of frames being free, the lenses I need are still cocking expensive) and waited two weeks.
The collection of them was the only thing that was a pain – because of current situation, they weren’t doing the usual proper fitting appointment, so collection was “we’ve adjusted them to how we think they’ll work for you” and off you go.
Safe to say, those adjustments weren’t right for me. For whatever reason, the initial fittings never do – I assume my head/face just doesn’t fit in with the standard fitting algorithms and so on – so I made an appointment to go back and get them redone. That also didn’t work, so I called them back again and pushed for a proper “no, we need to re-measure this” appointment, got that, and got it all sorted.
All told, it took a couple of weeks longer than usual (just because each re-fitting took a week to organise – they’re ridiculously busy, with the reduced number of customers allowed in at any time) but I’m now happy with the new glasses. Hopefully it’ll be another couple of years before I need to get anything else sorted!
Useful info on how Specsavers are now operating, thank you.
Now, I just have to hope that the branch fairly local to our new address is taking on new customers, because the doctors and dentists currently aren’t. Luckily I do still have access to services from old address, but I do wonder how people who have completely relocated recently are managing.
Like you, my glasses are scarily expensive – but still half the price at Specsavers that they are in other chain and independent opticians, plus you get free retinal photography, which you don’t in many other places.
As you probably know, Specsavers are franchises, but they do have a ‘you can get adjustments at any branch inthe world’ claim. It works in SA (I’ve tested it!) but am not convinced it will work in other than home branch right now… Wish I had the time to test it out! Luckily I wear contact lenses most of the time as they give me better vision in daylight hours.
I didn’t know about the “adjustments anywhere” policy, but I’ve always been impressed with Specsavers in general – and particularly their “we’ll fix it, or replace it if we’ve got it really wrong” no-quibble three-month thing. (Which I believe has been extended to six months, in current situation)
When I last got new glasses, and had “progressed” to varifocals, the other thing that impressed was that they said “Well, get one set done so you can see if it works for you, and then you can get the other pair from your offer any time in the next six months”. I know it saves them the time/hassle/money of making another set if they’re not going to work for the customer, but it was all couched as being for my benefit.
Sadly, for me, contacts won’t work as I’ve got too much scarring/damage to one eye, and my sight is bad enough that even laser surgery would still mean I needed glasses (just with less prescription) so frankly, sod that.
Ditto with laser surgery – and when I had my retinal detachemnt 20 years ago, the consultant told me I should never even consider it, with my high prescription.
An excellent optometrist who’d worked for 10 years at Moorfields, told me a couple of years ago that, if/when I get to the stage of needing cataracts done, I should never let them correct down to perfect, even if they say they can (which they probably will), because it carries very high risk, and is too much of a jump for an ageing brain/visual system. It is better, he said, if your prescription is over -9.00 (or a combination of + and – that come to over 10.00, not taking account of the – and + in the usual way) to get them to correct to around -4.00. FWIW.