Adventures at the Opticians

[SongsOfDragons]

'Lo all!

So, my eyeballs are weird little buggers. Like many. I've got astigmatism and am short-sighted - not drastically so, but my right eye is the one getting progressively worse, and the left is staying more-or-less the same.

I noticed that some kind of coating was coming off my old lenses around the edges. I took them into the Green Opticians (I'm sure folk in the UK should know which opticians are the green ones, as opposed to the Blue, Brown and Black ones ) and they suggested I get new ones as the coating can't be reapplied and it's just going to wear off. As I was due an eye test in March, the lady at the desk advised me to get a test early to get a new prescription for my new glasses.

Now I had had a test last March, and I didn't have enough of a change to need new glasses (right eye had only changed half a point). So this test would be the second since my old prescription...

Well the optometrist was, to me, a right arse! He had a very thick accent and initially refused to do the test because 'you won't be covered by the NHS!!' No matter how many times I told him I was going private, no no I was too early for my test and the NHS weren't going to cover any changes!! I've never got glasses on the NHS because I've never needed the assistance *taps self on head* and I was wanting things that they didn't offer anyway.

-_- Just do the damn test! I was --| |-- this close to walking out but I was stuck on what to do after the flounce...

Well, test concluded, there was another half-point change in my right eye. That means between my old glasses and the new, that's a whole point difference. But oh, don't you know, I won't be able to get these on the NHS, the change is too small (ignoring the results of the previous test and the fact I didn't get new glasses from it!!) and you're too early!! GRRRRRR SHUT IT.

Right, suck over, I chose some new frames, got the Green Optician's standard 2-for-1 deal, and arranged what special lens potions I needed. (Reactions in one, Polaroid in the other)

New glasses time! Only now I think there's a problem. I know there's always a period of transition between old and new lenses, but I've never had one as bad as this. It's like looking through a fisheye lens; focusing is weird, and my depth perception is shot. What's more, and very interesting, is if I close one eye: my right eye, the dud, suddenly focuses perfectly through the new lenses...while my left, the not-so-dud, goes surprisingly blurry.

I should probably go back to the Green Opticians...but I'm worried they're just going to tell me to give them a week. My old glasses don't have the focus changing between the two eyes. Should I try getting a second-opinion test from the Blue, Brown or Black opticians? The Green Opticians do have a useful no-quibble returns policy, but I do need new glasses, and I like my new ones aside from the fact they don't work!!

[Aethian]

You shouldn't have to give glasses a week and I wish I knew who started that rumour. Please going in and find out if anything is wrong where they could have given the same strength to both lenses. Wait to long and they will tell you they can't do anything without charging you more because you should have came in when you noticed the problem.

[telecom_goddess]

The axis may be wrong, that happened to me once and I got them fixed right up when I brought in my old glasses for comparison.

[suburbandecay]

My dad once had an optician reverse his lenses (left in right, and vice versa) After they fixed the problem, he never set foot in that place again. I'd suggest having popping into another place with your glasses and the prescription to make sure it is correct.

And after managing to bend my glasses at the bridge, I can tell you it took me about three days to get used to my messed up glasses and another three days to get used to my properly aligned new glasses.

[Lyse]

Second the idea of going to another place to have the prescription checked. I don't know about where you are, but here I've been able to take glasses in and have them checked for free and then just pay if the new place has to do anything to them.

[Seshat]

If there's a different Green Optician with different staff within easy reach of you, go there.

You weren't happy with the optician at the one you went to; you may as well try another random optician; and by using Green Optician, if it's a warranty fix, they can go right ahead and fix it. If you go to Blue, Brown or Black, they can't actually do the warranty repair for you.

[SongsOfDragons]

UPDATE: I popped back into Green Opticians to have glasses checked...and the solution was easy and quite basic...

...because some bugger had left the astigmatism correction off my left lens!!

They were quite nice and apologetic, and they had another optometrist who tested my new glasses holding a lens ring thing over the left - yup problem identified. They're going to put new lenses in lickety-split. ^^

[Seshat]

oh $%#^$^!

What a basic mistake to make. At least they're fixing it for you.

[Argus]

When I was a kid, one August when I got a new prescription, they just put the new lenses in my existing frames. Then, when school started, the blackboard was blurry. We went back to see what was wrong. It turned out that something had happened to distract the optician after he removed and cleaned the old lenses but before he put in the new ones. You can probably guess the rest.

Somehow, the correct lenses were still there, so they were able to fix it on the spot.

[Catwoman2965]

glad you were able to get it resolved. i also got new glasses, to the tune of almost $1100. i have crappy eyesight, and my prescription is funky, so doing it on the cheap isn't an option. I wore them, or tried to, but still had issues. I finally just returned them, as they have a 90 day return policy. im wondering if when the inputted what was on the prescription into their system, an error wasn't made. they kept telling me to go back to my eye dr. but that wasn't an option. i'm going to try again, elsewhere.

[PandaHat]

Well, it's been resolved, so I guess my input isn't needed but I'm a former worker at both blue and ?black (unless black isn't the one I'm thinking of. We're not the one with black in the name, but the new logo is black? ?brown cause we used to have to wear hideous camel coloured jackets? Anyway we were expensive, but I feel value for money).

We told people with new varifocals it could take up to a week to adjust. It normally didn't, but it can take a while particularly if you've never worn them before. With single vision, it can still take a few days, especially if significantly different.

Unfortunately, sucky optician was right about one thing: it would be too small a change from last prescription for NHS to cover it. The NHS doesn't care if you bought glasses with the last prescription or not: you're early and there's not a significant change/eye disease that needed checked out/been asked to go by GP. HOWEVER, there's different ways of telling customers this, and the optician clearly chose the jerk way. Way to alienate your customer base! Also, the person who booked your appointment should have warned you that if there was no significant difference between the new prescription and the last prescription issued then you might be charged.

If you want a second opinion on prescription, you normally have to pay, although generally if you end up buying glasses from the second store then they tend to waive the sight test fee. We certainly did. However, one thing they tend to do for free if you bring the prescription in with you is double check that what's written on the prescription matches up with what's in the glasses. If that's the case, they'd probably send you back to the original opticians to fix as they should be the ones to eat the cost of the repair.

Sucky vaguely related post-script: (Yours is obviously a different problem) We regularly had sucky customers who complained that when they closed one eye, the vision wasn't quite as good in the other when looking through their glasses. With both eyes it was perfect but not when they had one eye shut. Ugh! When do you walk about with one eye shut? Your glasses are designed to work when looking with both eyes open so if you can see perfectly with both eyes open there is no problem and you are not getting money back/a remake/an apology.

[PandaHat]

Wait to long and they will tell you they can't do anything without charging you more because you should have came in when you noticed the problem.

Depends how long the returns policy is. We had a 30-day on single vision and bifocals and a 90-day on varifocals.

[raudf]

Ooh, I hate it when the astigmatism correction is left off! Had that happen with a pair of glasses, from an opti that was attached to a Mart of Walls. Picked the glasses up and hadn't even left the store before I was back in there questioning the thing. The eye doc redid the test to make absolutely sure it wasn't that.. and it wasn't. They screwed up the astigmatism correction so badly I was actually sick just walking around.

I also had one really bad opti who was so behind the times that he didn't even catch that I had astigmatism. And gave me a pair of regular contacts without the wonder weights in the bottom. Needless to say, Mom took me to a less over the hills and under the ground eye doc for a proper evaluation. That only took 24 hours to figure out the problem...

And 24 hours is usually how long it takes me to adjust to a pair of glasses. Usually just need the sleep cycle to rest the eyes and the next morning I'm adjusted. But usually I can tell in a couple of hours if there's something off, like with the first story. Glasses should NOT make you dizzy when walking!

[SongsOfDragons]

Well, it's been resolved, so I guess my input isn't needed but I'm a former worker at both blue and ?black (unless black isn't the one I'm thinking of. We're not the one with black in the name, but the new logo is black? ?brown cause we used to have to wear hideous camel coloured jackets? Anyway we were expensive, but I feel value for money).

I just realised I may have got confused with colouring the opticians - I think what I'm thinking of with Brown Opticians may be an independant we have that I didn't realise was independant. Name is a homophone of the puzzle-solving professor who goes around with Luke. Black Opticians is s'posed to be Vision (fast train synonym).

Unfortunately, sucky optician was right about one thing: it would be too small a change from last prescription for NHS to cover it. The NHS doesn't care if you bought glasses with the last prescription or not: you're early and there's not a significant change/eye disease that needed checked out/been asked to go by GP. HOWEVER, there's different ways of telling customers this, and the optician clearly chose the jerk way. Way to alienate your customer base! Also, the person who booked your appointment should have warned you that if there was no significant difference between the new prescription and the last prescription issued then you might be charged.

Oh aye, I know he was right, poor NHS are run ragged as they are and my vision is several points below the threshold for extra help. But he should have dropped it when I told him the first time he asked that I was going private - I wanted lens treatments I doubt they would have paid for and a nice-ish frame to boot. Not gone on and on and on and refused to do the test until I sat there obstinately and repeated about six times YES I UNDERSTAND.

Sucky vaguely related post-script: (Yours is obviously a different problem) We regularly had sucky customers who complained that when they closed one eye, the vision wasn't quite as good in the other when looking through their glasses. With both eyes it was perfect but not when they had one eye shut. Ugh! When do you walk about with one eye shut? Your glasses are designed to work when looking with both eyes open so if you can see perfectly with both eyes open there is no problem and you are not getting money back/a remake/an apology.

What sillies Yay for binocular vision!!

[PandaHat]

Black Opticians is s'posed to be Vision (fast train synonym).

Then yeah, I worked for Black! My sister actually got my old job in Blue when I left for Black and still works for Blue company.