Do you wear glasses or contacts?

[IndigoPrime]

:: Massively iffy might be different

According to the second optician, the glasses were significantly stronger than they should have been (she was actually pretty shocked when she saw the prescription, to the level that she asked my mother if it was actually mine), and every single other measurement was significantly wrong, too. It's telling that the changes since that point (with two other chains of opticians) have never seen such a dramatic change. However, I DO recall my eyes suffering significantly during the years of wearing the glasses prescribed by that original optician, along with getting plenty of headaches (dismissed by said optician with the line "you just have to get used to them").

[LARF]

BLOODY HELL!

You know your target audience is getting on a bit when there's a thread on your comic book website discussing the merits of glasses or contact lenses... Jesus!

[Funt Solo]

IP:  It's situations like this where it would be handy if you could hire a Robot Of Revenge, that would hunt down the miscreant optician on your behalf and exact punishment befitting his incompetance.

After all, what could go wrong?

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[scutfink]

You know your target audience is getting on a bit when there's a thread on your comic book website discussing the merits of glasses or contact lenses... Jesus!

Nothing to do with age...

We're Geeks! Speccy, Metal Mouthed, Pizza Faced, Stinky, Hairy, Balding, Scrawny, Obese* NERDS.


*Delete as applicable...  

[Jim_Campbell]

"However, I DO recall my eyes suffering significantly during the years of wearing the glasses prescribed by that original optician, along with getting plenty of headaches (dismissed by said optician with the line "you just have to get used to them")"

Important note: opticians WILL tell you to persevere with your specs. There is a good reason for this ... there are many, many patients who simply will not allow their eyes to become accustomed to a revised prescription.

However, if you've been trying them for more than a fortnight and you're still getting eyestrain or headaches then go back and INSIST that they 1) re-check the specs to the prescription and 2) re-check your eyes if the lenses are correct to the prescription.

If ANY optician is at all reticent, tell them that you will go to another optician and get them to perform the two checks above. At this point, rather than allow a competitor to put the boot in, you should find that they become much more cooperative.

The one thing to remember is that if you do have to get a second opinion, take the results back to the optician who dispensed the spectacles and get them to put the job right (at no charge to you, obviously). If you allow the second optician to persuade you to buy new lenses from them, then you're likely to end up in an argument about who pays for what.

If you allow the original optician the opportunity to correct the problem then you also have a much better case if they mess it up, or refuse to help.

Don't be afraid to mention that you are prepared to go to Trading Standards if your issue is with product or consumer rights, or to the General Optical Council if you issue relates to optometry.

Cheers

Jim

CAVEAT: Do not take another optician's word as gospel if they check your specs against the written prescription and tell you that the specs are "completely wrong".

The lenses are checked using a piece of equipment called a focimeter, which will be calibrated for lenses produced the lab which makes lenses for that particular practice. Differences in calibration can produce substantially different readings ...

[IndigoPrime]

:: It's situations like this where it would be handy if you could
:: hire a Robot Of Revenge

Sounds good, really! Mind you, the optician liquidating (in a business sense?not actually being liquidated) was probably punishment enough.

:: However, if you've been trying them for more than a
:: fortnight and you're still getting eyestrain or headaches
:: then go back and INSIST that they 1) re-check the specs to
:: the prescription and 2) re-check your eyes if the lenses
:: are correct to the prescription.

We did. He basically told us to get stuffed. After much huffing and puffing, arguing and so on, he did a very quick test and said the glasses were fine. As I was the only member of the family to wear glasses, my mother and I just figured I had to "get used to them". It was about a year later at the new optician in town where we discovered that had been a mistake.

:: Do not take another optician's word as gospel if they
:: check your specs against the written prescription and tell
:: you that the specs are "completely wrong".

It wasn't that element that freaked us out at the time -- it was the look of shock on her face when she put her test against the old prescription.

Still, water under the bridge and all that...