# Laser Eye surgery - Optical Express - Beware



## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

Hi all.

This is a heads up for those who may be looking into Laser Eye surgery.

Just sharing our recent experience with OE and their laser eye surgery process, not the laser eye surgery itself.

Cutting a long story short,my wife visited OE on the 30th March to look into laser eye surgery and was told her long eyesight wasn't worthy of surgery in both eyes so they'd only laser one to enable her to have good short and long sight.

They wanted her to wear a contact lens in one eye to simulate the surgery so, as per their terms and conditions, she paid them £500 on the 30th March.

Fast forward a few weeks where the wife found that having one eye corrected was not her cup of tea so she cancelled the proposed surgery on the 17th May and requested her £500 back.

OE, as per their terms and conditions, said this refund could take up to 28 working days to process.

It's now the 19th June, and still no refund with OE stating that the 28 working days is not yet over!!

I did question how they can take payment instantly but then withhold the refund for 3mths and what interest they are making on numerous deposits they hold on to, needless to say, they refused to answer that question and simply keep referring us to the 'terms and conditions'.

So, if you are thinking of laser eye surgery with OE but then have to withdraw from the process as the surgery isn't suitable, be prepared to wait and wait for your deposit back, min £500.

Further research, not done before we approached them, shows OE have numerous complaints regards withholding deposits and ignoring requests to refund.


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## MrMatt (Apr 15, 2011)

I guess the 28 working days is up a week tomorrow and they will leave it until the last day?


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## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

MrMatt said:


> I guess the 28 working days is up a week tomorrow and they will leave it until the last day?


Yep.

In fact, the wife has just had an email to confirm the payment has been processed and will be in our account in the next 3-5 working days, so yep, taking it all the way til the end of the term.

Pee poor imo.


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## AndyN01 (Feb 16, 2016)

I'm afraid it's why I avoid all sorts of "cheap" stores.

Great to get the stuff cheap. Usually a right pain in the proverbial if something's not right. Give me a little independent - such as our DW sponsors :thumb:

Sorry it's gone pear shaped but glad it looks like it's coming to an end.

Andy.


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## Gas head (May 28, 2010)

Lucky escape not having it, a close family friend had laser treatment and lost an eye due to infection, it was a number of years ago when in this type of surgery just started but even so, poor bloke lost a finger same year whilst fixing the garage door so not the luckiest of folk.


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## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

nbray67 said:


> Yep.
> 
> In fact, the wife has just had an email to confirm the payment has been processed and will be in our account in the next 3-5 working days, so yep, taking it all the way til the end of the term.
> 
> Pee poor imo.


Errrr, I'm going to put my head on the block and say that OE have adhered to the terms of the contract between themselves and your wife, so you/she don't really have any justifiable cause for complaint - that's what contracts are for, so that both parties know what their rights and obligations are. Had they failed to agree or make the refund, then another situation arises.

For balance, I had both eyes done about 10 years ago and am only now needing cheap reading glasses for small or some coloured print - I was told back then that this would happen. So, they can't be all bad.


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## garage_dweller (Apr 10, 2018)

slim_boy_fat said:


> Errrr, I'm going to put my head on the block and say that OE have adhered to the terms of the contract between themselves and your wife, so you/she don't really have any justifiable cause for complaint - that's what contracts are for, so that both parties know what their rights and obligations are. Had they failed to agree or make the refund, then another situation arises.
> 
> For balance, I had both eyes done about 10 years ago and am only now needing cheap reading glasses for small or some coloured print - I was told back then that this would happen. So, they can't be all bad.


Agreed, I don't really get what your issue is. They said as per the contract you would get your refund in 28 working days, which they've done.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Internet shock horror of company sticking to agreed terms and conditions...

Won’t somebody think of the children!!

 :wall:


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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

I and my family have used spec savers for years , always been great service and price, but most companies will stick to set terms and run with them.
As long as made aware or given terms that’s then fair IMHO
On the other side spec savers said I needed a hearing aid and I decided to get independent test and was told I was fine and little benefit of getting a hearing aid.
It is the wife and daughter that keep saying I’m deaf and not hearing exactly what they are saying


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## Shug (Jul 13, 2007)

AndyN01 said:


> Great to get the stuff cheap. Usually a right pain in the proverbial if something's not right. Give me a little independent - such as our DW sponsors :thumb:


Searched the polished bliss site for ages and still can't find the eye surgery bit.


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## Mad Ad (Feb 7, 2011)

Derekh929 said:


> I and my family have used spec savers for years , always been great service and price, but most companies will stick to set terms and run with them.
> As long as made aware or given terms that's then fair IMHO
> On the other side spec savers said I needed a hearing aid and I decided to get independent test and was told I was fine and little benefit of getting a hearing aid.
> It is the wife and daughter that keep saying I'm deaf and not hearing exactly what they are saying


I say selective hearing :lol:


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

slim_boy_fat said:


> Errrr, I'm going to put my head on the block and say that OE have adhered to the terms of the contract between themselves and your wife, so you/she don't really have any justifiable cause for complaint - that's what contracts are for, so that both parties know what their rights and obligations are. Had they failed to agree or make the refund, then another situation arises.
> 
> For balance, I had both eyes done about 10 years ago and am only now needing cheap reading glasses for small or some coloured print - I was told back then that this would happen. So, they can't be all bad.


I got mine done now about 14 year ago and my wife got hers done the year before. Both at Optical express and they were great with us. We were also told that about 98% of the population need reading glasses as they get older and this will still be the case after the surgery. I've obviously not reached that age yet (I'm 45) as my eyesight is still fine and don't need reading glasses and neither does my wife . It was one of the best things I've ever done:thumb:


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

slim_boy_fat said:


> Errrr, I'm going to put my head on the block and say that OE have adhered to the terms of the contract between themselves and your wife, so you/she don't really have any justifiable cause for complaint - that's what contracts are for, so that both parties know what their rights and obligations are. Had they failed to agree or make the refund, then another situation arises.
> 
> For balance, I had both eyes done about 10 years ago and am only now needing cheap reading glasses for small or some coloured print - I was told back then that this would happen. So, they can't be all bad.


He's probably more annoyed by fact it takes 28days to refund yet the 500 deposit would have left his account before he'd stepped out of the shop door. As for terms and conditions, I'd love to bet there was a couple of pages of them in small writing with the refund bit hidden in the middle.


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## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

Darlofan said:


> He's probably more annoyed by fact it takes 28days to refund yet the 500 deposit would have left his account before he'd stepped out of the shop door. As for terms and conditions, I'd love to bet there was a couple of pages of them in small writing with the refund bit hidden in the middle.


Bang on the money right there.

My thread was only to warn people about the this exact fact and it's 28 working days not 28 days.

We do have the money back with us but they still tried to offer my wife alternative surgery, before they did refund, that the original Optometrist said wasn't advisable for my wife's sight correction as all options/surgery had already been discussed and advised and wasn't recommended by said Optometrist.

Telephone calls days before the refund were worded as 'we may be able to do something else' and 'if you call back in we may be able to refer you for an alternative'.

That alone is one big warning sign right there that they are quite flaky and more interested in a sale than the customers health and wellbeing.

Lesson learnt.


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## Itstony (Jan 19, 2018)

That old chestnut "Always read the label" ..think it was a TV/Radio add too.

I use Optical Express in 2004 and they were really excellent.
Had to revisit and that was put to their Harley street place as that was the only option for my day requested to go.
I must say I was all over the T&C's like a rash, anything to do with your bins, you need to be.


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