Eye see you! (Boots Opticians)

Member Name: Plushroom

Product:	Boots Opticians
Date:	13/10/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly, knowledgable, great with customers, fast service

Disadvantages: None.

As a speccy wearer for the last 11 years I've had to go to the opticians a lot. I still remember my first awful experience where they tried to shove me into a section with teletubbies and fireman sam on the arms of the glasses (I was 12 at this time and the new kid at school - it was as though that opticians wanted me to die of embressment/bullying!).

Over the years the experiences got better until a specsavers branch put me off to the extent that I didn't get my eyes tested for 4 years - I know, very bad.

But this year enough was enough and I booked an appointment with boots opticians in Stevenage via the boots website. I loved the ease of making an appointment and that I could specify what days I would take and whether I wanted mornings or afternoons. This is very important as my branch is a one hour bus ride away because I live in the sticks. The next day I received a phone call from a very polite gentleman who went through the procedure, told me what to bring along as I was entitled to help towards the new specs and sorted out an appointment with me that was timed perfectly for my needs. Fantastic!

So the day of the appointment comes and after my usual bus trip to get to Stevenage I arrived at the opticians. The assistants at the counter were very friendly and took me over to some chairs to wait. At this point I'm worrying, how long are they going to make me wait? I've been to places before where I have sat for upwards of 50 minutes and been ignored. But a few minutes later the assistant came and got me to do a basic eyecheck and to check my current prescription before I was taken away by the optician for my full eye exam.

He was very friendly and nice, and even better he wore glasses himself. It may seem odd but I don't like being told about things like my poor eyesight by someone with 20:20 vision who will then push me towards unsuitably specs. It doesn't help at all. This man was nothing like that and was keen to chat and joke as we did the exam, after which upon telling me my prescription had indeed changed he adjusted it a bit so that it wouldn't be such a shock to my eyes. Now someone with 20:20 vision probably wouldn't think of that as being an issue, but if you haven't changed prescriptions for a while the change can make your head hurt or make you sick. That he was knowledgable enough to adjust it to make it easier on my poor peepers was wonderful and made me trust in him even more.

After this he took me into the store to show me the glasses quickly, but it didn't feel rushed. He steered me clear of on whole section as they were rather traditional looking and too old for me and pointed out a few specs in their half price designer range before leaving.

So, choices choices - there were a lot. I finally settled on the Oasis range and two pairs that were the same shape but different colours and got very stuck! So I braved it and asked one of the assistants what she thought - normally this wouldn't get me any help in other places but she was great and got me to pick the brighter (and quite frankly cooler) specs.

I was then told that my glasses would be done in about 4-7 days - fairly typical really, and left happy in the knowledge that that was an enjoyable experience instead of my usual hellish one. So colour me surprised when just a day and a half later I received a call in the afternoon saying my glasses were ready and I could pick them up any time! 3 days turnaround was fantastic.

Upon going pack they did all the usual checks to see that they fit well and I could see and I left that day with my lovely new glasses, a case, fabric bag, cloth and deisgner oasis cardboard gift bag (As the assistant said, I bought Oasis specs for I should have an oasis bag - not a regular one!).

This was a pleasure and I will be going back, I got great polite service, help when I needed it, friendly banter whilst waiting and to top it all off half price designer specs that would have cost £130 in total otherwise plus 1 advantage card point per pound.

Summary: The only opticians I will now go to, they are excellent.