Frames for Toddlers (Frames)

Member Name: RachyUK

Product:	Frames
Date:	01/03/01 (1393 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good service/variety of product

Disadvantages: too few branches around

Children are now routinely checked by an optomotrist for sight problems from the age of about 12 months (some even earlier if there is a family history of sight problems)

In my case, I wore glasses from the age of three and my daughter is 2.5 yrs old and has been wearing glasses for 4 months.

On receiving the NHS prescription/voucher, we set off to find our daughter a pair of glasses. Bearing in mind she is a very slight little girl and we could not get frames to fit her in the following Optical outlets:

Boots,
Optika,
SpecSavers,
Vision Express,
Dolland & H

In each establishement the glasses fell off her nose, even after gentle adjustments they still came up too big. There was no offer to have them reduced in size because the make of frame did not come in a smaller size!

This absolutely amazed me. Now maybe because of the voucher service that the NHS offers (where the glasses work out free or extremely cheap according to the frames you chose) most optical outlets can't be pre-occupied with the extra paperwork and therefore do not stock a varied selection of childrens frames.

In one outlet, Boots - all they had to offer was Reebok or Disney frames, which is fine if you want to pay £80 for the frames, which on a 3 year old will be re-shaped, tightened and re-fitted squillions of times before the next 3 month appointment with the optician!

We were lucky and came up trumps with Batemans The opticians - who had a wide variety of frames on offer and additional loops to help keep the glasses on the childs face.

The service we received was very friendly and the member of staff who served us referred to the NHS optomotrist who signed our prescription form, giving us firm belief that their company works closely with the professionals when it comes to childrens requirements.

Since receiving the glasses, my daughter has had them fixed 26 times in four months. Each visit is
very quick, pleasurable and nothing is too much trouble for the staff. The optician who looks after us speaks to my daughter personally, each time giving her the confidence to wear her glasses with pride.

I am quite sure that the other high street companies, mentioned above would have offered the exact same customer service, had they been able to offer us a selection of frames in the first place. How is it that one company has a huge selection and another who has access to that variety, does not capitalise on it?

It is not as if the market is dormant. I know for a fact that there are plenty of parents out there going through the same trauma with childrens glasses.

It does make me smile when I think that as a child, I went to Batemans and so did many of my specatacle wearing friends in their childhood days.

Does Bateman have the monopoly on childrens glasses or is it that they care enough to value a customer from their very early years?

Summary: