I wish my son would read these reviews!!! He wanted some new glasses so I told him to use our local, trusted, optician but no, he had to go to one of these trendier, faster places in town.

SIGHT TEST

First of all he had a sight test and when the optician handed him the print out of his prescription my son mentioned that it was vastly different from his current one. They assured him it was right and said his glasses would be ready for collection the following day and they would ring him.

COLLECTION

After a couple of days, with no phone calls (despite having left 2 numbers with them) he called in and spoke to a different assistant, the one that had dealt with his order was not around.

They assured him the delay was a mix up and the glasses would definitely be ready for collection the following day, so he left work early and called in. Guess what? He saw yet another assistant, who knew nothing about the glasses and blamed the previous one for the delay.

In the end it took over a week to get the glasses and when my son collected them he did mention to the optician that they didn't feel to be right, as his vision seemed different. He was assured this was because he was not used to the new glasses and to go away and try them for a couple of days and to return if he was still not happy.

RETURNED

After trying the new glasses for a few days, he realised the prescription was certainly not right and he dared not use the glasses for driving, so had to resort to his old ones or contact lenses.

He took the glasses back and insisted that they re-test his eyes. Of course, it was yet another member of staff who he saw. They tested his eyes and lo and behold my son was right, they had made a mistake with the prescription and it was totally wrong for him. Profuse apologies of course and the excuse that "the assistant was inexperienced". Does this mean they don't employ qualified people?

They promised they would make another pair of glasses, to the correct prescription, and to return in a couple of days. Well, you can probably guess what happened, it took over a week before the glasses were ready.

As if this wasn't bad enough, the frames on the glasses were very shoddily made and slightly warped! But he thought this could be sorted out once the lenses had been dealt with.

SECOND PAIR

When my son went to collect the second pair he still felt the prescription was incorrect but wondered if he was getting a bit paranoid, so persevered for several more days. By that time he had tried using the glasses for driving and how on earth he didn't have an accident is amazing! He simply could not see properly in the glasses and whilst driving to work he had to stop and put his old ones on again, then try out the new ones when he got to work to see if it was only for driving that they were not right. It wasn't, they were not right at all.

By this time he was getting very annoyed, both at the incompetence of the staff at Optical Express, and because he kept having to take either an extended lunch hour or go after work or on his weekend off to get the problem sorted. This wasted a lot of time and expense in travelling to say the least.

STAFF CHANGES

Going at the weekend was not ideal as every one of the staff seemed to be different from those during the week. They tried to fob him off with "oh so and so is not in until Monday, it is best if s/he deals with it for you."

After almost four weeks of this saga my son insisted on seeing a manager. The shop was quite busy but he stood his ground and said he was not leaving until the problems were dealt with to his satisfaction. (Hopefully this would have caused a few new customers to walk out and go elsewhere).

CUSTOMER SERVICE

The Manager agreed the service given had been poor, he admitted the prescription was still not the correct one and offered yet another pair of glasses.

With me as his mum, my son knows to stick to his consumer rights and insisted on a refund. He was promised this would be sent to him, by cheque, the following day when the manager had spoken to the "people concerned".

That was over two weeks ago, my son has been on holiday and expected the cheque to be waiting for him on his return home.

Well of course, it wasn't, so he rang the shop again. They told him they had sent his complaint to their head office and they were dealing with it "but due to holidays they might be short staffed." He asked for a contact at the Head Office and contacted them to see what was happening.

He has now had a reply from Head Office which assures him that his cheque will be in the post within 7 days "after a full investigation into your complaint."

STAFF

I think the fact that my son never saw the same member of staff twice and that this company confesses to "staff shortages" says it all.

In my opinion it is such an inefficient company that the staff are more than likely fed up with complaints from customers and leave after a short time.

(If you happen to work/have worked for Optical Express, your comments would be appreciated).

EXPRESS?

How on earth can a company such as this use the word "Express" in their name? The only express service they seem to offer is the speed with which they make mistakes and make excuses to customers.

LISTEN TO GOOD OLD MUM!

Incidentally, my son has now taken my advice and visited our local optician, who is independent, gives you a thorough eye examination and still manages to supply glasses with the correct prescription within a few days! And of course he owes good old mum the money until Optical Express send his 290 quid refund!!!