So very, very, glad I DIDN'T go to Specsavers - I LOVE VISION EXPRESS! (Vision Express)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Vision Express
Date:	03/09/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellet 10/10 customer service and a terrific end product tailored to suit your needs

Disadvantages: None that I can think of

Following a dropped-spectacles-in-the-bath disaster I was left effectively blind as bat, but one emergency visit to the 'one hour serivce' opticians Vision Express later, I was the proud possessor of a new pair of rather snazzy glasses. Having turned up at their Cribbs Causeway Bristol branch wearing the old, broken pair fetchingly stuck together with sellotape, I was given a high-tech eye-test on the spot (this included an eye health exam, the results of which were most reassuring to me as for many years I used to wear contact lenses), was given very good advice on choosing 'the right style of frames for my face', and then after being sent away for an hour or so came back to pick up the finished specs. And they're brilliant specs - the best I've ever had. I think the frames are quite stylish, and the lenses - really, really thick lenses in my case I'm afraid - have been treated and cut as sympathetically as possible, not to look too thick. I'd say they're definitely the best-looking glasses I've ever owned, and this is all down to the advice I was given on choosing them in the shop, as well as the skill of the Vision Express technicians who put them together for me.

I have been wearing glasses since early childhood and I can say without doubt that the service I received at Vision Express was the best I have ever encountered in this country. The glasses I got from them were not by any means cheap - there was not much change out of £300 (though I had specially treated / thin-type lenses, and this price also included a £50 insurance / "buy a second pair for a heavy discount" deal that in effect I never took up) but I believe them to be excellent value because of the quality of Vision Express' customer care. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on glasses from other high-street retailers, which have turned out impossible for me to wear, so although Vision Express might be a bit more expensive than the competition, if you go to them you will end up with specs that you can actually use.

This has not been the case with other glasses I have purchased. For example I used to go to Dollond & Atchison for my glasses - but after purchasing a pair costing 200+ quid from them - which I found unwearable, decided to shop elsewhere. Those useless D&A glasses, incidentally, when I took them to another optician, turned out to have their focal point - ie the point of best vision that's supposed to be level with where the pupil of your eye is when the glasses are sitting on your face - arbitrarily positioned right in the middle of the lenses, and in completely the wrong place, as the D&A optician had not taken my facial measurements properly (by which I mean: he hadn't taken measurements for this at all). I also once purchased - for roughly the same price - a pair of prescription sunglasses from Specsavers; again, the lenses in these distorted my vision so severely that I was never able to use them. On returning to these shops to complain about their glasses I was basically sent away and told I'd have to live with the problem as it wasn't something they could resolve. So with glasses from D&A and Specsavers, it really is a case of: 'you buy cheap you buy dear'.

The first pair of glasses I got from Vision Express didn't suit me, but I perservered with trying to get used to them for about 10 days - after which I returned to the shop. The opticians were sympathetic to my problem, re-took my facial measurements, and provided new lenses on the spot. I also bought 'memory-flex' type metal spectacle frames with my new pair which are great, but these have a tendency to bend out of shape quite easily - if I go into Vision Expresw they will reposition the frames to suit me then and there (without charge).

Yesterday I lost one of the screws from my glasses and the left lens fell out. Again, Vision Express repaired the specs for free within an hour (providing a new screw - which, although it's a tiny component, is something I'm sure they could've charged for if they'd wanted).

Based on years and years of personal experience, I don't think there's any point messing around with your vision and buying cheap specs from discount retailers. In my opinion you should go somewhere decent - and in my book, that means to Vision Express, instead.

Summary: Don't sell the cheapest glasses available, but definitely worth paying a little more for