Boots Opticians Colchester - Culver Walk

Friendly and helpful staff

Can’t think of anything. Quick efficient service. Did not have to wait. Well done.

The optician took great care and attention during the eye test. I felt my daughter had a thorough examination and I was confident in the recommendation on contact lenses and glasses.

Excellent service all round

Children’s appointments are long. It can be really hard work getting them to concentrate for an hour. I would recommend having an assistant to write up notes rather than the paperwork during the session. The appointment was also interrupted on a couple of occasions by others needing to borrow equipment and ask for advice. It was distracting and made the opticians appear disorganised. Despite this our opticians was apologetic and kept professional.

Very full and efficient and didn't feel rushed.

I waited at the desk for around 5 minutes before I could check in for my appointment, many members of staff walked up to the desk to collect information but ignored my presence, a simple 'someone will be with you shortly' would have been sufficient. I had a voucher for a £10 eye test which I presented when I eventually checked in for my appointment. I was asked if I would like to choose frames after my eye test and I told both the receptionist and the optometrist that I would like keep my own frames and replace the scratched lenses. Both times I was told it would be cheaper for me to buy new frames - which is not the case if I bought my lenses elsewhere. The optometrist rushed through my appointment; my last appointment with Specsavers took at least twice as long, and included eye health tests (a photo of the eye, air being blown into the eye and a test involving looking at a white flashing dot) as well as the eye test itself. The board with the letters on was not changed at all between changes to the lenses during the test meaning I already knew what the letter on the line where without having to 'read' them. I think this lead to an incorrect prescription being presented. During my last eye test it was recommended that I wear glasses all the time due to my astigmatism. The optometrist at Boots did not even mention my astigmatism (or did not notice it) and recommended glasses for concentration only. After my eye test the optometrist tried to get me to speak to a sales person for frames, when I pointed out again that I did not want frames, I was again told that I should take them because it is cheaper. My voucher was lost when it came for my to pay for my eye test and I was presented with a £25 charge. When I told them I had handed the voucher to the receptionist the sales person did not believe me stating 'well it is not here now'. After a wait I was able to pay at the reduced rate but I left feeling very disappointed with the customer service from start to finish. The whole time I was there I was constantly being upsold for frames I did not want and I felt that because I had used a voucher I was given a less thorough test. I will now be booking a second eye test elsewhere as I cannot rely on the results of the one I have just taken. My husband visited the Boots Opticians at Tottenham Court Road recently and had a very positive experience, it is a shame that the standard of care is not consistent across all sites.

Whilst appreciating what she said must be true with the change in my glasses prescription I went on to have my contact lens review and the change for them was minuscule compared with my glasses. One thing I do object to is someone chewing gum through the consultation as I find this quite rude. I wear lens all the time my glasses are a back up and I forgot to take them - getting told off wasn’t something I’d expected either

Booked online and got an appointment on the day. Friendly helpful staff and a huge range of frames to choose from

The optometrist (Ravi at Colchester) was excellent! very helpful and immediately understood and advised on my requirements. The only negative is that the Boots IT systems are inadequate. My files are apparently not accessible to other Boots stores. From a technical point of view this is archaic (I work in IT) if as I suspect data governance is being used as an 'excuse' not to do this then I would be happy to sign an authorisation that my files are accessed within the Boots Opticians network.