Share review of Boots Opticians Southampton - Shirley High Street

Boots Opticians Southampton - Shirley High Street 2017-09-27 Person 2 5 0

It is with regret that I have to post a review of the service we received which is less than flattering; I do not normally do so but a litany of problems has forced me to share my opinions as my wife and I did not feel that the service we received on this occasion was in any way satisfactory, especially given that we spent well in excess of £400 on three pairs of glasses- one pair for my wife and two for me. Our use of the service was tempered with caution as on a previous occasion our son had asked for his new glasses to be sent to him at his University local branch, (in response from an offer to do so by the shop); the Shirley store did not indicate that this would be an issue- however, after enquiring a few times at his local branch in the north we found that they indeed had been received in Shirley and so we collected them and sent them to our son. His first couple of weeks at his university were spent squinting at the teaching materials, so that is, shall we say, unfortunate. They were, however, satisfactory, when received. My wife's pair were not. The frame didn't fit her face and the combined efforts of two staff members made matters worse. She was asked to go back on the following Monday when someone more senior would be available to assist. This she did, and was told by this person that if the frames were flexed again to any extent they would break. She hadn't done so herself! In cleaning them a couple of days later the lens fell out. I took them back to the store and after a half-hour the operative told me that they needed to be returned to the manufacturers as there was clearly a fault. They were due to be returned for collection "within five to seven working days". After seven days we returned- no glasses. after nine days- no glasses. At this point my wife had had enough an wanted a refund, which, to be fair, was processed promptly. My new varifocal pair have a very small 'sweet spot' for reading. This is disappointing as I had particularly chosen a larger frame to accommodate a larger reading portion of the lens, and paid a premium to obtain a larger working area for my reading and computer activities. My older pair had a much larger area by comparison and, on mentioning this to the operative, was told that "different manufacturers have different tolerances" and that I have a "large astigmatism" which necessarily meant that the lens area would be smaller anyway. None of this was pointed out to me when purchasing the premium pair and my experience does not reflect what I believe the graphic in the sales material led me to believe, so I really feel that I didn't get what I paid for, I'm afraid. The distance portion of the vision area is fine. My reading glasses also took some time to come to the store and necessitated several visits. As the least complicated part of the whole order, this is disappointing. The operative offered to remeasure the varifocal lens, but it wasn't clear what this would have achieved apart from necessitating yet another visit- the seventh- so I declined and have decided to 'make do'. However, we will not be returning to the store and will obtain our glasses elsewhere in future.