Best High St optician

A question about : Best High St optician

I need to get my eyes tested and a new pair of varifocals. Where is the best place to go? Optical Express look as though they're offering a free eye test and some offers at the moment but I often wonder if sometimes opticians offer free eye tests and then make the money up elsewhere. any views?

Best answers:

• By 'best' do you mean cheapest? Or the most thorough with an optician who really does the job well?
  If it's the second - then a name above the door isn't really any help. You need to get local recommendations for an actual person rather than a High Street name.
  Good opticians are often found in their own, independent shops. Although you can find good individuals working for the high street chains. It's important to make sure that that is the optician you will be seeing when you book, and not a different one.
• I had a feeling that would be the response. I guess I am looking for value but that doesn't necessarily mean cheapest of course
• Before going to Optical Express please take a look at opticalexpre**ruinedmylife.co.uk website, (obviously fill in the missing letters!), they are a horrid company and once you read up on the many horror stories from customers you won't want to go there, ever.
• That is about eye surgery though not getting a pair of glasses
• I would only suggest that you don't use Specsavers for eye testing. I know they are cheap and buy glasses from there if you wish but I ended up going to Vision Express to get my eyes re-tested at a greater cost.
  I gave Specsavers three chances to get it right, they couldn't and had to refund me on a pair of glasses.
  Also they will only suggest contact lenses that they supply (this mattered for a toric lense in my case)
• I had my eyes tested at Tesco recently, I was very impressed with the quality of the service I received. I had a horrible experience at Specsavers a few years ago...the optician mumbled at me (I was in my early 20's then so no hearing trouble) and rushed through the test in 5 mins flat...result was I had the wrong glasses prescribed and they refused to give me a refund or agree that the eye test wasn't done properly. I had to write a letter to head office who investigated and eventually gave me a refund. A whole lot of hassle!
• Far more important to find a really good optician than being seduced by offers of free eye tests or cut price frames as your prescription can be dispensed anywhere.Ask around for recommendations.
  The name above the door means nothing as many of the opticians representing the High Street brands are franchisees operating under a well known name.Specsavers are a joint venture partnership and each branch is essentially a seperate business run by the optician.We have 2 Specsavers close to home - one is pretty good and used by my son but the other has a dreadful reputation.
  I use my local Boots stand alone store which is franchised and operated by a local optician who has been brilliant with my complex prescription.I also earn Advantage points to spend in Boots stores but I treat that as a bonus and not a major factor in my choice.I went there the first time on the recommendation of a friend.
  On the other hand my husband uses the local independant who is also very good but I found for me the frames were overpriced and whilst the service was good it was also painfully slow.