Deposit Refunds

Shortly after emailing Lynsey Shaw (see post 2 Sept) she replied apologising for the treatment I received and promising a full refund.

I am expecting a call from their banking department at some point today. Fingers crossed this actually happens!

I have no doubt in my mind that her prompt response was due to the fact I mentioned I had shared my story with this site and joined Sasha's campaign.

I am grateful beyond belief for Sasha's help in all of this and will be donating to My Beautiful Eyes. It is absolutely disgraceful that Sasha's life has changed for the worse because of the irresponsible actions of laser eye clinics. Her campaign is an example for anyone too scared to speak up against these companies. Most people are bullied into treatment and worse still, into silence.

Hats off to Sasha for everything she's done and for having the courage to fight back.

I too decided against surgery recently and so far have been unsuccessful in getting my deposit refunded.

Sat 22nd Aug: 1pm appointment to discuss laser surgery, was told I could drive the next day after treatment and various tests were carried out. Some tests were carried out multiple times by Shaila. The optometrist then examined my eyes and told me that both eyes were OK for laser treatment but that my right eye may need to be done under a different procedure which the surgeon would decide on the day. I was told that my eyes were dry (news to me) and that I’d need eye drops until surgery. The optometrist quoted me over £4000. I asked why it was so much more than the guide prices on their website and was told that it was due to my prescription. I said this was was more than I expected and he said that they might be able to do a deal to fill slots. Shaila took me downstairs where I asked if it was normal to not be able to read my emails on my phone as I couldn’t focus due to the eye drops. It was normal. Shaila said that she could fit me in on Friday 5th Sep (< 2 weeks time) in a gap and charge me a fixed price of £2995. She said I needed to book asap or risk losing the slot and the deal. I said that I would have to check my work diary at home but would call her back as soon as at home. I was handed some paperwork with Shaila’s number on it. My wife drove me home and checked my diary, I called Shaila immediately to book the slot and paid a £400 deposit. No mention of any terms and conditions.

Mon 24th Aug: Shalia called me asking for the balance of £2595 which I paid. She said I needed to come in at the weekend for tests to see if the eye drops had worked. It was agreed that if i turned up at 9am I would be fitted in.

Fri 29 Aug: OE called me at 7.30pm to let me know they needed to see me at the weekend. I explained that I’d already arranged to come in at 9am.

Sat 30th Aug: Arrived at 9am and was seen first. Same tests completed as last Saturday. A different optometrist looked into my eyes and told me I’d need to go to Boots to buy Lid Care as my eyelashes had something growing on them that would need to be cleared up by next Friday for surgery. I was then passed to Shaila who sat me down and told me that the surgeon had looked at my file and decided that i needed Lasek on both eyes and that recovery time would be longer. I asked why I needed Lasek in both eyes when I’d been told my left eye was absolutely fine for Lasik. Shaila couldn’t tell me. I asked what the difference was in treatment from Lasik and Shaila told me it was an extended recovery period. I said I meant the difference in the surgery process. I got the same answer then a pause while Shaila looked up the answer and told me. She passed me a document ‘what to expect from Lasek’ which I didn’t get with the original paperwork. I said I wasn’t feeling confident due to this unexplained change in treatment, the new eye lid issue, and the extended recovery time which I couldn’t see how I’d manage as very busy at work. Shaila said she thought it best to book me in to see the optometrist again to go over everything and explain Lasek. She said I’d need to come in the day before surgery for a check-up too. One hour later from home I called Shaila to cancel the treatment but got her voicemail so left a message asking to cancel. That evening I emailed OE to confirm cancelation too and state that I had left a message on Shaila’s phone.

Sun 31st Aug: Called at 6.30pm by the original optometrist who had seen me in the week. He said Shaila had texted him to call me to answer questions I had. I explained all the warning flags that had come up and that I had decided to cancel the surgery as I had lost faith in OE and could not take extra time off work for the extended recovery. We discussed the refund of the deposit and he said that if I explained all the issues I had, head office should refund it.

Monday 1st Sep: Dianne from head office called me and asked me why I wanted to cancel my surgery. I went over my experience and said that there were too many warning signs, that i had lost faith in OE and that I also wanted a refund for my deposit as I was never made aware of a 72 hour window for deposit refunds. Dianne said that I didn’t need to be told by Shaila re the non-refundable deopist after 72 hours as it was in the documentation I’d been given on Sat 22nd Aug. I explained that I couldn’t physically read that doc at the time of booking and would have expected Shaila to have verbally made me aware of any terms and conditions which she did not. Dianne said that they actually don’t start the 72 hour period until the day after your booking day. Dianne said she would have to escalate to the Clinical Director to decide.

Wed 3rd Sep: I was called by Dianne from head office. Dianne said the review had come back from the surgery director and he had decided to decline the deposit refund as I was still eligible for treatment. I said I wasn’t happy with this and that their terms state 72 hours from booking and asked how they can enforce this if a patient cannot physically read the terms or isn’t verbally advised. Dianne said that that’s all they have to do legally in handing me the terms and conditions document and that I should have read it in the 72 hours cancellation period. She said I could expect my £2595 back sometime in the next 28 days. I said this was outrageous, especially as they’d taken it from my card immediately

Fri 5th Sep: Eye surgery date. (Now cancelled!)

Wish I had seen your site before I'd booked!

This is a copy of my complaint sent to OE:

"I am writing to complain about my experience on the 1st September 2014 at the Optical Express Harley Street Clinic.

9.30am on 1 September was my appointment day. I arrived and was seen by the surgeon as normal. To my surprise I was told my procedure would be changed from LASIK to LASEK. I decided to proceed but was rather surprised at how things had changed since my initial consultation. I understand this now to probably be a plow to get people to give deposits by luring them in with the promise of LASIK over LASEK. I had signed my consent forms and my surgery was due to begin when I was informed that due to plumbing works on the building the surgery was to be conducted in the Shaftesbury avenue branch.

I was rather shocked that I was not informed about this until literally minutes before my surgery. Further to this when I arrived at the Shaftesbury avenue branch I was greeted with the site of large scale building works. I was ushered into a waiting room upstairs and then informed treatment would not be able to be done at this site either because they had painted the room where the lazer equipment was kept.

I am absolutely flabbergasted as to how a company can be so unprofessional with their level of customer service. Myself and my mother (who accompanied me to my appointment) have lost out on money having to take full days off work. I had prepared myself mentally and physically for this treatment and to be told minutes before (twice in one day!) that it would not go ahead is unbelievably frustrating.

I cannot comprehend why after the Harley Street clinic cancellation I was ushered into the Shaftesbury avenue site which can only be described as a building site.

I rang the complaints department and spoke to a "Sandra" at 11.30am who told me she would get back to me before the end of the day after she had investigated my case. She didn't and I called her just before 5.30pm which is when she said she would have contacted me by. To add further insult to injury I was told that as a "goodwill gesture" Optical Express were willing to offer me a 50% discount on designer sunglasses. Does your company honestly believe that after spending about £3000 on treatment which was cancelled on me at the very last minute, I would want to spend further money on your products?

Since then I spoke to a "Jamie" at the complaints department who refused to provide me with his full name. He told me that he was unable to process a refund for the £400 deposit as I had requested and could instead reschedule my appointment for another day.

The last thing I wanted was another offer of an appointment. I no longer have any faith in Optical Express and have instead taken my custom elsewhere. The £400 deposit is paid in order to secure an appointment date which Optical Express failed to keep and failed to inform me about. I am well within my rights to ask this be returned to me in full within 7 days. I will be sharing my story on as many review sites as possible and contacting Watchdog and Which? because of the appalling customer service and treatment I have received. "

I will seek legal action if necessary.

Brief background: I was quite willing to undergo laser eye surgery, but on the day of my surgery my surgeon told me that my cornea was asymmetrical and the Lasik procedure would not be suitable. Fine, thinks I, although annoyed that at my consultation the "Pentacam" which detected this asymmetry was not used/available. The surgeon did advise that I could get an intra-ocular lens, but I said "no thanks" - too invasive for my liking. I was told I would get a full refund.

The thing that wound me up enough to come looking for this site was the response I had when I called for a refund. I was told that OE instituted a 28 working day refund policy. Not only had I paid them for surgery 21 days up front after an (unbeknownst to me) incomplete consultation, but they intended to hold onto my money for even longer. I requested to speak with the manager, who told me she would accelerate the repayment to 10-15 working days, but could do nothing to refund me more quickly due to the Optical Express repayment policy.

Unsatisfied I sent an email to the Customer Services Manager (Lynsey Shaw) and my local MP. Lo and behold I received a full refund within 5 working days, so it is doable!

I received an apology from Mary-Frances Kelly, the Marketing manager, expressing regret for my disappointment, inconvenience, and that I was unable to have the surgery, but failing to address any of the actual grounds for my complaint.

Namely, why OE offer laser eye surgery consultations at branches that lack the necessary hardware, and why they operate such a crooked refund policy.

Sasha

What can i say.....i am very glad you helped me very quick as soon i dropped you email. The good news with your help my deposit is back into my account today. It did take 3 days to come due to Bank Holiday. I can't thank you enough because you have saved me from having Lasik surgery done. Thanks to the BBC NEWS London doc last week if it was not shown i would not have known and suffered for rest of my life. i really appreciated your time and support you have shown and i really am quite emotional..... thank you very much. I will never forget you in my life you have done a such a good deed and wish you every success with this campaign.

Update re our deposit refund.
Optical Express cancellation department rang my mum yesterday. A lady called Diane Yeoman informed her that we would not be receiving our deposit back. My mum was understandably quite upset and had started looking into trading standards regarding this.
Later that afternoon we received a phone call from head office to say that it has been passed to "higher management" and they had agreed to make an exception and that we would receive our deposits back. They explained that it would take 28 days which is way too long. They said that we could get it done between 7-10 days. However we have not had any further contact from the department to confirm the transfer.
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Sasha for all her help. Without her we would have not been in this position. At times it did feel like being David and Goliath but she gave us hope.
Thank you ever so much.

Hi my 20 yr old daughter Nerys Lee arranged to have laser eye surgery with Optical Express and went to all the appointments to make sure she was suitable.
She booked her surgery and paid £400 deposit, but the day she actually went for surgery she was told she was not suitable - but they would keep hold of her deposit just in case she became suitable in the future.
I think this is wrong as I think she was missold the treatment and should get her deposit back
‎I just wondered what you actually thought about this?
____________________________
admin: Pls email info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

After reading the stories about surgery at Optical Express gone wrong I am now not intending to go ahead with it. The risks were definitely not explained to me.

I paid £400 deposit at my initial consultation at Merry Hill clinic and was told I had to pay the balance 21 days before surgery.

I was booked in for idesign Intralase Lasik surgery with Mr Wassim Aziz on 5th September .

I was asked to try out monovision contact lenses before surgery, which I did not get on with at all, and although my vision was OK without glasses my vision was not perfect and a bit hazy.

I paid the £2,995 balance the day they fitted the trial contact lenses.

When I had the lenses taken out I asked the optom if this was normal. I didn’t get a satisfactory answer as all she said was that the lenses were quite thick, probably why they were uncomfortable and I should have had them in longer - even though I was initially told I only needed to try them out for a couple of days.

I also said that my right eye (for reading) felt a bit 'weird' as the bottom of the eye felt like I had jelly in it, which went when the lens was taken out. She also told me that my eyes were a bit dry, but I have never been told this by the optician when I have had my eyes tested regularly every 2 years.

I was asked if I wanted to try contact lenses that I could take in and out for a while to see if this was any good, but as I hated having these things in my eyes for just 2 days I said no. She didn’t seem bothered about this.

She then asked if I had any further questions. Because she’d been unable to answer my other questions I said I’d speak to the surgeon, who I wouldn’t see until the actual day of my surgery! This is a point of no return as if I did not go for the surgery I would be losing £2,995 which I cannot afford to do.

After a conversation with Sasha, I phoned Optical Express this morning at 9.45am to cancel my appointment, but instead of the Merry Hill branch I had phoned I was put throughout to a call centre. I told the person that I was cancelling my surgery and he said he would put me through to the cancellation department.

After a while he came back and said that they were all busy but he would send an email for someone to call me. I waited for 2 hours then decided to phone back. I spoke to a different person who told me it would take up to 48 hours for someone from the cancellation department to get back to me. I find this very strange as they managed to call me very quickly to get the £2,595 balance off me when i was still going ahead with surgery. This is another black mark against them.

Not impressed at all and I will let you know when the so called cancellation department get back to me - they must be having a lot of cancellations if they are so busy on a Bank Holiday!

Thank you for your help so far Sasha.

Hi

I recently booked a consultation with Optical Express at the Shaftesbury Avenue store for myself and my mum. We waited over an hour to be seen despite both having appointments. Everything was rushed when we went through the checks. Both my mum and I have an extensive history in regards to our sight and none of this was really addressed. The ophthalmologist, Dr Patel explained that I was suitable for the Lasik and my mum the lens replacement surgery. Our concerns over the side effects were skated over and were not discussed in depth.

We took the decision that all surgery has risks and agreed to go ahead with it. A lady called Rome organised the finance and booked the surgery appointments. She offered me a deal for Optical Express’s 21st anniversary which reduced my surgery to about half of the original price quoted. My mum and I agreed to the price that was offered and we both put down deposits. My mum paid £500 for RLE and I paid £400 for lasik. We were shown the Hitachi finance paperwork which allows 14 days cooling off period. At NO POINT was it explained or our attention drawn to the Optical Express conditions only allowing 72 hours to change your mind.

The next day we saw Sasha on the BBC London News about Optical Express. It created doubts and we did some more research and were unhappy with what we found so took the decision to cancel. We rang up on Friday, 4 days after we had gone to the consultations. We spoke to head office and were informed that the lines were busy in the cancellation department so there was no one to speak to. Then they said only one person was working and had gone home, so they'd send an email and someone would ring us within 48 hours. I phoned up the next day (Saturday) and was again told there was no one to take our call in the cancellation department.

It was only when I asked for a supervisor that I got through to Robert, who worked alongside the cancellation department. But Robert did not have the authorisation to cancel. He was very unhelpful and it was almost like going through rounds in the boxing ring. He accused me of lying about the cancellation policy not being explained to us on the day and said that someone would call me on Monday. He could not even confirm if we would receive our deposits back.

I believe they are just playing for time, and the way they have conducted themselves has confirmed what was said about them on the BBC news . The fact that there are only two people working in the cancellation department with the lines constantly busy is unacceptable and completely unbelievable for such a big company.

Due to our total frustration my mum and I decided to go to the root of the issue and visited the Shaftesbury Avenue branch where we had originally booked. We had previously tried to contact them by phone, but the number they advertise actually gets redirected to their call centre in Scotland. We arrived and spoke to Rome who apologised for what we had been through and expressed confusion about the number of calls we had to go through simply to cancel. She got the store manager Meena Dino involved who also could not help us. The most she could do was send another email as cancellations are apparently only accepted at head office level. No time was given for someone to call us and she could not confirm whether we would receive our deposits back.

The service that we have received has been absolutely abysmal. I would strongly discourage ANYONE from having surgery at Optical Express. They are fast to take your money but when issues arise they show their true colours! I find it unbelievable that “one of the leading” laser eye surgery providers that operates in the UK, US, Ireland, Croatia, Germany, France and The Netherlands could not simply get someone to cancel our appointment and give our deposits back.

Could you please please help us? We simply want to cancel and get our money back!

Hi
I don't want to proceed with surgery at Optical Express. I paid 3,000 euro in full to get
the surgery done. The first time my surgery was scheduled the surgeon said I couldn't have it done that day as I had dry eyes and it was a big risk. I was surprised my dry eyes were not detected at my initial screening.
The 2nd time I was scheduled I was too nervous and the surgeon said I was not ready for the procedure.
I think I am not suitable for this procedure and have decided not to have surgery at all but Optical Express are insisting that they will not refund my money.
They say my only option is to go ahead with the surgery or lose the money.

Any help appreciated Sasha.