Reply: Optical Express Reviews

Hello there Sasha.

Thank you so much for getting back to me on Trustpilot regarding my recent complaint against OE.

This particular OE clinic is in Manchester. I went for an appointment to see if I would be suitable for refractive surgery after expressing interest about an online OE eye surgery advertisment.

However, all I did was browse the advert and was mystified about how OE had got hold of my phone number.
The member of staff I spoke to said I had filled out an online form that came with the advert. I recalled no such activity as I'm very wary of filling anything out online, especially if it asks for personal details such as phone numbers.
Because I was very interested in the surgery, I overlooked this and made an appointment to visit my nearest OE clinic.

It's strange because as soon as I entered the clinic, I automatically felt unwell and uncomfortable. Call it women's intuition, but there was something that didn't feel right. The staff seemed fairly friendly and pleasant but there something a little strange about them that I just couldn't put my finger on.

Anyway, I had my eyes tested by the optometrist who noticed my eyesight prescription had changed from my previous one. So I decided to buy a pair of glasses in the new prescription while I was there. These costed me £293.
Because I always buy a spare pair of glasses, I thought that I'd be able to buy a cheap spare pair somewhere else to keep at home for emergencies.
Obviously I would need my new prescription for this and assumed I would be given it when I went to pick up my new glasses.

After a ten day wait, they were ready for me to collect. A different optometrist did the fitting for me but after I left, realized she hadn't given me the prescription. So I went back and asked for a copy.
The receptionist said the optometrist was busy with another client but would email me a copy of my prescription later on.
No email came so after a week, I rang up. I was told that the optometrist needed to sign it before it could be emailed. I think the receptionist said she was away or something.
I waited another week and asked again. This time I was told that because I hadn't had a proper sight test and that it only had been a test to see if refractive surgery was suitable for me, they were not allowed to give me the prescription for the glasses I had bought. The receptionist asked if I understood.

I replied thanks for the explanation but afterwards, couldn't help thinking something was wrong.
I'd paid nearly £300 for a pair glasses and wasn't allowed to know what the prescription of the lenses were??? 🤔
I couldn't care less if they scribbled it on a tatty post-it note in a dried-up old biro pen just as long as I had the information I asked for!

And as for the refractive surgery.... I feel like finding your website was an absolute pot of gold over the rainbow 🌈
It was the answer I didn't realize I was looking for, but the answer which let me know never to have this surgery.
Much gratitude to you because you've saved my sight 🙏

I just feel so awful for those who've been conned and had their vision messed about with as eyes are such a precious thing to have.
So I'm very glad for your hard work in exposing these money-grabbing crooks and hope you long continue exposing them.
Looking back, I should have trusted my intuition and bolted out the door! Guess my third eye was working a lot better than the other two that day 😂

Going back to the prescription issue... Is there any written law I can fire at them when I contact them again in order to get them to give me my prescription?

Any information will be much appreciated 🙏

With kind regards.

HI everyone, new user here.

I wanted to first say how grateful I am for the information provided on this website - I won't be going for LASIK and certainly not with OE, but was very close to doing so after being drawn in somewhat with sales. I decided firstly on my own that it wasn't for me, and felt a little bit weird about OE. This website has been fantastic and has confirmed my worst suspicions.

Summary of my some red flags:

- Signed up online for a consultation, but then saw I could download an information pack. Needed to enter my details to download the pack, and received a phone call literally within two minutes of submitting. The woman on the phone was very friendly, asking me why I was interested in laser eye etc. When she discovered I had already booked a consultation, she all but hung up.
- My pupil size measured by the Wavefront machine was over 8.5mm, which is abnormally large and means I'd be more likely to suffer complications (e.g., starbursts and glare). However, pupil size was not covered at all during the consultation. I overheard another consultation (door was half open) where the optometrist was telling the potential customer that they were an ideal candidate because their pupils are quite small. Why only the focus on the things that are good, rather than an overall review of eye health?
- My cornea thickness is actually quite good (about 600 microns each). The optometrist spent almost 30 minutes repeatedly telling me how safe the procedure wold be because of the thickness. This formed over half of the total discussion. I felt they were missing out a LOT of other relevant information; surely the suitability can't just be about the thickness of material they need to cut?
- Constant badgering to pay a deposit to secure a date.
- Price of £5,800 for quite a mild prescription with no complications. Instantly knocked off £1500 when I enquired about a discount the next day. THis was after telling me the price was absolutely fixed, and running it through a 'standard calculator' based on prescription.
- My eyesight with glasses is between 1-2 lines better than 20:20. I don't want to risk an inferior eyesight. The optometrist led me to believe my eyesight would be even better with LASIK vs glasses, even though they only talk about (and apparently can 'guarantee') correcting to 20:20.

Overall, they just didn't cover most of the things I thought might be relevant, and glossed over the questions I had with more sales pitch and adding pressure to pay. I was also not prepared to pay any more than about £4,000ish.

I consider myself extremely lucky - had they read my personality correctly/not insulted my intelligence, I may well have booked on the day.

What I'm going to do instead - get my prescription up to date with my usual opticians and buy a nice pair of glasses (with thin lenses) and nice pair of sunglasses (with thin lenses and polarised). I will also get some decent cleaning products for my glasses. These things will solve 99% of the problems and issues I perceive to have with my current method of correction, and will leave me equally happy with zero risk at a fraction of the cost.

Many thanks again everyone, your experiences are going a long way to stopping mistakes being made!

Always get an independent second opinion...........

This review was also posted and verified by Trustpilot on the Optical Express Laser Surgery Trustpilot page on 19 Sept 2021 (Given 1 star)

It’s taken me some time to feel up to writing my review after my experience with Optical Express. Optical Express changed my life for the worst. I was a very happy, active, person before setting foot into Optical Express. I am also a carer for my disabled brother. In short, following Optical Express surgery, I have been left with a useless eye and the life I had has been ruined.

Please do not take eye surgery of any kind lightly, at the very least get a second independent opinion. These operations are not without complications, and many people end up with lifelong trade offs, living with blinding haloes and starbursts, poor night vision, unable to drive, and much more. No surgeon can give you a guarantee that any refractive surgery will last a lifetime to be without glasses, or be without short or long term complications.

I went for a free eye check at what they call a consultation, and out of the blue was told I had cataracts, and told my only option was Lens Replacement surgery. After the free consultation I was contacted a number of times to book surgery. I was repeatedly told they could do both eyes at the same time and they gave me a discount. Believing what I was told, I booked surgery for one eye first. They were very quick to take my full payment upfront.

Right after surgery I had a number of post op issues, including extremely poor vision, but I was told everything was fine. Was told the same at the 2 post op check-ups.

Sadly, days later my eye went completely blind, a severely detached retina was diagnosed. I had to have emergency surgery and further operations to try and repair it, but the damage was too severe and I am now left with a useless left eye.

I cancelled surgery on the second eye on the day I went in for emergency surgery, yet Optical Express continued asking me to book surgery for that.

Despite Optical Express stating in their advertising and terms and conditions they offer 12 month aftercare and further treatment to help you get your vision up to a certain standard, they dropped me after less than 6 months after calling me in a few times to read an eye chart using my detached retina eye. They knew how bad my eye was.

I went to different independent Opticians a few months later and was told my other eye does not need lens replacement surgery due to cataract. I have also since been told by NHS eye surgeons that I do not need any surgery in the other eye. So please please please get a second opinion when private companies tell you that you need surgery or are a perfect candidate suitable for surgery.

From my experience, when things go wrong, people like me are brushed under the carpet. They hope we will not be seen or heard, they remove comments and reviews like mine from their social media platforms and places like Trustpilot. I hope Trustpilot is able to keep my true review available for all to read. I have no doubt Optical Express will do their best to get this review removed.

Optical Express advertising states more than 99% customer satisfaction. For those of you who believe that, please read on. I had a look at my Optical Express file and despite me being left with a badly damaged eye and all the surgeries I went through, someone has completed Optical Express satisfaction questionnaires in my name stating I am completely happy and very satisfied with my vision after my Optical Express surgery and that I would recommend Optical Express and this surgery to friends and family. I stated no such thing.

If you do not need to have surgery for a medical reason, please just don’t take the risk. It is better to live with wearing glasses and contact lenses than risk going blind and being in excruciating pain, always get an independent second opinion.

Dear Optical Express Management, there is no need for you to tell me to contact your customer service team in any reply to this review, I contacted you after you abandoned me and never ever heard anything back. There are no excuses for that and it sums up your true customer service.

I now await further operations on the NHS, one of which is to remove the so called ‘premium lens’ Optical Express sold me,

I leave you to make up your own minds. One thing I wish is that I had found the Optical Express Ruined My Life website before setting foot in Optical Express.

I had Natural Lens Replacement with Optical Express in January 2019. Straight away had debilitating glare, haloes, starbursts etc which meant I had to leave my job as it was a matter of time before I had an accident driving. They kept telling me that I need to wait for my brain to adjust. 11 follow-up appointments later there was nothing they could do.

In Oct/Nov 2019 I became so depressed, even suicidal, due to loneliness being stuck indoors as soon as it got dark after being very independent. With loss of freedom to go when and where I wanted, I then used the time to research. That’s when I discovered that there were thousands of other people in the same situation and worse.

I contacted Sasha Rodoy and told her my story and she was an amazing help. Nearly 3 years later after having unregulated refractive eye surgery and into my 3rd long and lonely winter I am coming to the end of litigation.

In hindsight, I can see how people fall for Optical Express’s sales pitch. Bombarded with too much information and lots of calls with a small amount of time to make your decision or you lose your deposit etc. They use false marketing and promotions and I was offered incentives. They minimised the risks and suggest that you get your information from their own website or Trust Pilot that are controlled by themselves.

So I now dread every year from October to March and have to dig deep to get through these long dark months. This is the worst mistake I ever made and it makes me angry to the core that they are still pushing people through their doors deceiving them and ruining people’s lives!

To anybody even contemplating having these procedures done, please please do your independent research first! I paid Optical Express £7,000 for them to do this!

Unfortunately I chose to have lasik surgery in February 2020 at Optical Express Newcastle branch, with Dr Erik de Koning.
I didn't get the "guaranteed 20/20 vision" so they recommended that I have an "enhancement procedure" carried out in December 2020, even though I had terrible dry eye issues at that time.
I went for the second procedure, which didn't turn out as planned either. They told me they were going to do lasik again but Dr Manu Mathew changed that to lasek on the day of surgery!
My vision in my left eye is now worse than after the first procedure, and my dry eyes even worse than ever.
Optical Express sent me for a meeting with Dr Manu Mathew a few months after my second surgery and he said "Yes we can carry out an enhancement procedure" and I had to inform him that I had already had this done - by him!
I attended every aftercare appointment they gave me and extra appointments too hoping they could help me with the terrible dry eyes they had left me with, and the blurry vision in my left eye that did not help one bit. But they just fob you off basically.
They then called me and said they were going to refer me to a NHS dry eye clinic, and told my GP that I had asked to be referred, which is not the case at all because they suggested it to me!
I am now hoping that the NHS Ophthalmology department can help me and save me getting up so many times in the night to put drops in my eyes. I have not had an unbroken night's sleep once since the laser eye surgery.
I now have one long sighted eye and one short sighted eye, and terrible dry eyes too. None of which I had pre surgery. I wish I had stuck to wearing glasses that didn't give me any of these problems.
If anyone else is contemplating getting laser eye surgery I would warn them not to do so.

Unfortunately my experience of Optical Express is similar to so many other people's. I had Wavefront guided LASIK at Optical Express Sheffield Meadowhall branch in January 2009. Worst decision of my life. It has left my eyessight, permanently damaged beyond repair and has had a detrimental effect on my mental health.

Immediately after surgery I was left in a lot of pain and couldn't open my eyes until the next day. From the next day (when i could open my eyes again) I suffered from starbursting, glare, halos, ghosting, floaters, visual snow, dry eyes etc. I was told by Optical Express it was normal and would settle down after 3 months and I was given steroid eye drops. After 3 months things had not improved. Long story short, after an unsuccessful "top up" surface treatment by Optical Express I was referred to Moorfields Private. A further two surface treatments made no improvement.

Optical Express then washed their hands of me, refusing to offer any further support to try and correct the damage they have done.

I still suffer from starbursting, glare, halos, ghosting, floaters, visual snow, dry eyes etc. Glasses do not alleviate any of these issues. The only thing that helps slightly is rigid contact lenses (which are very uncomfortable due to my dry eyes). I haven't driven at night for around 11 years.

I have been examined by many experts who are unable to explain why I suffer from these issues. Unless further research helps discover the reasons for these issues and finds solutions, I am resigned to suffering permanent and debilitating issues with my eyesight for the rest of my life. And living the fear of what will happen to my eyesight in the future.

Oh, and I still have to wear glasses for both distance and reading (before surgery I only needed glasses for distance).