TOPIC: Deposit Refunds

This was a very interesting read. I have myself spoken to Allan McEwan today (9 April) and was informed that no refunds will be processed due to the government regulations regarding coronavirus.

My initial consultation was on 7 March in Tallaght, Dublin, and I was advised that I'm eligible for the iDesign Lasik treatment. This had a much higher price point than I expected, which made me put second thoughts into the surgery at this point in time. However, I felt very cornered and pressured to pay the deposit of €395 on the spot, so I did. On Tuesday 10 March I contacted the Scottish office saying that I wished for my deposit to be refunded, to which they responded that someone from the Tallaght office would contact me. No one did.

On Friday 10 March I used the chat function on OE's website to ask for a status update on the refund. The adviser told me the refunds/admin team would handle my request and that there was no further action required from my side on the matter. He also mentioned that OE normally would process refunds well within those 28 days.

On Wednesday 25 March I received an email from Paul Hazelton which stated "my appointment has been postponed" due to the uncertain circumstances. At this point I had still not even received a confirmation that I wished for my appointment to be cancelled.

This is obviously the short version of my story but after reading some comments on this forum I feel disheartened about getting my deposit back. I am aware that it relates to a relatively small amount compared to the sums others have paid (or worse, physical consequences suffered), but this really is a matter of principle. No respectable company treats their customers this way.

Congratulations to Pauline and the others who have had lucky outcomes in dealing with this company. It's a shame it seems to be so few of us who did.
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5 December 2019 Daniel Weaver wrote: I was told I had to wait 28 working days to get my refund of 2500 from optical express,since getting in touch with sasha she as helped me through everything brilliantly, and I received 2000 within a couple of days, but I am still 500 short, sasha advised me to make an online claim which i am just waiting to hear back from

Finally have my money back after waiting nearly 5 months for the deposit money back thanks to Sasha!!!!
I issued a MCOL in November which Optical Express asked for the deadline to be extended which took us to the end of December and then I got offered mediation which I asked Sasha to represent me. I had let the courts know who was representing me but Sasha didn't receive a phone call on the date which it should of gone ahead 27th January.
We didn't hear anything until we received a letter to fill out a Directions Questionnaire at the beginning of February. I filled it in and sent a copy to the courts and to Optical Express, which it stated to do on the letter. This meant Optical Express would have had to do the same but I didn't receive anything from them!
I then received another letter on the 13th March 2020 saying that my claim had been sent to the County Court and to await further directions.
On 17th March I received an email from the legal team at Optical Express to say they would refund my £500 deposit and £35 fee to issue the MCOL. I replied to the email straight away to agree to the refund then heard nothing back.
I tried to contact Optical Express on the 27th March to ask what was happening about my refund, they told me that the finance team were not working due to the COVID-19 situation, I said that shouldn't matter as I responded before everyone stopped working. They stated that they would look into it and get back to me.
I hadn't heard anything back so emailed Stephen Hannan to state that if I didn't receive confirmation of refund that I would be issuing a CCJ. He emailed back straight away to say it would be sent out first class on Monday 30th March and I should receive it Tuesday.



By Friday 3rd April I hadn't received a cheque so my partner contacted David Moulsdale himself who was very shocked at us contacting him and told us to go through his lawyers and put the phone down.
He then rang back and proceeded to tell my partner that Sasha was a big fraudster and I didn't know who I was dealing with and said “she fabricates the proof so that I have to pay big money out. The judges feel sorry for the claimants so they are refunded.”
He said he’d get his colleague to send some documents to prove it but he still didn't tell me when I would receive my refund.
I then received an email from his colleague Mary-Frances Kelly attaching a document that she said "will provide you with some interesting background on the individual you referred to on your call with Mr Moulsdale”. It was a newspaper article from about 25 years ago when Sasha and her university friends played a prank on the press and it was very funny, but it had nothing to do with this so not sure why David Moulsdale thought we’d be interested.
Mary-Frances Kelly said she had checked and a cheque was sent out on the 30th March (which contradicted Stephen Hannan saying they that they had stopped working on 27th March) and to get in contact if I hadn't received it by Monday 6th March
Nothing received on the 6th and Stephen Hannan asked for another 24hrs to see if it arrived and if not they would issue a bank transfer and cancel the cheque. I agreed to give them 24hrs…..
Still no cheque so I asked for a bank transfer (which they could have done in the first place) and Stephen Hannan replied to say it would be in by 9th April.
I finally received my money this morning after starting court proceedings at the end of November 2019 so please don't give up!!
I couldn't of done it without all the help of Sasha and just so glad I found this site before I ruined my life.

Further to my earlier post, I have today been told that my refund of £1590.00 has been returned to my card.

On 27th March I emailed David Moulsdale asking for my refund and also why I had been charged £200.00 more than was advertised. Didn't receive a reply so emailed him again on 5th April and told him if no-one contacted me within 48 hours, that my refund was being returned, I would start court proceedings. Also sent a copy of that email to Stephen Hannan.

On 7th April I received a phone call from Allan McEwan who told me that they would do my refund but due to only a handful of staff working, it would take a few days but he would contact me with a daily update, which I agreed to. Shortly after that I received an email from Stephen Hannan who acknowledged the call and said they would contact me again within 24 hours.



When no-one had contacted me, I rang Allan McEwan and he manually processed the refund back to my card there and then.

None of this would have happened without the help and advice of Sasha, who has been amazing through all of this.

Sasha you are doing such a good job, I know my situation was only money but there are so many other people who have life changing difficulties that you are helping, so thank you very much.

Good Luck with your ongoing campaign

Keep well, keep safe

With grateful thanks
Pauline

This is an update of my previous post sent on 06/03/2020. I issued a (MCOL) at Money Claim On Line and Optical Express has ignored this. Today, I have issued a County Court Judgement (CCJ) in hope to have my deposit back.

On 11th October 2018 I had Lens replacement surgery at the Edinburgh clinic with David Teenan. I attended various aftercare appointments until I was discharged on 19th August 2019.

In Nov/Dec 2019 I noticed my eyesight was getting worse so in January 2020 I made an appointment with OE for an eye test. They said my eyes were cloudy and I would have to have the YAG procedure which would be £795 per eye with them or they could put me on the NHS waiting list. I went on the NHS waiting list.

By February my eyes were getting worse so on 6th Feb made an appointment to have YAG procedure at OE in St Vincent Street Glasgow on 15th Feb and made the full payment of £1590 over the phone. (I have looked at the OE website today and see that they are charging £695 per eye so don’t know why I was charged an extra £200?)

On the 8th Feb I received my NHS appointment for the operation on 25th Feb so immediately rang OE to cancel.

I was told someone would contact me regarding a refund but no-one ever has. So when 28 working days were up I tried to contact them via their online chat. I got nowhere, just told again ' someone will contact you’.

Please can you help me?
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Update 24/03/2020
So after posting on this forum and sending a personal email to owner David Mousdale himself I decided to call Optical Express one last time to see if they were processing my refund before I made my way to the Westfield store in White City.
To my surprise I was immediately put through to someone called Campbell [Provan] who assured me that someone would call me back in a few minutes to discuss this and asked me to please trust his word when I told him I was about to leave for Westfield. Not thinking I would receive a call I hung up and straight away received a phone call from Paul Hazelton who said he was a director and had received a copy of my email that had been forwarded to him by David Moulsdale that same evening. David had asked him to deal with my query and Paul had assured me that my refund was processed and should credit my card within 5 working days. Well I received that refund for the full deposit of £400 back on my card today. I am grateful to Sasha who helped me through this process and so glad I came across the OERML website.

I am not sure if I would have ever received my refund had I of not contacted Sasha and would like to say thank you! 28 days is not acceptable to receive a refund and I did say to Paul their refunds policy needs to be reviewed. Hopefully going forward nobody has to endure the stress and anxiety I have been through during this process however I fear I am not the last!!
YE

After attending a consultation on the 11th March I was told I was a suitable candidate for laser surgery even after telling them I suffer with extremely dry eyes (I had already been turned down by another clinic as I had laser eye surgery more then 10 years ago and this caused my dry eye problem as I did not suffer with this before.)

A few days after the consultation I decided to go ahead and on the 13th March I paid £400 deposit over the phone. They booked me in with Dr Niraj Mandal who they told me was new but because I couldn’t see any history for him I changed to Dr Mehul Damani.
But after discussing with my husband we decided that it wasn't the right thing to do considering my eyes were very dry and I didn't want to take the risk of them becoming drier. I called back and told them I wished to cancel and they said someone will call me back in 48 hrs to discuss the refund - and to talk to me about why I don't want to go ahead!

I told them I was absolutely sure I didn't want this and didn't need to speak to anyone so they can try and change my mind. They never sent me confirmation that I had requested a refund and so I called the next day and requested email confirmation of my cancellation and refund request. They said again someone will call me back. No one did so I called again and this time after I kicked up a fuss was finally emailed confirmation that the refund would be processed within 28 WORKING days!! Even Tesco refunds returns on the spot so why does this firm not do the same?

After researching online I found so many bad Optical Express reviews and this website.

From what I'm reading it seems likely this company will go bust very soon and holding on to everyones money with no intention of refunding!

If you are reading this and thinking about paying this company any money be careful! They’ve caused me a great deal of stress and anxiety and I have now had enough of the way things have been handled and if my refund is not processed and back on my card by tomorrow I will take matters into my own hands.

I will be paying their store a visit (Westfield White City) and demand a refund of the deposit I have paid. I will not be another victim of this company and you can be sure that everyone else in the store (customers) will know exactly how I have been treated because I won't leave until I get my money back on my card. I will not stay quiet anymore!!

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YE

We got it back!

A massive thank you to Sasha. Last week we received two payments for £150 which made up the £300 deposit we had paid.


Really glad we can now put this behind us and best of luck to anyone else dealing with this horrible, vile and disgusting company.

Death to Optical Express!

Hi so my story is I went to my pre-consultation in February and was told I was qualified so they scheduled me for 5th of March to have Lasek idesign on both of my eyes for £5590. I put down £1000 for the deposit and the rest would be paid with finance. My surgeon discussion via phone was brief With Dr Luca Antico just told me the basics. The day of the surgery comes. After the pre surgery tests were completed, I was then walked into see Dr Luca Antico. He in short basically said the results at my pre- consultation did not match the results they had taken today and that my eyes were not suitable and I could not continue and would get a refund.

I was told I’d receive a phone call the next day but I heard nothing.... so I phoned them instead I eventually was passed on to Kelly McAlear (Sales Manager) Again in short said I would get a 100% refund because it was them who cancelled. She said it can take 28 days to see my £1000 deposit and the finance would be cancelled within 7 days (no payments have been taken yet)
I'm not confident that I will see my deposit any time soon. So was wondering If I should submit a money claim online to guarantee I get my £1000 deposit back.
I thought I would ask Sasha what she thinks and possibly help with certain parts of the MCOL claim.
I can't really talk via phone and the moment but can by Email.

Many Thanks,
A.Burton
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I went to the Optical Express Cambridge clinic for a consultation on the 26th February. I was pushed into booking for Lasek eye surgery on the 17th March, so I went ahead and booked for the surgery.

Following my discussion with the surgeon Amir Mani on Wednesday 4th March, I decided to cancel the surgery considering that the risks were too high for me. He was telling me the advantages about LasIK but I was booked for LasEK!

I have called Optical Express several times to get a cancellation and I have been told that I should have a call back from the cancellation team for a refund but haven't heard anything from them so far. Please can you help?
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