Hi All,
Thanks a lot for all your support, advice and comments. I spoke today with OE Refund Team and they have taken my card details. I was told that money should be on my bank account in 3 to 5 days so I am really pleased.
Here is what has happened since my last post.
As I mentioned previously, with Sasha’s help, I drafted and sent the following email to David Moulsdale:
Dear Mr Moulsdale,
I am writing with regard to cancellation of my Lasik surgery at your Birmingham clinic as detailed in email below.
I emailed Optical Express customer service team on the 25th November 2013 to cancel my surgery scheduled for the 11th December requesting a refund of my deposit being seriously concerned that, should I proceed, the health of my eyes might be jeopardised by what seemed to me a poor quality of examination.
In addition to the reasons provided in my email regarding my decision to cancel the surgery, on the day of the examination I was not given full information that would have affected my decision to make an informed consent: this includes treatment success rates, retreatment statistics, statistics for probability of starbursts, halo effects, night time distortion, dry eyes etc; current investigations by the General Medical Council into your surgeons, numerous legal claims, the numbers of damaged patients etc.
Having spoken to Becky Hill from your Customer Service Team who I explained all my concerns to I have found out that the deposit will not be refunded. I am totally dissatisfied with this decision and I am not prepared to accept it. I do not dispute that I confirmed I understood the deposit was not refundable after 72hrs from making a booking, but Optical Express did not carry out the examination with reasonable care and skill and withheld critical information from me, so I do not consider any agreement made on the 21st November as legally binding.
Therefore, I am writing to you requesting that you override Becky Hill's decision and refund my deposit within 5 working day, otherwise I will be seeking legal advice in order to pursue my refund via a small claims court. I also appeal to you to review the examination procedures in your company as even MP John McDonnell mentioned concerns over the quality of patient assessment at Optical Express in the House of Commons on 20/11/13.
Sincerely,
W___
I received no response, so spent last weekend describing my case on various internet forums, including Martin Lewis, MoneySupermarket, Customer Actions Group etc. I also left lovely reviews for OE on Trust Pilot and Review Centre.
All of the above resulted in this email yesterday:
From: Stephen Hannan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 9 December 2013 16:57
Subject: Optical Express
Dear W___
Thank you for your recent email which you addressed to our Chief Executive Officer.
In my capacity as the Clinical Services Director for the Optical Express Group I have reviewed the content of your email and will now offer a response.
Although we are not obliged to consider refunding you the deposit based on our terms and conditions, on this occasion I will agree to do so as a gesture of goodwill.
I have confirmed the same with my colleague, Miss Vikki Hill who will be in contact to discuss the next step on this process.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Hannan MCOptom
Clinical Services Director
Optical Express
T. +44 (0) 1236 795104
M. +44 (0) 7740 592389
Sasha thanks a million for all your support, guidance and help. I would not get my money back, without you. If you ever need any help, you have got my contact details. Wish you all the best! x
Regards,
Wlod