Deposit Refunds

Hi Sasha,

I'm looking for some guidance from you if possible.
I booked in for lens replacement surgery in Ireland on the 13th of November, 2023.  For my job, I needed to work long hours in front of a PC and was unsure about the surgery. The Optical Express staff told me to discuss it with the surgeon.  He would go through the risks with me.
I had my consultation with the surgeon Mikhail Hernandez and spent some time looking at the stories on this website.
I'm 47 years old, and I was getting the surgery as I was sick of wearing glasses.  After my meeting with the surgeon, I decided the risks were too high for a procedure which was mainly cosmetic for me.
I contacted Optical Express to inform them I wanted to cancel my surgery. I followed up with them to get my €500 deposit, and they told me it would take 20 working days for the refund to be completed.  In January, I contacted Optical Express again as the refund had still not been received (it should have been refunded on the 20th Dec) and was told they were not going to refund me and the €500 was being taken as an admin fee.

When booking, the staff told me I could cancel the surgery and get a refund.  I was informed that the surgeon would not want to have a patient who was unhappy as it affects their satisfaction scoring.
Do you have any advice on how I should go forward here?
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admin: Mikhail Hernandez is new on my radar, but I'm sure it won't be long before I hear from his patients, not least because he should know that at 47 you are too young for lens exchange surgery - see video!
But as also too old for laser, they have to try and sell you something if they want to keep their jobs
For more advice please email: sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk



 

I cannot be grateful enough Sasha, I received the full £500 refund back just a couple of days after you helped me out. Thank you so so much!!

Hi Sasha, 
After reading a lot through the internet and the facebook group I'm really concerned about the laser procedure. I was booked to have surgery on 5th Jan ‘24 and I had the appointment with the surgeon Luca Antico on the 5th December and that gave me a weird feeling as it was meant to be a Teams video call to "meet" the surgeon but in the end it was just a quick telephone call. Luca didn't sound very interested and was ticking the boxes about what to ask. I also now read a lot of bad reviews about Luca Antico and Optical Express.

I’ve now cancelled my surgery but they haven’t sent me email to say this or confirmation that they are refunding the £500 deposit.

Not sure how to proceed... please can you help me?
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admin: As are most of the surgeons at Optical Express, Dr Luca Antico is being sued by a number of his damaged patients
Please send your phone number: sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Hi I’m looking for some advice on the below email I received from optical express. They won’t give back the £500 deposit on a surgery that was technically never booked! Any advice would be appreciated.


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admin: They do try, but of course they're not legally entitled to keep your money!
It shows desperation, as Optical Express is apparently in dire financial straits, with the owner allegedly in meltdown
Please send your phone number: sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

I would like to thank Sasha for her support. OE have now responded and will refund the total amount that was paid for the consultation and deposit.

Sasha, your support and efforts are invaluable and without it, we would certainly be worse off. I would also like to thank you for your guidance as I am quite lucky to not have gone ahead with the surgery.

Best wishes,

Ali
advance.
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admin: I’m glad you discovered the risks before it was too late!
If my work saves just one person from the damaging effects of refractive surgery, it makes it all worthwhile

I had been considering laser eye surgery for a while and finally made myself go for a consultation with Optical Express in Harley Street. When I booked it I was charged a £30 fee for my consultation and told it would be refunded to me once I attended.*



Everything went well with my appointment on 23rd September, and I was recommended LASIK iDesign which is apparently the most suitable, and I was booked in for surgery on 24th November. I paid a deposit of £491, but further research made me have some doubts after seeing accounts from so many people who have experienced complications with their surgery.

Previously, I have been told by an optician that I have dry eyes (for life by the way) and should take drops, which do help to some extent, and now discovered that laser surgery will exacerbate this condition and cause discomfort more than it already does. This was not told to me by Optical Express.

I should mention that I did not speak to a surgeon and was not told who mine would be.

I have now decided to cancel my surgery after seeing so many cases of people having complications and issues, especially those who have dry eyes after the same surgery. Eyes are so precious and taking the risk with them is not something I wanted to go ahead with.

After contacting OE to cancel and get a refund, I was told that since it is out of the ‘3 days’ time limit I would only get 50% of my deposit back. So not only am I yet to see my £30 consultation fee refunded, but I am also out of pocket on my deposit.

I hope you are able to assist with getting my refund and deposit back as this is a lot of money, and absolutely ridiculous on Optical Express’s part in providing a small window of 3 days to claim your money back on a lifetime decision!

Thanks in advance.
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admin: As I’ve commented before, OE’s practice of refusing to refund the full deposit outside 3 days of payment is based on their own version of consumer rights, and is not legal!
And no-one should ever be approved for (any) surgery by anyone but a GMC registered surgeon medically qualified to perform such operations, with the patient fully informed of the accompanying risks
Please send your phone number: sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

*This is the first time I’ve heard of OE charging a refundable consultation fee, as Optimax have been doing for a few years. So I just called OE, said I’m considering surgery, and asked is there a consultation fee? After battling to get an answer, with the sales person diving straight in, pushing me to provide my details, she finally and somewhat aggressively answered my question, that the consultation is definitely free, no charge. She was still trying to pitch when I hung up on her. (I recorded the call.)

So why was Ali charged £30?

Just received back £500 deposit. All credit goes to sasha, thanks for ur help n support!

Hi Sasha,

I went to Optical Express for a consultation on the 21st of July, where I was pressured right there to put down a deposit and book my surgery.
This was a first red flag so I declined, but did book on the 25th after more pressuring and paid a £500 deposit over the phone.
I was booked for surgery on the 15th August with a Surgeon Consultation to meet Dr Sajjad Mughal just before on the 9th August.

On the 9th I was given a very poor impression of the surgeon and company overall when the appointment was booked for 3 o'clock, and after waiting for 10 minutes, was told via chat that actually this was a 1h window between 3 and 4.

At that point I cancelled the surgery altogether, and was told I'd be contacted by a retention team, and I should get my refund within 28 days.

I chased the refund 3 times in total, and the third time was told because the surgery was cancelled more than 3 days after it was booked, I was only going to receive £250.

I hope you're able to help as this a lot of money I only finished university recently and don't earn a lot.

CB
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admin: As I’ve commented before, OE’s practice of refusing to refund the full deposit outside 3 days of payment is based on their own version of consumer rights, and it is not legal!
And no-one should ever be approved for (any) surgery by anyone but a surgeon medically qualified to perform such operations, and the patient fully informed of the accompanying risks.
Contrary to the way refractive surgery is sold, this is NOT a cosmetic procedure, it is an invasive medical operation on your most precious organs!
Please send your phone number
sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk
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Hi Sasha,
My wife’s prescription is -1.75, and she doesn’t need glasses, but she thought she might but didn’t want to wear them so we went to Optical Express in Nottingham on 17th August.

We were carried away by the staff marketing skills and pressed to pay £500 deposit the same day and they booked her for lasik surgery with Dr Sajjad Mughal on 5th October.

Then we were sent email changing it to 26th September without asking us. But we had already decided to cancel when we came home from the store and the sales person had told us if my wife changed her mind she could cancel and that someone would call to discuss credit check for finance option. We waited for them to call so we could tell them we were not going ahead.



25th Aug no one had called so I called OE customer services 0800 number to cancel. The man asked reason and I said we had changed our minds and he said it would be up to 28 days to refund.

I waited 25 days and called them again. A different man told me I was only entitled to £250 because had not cancelled within 3 days. Until yesterday we had no idea of this policy.

We paid with a credit card.

Please can you help us?

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admin: As you paid with a credit card the provider can usually refund the payment. Unfortunately debit cards don’t have the same protection.
Regardless of which, OE’s practice of refusing to refund the full deposit outside 3 days is based on their own version of consumer rights, and not legal. No-one should ever be approved for (any) surgery without first having been examined by a surgeon in person!
Please send your phone number
sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Good Morning Sasha,

Just a quick message to say that I had a call from head office on Friday to ask for my credit card details to enable them to refund the deposit!

I asked how much that they would be refunding - “the full amount as you cancelled within the time frame”.
This was after receiving their email that I would only receive £250.

Checked this morning, all settled 😊

“Thank You” for the support you gave me during this nasty experience.

Big kisses to you,
Angela Xx