Deposit Refunds

Just to let you know that my card details were processed at 6 pm by OE. Apparently Lynsay Shaw called me at 4:30pm - in spite of my being told in an earlier phone call that she was off work until Tuesday! I called back at 6 and they immediately offered to take my card details. The money should be back in my account in a few days. If it's not another post on here might do the trick...

In the meantime, thanks very much, Sasha. Keep up the good work against such obvious shysters!

Keep pestering. and threaten small claims court. That's what my mum did & she received it this morning. Just don't give up!!!

Like the rest of you I have been promised a refund from Optical Express which has yet to arrive. It is now over two months since they cancelled my operation. At the time I was assured that I would be refunded both the deposit (£400) and the remaining cost of the treatment - £3,890, which I had paid up front.

After having initially been told that my refund wold take up to 28 days to arrive I got in touch with them again. Yesterday they told me they very sorry for the delay but there had been a fault with the processing equipment in the banking department, but nevertheless I would receive my money within the next ten days.

When I called up today I was told that the authorisation had yet to been granted for the release of my money(!) but that they would call me within "5-7 working days". No mention was made of the supposed fault in their processing equipment.

From reading this discussion board and others like it I can see that my experience is hardly unique. I find it shocking that a supposedly reputable company can treat its customers like this.

Do you know of anyone I could contact directly at Optical Express about this matter? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Gareth
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admin: Contactinfo@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk :kiss:

Perhaps Dan had surgery at OE herself, because I can’t find anything in the T&Cs saying that lenses could take up to 12 weeks to arrive!

Unless of course OE interpret "postponement of treatment" due to non arrival of lenses as "due to equipment failure”?

We’ll find out in court, when I will of course publish details.

Meanwhile, I know I have poor vision, but even with the help of reading glasses and a magnifying glass I found it difficult to read this document. Presumably why a blue background was chosen, so the text is already blurred even without OE adminstering dilating eye drops before asking customers to sign it!

Dan from OE just called and offered me another £500 discount off the treatment.

I told her that I don't want treatment and I want my money refunding because I am not willing to risk my eyes with Optical Express. She said they would only refund £4,500 pounds because I signed a disclaimer document that says I can’t get back my £1,000 deposit even if the lenses don't arrive, and that the document also says that the lenses can take up to 12 weeks to arrive after the consent appointment. So she is basically saying that I have to pay for lenses that are not in my eyes!

When I went to the first appointment at Optical Express Westfield clinic in February they put drops in my eyes before I signed the disclaimer document and did not give me a copy. (Dan said she would post a hard copy to me but why did they not give me a copy on the day?)

They also told me that if I did not pay the deposit immediately and schedule the surgery for March, they could not give me the discount. So they made me book my surgery for 20 and 27 March even though they knew the lenses could take up to 12 weeks to arrive just to take my money from me.

I told her that at my consent appointment I was informed that if the supplier advised that they were unable to deliver in time Optical Express would call me to reschedule the surgery, but instead of doing this they sent me a confirmation letter (which now Dan claims was just computer generated) and then the customer service team called me two weeks before the surgery to confirm, and of course they also called to take payment the date before.

Her only explanation for all of this was that there was a problem of miscommunication between the staff in OE.

I am now going to take legal action and report this company to the Financial Ombudsman and Trading Standards because this must be an illegal scam!

Thank goodness the lenses did not arrive in time!

Hi

My name is Natalia Burbano and I am 30 years old. Early in February '15 I went to the Westfield branch of Optical Express in White City. Because I have high Myopia and Astigmatism they said my only option was to have Natural Lens Enhancement surgery (NLE), implanting Intraocular lens on top of my own and it would cost £6,200, but if I paid £1,000 deposit I could have a discount, but only if I paid immediately. I did so and they scheduled my consent appointment for 17 February. Some weeks later, they rescheduled my appt for 3 March.

At the consent appointment at Harley Street surgeon Dimitris Kazakos told me I was suitable for the procedure and scheduled my first surgery on 18 April for my right eye (my lazy eye) and 25 April for the left eye. They told me that because they had to order the lens from an overseas supplier the surgery might have to be rescheduled but they would contact me if necessary. In fact, a few weeks later they sent a letter confirming both surgery dates.

Two weeks before the first surgery, OE called and told me that they needed to change the time from 8:45 to 8:30am and the surgeon would be Alex George, not Dimitri Kazakos.

On 17 April they called and asked me to pay the outstanding £4,500 balance which I did.

On Saturday 18 April I arrived at the Westfield clinic in time for surgery at 8:30am, but after waiting one hour they told me the surgery would have to be rescheduled (they did not know when) because the lens had not arrived, yet they had taken full payment from me the day before knowing this! I felt I had been misled and that I couldn’t trust them with my eyes so I told them I wanted to cancel.

The person dealing with me ( I don't remember his name) told me I have the right to cancel - and also to receive compensation as I had to put some medicine in my eyes over three days before the surgery and needed to wear my glasses for more than two months - I don't see as well with glasses! - because their optometrist, Stephanie, told me I needed to stop using contact lenses before the surgery to hydrate my eyes.

As I don't trust OE after everything they have done to me, I called the cancellation team that same day and they told me they were not working. I called again three times on Monday 20 April and each time customer services told me that someone in the cancellation team would contact me shortly. Yesterday, 21 April, I called again and finally spoke with Lawrence McLaughlin who told me (in a very rude way) that they may not refund the money because it was the suppliers fault the surgery was not done, not theirs, and they will contact me within 48 hours with an answer.

I told him I don't want to reschedule the surgery because I cant trust my eyes to a company that doesn't care about the patients, able to call me the day before surgery to take the payment but telling me the lenses hadn’t arrived and surgery had to be postponed. This makes me feel they only care about money.

I think I have been very lucky because if the lenses had arrived I would not have found this website and read of so many problems people have had. This could have been me!

I don't want to reschedule surgery with Optical Express and I want my payment refunded. Could you please advise me what I should?

Thanks
Natalia
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admin: Pls email info@opticalexpressruinedmy life and I wiil be happy to advise

Hi Sasha

I was due to have LASIK surgery at Optical Express' Nottingham Listergate store on 23/02/15. However, on the day of treatment my surgeon informed me that my corneas were too thin to safely go ahead with the surgery.

A couple of days later I received a call from Optical Express to see what I had to decided to do, as LASEK was mentioned as a possibility (however this still carried a high risk) and I'd already paid for LASIK surgery in full on the day of my consultation (07/02/2015). I informed the caller that I would like a full refund. I was then told that someone from the refunds department would be in touch to obtain my card details and process the refund (£2795) "as soon as possible".

Having heard nothing for 2 weeks I emailed Customer Services at OE to see what the delay was and received a reply 2 days later which stated that refunds can take up to 28 days and the latest I would hear from the refund department would be 07/04/15.

As you can probably guess I was not contacted at all prior to that date and I am still waiting for the refunds department to call. I have emailed customer services, clinical services and Sandra (the customer services associate who replied to my original email) but have had no reply. As £2795 is a huge amount of money to me I am very concerned that Optical Express are avoiding my communication attempts and are still unlawfully withholding my payment.

I would greatly appreciate any help or advice on my situation before I am forced to consider legal action.

Many thanks

Update, my money has now been refunded.

Thank you Sasha for the assistance, without this forum I suspect I may have been waiting a while longer to see my money returned.

Update, someone from the OE cancelations team phoned me this morning and processed my refund, it's not in my account yet, however finger crossed it shall be in the next day or two.

If not then another post here should do the trick

Firstly may I say that I wish I had found your website before I ever set foot through the doors of Optical Express, I find it completely shocking that a well known high street chain can show such utter disdain for its clients, many of whom have posted their issues on your forum.

With regards to my own circumstances, I had a consultation in the Aberdeen branch for laser eye surgery on the 28th February 2015 where after the examination the ophthalmologist advised that due to the nature of my prescription and an ongoing medical condition LASIK was not suitable, however the medication I have to take meant I was at risk of forming cataracts so I was advised that lens replacement surgery would be advisable, if not now then in the near future.

After discussion with the sales assistant at front of house where it was explained that I would be required to have an appointment in Glasgow with the Refractive Surgeon prior to my eventual surgery I decided to go ahead with the procedure, although truth be told there was never any indication from the sales assistant that I should ‘go away and think about it’. Having been told that the cost of the surgery for both eyes would be £5590 due to requiring toric lenses, I paid a deposit of £3590 by debit card leaving a balance of £2000. I was also specifically told at the time that any refunds should I decide not to go ahead with the surgery would take “up to 28 days” and not, as it appears from others posting here, up to 28 working days.

A few days later I received a phone call from Optical Express explaining that that due to my medical condition the surgeon had cancelled surgery after reviewed the results of my consultation. I then received an email from the PA at the Aberdeen branch on 6th March advising that he had spoken with their cancellation team who would be in touch with me shortly to process my refund.

Having heard nothing further I emailed the PA on 6th April, receiving a reply the same morning apologising that it has taken so long and that he would get back to me as soon as he had been in touch with cancellations again. That was the last I heard, despite sending two further emails on the 8th April and another again this morning.