Deposit Refunds

Hello,
I am currently awaiting a call from OE cancellation team after trying to cancel my Lasik treatment.

I sent this email to OE customer services :

"I want to cancel my Lasik eye surgery and receive a full refund on my deposit of £395 (paid 05/04/2014 in Optical Express Newcastle Upon Tyne) for Lasik eye surgery. My deposit was paid to my Refractive Technician, I have also rang the Refractive Technician on the mobile number provided today and left a message requesting my cancellation and the refund of my deposit.

As I only paid my deposit yesterday I am well within my 72 hours full refund period as stated in your terms and conditions.

I feel I was not informed of the true risks of the surgery, these risks may have been worth it if my eyes were worse than what they are, however, with my current prescription I feel it does not warrant this procedure.

I will be calling into the Newcastle Branch first thing tomorrow morning (07/04/2014) to confirm all of this to the branch and ensure my refund is processed."

I have also been to the shop and called their customer service team; however, I am repeatedly told I have to wait until their cancellation department ring me back... I am still waiting.

Hi

Call OE on Thursday last week and advised them of my intention to protest outside their store in Reading. The refund was processed the same day.

I still however feel people need to be aware of dangers of Laser eye surgery and OE's bad practices.

With kind regards
Keith

Hi
I have just cancelled my RLE surgery at Reading. I paid £500 deposit with no quibble refund. My deposit was taken by Sean, another 'Sales counsellor', and Peter Sharma checked my eyes.

I went to my Harley Street for my consent appt. Well that was an eye opener! Production line or what? Let's just say I came away feeling they would give me any lens of the shelf.

So on Friday morning I phoned Sophie at Reading and explained I needed to speak to someone about my concerns, she said she would get Peter or Sean to call me.

No call Friday, even after leaving messages and nothing on Saturday.

I didn't want to risk going over the 72 hrs so due to my treatment at Harley Street and the lack of response from Reading I decided to cancel.

I have looked through all the T&Cs for OE and cannot see a 28 day turn around mentioned.

To any new patients of OE, be very careful it's all about money to them not your health

Hi

I had a consultation at Optical Express in Reading on 22nd March 2014 and was considered suitable for LASIK procedure by the optometrist Peter Sharma. The sales counsellor Sophie Greenhalgh offered me a discounted price of £2,995 if I paid an immediate £400 deposit.

As I was unsure I asked Sophie would I receive a full refund if I decided not to proceed with the surgery, no questions asked. Her response was a definite "Yes". No mention of the 72 hours cancellation policy.

I paid £400 deposit on the Saturday to secure the discounted price and said I would call them with my decision the following week. The next day I fortunately read OE's terms and conditions, and the fact that Sophie had not mentioned the 72 cancellation policy gave me a bad feeling about OE and I decided to investigate. That is how I stumbled upon this forum.

On Monday 24th (well within 72 hours of making the booking) I called OE and informed them I was not going ahead with the surgery and requested a refund of my £400 deposit. I was told my request would be forwarded to the refunds team and they would contact me within 42 hours.

Sure enough I receive a call from Sophie on Tuesday 25th asking why I had cancelled the surgery. She informed me she would not be able to refund the money to my debit card as this was handled by the refunds team and it could take up to 28 days to process. She could not however give a reason for WHY it could take up to 28 days to process and advised I contact the head office.

Head office told me the reason for the 28 day turnaround is because the request has to go through various committees before a refund is processed.

Lol! What is there to be discussed? This is straight forward, I decided not to go ahead and cancelled within the 72 hours cancellation period.

Should my £400 deposit not be refunded by Friday 4th April I will be staging a protest outside Optical Express, 50 Broad Street, Reading on Monday 7th April, every day until I receive the refund.

I have leaflets from Optical Express Ruined My Life to distribute. The protest is legal and I have informed both Thames Valley Police and Reading Borough Council with details..

Should anyone want to join me at this protest please contact me via Sasha:
info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk.

Kind regards
Keith

Hi All,

I had a consultation at Harley Street in February and dived in head first without doing my research (foolish and something I don't often do) and booked my surgery for 18th April. Since then I did some research, read the waiver and decided against going through with treatment as my confidence in OE and the procedure has dropped somewhat.

During my consultation I told the 'sales rep' I was interested in surgery mainly because I play contact sports. I was recommended for Lasik and only told that I shouldn't play for up to 3 months after the op. However I've since read a fair amount of information online advising that after Lasik you should not play period, and that lasek is the better procedure for athletes.

Coupled with my larger than average pupil size I was annoyed to see that lasik could also lead to further complications which I wasn't told about.

I've tried to cancel over the phone once already but they just kept trying to talk me into having the operation and wanting to give me a call back (which unsurprisingly never came). The cancellation never actually gets anywhere, let alone even me broaching the subject of my deposit.

Either way lesson learned!

Thanks.
_________________________________
admin: Pls contact me info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Hi

How do we contact Sasha.

With kind regards
Keith
_____________________
admin: info@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Hi all,
I have recently decided not to have my LASIK done with Optical Express after finding this site and they are refusing to refund me my deposit of £400, they will only give me vouchers or store credit

They told me I only had 72 hrs to get a refund and it's now too late! Strange no-one told me this when they took my money 10 days ago!

I have noticed that all of you have managed to get a refund so would appreciate some advice.
Thanks
Phil

I have received my deposit back and I am very grateful to Sasha for having supported me so that I didn't give up.

I really think that her commitment is very important to help people understand who they are trusting with their health.

I hope that she succeeds in her efforts to stop OE causing further damage and they start admitting their mistakes and maybe working in an ethical and correct manner.

Paid for lens replacement up front for both eyes, with assurances from the OE sales person that after having the first eye done then I could decide if the second eye should go ahead. If I was happy with just one lens replacement there would be no problems in obtaining a refund (Half the cost as she explained).

After the initial lens replacement my reading was substantially improved, however distance vision needed a further laser treatment.

Since then my eyesight has worsened, I now find I am back to square one needing glasses for reading and close up work.

I contact the clinic to request my refund of £1,500 as per what i was told at my original consultation if I chose not to have the second eye treated.

I have been pushed from pillar to post with no one being able to authorise my refund. When i mentioned it at one check up I was even told "good luck with that"!!!

I've read with great interest the similar stories on this site and decided to post my account too. Such despicable customer treatment...

Yay I too got my refund!!,

Not before time - and of course nothing to do with the Optical Express bubble about to explode on Sunday… much!!

Thank you so much to this brilliant website and of course the wonderful, lovely Sasha Rodoy without whom I would still be fighting a losing battle against this evil money grabbing company!!

Sasha, my admiration for you is immense and i will do anything i can to help with your campaign, these butchers must be stopped!!

I can't thank you enough and wouldn't know where to begin to try and repay you. Keep up your brilliant work, you have probably already saved so many people's eye sight!

Roll on Sunday!!