Specsavers ( not a sponsored review )

I have rubbish vision, since the age of 14 I have worn glasses daily and at about 17 I began wearing contact lenses.

I wear them everyday and although my sight is 'not that bad' so I'm told EVERYTIME I go to the optician I cannot bear to be without them. I challenge the annoying opinion of the staff who make this comment to try squinting at every sign more than a meter away or experience the wonder of realising trees have individual leaves when I put my glasses on.

Anyway back to my experience of Specsavers.

When I moved back to London I began using my new local store to collect my lenses each month. It has become my most hated task of the month, worse than emptying the food bin or paying the rent.

Without fail the staff are stroppy and uninterested. They seem stressed and under pressure when more than two customers are in store. Luckily I'm usually not too demanding, I get the lenses and get out quickly.

However, I recently decided to get some new frames. Should be easy seeing as I get my lenses from the same store right?

No.

It went a bit like this

'Can I have these?'

'No'

'Oh why not?'

'You need a new sight test'

'Oh ok can I book one for today?'

'No you can have one on Wednesday.'

'I will need a weekend one as I work, could you try and squeeze me in, I do get my lenses from here and that means you have my prescription'

'No that's out of date too, so you can't have them either'

'What? No ones told me. I need them I have run out!'

'Well it ran out 2 months ago so you were lucky to get any last month!'

- by now I was fuming. I felt like I was being told off for something I hadn't done and was stressed at the idea of no lenses or frames for the near future.

Anyway I will summarise as I'm sure you get the idea.

I managed to beg for a weeks worth of lenses and the promise of a call the following weekend IF there was a cancellation.

Amazingly I did get a call on the Saturday and I rushed down for my test. Again the store was heaving, staff were confused and flustered. They as always talked in stressed out tones over the heads of us inconvenient customers and ushered us about.

Of course by now the frames I chose the previous week were out of stock and needed to be ordered from another store so I would need to come back the following weekend to try them again! In the end I just told them to get them made without trying them on and paid for them to seal the deal. I was allowed to collect a months supply of lenses at this point so that was a start!

The following Saturday ( 2 weeks after choosing my frames ) I popped into the store to see if they were ready as I had heard nothing.

'Oh Erm * flustered fumbled rummage rummage* they are upstairs but not ready maybe Tuesday?'

So by the following Saturday ( 3 weeks after choosing my frames) still nothing! I call them and YES they are ready. I guess I was supposed to just know this the same way I was supposed to know my tests were out of date.

So the end of this story sees me finally the owner of a very lovely pair of frames which I love.

However, if I ever have to set foot in that store again I will be considering an epidural from the brain down first.

- I know that this will not be the only review of customer service at Specsavers you will read in the next few months they appear to be doing the rounds of parent bloggers right now. This IS however the only one written that is NOT a paid review and probably the only one written via the fury of an angry, angry woman.