Hi there,
I supposed you should be able to get free eye tests and glasses on the NHS for children (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Still, I ended up paying £40 today.
£15 frame (they tried to show us lots of far more expensive ones, £40 and even more than £100 without even asking what we were looking for, just asking my ds (8) if he liked the glasses. Luckily I was able to convince him to choose the £15 frame. There was NONE that would have been completely free, but ok, £15 is not the world. Another £10 for scratch resistance (ok, that was entirely my choice so fine).
While I hadn't expected this, still ok so far (£25 I thought). But no, the bill was £40. I had to politely ask why, the assistant didn't mention anything and just asked for "settlement" (of the bill that is).
The answer was, technically the NHS eye check is free, but not with Mr. XY (optician). It does actually cost something (£15) because he's so great.
I was of course too polite and embarrassed to cause trouble (typical) but found this very cheeky (they hadn't mentioned it at all when booking the appointment and also not when we arrived for the appointment).
Last year I tried another optician and the cheapest kids glasses started at £40. Ds was so sad he couldn't have them it was heartbreaking.
We are not really poor so can afford this, my childrens eye-sight is important to me and surely I spend a lot of money on non-essential things, however, I don't see why they don't tell you anything about the actual cost beforehand and why I should pay a lot of money on designer frames which neither I nor my child care for.
Plus I think they should at least have one free frame which doesn't necessarily need look stylish but at least then you had a real choice. Also I'd really like to know the fees for the check beforehand.
Don't get me wrong, £15 is fine for me to pay, but I just don't like the way the opticians think I'd happily spend £80 or more on child's glasses (they manage to break them all the time anyway, so what's the point?).
I know there're plenty of opticians, but with three dc I don't really like dragging them from shop to shop or ring dozens of opticiansl.
Maybe I'm overreacting but would still love to know what you pay.
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General health
"FREE" EYE TEST/GLASSES for CHILDREN - how much do you actually pay for them?
46 replies
Giuliettatoday · 16/07/2007 19:20
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