to be a bit surprised that it'll take all day for the opticians to put new lenses in my glasses ?

[gingeroots]

The lenses ( varifocals ) cost an arm and a leg ,over £500 and I just can't afford to buy new frames as well ,hence have to hand over my only pair to be fitted with the new prescription .

Optician says it will take 4 hours and as they don't open until 9.30 ,close at 5.30 ,and between 1 and 2pm (and can't do Saturdays or Wednesdays )this effectively means I'll be without glasses for a day .

They seem very "take it or leave it " about it .

Is this just normal practice ?
Am I being unreasonable to be a bit p*ed off with them ?

This is all really useful stuff and it helps me to understand the situation from the shop's point of view .
( I think this particular shop don't need to and don't care about the customer's point of view ,think about how those 4 hours would work if it were either possible to drop the glasses off at 9am or collect them at 6pm .But it's not )
I think they must send the work off to a lab and that's why it takes 4 hours .
I also think my annoyance was generated by the customer service I've received rather than coping without glasses for 4 hours .

anyhow - more important things in life to worry about I guess .

OP, I'm in a similar situation to you - I need one new lens and can't afford new frames so opticians offered to put it in my existing frames. They offered to arrange a time with me to drop my glasses in - it would only take 1 hr so I could go for a coffee/shopping and then call back.

I suggest you change opticians!

Agree with Vicar. One of the tasks of an optician is to check the specs when they come back from the lab and check the varifocal heights and half-PD's are correct. Can't imagine how it would work online!

So chic who do you use?
Can I ask what varifocals are I need some I think?

I had a nightmare once with what I was told was going to be a 12 day wait over Christmas and new year walked into the opticians next door a local indep compared to the chain with the wait and it took 1 day

Not hekpful now but maybe shop around next time.

specsavers

specsavers are all franchised - depends on who runs them as to how good they are!

(i worked for a pants specsavers....but my mate who is a Dispensing optician worked for and ran a great one - the best place i ever worked was an independent opticians.

It just depends, many opticians (chain) are franchise owned and VicarInaTutu you are right, it depends who runs them on how good/bad they are.
I work for an independent, we have a small chain of 7 practices, ours is one of the best out of the 7. We are also head office and have our own surfacing and glazing lab, with long term staff (almost 80% worked for 12 years or more), who know the patients really well. But a couple of our other practices, don't run so well, you should see some of the dispenses we have sent to our lab to be done from our other practices, shocking! like +8.50 sph, into a supra for example. It just depends on the individual practice.
If you ask other people for recommendations to opticians in your area, people tend to tell others about bad service, but not so much about good.
I also agree that buying varifocals online is ridiculous! But i also think that the price you are being charged is rather steep, with poor customer service to boot.