to be upset that I can't cancel an order for glasses two hours after I made it?

[Shapechanger]

Had an eye test at Boots Opticians and got a real hard sell on some frames. I don't normally buy expensive things on the spot, but, foolishly, I felt guilty - the sales assistant had followed me round and looked really crestfallen when I said I wanted to go away and think about it.

They were £200.

I came home and I can get the same frames with the same lenses for £76 and a 100 day no quibble money back guarantee.

I rang and tried to change the order but was told it was too late - 2 hours after I had paid for them - because the order was already with the supplier. Customer services said the same thing.

I'm really upset, I know I shouldn't have let myself be pressured and should have followed my instinct and taken a bit more time to think and find out if I was getting a good deal.

I'm posting this to warn anyone else.

Therefore they cover the rest of the cost by having a high margin on the glasses they sell

Try VERY high! Mark up is extortionate.

I agree - i dont think they will be making them - but it will be all computerised, and the order will be within the manufacturer's systems. it needs someone at Boots Head office to make a manual intervention.

Not even that, first thing Monday, before the frames are collected, Boots call them & stop the order. Nothing will have happened yet, it can't, not without the tracing of the frames.

I agree it would be masochistic to place an order for glasses and then look them up online to see if they are cheaper.

The frames I ordered are slightly unusual in that they are black on the outside but have another colour on the inside IYSWIM. I liked them but would have been interested in trying them in another colour and having a choice. I asked the girl in the shop and she said they didn't come in any other colours which I thought was a bit odd as I've been wearing glasses for a while and most of the frames you can get in more than one colour.

So I had a hunt around on the net to see if what she said was true. Turns out you can get them in five or six colours. But maybe Boots only do the one colour. Even if that's the case the way she said it made it sound as if that frame only came in that colour, she said something like 'no, because they are all individual' or something like that.

I guess if that shop didn't sell them in any other colour then she wouldn't have said 'well yes but we only stock this one' as I had already said I didn't usually buy something without thinking about it first. If she had told me it came in other colours then I wouldn't have bought them. Also if Boots sell a different colour but didn't have them in stock she probably wouldn't have made the sale either, because I might have said that I wanted to come back and see the other ones when they had them in stock.

Either way I wouldn't have done what I did which is make a bad deal. :(

Long-winded, sorry, really just meant to explain how I ended up finding them online and having such an awful shock at how much I had just paid.

Op, try browsing Boots online selection of frames? If they do have another colour, in stock or not, then they have lied to you. This is a good basis for complaint. People seem to be missing the point that the op felt pressured into the sale. That is important. I also think they are lying about manufacturing being underway, given the timescale involved. Poor customer service, and a good way to push more people off the high st to shop online.

Lots of people who really do not know what they are talking about are giving incorrect advice on this thread. Google EU legislation 7 day cooling off period for contracts made outside the home by consumers. Quote it to Boots. It's not the case that if you said you'd pay you have to pay FFS!

BigPawsBrown I am sure you are wrong. You are not allowed to return made to order goods regardless of where you bought them unless there is something wrong with them.

Made to order = personalised

bigpaws that does not apply to anything made for you from a mug saying bigpaws, wedding dress, trousers being shortened in store, curtains, a sofa made up in red leather or whatever and yes it would include prescription lenses too, you can only retun these if faulty

also 7 day coooling off period does not apply to purchases made in shops if you buy a jumper in marks and spencers they will change it unworn because you purchased wrong size or would prefer blue but the point is that is their choice they do not have to, with goods purchased in a shop you have no right to return or refund under sale of goods act unless faulty, not as described or fail to last a reasonable length of time

there is no legal right to return goods that are wrong size or colour when purchased in a shop there is if you buy online or from catalogue, however this still does not apply if personalised
you can't return personalised stuff under DSR (distance selling regulations) which is just about to change to 14 days provided unused in original packing some things like DVD's must not have had seal broken

there is separate legislation for things sold in your own home by cold callers which is again different to people who made an appointment to call on you, the time to ask for more time is before you sign contract,

when you sign house sale contract it is legally binding immediately

Why is ordering a pair of glasses different to just buying a pair and taking them home? This isn't really a contract. It's just a purchase. She bought something and changed her mind. I think legal protection should be the same for any stuff where you buy it and change your mind regardless of whether or not you take it home with you in your bag or wait for it to be delivered.
For me a contract is something like arranging for someone to fit double glazing.

2rebecca that is not the law though, the difference is that just a buying a pair is generally restricted to reading glasses in set variations

glasses for short sightedness etc are that prescriptions and lenses for both eyes are usually different, they maybe be curvature due to astigmatism, so they are termed personalised and non returnable as once made useless to anyone else

boots could probably have done better for her and agreed to cancel but legally OP has no leg to stand on however I do feel sorry for her as she felt a bit pressured

I think initially the difference in law was because you can go to shop and try on the trousers before purchase with a catalogue / online you have to pay before you can check fit hence online right of return

you can't open DVD in shop before you pay hence you can't break seal of a returned DVD purchased online

If they're not fit for purpose you can get a refund.... maybe the glasses "don't seem right" when you collect them...?

The frame can be scanned in store and the details sent electronically to the glazing house, where they can begin to make the lens to fit the frame. Once they have the frame they may need to adjust things a little, but it is perfectly possible for the order to have begun to be processed on a Saturday and without the frame.

Thank you Nanny Ogg. It is nice to see that someone values the services of an Independent practice, and doesn't just abuse their goodwill and stock to try on glasses before buying them online...

"I think legal protection should be the same for any stuff where you buy it and change your mind regardless of whether or not you take it home with you in your bag or wait for it to be delivered."

Exactly right, 2rebecca, except you are assuming there is a right to return something if you change your mind. There isn't. Any shop that allows you to does so as a good will gesture. You have no right to do so in law. You only have the right to return goods under the Sales of goods act, which covers goods which are faulty, etc.

I guess I will continue to have my eyes tested where there are more 'goodwill gestures'.
I appreciate small firms may find that difficult but Boots? Maybe they are struggling? If they are they need to look at why....

Well it's been more than a week and I haven't heard yet that my glasses (that were being made within two hours of my having ordered them) are ready.

Boots has lost my custom for good, after forty years of being a good customer.

I understand what everyone here is saying re what the legal position is, and that I have no right to cancel.

If I had known this then I would not have placed the order, I was pretty hesitant (though this hesitancy was ignored by the staff who looked a bit disapproving when I said I needed time to think about it before ordering any). I think because we are used now to being able to return things, or cancel things it comes as a bit of a nasty shock to find that is not the case. Glasses bought in a shop seem to be pretty exceptional - if you order them online you can cancel, even if it is from the online website of the same store.

I am sure they know full well that if they said to customers 'once we place this order it cannot be cancelled' loads of them would hesitate, maybe take some time to think about it.

And they don't want that, they like to get you when you are vulnerable, are grateful to them for testing your eyes, make you feel obliged to buy from them. They know that if you have time to think about it you probably won't come back, or will go elsewhere (somewhere that charges less than half what you are paying).

It's a contract, but as modern consumers we do not know the contract terms - we assume that as customers we will get the same privileges (right to cancel, right to return) as we do anywhere else. And no one tells us that it is different.

It might be legal, but it feels like sharp practice.

I am aware that I have no rights, but I think it's short sighted (forgive the pun) not to be more generous. To change my mind two hours after I had placed the order, having admitted at the time that I was unsure, and being told that it was tough... it's made the goodwill of several decades as a Boots customer evaporate.

If I had gone back a week or even a day later I would not feel like this.

But to be irrevocably committed after two hours... I just cannot believe it was not possible to cancel the order. As I said, it's a week and still no sign of these glasses that I have paid through the nose for and dislike before I've even put them on.

I will learn from this; thank you everyone for responses.

I am wholly with you on this one op, very poor customer service xx

It is sharp of them, yes. I find the internet far better for most things you can buy.

There's no way they started working on the glasses within 2 hours of you placing the order. Clearly they're just being awkward because changing your mind is seen as "bad". I've noticed people just get irritated about changes of mind whether it affects them or not, just out of principle. I hate that too, but really OP you have to let this none go. In the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal. Just try bit to think about it.

Had glucomia and eye test at boots , was told for my first time i needed glasses, i was still seeing a bit blurry after the eye drops, and not had to wear glasses before, i was given a load of jargon over this lens and that, my own fault i admit i thought if i had to wear them i chose a designer pair i liked, cost £450. When i got home after the shock of paying so much, and the fact i can see clearly and read newspaper print really easy i decided it was a lot of money for something im not going to use, because my appointment was so late the shop had closed, so after work the next day i returned to the shop and asked to stop the order and have a refund, the assistant called the manager over who point blank refused, i mean come on they wouldn't even got the order, anyway no joy. In future i would never uee boots again or recommend them to anyone, should have gone to speck savers. £450 i can ill afford down the drain!

ZOMBIE THREAD

ZOMBIE THREAD

Pil took glasses back to boots as faulty when done. They refunded in full. They rebought in asda 2 for £99 and no faulty.