ive just been pushed into setting up an expensive direct debit

[cressindrra]

After giving up wearing glasses due to lack of comfort and prscticality for my lifestyle. I asked a well known opticians for my glasses prescription as it can be converted to contact lense prescription. I was told I needed a consultation and week trial before I was given my prescription. I went for my trial and was handed a weeks supply of daily contact lenses. I have done some research and dont want daily lenses but I was told they are much better and monthly lenses are uncomfortable. So I agreed to buy three months supply. I felt incredibly pressurised and didnt want that sort of lense and not at that price. I get home and I realise I have signed up for a direct debit of £26 a month! The same lenses are half the price on many reputable online sites and the monthly lenses I wanted to try are £5 a month and £10 on the high street. I wonder if they are on commission as I feel I was tricked into buying the expensive product.

I went to an independent opticians who said there is no reason why I couldnt try monthly lenses and its personal choice what people prefer.

AIBU to think this is all a bit dodgy? Ive already paid £60 for three months supply but shall cancel the direct debit as soon as I have picked up my three month supply on friday. I am normally so assertive but felt very pressurised and like those contacts were my only option.

I asked for a copy of my prescription and they cliamed I coukdnt have it as they wanted to be sure my contacts were fine. So I took the details of my prescription down myself when no one was looking.

When did you order? You have 14 days cooling off period and can cancel and he thinks your money back

Why is it dodgy? Of course online suppliers are cheaper, they don’t have the same overheads as those with physical premises.

If you didn’t want them then you shouldn’t have agreed to the subscription and direct debit.

Cancel the agreement and try to be more assertive in future.

YANBU.

The reaction I got when I asked for my prescription (Boots and I did pay for the eye test), you would have thought I had asked for a free pair of glasses.

I can't afford Boots prices and go to glasses direct online.

Cancel the DD!

Sounds dodgy - they have to give you your prescription. However £26 is not too bad for dailies - I pay £20 for monthlys. At my optician (vision express) this includes all the follow up eye health checks and yearly sight tests. My husband buys his dailies cheaper online but I think the reassurance of the eye check ups is worth a bit extra.

I pay £18 a month for monthly contacts, and buy dailies online for taking on holiday etc.

I think it’s important to have check ups if you’re wearing contact lens so I don’t mind the monthly dd which includes all the check ups and after care.

I have been to Specsavers before for an eye test and asked them just to print out my prescription and give it to me as I had bought some frames from eBay and had a family member at the time who ran an opticians in another part of the country who could make and fit the lenses into the frames for me if I sent her the frames and my prescription in the post. The travel time etc made it too inconvenient to go to her for the test itself so she told me to get another optician to do it for me and then send it on.

I got the impression they weren't too happy that I didn't want to spend the normal amount on the whole malarkey but I was pretty clear up front about what service I was looking for and if they had given me a spiel about not wanting to print the prescription etc then I just would have gone somewhere else.

I would just pay for what you have got - the initial set of lenses etc and then cancel it and bear it in mind for next time. You can always tell them you have a family member who is an optician but is too far away to do the test for you when it comes time to recheck your prescription?

Firstly, if you buy your contacts online you’ll need to provide a copy of your prescription, so copying the details down won’t help you. You need a copy of the prescription which you’ll need to scan or send off a copy before you can buy online.

Secondly, I don’t think £26 a month for contacts is expensive. I would be very very wary about spending £5 a month on monthly lenses. But that’s just my opinion. I buy daily disposable from a very reputable high street chain. They are very high oxygen water content ones. I tried to get a cheaper pair and tried out an ‘own’ brand for 5 days. I’m sure it’s just coincidence but 3 days into wearing the cheap ones I woke up in the night feeling like I had been shot in the head. When my husband turned the bedroom light on the pain was excruciating.. the light caused agony. Very long story short I ended up going to A&E (thank goodness I did) and diagnosed by the eye clinic as having contact keratitis, which is a bacterial infection/ulcer (from memory). I had to have steroids and antibiotics every 2 hours for the first 48 hours. Then for another 8 weeks. I had to visit the eye clinic everyday for about 2 weeks. You can easily go blind from it. It’s an infection caused by wearing contact lenses and to this day I’m convinced the cheap lenses caused the issues.

Different types of lenses suit different types of people. With monthly ones you’ll still be buying solutions etc to clean the lenses with so consider the cost of that. I would do a bit more research into why you’ve been prescribed the type of lenses you have before assuming you’ve been ‘ripped off’. Your particular lifestyle, prescription and other factors may point to dailies being the right type for you.

Most eye tests are £10 if not free - so £10 a month extra is costing you £120 a year for the sake of a inenoff cost

I don’t have to use a prescription MammaAgata, anyone can just place their order. I just copy what my optician supplies me with.

@MammaAgata really? I used to buy lenses online all the time and never had to scan my prescription. I haven't done so for some time though as I've gone from monthlies to dailies and my DD is only pennies cheaper than online, and it includes eye tests and a pair of free specs once every 2 years.

Really? I thought you had to send it off? Although I’m thinking of my horse prescriptions... I had to get prescription off Vet and send off to manufacturer of drugs when buying online rather than direct off Vet. I thought lenses were the same.

I think it should be regulated actually because eyes are so delicate, but it isn’t!

Of course they should have given you your prescription, you presumably paid for your eye test so you're entitled to your results! You should get your angry head on and march back in there!

“Firstly, if you buy your contacts online you’ll need to provide a copy of your prescription“

Not true

“You have 14 days cooling off period and can cancel and he thinks your money back”

Only if you buy something online

I asked for a copy of my prescription and they cliamed I coukdnt have it as they wanted to be sure my contacts were fine. So I took the details of my prescription down myself when no one was looking.

That part sounds dodgy. of course you are entitled to your own prescription.

The rest does not sound dodgy as such, but yeah just collect what you have pad for and cancel the DD. You will get a letter or two moaning about the cancelled DD, but ignore them. Job done.

I pay £20 for monthlys. At my optician (vision express) this includes all the follow up eye health checks and yearly sight tests. My husband buys his dailies cheaper online but I think the reassurance of the eye check ups is worth a bit extra

I pay £10 to VE once a year which includes a full test and eye health check...there's no difference if you buy lenses from them. I then get my prescription and buy my monthly lenses online for £7 a month.

It's a saving of over £140 a year. It might not seem worth it to some but for anyone who wants to lower costs as much as possible you'd be crazy to buy lenses at an opticians.

Caker's right, I get mine on Lenstore and don't have to provide a copy of my prescription. £30 for three months' worth of contact lenses. No way am I signing up to Specsavers.

I get mine online - £36 for 3 months of dailies - never had to produce my prescription either!

That is very expensive OP yanbu

You need a copy of the prescription which you’ll need to scan or send off a copy before you can buy online

No, you don't.

As for buying 'reputable' contacts, many that you buy online are the same brands stocked in opticians, or made by the same manufacturer/to the same standards.

Yes let's buy medical appliances online. What could possible go wrong ?
It's not like my spectacle prescription is a totally different prescription to my contacts ? It is !

It's not like all eyes are different shapes and the wrong size could cause long term damage/pain? Actually it's exactly like that!

It's not like different designs and thickness of contact allow air and moisture through to keep your eye healthy? Oops actually true again.

I mean we can always get a new pair of eyes and these people don't train for years and learn hundreds of calculations just for this job ? Oh wait, yes they do but I'm sure sticking a foreign object which you have no professional training in fiiting into your eye can't possible go wrong !

I had monthlies from SS for about 9 months and they are THE most uncomfortable things ever! I couldn't wear them for more than a few hours a day - total waste of money!

I am planning on going back to SS for dailies as soon as I can afford to.

They offer the best service and are so thorough.

Also, a glasses prescription and a contact lens prescription are different, they have different measurements of your eye and you can do real damage by wearing the wrong type of contact lens.

For the extra £££ its definitely worth getting the right type of lens!!!

Hiden, I buy the exact same brand on Lenstore as I used to in Specsavers.

I still get my contact lens checks with Specsavers, I just thank them kindly when they offer to provide my contact lenses and point out I can get my branded PureVision 2 HDs for a third of the price online. They try a sales push (which never mentions the risk of injuring my eyes but points out the free eye tests and "ease" of having them order for me) and then leave it.

I think you were a little silly to sign up for it if you didn’t want too. Surely you could just have told them you wanted to think about it first 🤷🏻‍♀️
I think the monthly contracts include other things such as any ongoing care and checks so that accounts for some of the added cost. Otherwise they are more expensive than online companies as they are a different type of business with different costs. A company that has high street stores is obviously going to have higher costs than an online only company. I don’t think the discrepancy in cost is a 'scam' at all.

Having said that I used to buy my lenses very cheaply from an online company.