Not happy with Optician

Trilla90

Hi I've been user contact lens user the last 5 years (i'm 24) or so and have being going to the same optician in that time. Things where going good for a few years and he was a pretty friendly man overall (older man if that matters). I would order my lenses from him and have an eye check once a year without fuss.

This changed about a year ago when I had a bad experience with the optician. It was partly my fault to be honest because I hadn't had a check up in the 2 previous years because that was around the time i started ordering my lenses online (as they where much cheaper). Anyway my optician basically gave me a lecture in an angry tone about how important your eyes are and that you need to look after them properly. I knew this already but i took it on the chin and basically agreed that in future i would order my contacts off him again to be safe.

He asked me to bring in the lenses i had been ordering (daysoft daily lenses) and he basically gave me a grilling saying stuff like "how did you find out about these?" "where do they come from?" "how can you trust that these are safe?".

When i told him the price for a months supply he was literally shocked and he was making out that i was mad to be putting them in my eyes at all. Even when i told him how i had done a fair bit of research on the company (daysoft) and read all the good reviews before i ordered them he practically laughed in my face. I felt like walking out the door and not coming back at that point to be honest. He just made me feel very small for ordering them but i wondered if it was all genuine concern for my eye health or if part of it was that i was no longer ordering off him anymore.

Anyway since then i've ordered them off him every few months or so (sauflon uv is the brand). This is after he said he'd try to find a cheaper alternative monthly lense. Now if i ordered a 12 month supply of these it would be over €220 while the daysoft would be around €160. When he checked my eyes last year after i had being using the daysoft lenses he said i had slight staining on one of my eyes. But even after i started ordering the ones off him i still had slight staining. I think he mentioned that i could just have sensitive eyes and be more prone to staining. I was meant to go for a checkup sometime in October (after 3 months of wearing the sauflon ones) but i never went. I kept putting it off and off. I ran out of these contacts at the start of January and since then i've been wearing the daysoft again (i had a couple of months supply left).

Anyway as i've left getting a checkup for so long, the fact that i've been wearing the daysoft lenses for the last few months and because of the incident last year i'm reluctant to go back to that optician. I think i want to change opticians but as far as i know i'd need to ask him for my history which i feel could be an awkward experience (would i have to meet him face to face or call?). Sorry I'm rambling on here but any advice would be appreciated..:)

endacl

There are lots of opticians out there. Just change. No big deal. What's the actual problem? Find one you like and take their advice.

bobobear

Just switch optician. After almost a year of using daysoft I went to the optician to get a new prescription (felt my old one was too weak).
I said nothing about what lenses I was using - she told me my eyes were a bit dry so I needed a different, more expensive lens. She said it was probably because I am in college in a heavily air-conditioned/heated building.

€50 a month! €600 a year! No way.

She said nothing about any damage, said that my eyes looked fine.

I paid €15 at that "should have gone to xxxxx" for an eye test (for glasses, and required before a contact lens test) and €30 for a contact lens fitting, with a month of lenses. So €45 for the first month, and then THEY'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN!!

Well, for a couple of years anyway.