High street opticians are a rip off

I work in high st opticians, the reason that specs cost more is the sight test is subsidised by the spec sale,the true cost of a test is around £70.00,but most customers have been used to paying a lot less than this.

Have you ever -

- been ripped off?
- been a victim of unfair or sharp practice?
- paid for something that you feel was a total waste of money?

The BBC Rip Off Britain team are planning the new series and want to hear YOUR stories. Email ripoffbritain@bbc.co.uk with details, or post your grievances to:

Rip Off Britain, PO BOX 4360, Manchester, M61 0DY.

We want to expose the issues that matter most to you, the British public, and expose the rip off merchants.

We have to undergo four years of training, I have already spent £1,500 on optical equipment and that was just in the first year, buy the time i'm finished I will have around £27000 student debt and some of you have the nerve to say optometrists are 'grossly overpaid,' how pathetic and ignorant, next time you see floaters/ flashes or blurriness, don't bother going to an optician, why don't you just google it, the results would be just as accurate right? pfft

jdb,

"1.6 lenses on the high street at least £200" - absolute nonsense. You can certainly buy low quality 1.6 lenses on high street for less than £100. These are the same as what you buy on the internet. When you pay a lot of money for 1.6 lenses hopefully you are paying for a good quality coating (hoya, zeiss, rodenstock etc), and YES it does make a difference - adherence, longevity, reduction of reflection and dispersion. You are paying for the surfacing of the lens when neccessary (alligned to prescription, pupillary distance and size and shape of frame).
Myopes do not require surfaced lenses, however the result of unsurfaced lenses for hyperopes (long sighted) can be horrific and you will certainly see where your money went. Please do your homework more carefully before spouting nonsense online. If your local optician quoted you £200, did you not think to seek a competitr to do it for a better price - they certainly exist!!!! Its easy to search lots of outlets online and find the cheapets deal but this does not amount to research. One thing that I promise you is that £130 - £150 single vision coated lenses you buy on the high street are NOT of the same quality as you get online. If you happen to be long sighted and have bought for £40 I am confident you have bought something that is considerably inferior to what you were offered on the high street.
cheers FGH

Beleive what you see on Tv. Believe what you read on the internet . Send this and you will be rich./ B.S./ Do not trust your health with an unknown on the internet . They are only making you fearfull of the professionals you trust.

Sorry I'm tired of purchasing unregulated purchases off of people selling their crap on the internet. So if you decide to purchase product on the internet remember . They have no name and no face, no guilt and no remorse . Be carefull to whom you rely for health. He may only have his profit in mind.

OK, I'll agree that the cost of optical equipment and expertise for eye testing has to be covered by the cost of glasses but....................come on the mark up on glasses is HUGE!!!!! Opticians make a BIG profit on glasses. Yes, as professionals they deserve to be paid as such and the price of specs has to cover overheads but the profit margin on glasses is much more than that. That is why so many people are buying on line. I'm sure if opticians prices were more reasonable people would prefer to buy from their opticians. For instance in my case, I wear contacts that are suitable for all day,every day use. I only need glasses for emergency back up but my prescription is so high that normal lenses are the "coke bottle" variety - look awful and really heavy and uncomfortable to wear. High index lenses are really expensive at opticians so I just get my old glasses reglazed by a top quality on line company specialising in reglazing. It would cost AT LEAST £200 to get this done at an opticians. I really hate the fact that the worse your eyesight is the more you get ripped off. I got my glasses reglazed in 1.6 index for £40 and they are great, the lenses still on the thick side but nothing like they would be in normal lenses and just fine as a back up pair. When the alternative is either an ugly frame with very thick lenses or spending an absolute minimum of £200 for high index there's no way I'd buy glasses at an opticians.

sorry optigirl, I can see that these problems keep you awake at night!!! You have got your wires crossed somewhere!
Cheapest lens (cr39) has the "best" abbe value as it is the highest. Your assertion that the cheapest lens is the worst performance is completely wrong (it is the other way round!!!)
glass or cr39 abbe value 58.
1.7 (plastic) abbe number 36 produces much more chromatic aberration than cr39 or glass (1.523) 1.70 (plastic)is much thinner and much more expensive.
Using the phrase "no distortion" in association with any lens is misleading, distortion is dependent on a variety of factors, lens design, size of finished lens and very importantly prescription. An amount of distortion is always present whether detectable or not. To suggest that trivex is distortion free or performs better than another material is not correct at all!

Wondering if you are thinking of distortion and abberation as similar problems when they are completely different one is caused by form of lens (distortion) the other is caused by material of lens (aberration) these are not associated. Both of these problems are affected by the size of prescription.
Sorry to pull your comment apart but I am worried that people will actually think it is correct and spend their money accordingly. Most people will realise you are not an authority on lenses when you are unable to spell lens (singular) lenses (plural) never "lense". Pray to god that you don't work in an opticians but I have the sneaking suspicion you may be employed by one of the large chains. Please tell me I am wrong!!!!

lense material cost different amounts. polycarb is cheap ,scratches easy and there is distortion around the edges. polycarb can crackle in a year or two and the lenses must be replaced because one will not be able to see thru them. plastic is more expensive , a little heavier and a little thicker.
trivex is a mid index lense that is light, thin, and no distortion and more expensive than plastic . hi index is even thinner and lighter and more expensive than mid index.
there is an abbe value to lense and the cheaper the lense, the lower the abbe value, the lower the abbe value , the more distortion and abberations in lense. I could go on on thats the tip of the iceberg

rippedoff,
you can get specs for £10. How are you ripped off? I pay £400 + for my specs they are fantastic, comfortable and well fitted. I have worn glasses since three years old and have tried cheap rubbish and they do not work for me. My opticians spends time and effort ensuring my specs are the best fit possible for my rather large prescription. I'm sure my optician does sleep well at nigth comfortable in the knowledge he has done a good job. Is this not how a market works we choose what suits us and we should rejoice the fact that we can purchase from £10 to a thousand. Its our choice I could own a £10,000 car - I don't mine cost £300 - it suits me. So my question is, whats your point?

dobino,

where did you get that from? Doctors cannot provide you with a prescription! They can providea basic eye and field of vision test to decide whether you need to see a qualified optometrist. But lets just pretend for a while you are correct, your local gp surgery will be clogged with people wishing to have their eyes tested. How will that help anything and who will pay for it? Since a doctor gets paid more than an optometrist how does it make economical sense. Have you thought this through, or did you just make it up?.

0.0 = money.
What on earth are you talking about?
Opticians paid more than £200,000. Who? Where? Did you pull this figure from thin air, make it up or did a mate tell you?
What minimal training are you talking about ? 3 years university plus one years work placement + continual compuslory yearly training throughout career.
average salary of ophthalmic opticians is 45-50,000 per annum though younger less experienced earn considerably less. Locums earn between £200 - £300 befreo tax but they are self employed.

Doctors can perform a basic eye test but they do not have the equipment to perform a thorough eye examination or carry out a diabetic test or glaucoma or pretty much any clinical test that you receive as part of your eye test. They cannot provide you with a presecription!!!

Glasses are expensive on the high street because the price of a sight test does not cover the cost. The equipment alone - snellen chart, tanometer, field screener, phoropter, refractor heads, trial lens sets etc etc add up to close to £100,000 (I've based this on fact - I know 'cos I had to buy them!) . Internet companys can sell cheap because they do not have to pay for qualified medical proffessionals to sit in a room full of thousands of pounds worth of equipment to provide people with an up to date prescription.
Sad truth is so little value is put on that prescription, those not in the optical industry believe its about two pieces of glass and some wire to hold them together. Its not. Its about providing an excellant eye exam and providing advice and good quality spectacles that suit the purpose for which they are required

optiicans earning £200,000 ++ ha, what utter tosh.