This is a complaint about Dorking Specsavers, who I visited for an eye test. I chose them over my usual optician, because they were closer and because I had had a pleasant experience a year ago being served by a very helpful person on the shop floor when I needed a lens that had fallen out of my glasses replaced. However, my eye test felt like a conveyer belt. It also seemed to be trying to achieve perfect vision in my lazy eye, and I could feel the lens for that eye being made stronger and stronger through the test. I was told my prescription would be making a sufficient leap in both eyes since my last eye test (at my independent optician’s 2 years ago). Following the test, someone on the shop floor took over, and encouraged me to have occupational lenses (which come at a price) and despite me telling them I had 3 pairs of expensive frames (Stepper) they marshalled me over to the frames and encouraged to buy new frames for my new prescription and said I could use the glasses I already had for spare for reading. This was a red flag for me as my prescription for reading had jumped significantly so why would I use my old prescription for reading…? I declined on the new frames and detected a drop in enthusiasm. I asked a number of questions to squeeze out some understanding of how the occupational lenses would work. I decided to put my faith in SS and I parted with £370 for two sets of them. The person said they would try and get my glasses back to me in 5 days, I think it was over a week before I heard anything. I went in to collect them and the glasses were discombobulating to wear. The same person on the shop floor wasn’t particularly concerned or enquiring and advised me to try them for at least 2 weeks even though I was moving my head up and down in an attempt to find focus. I did try for a few days but they felt overly powerful to the point of strain and it was difficult finding a focal point of clarity for reading or looking at a computer. On taking them off I had blurred vision and the beginnings of a headache. After a while I returned to my old glasses, of which I had retained a pair, because wearing the new prescription was also affecting my productivity. I called the Dorking branch and explained. The person I spoke to told me to come in and that they would lessen the prescription to something more comfortable. I mentioned it was much better with my old prescription and that I didn’t want to persist with the occupational lenses. They were non-committal on this point. I work full-time so getting to the opticians again is a faff, plus I could detect from the conversation that they wanted to hold on to the sale and have a second chance and probably didn’t want me to return to my old prescription. I’m aware this would put them in a difficult position but I’m old enough to know who I trust with my health and frankly in comparison to my last optician I was feeling uneasy about my decision to go to Specsavers. A few days later, I rang in again and this time I asked, the same person I believe, for the email of the branch so I could put my concerns in writing before too much time elapsed, as getting there was proving difficult that week. I did persist with the new prescription and occupational lenses briefly on and off but each time I had the same issues. Looking back, I would have thought there needed to have been more scrutiny of the frames and how they sat on my face and more time spent on observing how I read and work and also listening to my initial feedback. No precise science seemed to have been applied in making sure the occupational lenses would work for me. I also note there is zero advice on how to look after your eyes. In an email I also requested transparency on my refund options and a note of my former prescription. I had a reply from the same person I had spoken to who said that they couldn’t send me my last prescription because they didn’t do the test for it. This felt deliberately obstructive because they knew my last prescription and in the very least they could have dropped down an explanation to me in an email even if they couldn’t hand out the formal notice. They chose not to comment on refund options. Instead I was asked by this person in an email to ring the branch ‘to clarify next steps and go through options…’ - basically a ceasing of a paper trail. And this is where the main part of my complaint begins… I did call and the conversation I had with the same person who I had written to me and who I had initially spoken to on the phone ended with them being condescending to me about my knowledge and my ability to know my own eyes. At the beginning they did admit there had been a big jump in my prescription that wasn’t necessarily beneficial for my eyes and could cause problems and they did offer me another eye test with ´a more senior optometrist’, but I knew that whoever that was would have a bias now, plus I’d have thought all optometrists should be at a high enough level if they are going fo be prescribing. I have since checked that the optometrist who did my eye test has been registered since 2017 and seems to be highly qualified. They might just be one who favours going for the strongest prescription, irrespective. However, my two eyes are quite different from each other and require a little more of a nuanced approach. Towards the end, the adviser inferred I was partly to blame as it was me who had had the eye test, and to hammer home their superior knowledge, as I was enquiring and challenging on a number of points, they threw out some nuggets of information about my eyes that I hadn’t heard before, something along the lines of there being an 8 point discrepancy and my eyes having a condition with a Latin name, but when I asked them to repeat the information and better still write it down in an email, they refused and said they would only go as far as emailing me the new prescription (which they had already sent) and I could work it out for myself and then they slammed down the phone whilst I was mid-sentence asking why she would not want me to possess that information. I gave it a few moments expecting them to call back, then when they didn’t I wrote them an email: Dear, How disappointing that you should slam the phone down on me and become defensive when I ask you to put in writing some of the information you were swiftly giving me about my eyes. These are my eyes. Why would you not want to empower me? Thank you for letting me know what your university lecturers told you and that I do not understand or have a degree in optics and that I must be in the 1% that has eyes that do not agree with occupational lenses. Dismissive and invalidating and an attempt at making me doubt my own body. It was clear that I did not want another prescription from Specsavers. I made it clear that I wanted my old prescription put back in. I’m upset that you agree that the prescription is probably too much of a jump but that I should trust you to come in again. I tried to explain to you that I really do not understand why a lazy eye should be magnified to such a degree when it hardly does any work. I even spoke about my reservations to your rep. It completely destabilises my vision. Please send me the points you were making about my eyes so I can make my own informed decision on this matter. Why should I ever trust Specsavers again.  Regards As I was writing I had a call from the branch. Of course, I was expecting this to be an apology. But it wasn’t the person who had just slammed the phone down, it was the person who had dealt with me on the shop floor and who had encouraged me to buy new frames. They left a message that began with a reasonably passive agressive stance: ‘I believe you’re a bit unhappy with something I’ve done….etc…’ There was laughing in the background, it may have been related, it may not. There was no reference to my call being cut off by the previous adviser even though this person was clearly aware. Seriously unprofessional. This should have been escalated immediately or the person who slammed down the phone whilst I was mid-sentence should have had the courage to apologise to ensure professional standards were maintained and to restore some faith. I’ve given it a whole working week for them to follow up. I can see they won’t commit to writing now and it will be a they said/they said scenario. But I am a dissatisfied customer, I do not deserve to be condescended to and have a phone slammed down on me in any instance but especially when I have genuine reservations and I have parted with £370 for an unusable prescription. Since then I have not had a response to my above email either. It has been completely ignored by everyone at Specsavers. I have heard nothing. No manager has stepped in. It does disappointingly support my belief that the health of my eyes are not their main concern. Selling is, and that there is a lack of leadership at this branch. If I had with blind faith had another eye test and allowed them to lower the prescription then none of this would have happened. But I do not have blind faith and when faith is lost, faith is lost and the rudeness now makes this insurmountable. I will be requesting that my original prescription be returned to my frames and I receive a full refund so I can go elsewhere.