“Very disappointed at Macclesfield Specsavers as was given a written quote but when I went to till to pay there were extras to be added on.
Complained to manager but all she did was shrug her shoulders
Sent them a DM no response
Sent them various tweets but still no response
Appalling customer relations and a lack of integrity”
“Terrible service. Makes you pay the whole amount before you receive your specs. I was booked for an 8:30 am appointment today. Came here on time and sounds like the staff has lost my pair of glasses. Have been waiting here for two hours even after paying £89 and leaving town today so technically lost £89 without specs. The manager while giving a refund ended up charging my card again. So technically lost £188 for choosing Specsavers, and now waiting for the money as they said it was a foreign card.”
“My mother purchased hearing aides from the Gravesend Branch because my mum was waiting for a double hip replacement (age 86) I arranged with Audiologist to visit her at her house £90.00 cost. I also said that before we wanted to proceed with a purchase we wanted him to discuss it with me first so I could discuss it with her and my sister this did not happen and he made the direct purchase with my mother. Once ordered she could not remember how much she had paid it was approx. £ 2,400 this I found this out after the purchase and only by ringing up Audiologist. She managed to get herself to the shop via taxie to collect the aides as it would of occurred more costs for him visit her bear in mind she lives in Gravesend. The aides themselves are flimsy I rang when she received them to say this only to be told that they are standard ! hence why we wanted a discussion before we purchased them. I also asked what we could get to make them more secure to be told there was nothing!
My mum has just had her operation and is now recovering but managed to get the shop via a taxi to ask what she can get to keep them in the lady on reception said just hook them over the outside of the ear and you should be over to hear!!!!! the aides are really totally not any good with out a better way of keeping them in and I did speak to Audiologists at Boots who said you can purchase a nut or clip to keep them in place and to get them at specsavers ! but we i've been told there is nothing to get. Totally unimpressed with the customer care and I would not recommend Spec savers for aides.”
“Specsavers Opticians and Audiologists - Deepdale
AVOID THIS OPTICIAN. The practice manager is called Gill. She telephoned me to come in to sort my glasses problem out. On arrival she DID NOT want to chat. Just kept me at the till. She did not offer any resolution to my situation or asked to sort out my issue. I came all the way for nothing. I have been 3 times here for the same issue. HORRIBLE WOMAN FOR A PRACTICE MANAGER. PLEASE AVOID THIS OPTICIAN. THE STAFF ESPECIALLY MANAGEMENT ARE RUDE AND UNTRAINED. I cant believe what has happened. RUDE PEOPLE. SHE SHOULD BE SACKED IMMEDIATELY”
“What a ripoff!
How can you justify charging £200 for a pair of glasses?
All the staff are very helpful and polite, but I'm sure that's to soften me/us up when they come to the cost of the glasses.
'That will be £200 Mr . . . ' as sweet as anything
Oh yeah. Not a problem!
Would you like a tip too?
No wonder they would like to.see us every two year's!”
“Bearwood Specsavers do not deserve to carry the brand name. Visited July. Now Oct and still no glasses that work. Was agreed a refund after 2 further weeks and having to visit Specsavers Halesowen to ask if I could swap to them and after waiting 30 mins to he seen by assistant manageress who had agreed the refund was then kept waiting only to be told the director at Bearwood Branch wanted me to try again (3 lenses and over 3 months later) and upon my refusal had the assistant manageress tell me he had left out the back entrance as had to go somewhere... more important than dealing with a genuinely upset and frustrated customer only revisiting for her 300 pound refund. Shop floor staff lovely and deserve a rise dealing with incompetent and lying management. Assistant manageress just lies to your face. Manageress doesn't help deal with customers as left out the front door and director sneaks out of the back door.. poor poor attitude toward customers. Escalated to head office and asked for them to sort out my refund so I can swap to a decent branch at Halesowen which is where I'd gone originally. Want customer service. Avoid Bearwood branch.”
“Made a formal Formal Complaint
This complaint relates John Duminy the Director of Spec Saver Slough High Street who refused to come out to speak to me when I requested to speak to a manager having been sold frames that have repeated caused me inconvenience and I have returned to the branch numerous times. I was told by the meet and greet Hazel that 'John does not have the time to see you', he has said you will have to pay for another frame, or call him back on Monday!
It was shocking to see that there was no middle management to deal with customer concerns /complaints and John thought he was to high up the ranks to deal with complaints or customers directly. I am sure that Johns attitude would go against the big name SPEC SAVERS ethos and customer care strategy which small franchises are not adhering too.
I felt extremely disappointed and felt let down, will have to escalate, poor service and customer care at Slough Branch”
“First let me say that the employees are really nice and very helpful.
Then let me say that the spectacles are terrible. I just spent over £200 on glasses that make my eyesight extremely worse. The prescription is for varifocal for work use so they have two areas of vision, for reading and for computer use. When I put them on the computer screen immediately becomes an out of focus pyramid that leans towards me at the top. At a distance of 12" reading material is in focus through the bottom of the lenses and also through the top of the lenses!!! (figure that one out). I called the shop and the assistant said "Dont worry, we'll order the correct lenses and call you when they're ready"
If that's the case why didn't they fit the correct lenses in the first place.
I've now waited 10 days and it's going to be another 10 at least. I'm wearing an excellent pair from Boots at a cost of £2 and they far exceed anything I've seen from Spec ??? savers.”
“I lost my reading glasses and spoke on the phone with the Winchester Branch about possibly replacing one pair for about £74 as I was due a two year appointment the next year. I went in the next day and mentioned the £74 offer but was then assured repeatedly by a male assistant that I could have two pairs for £89 if I chose £69 frames. Several frames proved not be be available for my lenses but we finally settled on one that was supposedly 'discontinued' and so I agreed and paid for two pairs at £89, the assistant being keen to show me he was giving me a £45 discount on the receipt. This was, in fact, merely the discount for ordering only one pair, I just found out this afternoon. I was asked to return in a week, which I did, this morning. The female assistant offered only one pair and when I insisted that it should be two pairs, she called over the male assistant who I dealt with to ask if he remembered me but made sure to show him the receipt as quickly as possible to coach him in his response before he replied. Having been primed, he just repeated that what was on the receipt was what I had ordered. This was a clear misrepresentation of the purchase. I insisted that the franchise owner honour the terms of the purchase but he insisted that the receipt was clearly only for one pair and that 'he could not afford' to give me a 'free' pair. I told him that it was clear that, in fact, he WOULD not do so not that he COULD not do so. I obtained a refund and left the shop deeply unhappy that they were determined to try to make it seem to everyone else in the shop that I was some old codger who had misunderstood when I was actually misled as I always actually buy glasses in sets of two, which they confirmed from their own records. I was deliberately misled by the male assistant and both the female assistant and the franchise owner were intent on helping him instead of being concerned to retain a good customer.”
“I went to Manchester Fort for my eye test. The optician suggested an upgrade of my reading glasses. This is where the disappointment came. I've been offered a 2 for 1 frame at £89.00. After calculation etc the total amount to pay jumped to £318 ! I then decided to go for one frame. The member of staff gave me a discount of £49.00 and the final value came to £229.00. In short, this was a misleading customer experience.”
“The worst customer service I've ever had from an optometrist business.I was made to feel like I should be spending more money on reading glasses frames than I couldnt afford.I wouldn't recommend Specsavers for glasses,there's plenty of other optometrists businesses available to choose from.”
“I went to the Honiton store for my eye test for my DVLA medical, but unfortunately the optician filled my form incorrectly! This caused me to loose my HGV entitlement. (They basically told DVLA I was blind as a bat.) When in fact my corrective vision is only +1.75 NOT over +8.!!!!
I went back to get a letter from them to basically say they had filled it in wrong. It had to amended 3 times as they kept spelling my name wrong if not my first name but my surname as well.
They have cost me a weeks wages an awful lot of jumping through hoops just because they can’t fill in a basic form that I’m not allowed to fill in myself.
I paid for a professional service and ended up with it costing me a lot of money ( at least £600) never again will I use this company and I recommend no one else does, if they can make a mistake on a basic form god knows what they would do with your prescription glasses.”
“26th May 2019 one optician put drops in my eyes in dark room without telling me, from that day to today I can see without glasses complain several times nothing when to the doctor, they can't figure out the chemical, but gave me medicine normally use for healing an eye wound”
“First time I have bought glasses are Specsavers and, before a year I have marked in the most expensive lenses on the main glasses and in the clip in sunglasses.
When I pointed out the mark in the main lenses it was my fault. I’ve had glasses for 56 years now and am very OCD about how I store them, so it it quite galling to have this aimed at me.
I will be going elsewhere very soon as I can’t stand the mark that is in my eyeline. Specsavers will have seen me as a customer one and only once.”
“We took our 8 year old daughter to the manchester fort store to choose some new frames. At first we were really frustrated at how long we had to wait. There was no one to help and it was annoying that the 1 member of staff who was free said she couldn't leave the front desk. But then we were assisted by Tom. He was amazing with our daughter and helped us choose the perfect frames. He took the time to explain why her lenses needed to be thinned out etc and we went away happy.”
“I have been a customer of this store in the past and have spent a not insignificant amount of money with them. Everyone reading this should think carefully before they make the mistake of doing so.
I went to this store on this occasion for two reasons. Firstly to book an eye test, as I was overdue an appointment and my doctors had asked me to get one. This wasn't possible to do on the day, because there was a two week waiting list. I told the member of staff, who was called Sharon, that there was no rush because my eyes seemed fine and I wouldn't be buying new lenses unless things had changed significantly. She reacted to this with incredulity, by loudly saying, "What? You're not going to get new lenses if your prescription has changed?" I said , yes and that this was purely down to the cost of them on the previous occasion (as I have reactolite and varifocal lenses).
I then went on to my second problem, which was that one of the nose pads on the pair that I was wearing had broken off and was hurting my nose and I also told her that I had another pair at home that were completely broken and I'd like to buy 2 replacement frames.
Without even examining my glasses, she seemed to go into a well rehearsed sentence, saying, 'Sorry, but we don't do those frames anymore, which means you'll have to buy new lenses'.
I said to her, 'Please, don't tell me that these frames are no longer available, I only got them a couple of years ago'.
Sharon took immediate offence at this and ordered me not to speak to her like that, in a raised voice.
To make it clear, I started my sentence with please, I didn't raise my voice and I was polite.
I argued briefly with her, but felt it was pointless and said I'd take my business elsewhere and walked out.
After walking a few metres, I decided that I wasn't going to just let this shocking behaviour go and returned to the store to get her name. On entering the store, she immediately started raising her voice again, clearly trying to defend her previous behaviour, by accusing me of raising my voice to her. One of her colleagues came across and I was able to clearly point out, that there was only one voice that could be heard across the store and that was hers. I was speaking calmly throughout.
I informed them that I would be taking the matter up with Specsavers and left.
On my return home, I filled out a form on the Specsavers website, laying out my complaints. I was concerned that the form asked for the store name and felt that it was likely that the complaint would just go to the store, or be deleted by a member of staff there, so I phoned Specsavers main office and was told that the email would definitely be seen by the store owner. So I submitted the complaint and received an automated reply that I would receive a response within 48 hours.
I didn't get that response, so wrote a second time saying that it appeared that my concerns were well grounded. On this occasion I got a response from the store owner saying that she hadn't received my initial complaint and asked me what happened. I replied and since then have had no response, so I can only assume that she considers the matter closed.
In the meantime, I went to a different Specsavers store in Wells. The difference in customer service could not have been more different. The two members of staff on duty, could not have been more helpful. They immediately said that they could fix the broken nose pad and did this on the spot, free of charge. They also tightened up my arms, which were loose. I then asked the same question about replacing the frames as I had asked the Trowbridge store and was told that shouldn't be a problem. She said they didn't have any in store, but checked the serial number and found that they were still available and ordered me some in.
So, lets be clear. The Trowbridge store lied to me, without even checking my glasses, simply to try and get a few hundred pounds out of me for new lenses and frames. I can only assume that staff are on some kind of commission for the lenses and frames that they sell, otherwise, why else would she try to deceive me?
To then to falsely accuse ME of speaking to her in an inappropriate way and raising her voice at me, so that everyone n store could hear, is outrageous.
I gave the store ample time to respond to my complaint in an appropriate way, but this has not been forthcoming.
My conclusion? Not all Specsavers are the same and I would strongly advise against using this particular store. There are plenty of other options in Trowbridge, including Tesco's, who have always been most helpful.”
“Unfortunately we have consistently used specsavers over the years, and although the staff have been very nice, the quality of product is shocking.
EVERY pair of glasses bought for both our children have had to go back numerous times, as they usually fall apart within days of receiving.
If parts are lost they DEMAND that the full frame is purchased again regardless of the original cost, truly arrogant and appalling customer service.
My wife made the mistake of going in alone, and got the hard sell (they should probably sell double glazing too), which is the norm with adults. She came out with bi-focals that were unnecessary, exceeding expensive, and so unusable £270 went straight into the bin and a new pair of normal reading glasses had to be purchased!
We will be looking elsewhere, since after years of custom we have finally grown sick of the rip off quality and shocking poor overall service offered.”
“I have had my eyes tested at Specsavers for a number of years. I have congenital cataracts which they have noted but nevertheless have been prescribed varifocals. These have not improved my distant vision but I thought that this was my fault for not accurately addressing the eye tests. Today an independent optician advised me that my cataracts mean that varifocals are contraindicated. My distant vision has never been improved by my varifocals, quite the reverse, What a waste of money”
