Vision Express - www.visionexpress.com

Shocking company and shocking customer service. Will do all I can to help people avoid this company. After an optometrist discovered a disease in my eye she failed to do the basic and also written rule of a health care practitioner and refer me to a GP & or a hospital.

I was ignored for 2 weeks and had to take action in my own hands. I obtained images that had been taken by vision express during my eye test and sent those off to my gp off my own back (this should have been done by them immidietly after my appointment this is part of their duty of care) i was referred to the hospital as an emergency within 48hours of my gp receiving the images vision express took. she was that concerned for my health after reviewing the exact same images she made me an emergency hospital appointment

Nearly 2 years of hospital visits and tests, pain in my eye and suffering with very bad light sensitivity with no thanks to vision express. If had chosen to just ignore this and not visit my gp would I have lost my vision? How much pain would I have suffered?

My GP immediately referred me to the hospital yet this absolutely shocking company and optometrist did nothing. Their customer service are just as bad and will palm you off and then apologise and admit in "hindsight" they should have referred me..yes you should have!!

Don't put your health in this companies hands, they only want your money and will then do all they can to deny any responsibility

Purchased two pairs of glasses at considerable expense and in less than four weeks one pair broke. A repair was attempted by Barnstaple store which made it worse. I contacted customer services several times by email and by telephone only to be told to go to another store and pay for some more. I have issed a Notice Before Action which has been ignored and when I left a review on Trust Pilot they responded with " contact us we are here to help" but they dont.

Terrible service from an appalling company who do not deserve any custom.

I had an eye test recently at the Oxford store and chose new spectacles. My experience at this store was

Exceptional. The optometrist was very

Thorough and answered any questions I asked

And explained everything to me about the health of

My eyes. My initial exam was carried out by

A lady explained what she was doing

And was very friendly. After my exam I saw the same lady who helped chose my eyewear she was really nice

And very chatty she was very experience and knew what she was doing I felt she really cared about

What she was doing and very attentive

I hope I see her again on my next visit. I came away from the store a happy customer. Thank you.

And hope to see you again

I will never ever use their service again. First, I went for an eye appointment, everything went fine. They said they will deliver the trial contact lenses but did not happen, so didn’t bother too much about it. Then, they called me after three months again stating I need an eye appointment. I was quite baffled as I just had my eye check few months back. I went to the appointment anyway and they also don’t know why I was scheduled for an eye appointment. The lady doctor then just did additional checks and gave me the trial contact lenses stating that I try them on and scheduled me for another appointment in a month to see if there are any issues with the contacts and if none then I can place my order. So after a month, they gave me a call and I had my eye check up again. At this time, they asked me to place my order for contact lenses which I can collect at a later date, and I ordered contact lenses good for a month. More than a week after, they called me back stating that my order was ready. I went to their store, and the staff gave me contact lenses. I was not able to check if they are correct as I was confident that those are the contact lenses that I ordered. When I got back home, I check the contact lenses that were given to me and it was not the prescription lenses that I ordered. Rather, they were trial lenses and not for resale as stated in the packaging; it is only good for ten days as well and not for a month as I have purchased. I gave their branch a call multiple times, and to no surprise, they are not picking up the call. It’s just been ringing endlessly. So I gave the main customer service a call, and they said they will email the Bromley branch. Tried to call the Bromley branch again but to no avail. It is disappointing to have their services so save yourself the headache and never ever go to this branch. They don’t have good customer service at all.

called to ask how to pause my direct debit, for contact lenses (as I had built up a backlog of them) the woman consequently put the phone down on me. I called back straight away but no one answered. I’m disappointed with them. They’re great at taking your money but a simple customer service question, such as pausing a direct debit obviously isn’t worth them bothering with.

I shall now cancel it completely and go elsewhere. They don’t deserve the business.

I was a Vision Express customer for 17 years. Notice the past tense. My last eye test and prescription experience was such a nightmare that I will NEVER use them again.

I had my regular two-year check-up at their Oxford ST store in central London. They said my prescription had changed and gave me a new one. I had new lenses fitted to my glasses, and the first time I put them on I knew something was wrong. They told me to stick with it and I'd get used to it, but I didn't, so I went back. And I went back again. And again. They kept faffing about with the layout of the lenses (I wear varifocals) but it took them four months to get round to offering me another eye test. After my second eye test, I was given a new prescription. That one was wrong too. I asked them again to fix it. They refused. Six months after my original eye test I eventually gave up and went to a different optician, who gave me a different prescription again to the ones that Vision Express had given me, and all is well now.

Vision Express used to be trustworthy and reliable. No more. Now they have incompetent, second-rate opticians, vacuous sales staff, and disreputable, untrustworthy and unscrupulous management. I'd give them no stars if I could.

Even 1 star is too much for this company.

Reglazed my frames with the highest specification lenses from these guys that cost close to £300. Within 6 months, the scratch proof coating had come off. Went back to them and they said there’s nothing they can do about it as it's not within their 100-day guarantee.

This company used to be good but is now awful. Hiked-up prices - do yourself a favour and get lenses online - Vision Express will try and tell you online lenses will be low quality, but they are far better than the rubbish these guys sell!

Having damaged my glasses, which I now understand are not that old - I visited the store to see if they could be repaired under whatever policy they VE have. The gentleman who attended me was very dismissive, offered no help. When I asked if he could check the system, I was informed the records won't be there now, and added we no longer stock that frame. However, when I rang the store today, a lady informed me that all my records were on the system - wondering then in that case, why was I treated with such a dismissive attitude when it came to customer service, left stranded with broken glasses - As I informed on the telephone, I will not be using Vision Express ever again.

Purchased varifocals at the Weymouth branch for my husband last year. When he tried them on in store, he explained that the right peripheral vision was blurred. He was told to persevere with them and all would be fine. It wasn't fine and after a few months he went back again to say there's been no improvement and he'd like to get them replaced or repaired as they were defective. The manager took us into a side room out of earshot of other customers. She as good as called my husband a liar when he assured her he'd spoken to two members of staff about the spectacles. Her reply was, 'it's your word against theirs'. She said there was no record on the system to say he'd complained. She said he'd gone past the free 100 day returns policy, therefore there was nothing that could be done other than to offer a free eye test as compensation! He's a pensioner so gets free eye tests anyway! I wrote to head office on his behalf to complain, (as advised by Trading Standards). We got an automated response saying pretty much the same as the manager in store. It was quite stressful trying to get the point across to them as they didn't seem to be listening. No-one even asked to look at the spectacles. My husband didn't ask for a refund to start with, just the spectacles repaired or adjusted. They were not fit for purpose and he was unable to wear them. We gave up in the end, which is what they expected us to do I suppose. He has since registered with a local optician who spotted the lenses/frames were all askew and straightened them in 5 minutes. Job done! Why couldn't Vision Express have done this? It was a simple adjustment that could've been rectified in store. They have now lost 5 customers including myself, my husband and 3 other members of my family!

Extremely poor customer service and doesn't deserve even 1 star!

It is the first time I have been to Vision Express. I bought ONE pair of glasses as opposed to my usual 2 pairs because I wanted to cut down on my expenses as I am a pensioner. For that one pair I was charged £425, which was staggering to me, but I didn't feel I could question the cost at the time, because I thought I had maybe received a more reasonable charge at my regular opticians than I thought!.

However, my wife has just been elsewhere and bought not one, but two pairs of glasses, with the same reactolite lenses, variphocal and with an anti glare coating both in a more expensive frame. The full cost of her glasses totalled less that half what I was charged for one pair and received a far superior service than I did. My glasses on collection were just given to me in the box with no checking or fitting, barely any comment at all. I will not be returning......