I'd noticed my vision was getting bad. I only wear glasses for reading, however, now I have to wear them for driving too. Apparently, I'm long-sighted, which seems weird when you have to hold a newspaper. Do people still buy those? On the tip of your nose to read it if you don't have your glasses to hand. Fortunately, an appointment dropped through the letterbox from Specsavers, a well-known UK franchise that supplies eye tests and, of course, glasses, and I quickly made an appointment because I was having to use a magnifying glass while wearing my glasses to read things like cooking instructions.
image source
These days, no matter what you make an appointment for, you have to wait when you arrive, usually five minutes before your allotted time, and Specsavers is no different. After about fifteen minutes, I had the preliminary tests. "Please look at the balloon." while they blow air in your eyeball and are eventually shown into the dimly lit opticians consulting room.
*"Hello, Mr Cannon. My name is Lucy (I've changed the name), and I will conduct your eye test. However, before we start, I need to advise you that I'm newly qualified. I'm fully competent, but the examination might take a little longer so I can make sure everything is correct. I responded: "That's perfect for me, Lucy; I want a in-depth test anyway, as I know my sight has degraded since I was last here."
Lucy must have the patience of a saint as I made her explore every option in terms of lenses and reading, but I wanted to make sure I could see each letter because all of us try and guess what the letter is; it's ingrained in our subconscious; we want to get it right!
After what seemed an age, Lucy typed up my prescription. "Well, your eyesight has degraded a bit, so I've increased the strength of your lenses. You might find them a little strong for a few days, but your eyes will settle down." I was more than happy. I knew I needed stronger glasses, and Lucy had confirmed that.
The next stage is you go and choose some new frames. You don't have to, but they will give some story as to why your new lenses won't fit your current frames, and anyway, I see it as an experience, an expensive experience but hey, new lenses, new glasses. By now, my daughter had turned up, as I can't be trusted to choose my own glasses, and we picked out some designer frames.
Where it all went wrong
Next, a member of staff, NOT AN OPTICIAN, does some measurements and tries to upsell to you.
Now I'd seen this woman earlier, and by her body language, I thought she was a manager or, at the very least, a supervisor. I watched her tell a couple of staff what to do in a kind of "I'm in charge!" Style, and I wasn't impressed, so guess who I got to go through the final stages? Yep, I got Mrs I'm in charge. Now I don't know her name, and to be honest, I don't want to know it either, but I'll call her 8 Years. Why will become apparent.
8 Years "Now varifocal lenses can take a short while to get used to, but once...."
Me: "Excuse me, why are you talking about varifocal? I'm just having reading glasses? I don't want varifocal."
8 Years "OK! It was just an option. Now I've changed your prescription and reduced it......"
Me: "WHAT? WHY?"
8 Years "You use computers a lot......"
Me: "I already explained that to Lucy, and she took that into consideration."
Grasping her metal name badge
8 Years "I have eight years of experience, and in my experience, you do not need that strength."
(Now, I should say that she may not have said 8; she could have said 5 or 12. I was so upset I wasn't really listening.)
8 Years "Your glasses will be ready in a week."
I was both gobsmacked and upset as she verbally manhandled me to the checkout, where I promptly handed over £189.00; as I got outside, my daughter responded "I didn't like her one little bit."
Now something I didn't mention was I also wanted my hearing tested, but the Audiology people were not there, and Lucy had kindly offered to look into it and call me, which on Monday she did. I was a bit taken aback to learn a hearing test was £75. I could have a 30-minute freebie which I suspect comprised of "Oh yes, you do have ears." by the way, Lucy explained it.
It was then I told her how unhappy I was and that my prescription had been changed.
Lucy: "What? Why?"
Lucy said she would speak to a manager (Not 8 Years) and come back to me. It was arranged that on the following Saturday, the manager Jade (Name changed) would speak with me. I went through it all, and Jade was appalled "Firstly, she is not management, and sadly, this is the second complaint I've had to deal with concerning that individual today."
As I guessed, the new glasses were no good; they were basically the same strength as the glasses I already had. I wondered if the fact I asked for two pairs of reading glasses that might have contributed to the problems and asked if I could change my order to one reading and one driving. In an act of compensation, Jade offered to have the lenses on my driving glasses thinned for free (£35), for which I was grateful (Although Lucy had seen me earlier and said the plan was to refund all my money which would have been nice.)
I picked up my new glasses yesterday, and they're perfect. The second I slipped them on, BINGO! I could read the last two lines on the chart clearly. So, after three weeks and a complaint, I have what I was prescribed. I only have to wait two years for possibly another adventure.
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"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Are you used to the new lenses yet?
!DHEDGE
Yeah. The improvement was instant. "I can see you." 🤓
I continue to put off going in for new needed testing. You are an inspiration, even though I most likely will continue to put it off!
You should get your eyes tested. Don't muck about with your vision.
I remember when my mum was alive. I went to see her one weekend, and she pulled out these glasses.
Me: "Ooh! When did you get glasses, Mum?"
Mum "I bought them from the market; they're ready readers."
I went absolutely mental at her. Promptly made an appointment for her at Specsavers (Not my one), took her down to them, paid for the tests and paid for her glasses and told her, "Don't ever do that again! Ready Readers! Don't try and save a few quid by risking your eyesight! I'll pay for your goddam glasses if I have to."
You are lucky to have gone this long without needing glasses. I had them from about 13 and I did get called some names by the delightful kids at school.
I had to get varifocals a couple of years back. They really try to upsell on those and it can get seriously expensive depending on lens thickness and amount of distortion where they change over. I compromised, but they are still my most expensive pair by far. The lady in Boots was good though and not too pushy. You may just attract the awkward ones.
Oh, I've had readers for about ten years now. I've only needed driving glasses for about five.
My lenses are really thick so I have no choice but to pay to have them thinned.
I've had some that were like milk bottles
I now hate Specsavers. The past two times I have gone I have had shoddy glasses with shoddier fitting. I thin they are going down-market!
Hey and what a real long post!
I dont know what it is but the last time often saw things like this. Doctors having different opinion, or looking at the sales area... Unfriendly or/and no clue of everything!
Strange times.
Just had a call with our internet/phone provider. We always had cable for internet. One year ago the Box didnt work, so they sent a new one... With little bit more mbits from 20 before then up to 30, new contract, a little lower monthly price. But nobody told me before this is a Hybrid Thing and I dont like the LTE stuff. And not best it stands in the middle of the house. Not as installation suggested near a window.
Today I called to ask if it would work when I buy a Fritz Box.
"This doesnt work because of your band brought (right English word?) wich is maximum 28 mbits" but he could not explain me why!
I think it would be okay to have Fritzbox with 28?
Finally, as he only repeated the same again and I have no clue about those things, I just said okay and thank you.
Later the idea came up to check the connection.
This I Just checked with the phone (mobile internet off) and the computer with LAN before told me 10 and 9 mbits 🤔🤔🤔 still a very good speed for my concerns 😅 as I get older and slower 😅
Ups, long comment 😘 Sorry had to talk about.
Guess will have to ask around if someone here knows someone who can explain me.
Happy you can see clearly now again 🤓
You mean Bandwidth. To be fair, your speeds are not the best for streaming and online gaming. You can do those things, but for example, online gaming might be painful. I take it you have run tests like this from home on your PC/Laptop? https://testmy.net/country/at
Your speeds are determined by your Broadband provider (Not the router that you have in the house) and the infrastructure to your property. So, for example, if you're still on copper wire to the house, your speeds will be markedly slower than, say, Fibre. Then it depends on how far you are from The Cabinet. This is a box in the street somewhere that has all the houses in your street or road's phone lines.
image source
And finally, how far you are from the Exchange. These can be anywhere and anything from a large corporate building to a small shed-like building tucked down a side street.
Now when you buy your Router or get given it as part of your plan by your provider, it doesn't matter what it says on the box; your speed is only as good as what comes into the property. Sticking it by the window won't improve things. What may improve the signal minimally is having the router as near to the line entry point into the house as possible. WIFI is irrelevant. Everyone gets conned by WIFI. All that does is allow you to connect to the Router without a cable, although if your router, like your phone, is 5G then you will get quicker data from the router to your device, but if the connection from your provider to your router is slow then it really doesn't matter how fast your WIFI is.
Cable (And Fibre) are a different situation. Those are generally pretty fast, and in the case of cable, none of the above comes into play, but with cable, your provider will limit your service as they want you to pay for differing levels of Bandwidth. In the words of a fairground ride: "The more you
screampay, the faster you go!"Hope that helps. 😊
Oh its not about the speed, all works fine.
Its about I dont like the hybride LTE Router I have to use now. Never was a fan of LTE. And dont understand why cannot use a normal Fritz Box Router.
Also the Fritzbox can do a lot more than the cheepy company box they sent.
I understand the Hybride LTE covers part of bandwidth for stability. And for this LTE Part is recommended to put the box to a window, not in the middle of a house. But it was stable before with only wire connection. So why do I need this LTE.
But dont worry about ❤️ better care for your eye to ger well ❤️
And thank you for the explanation
I'm not too worried about the eye; I have a spare. 😉 🤣
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