The saga of the Opticians continues.
This morning I went to get my eyes rechecked, or rather, one aspect of them. The New and Wonderful Optician diagnosed a muscle weakness in one eye last week, I think that in a child this would be called a squint if it was severe enough to be visible to a non-Optician. Mine is invisible to ordinary mortals, but visible to an expert.
To do this I drove into Edinburgh through what felt like acres of traffic disruption, road repairs, non-functioning traffic lights and the never ending tram-installation-disaster. Eventually I arrived 20 minutes late and very apologetic.
For the record, this is my original prescription.
RIGHT Sphere +1.25 Cylinder +050 Axis 35
LEFT Sphere +1.5
Reading addition +1.75
The NEW prescription - the one I can actually, you know, see with, comprises
RIGHT Sphere +0.50 Prism 0.5 Base OUT (not sure what this means)
LEFT Sphere +1.00
Reading addition +1.75
The right eye has been very over prescribed by Boots, with no prismatic correction at all, but with other unnecessary additions. The left is also over prescribed.
Small wonder then that they made me feel rather ill.
So I took the prescription back to Boots this afternoon and explained. The Manager was very good, but contended that I should have gone back to them for a repeat test. However, she did understand that I had little confidence in them given how bad my vision was with the prescribed lenses, even before I knew about the difference.
After that I went back to Specsavers and explained what had happened. They contacted their supplier who said (rightly, in my view) that they couldn't help with a refund because the prescription was incorrect and they had dispensed what the optician has prescribed. The optician there said that this also explained why I had to hold my head at an angle and look slightly sideways through the lenses to get any focus. They were very nice and tried hard to help. They gave me a copy of my receipt which I then took back to Boots. And Boots have agreed to refund the full cost. They will send me a cheque in about a week.
It's nice to know I was right.
Tomorrow I will put the colours for the Ysolda mittens in the shop, so stand by your screens and prepare to fall in love.
n
