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\n Declan Hovenden is head of optometry at TU Dublin\n<\/p>\n
RYANAIR GETS A bad rap for all the extra charges its website pushes at you between choosing your flight and paying for it.<\/p>\n
Some opticians could probably give Ryanair a run for its money. It\u2019s not unusual to come away with your new glasses with the uneasy feeling that you have paid quite a bit more than expected.<\/p>\n
A quick skim of the Google reviews of Irish branches of Specsavers from the past year reveals numerous customers complaining they were charged far more for lenses than they expected, or feeling they had been subjected to multiple \u201cupsells\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came in to get new glasses and sunglasses in the 2-for-1 deal, but somehow the total came to way, way more than I was expecting,\u201d says one review of Specsavers on Dawson Street from a customer who was shocked to find she was being charged \u20ac120 for lenses on top of the price of frames \u201cwith no clear breakdown as to why\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pricing was very opaque and there were numerous attempts to upsell,\u201d another writes.<\/p>\n
There are also many positive online reviews on Specsavers\u2019 Irish branches, of which there are over 60, praising the friendliness and professionalism of the staff, and the company seems to be hearing all the negative feedback \u2013 it writes back to bad reviews asking for more information so it can \u201ctake a closer look\u201d.<\/p>\n
But is it listening?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part of the problem is the way prices are advertised and displayed in opticians. It\u2019s standard for frames to have one price displayed, but for the person selling you the glasses to strongly recommend various add-ons for the lenses \u2013 scratch resistance and anti-glare treatments and so on \u2013 that ramp up the final figure.<\/p>\n
In some branches of Specsavers, unlike in other chains such as Vision Express and trendy recent entrant to the Irish market Ace & Tate, lens options are not displayed prominently on the shop floor alongside the frames.<\/p>\n
Nowhere is this price confusion more problematic than when it comes to eye tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because if you\u2019re paying pay-related social insurance (PRSI) or have a medical card, you\u2019re entitled to a free eye test every two years. This is also something that Specsavers itself advertises.<\/p>\n
A large LED screen outside Specsavers on Henry Street in Dublin asks: \u201cWhy not add \u2018get an eye test\u2019 to today\u2019s shopping list?\u201d and goes on to state that \u201ca lot of eye test\u201d \u2013 including optic nerve assessment, retinal health examination, and astigmatic correction \u2013 is available \u201cfor \u20ac0 with PRSI or medical card, \u20ac30 without\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, when The Journal went into this branch to ask how much an eye test was, the answer given was \u20ac55. What if you have PRSI? Then, the staff member said, it\u2019s \u20ac25.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When this journalist actually got an eye test in another Dublin branch of Specsavers last month, the charge was indeed \u20ac25, with no option of a free test presented at the point of sale.<\/p>\n
Irish customers both with and without medical cards have complained of being charged \u20ac25 for eye tests in Specsavers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth government and their own site say free PRSI treatment, but they still find a way to charge you \u20ac25 once you\u2019re booked in,\u201d states one recent review of Specsavers on Opera Lane in Cork city.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy PRSI eye test cost me \u20ac25. They added a test without informing me,\u201d states a review of Specsavers in Blanchardstown in Dublin.\n<\/p>\n
Discrepancy<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s going on? The discrepancy between the free test people are entitled to and the price Specsavers is charging is caused by the fact that the company is performing something called an\u00a0optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan as standard as part of its eye tests, and that costs extra.<\/p>\n
Some independent opticians also provide an OCT, some don\u2019t. Vision Express does it \u2013 but the price is only \u20ac10, which is quite a bit less than Specsavers\u2019 \u20ac25.<\/p>\n
So is an OCT scan something we need?<\/p>\n
Declan Hovenden, head of optometry at TU Dublin, said while they may not be necessary in every case, they\u2019re never a bad idea either because they give so much information about the health of the eye.<\/p>\n
\n Declan Hovenden is head of optometry at TU Dublin\n<\/p>\n
An OCT scan gives the optometrist a much more in-depth view of the layers of the retina than a traditional eye check, and OCT machines are able to apply AI analysis to these images to detect certain conditions such as glaucoma at very early stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to be lost other than the extra cost of it,\u201d Hovenden said.<\/p>\n
He said he would recommend OCT on a routine basis for people over the age of 40, or under the age of 40 with a clinical indication such as a family history of glaucoma or macular degeneration, or if there are vision changes that can\u2019t be otherwise accounted for.<\/p>\n
OCT scans can also detect diabetic retinopathy, a serious eye disease linked to diabetes.<\/p>\n
In fact, Hovenden believes that state funding for eye tests should catch up with the technology and include OCT scans for people with medical cards or PRSI.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not that Specsavers is doing a test that doesn\u2019t have value; rather the problem is one of communicating to customers that they will be paying extra for this. At the end of the day, if you google \u201ceye test Dublin\u201d, the first result is a sponsored one from Specsavers \u2013 which means it has paid to be there \u2013 mentioning a \u201cfree eye test\u201d.<\/p>\n
Company responds<\/p>\n
Specsavers told\u00a0The Journal\u00a0it offers free standard eye tests for PRSI customers at all its Irish stores, while OCT scans are an \u201coptional diagnostic add-on\u201d.<\/p>\n
Customers can always choose a standard eye test on its own, and it is in fact the company\u2019s policy that store teams should \u201cclearly communicate all options prior to an exam\u201d, Specsavers said.<\/p>\n
As for the price of glasses, Specsavers said the prices on frame tags include standard single vision lenses. However, it added that staff will discuss \u201ctailored lens treatment or coatings that may suit a customer\u2019s individual prescription and lifestyle\u201d during dispensing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFull transparency and customer choice are central to our approach, and customers can always purchase complete spectacles at the exact price displayed,\u201d Specsavers said.<\/p>\n
It sounds like customers who want to get in and out with a cheap pair of glasses will need to have their wits about them and be ready to resist any upselling, or they\u2019ll be wondering if they should have gone to Specsavers after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RYANAIR GETS A bad rap for all the extra charges its website pushes at you between choosing your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,118574,91225,274615,396,61,60,102700,149136],"class_list":["post-646994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-consumer-issues","tag-consumer-rights","tag-eye-tests","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-prsi","tag-specsavers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}