How to Complain

Thousands of people complain about opticians every year. The most common reasons for customers to complain are:

1. failure or refusal of an optician to give you your prescription immediately after you’ve had your eye examination,
2. failure or refusal of an optician to measure your pupillary distance when requested,
3. buy-one-get-one free offers where the “free” spectacles are not the same or of comparable quality to those purchased at full price.

1. Failure to be given a written prescription following an eye test.

It is the duty of every optician practicing in the UK to provide you with a legible written prescription immediately following your eye test. Failure to provide you with a prescription is a serious breach of the regulations and can result in an optician being prohibited from working.

If an optician refuses to provide you with a prescription you should: make a note of their name and ask them to provide you their GOC registration number.
You should then make a formal complaint to the General Optical Council using their guidelines which you can download by clicking here

2. Failure or refusal of an optician to measure your pupillary distance when requested.

Under existing GOC regulations opticians are not currently obliged to provide your PD measurement when requested. The objective of this campaign is to change this situation and make your PD a mandatory part of your prescription.

However, every optician registered with the GOC is bound by a code of conduct to act in the best interests of the patient. There are many legitimate circumstances when a customer may decide to purchase glasses from somewhere other than the place they had their eyes tested, these include inadequate choice of frames, sub standard levels of service or poor value for money. Failure to measure and provide you with you pupillary distance is a protectionist and anti-competitive measure aimed at making it difficult for you to shop around for your glasses.

Your Pupillary Distance should form part of your prescription and should be covered under the GOC “Sight Testing (Examination and Prescription) (No2) Regulation 1989” section 5, and you should therefore address your complaint to the General Optical Council requesting them to amend this regulation.

You may also wish to report the refusal of an optician to provide your PD to the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS).

The OCCS calls itself an independent consumer watchdog. But you should know that it is contracted exclusively by the GOC, funded exclusively by the GOC, is chaired by a former deputy chairman of the GOC and the majority of its members are appointed by bodies representing the eye care profession.

This is what the OCCS has to say about PD complaints: “Whilst we acknowledge the right of a consumer to choose where to purchase their glasses, we do not support internet purchases as being in the consumer’s best interest;” the report goes on to say, “An optician has no obligation to measure the IPD if not supplying glasses, and if asked to do so we accept that a reasonable fee should be charged. We fear that with the increase in internet purchases problems will increase and we will continue to explain to complainants that we cannot act on their complaint” Click here to read their full report or visit their website.

You can complain about your PD to the OCCS by clicking here but don’t expect any sympathy!

3. Buy One get One Free (BOGOF) offers and complaints about the supply of glasses.

Often the best thing to do when you want to complain about any purchase made on the high street or over the internet is in the first instance to contact Consumer Direct. They will usually be able to help you with your complaint and make sure you complain effectively.