Specsavers

Sorry its been a while everyone, but I've just had no enthusiasm for writing, and if I am honest, I thought about stopping.  Its Nearly a year since I started Diary of a blind lady, and over 8 thousand people have read my blog, from all over the world! So, I thank you all, because its the inspiration that comes from the volume of known and unknown readers that have got me going again.
Various things have happened in the two weeks since I last posted, which I will share with you, but I must share our whole Specsavers experience, again, another situation that left me standing with my mouth open and totally speechless (which makes a change).
We use what we consider as our local Specsavers, this is the Hitchin branch, as I don't drive (obviously) its on the bus and train route. My daughter and my partner had a appointment each one day last week, he needed new glasses and my daughter has worn glasses for years and had been trying contact lenses. oh wait, let me take you back a bit further, about a month before, my daughter had gone in for her routine yearly eye test, there was a slight change in her vision, she is unusual in that she has one eye long sighted and the other short, sometimes this means that depending on the frame one eye can look more magnified with glasses on, so she asked if she could try contact lenses, no problem but they still needed to change the prescription in her glasses, so would she like to go and chose two new frames. Two because she is still classed as a child (she is 15) and at the moment is covered for her yearly test, and two pairs of glasses, if you were paying they would be buy on pair get the other free....following so far?
We trundle off and go to chose a pair of frames, do you think she could find a pair she liked? NO!
After a very long time, she decided she would like to keep her old frames and have new lenses put in them, all good, she chose a spare frame, which was one she wasn't keen on but they are spare for emergencies right!
Now, I move you forward again to the contact lens appointment, she had been given a trail set of soft lenses, and they had provided two weeks worth of daily's, which means you throw them away each day. She had got on with them really well and was getting quicker at taking them in and out, so we decided to order and buy two boxes at £35, when she is getting low just give them a call and they will order more!
Are you all still with me? By now my daughter has, her old frames with new lenses in, a new 'spare pair' of glasses and one more set of contact lenses with two boxes on order.....perfect. Perfect until the little bugger sits on her glasses and breaks the arm off, this is on a Thursday night, so I calmly stand there looking at giggling daughter, who had been messing around with her older sister and the dog, her glasses had been knocked off her face and she had rolled on them...ohhhh yeah sounds like terrific bloody fun, if they were doing what I had sent them to do, put their laundry away, then this wouldn't have happened, bla, bla, bla.
The plan was that she would wear her last pair of contacts to school, use the spare glasses at home, so no one could see them cos they is ugly!
Guess what? Friday morning, we over sleep, panic as she and I are trying to get in the bathroom at the same time, the dog is crying because he needs to go out for a wee and I had forgotten to make our packed lunches the night before.  In the mayhem she drops one of the contact lenses, do you think we could find the bloody thing? NO. This meant I had a extremely grumpy teenager, storming out of the house, refusing to wear the spare glasses cos everyone will take the piss out of her and me screaming after her as she is running for the bus and I am running with the dog in the other direction that I will try to get them fixed asap!
Friday the daughter spends the day without any form of correcting her vision and then is complaining of a head ache.
What do I do? She wont wear the spare glasses, Specsavers said they would maybe call on Saturday with a date that her contacts will be in, do I risk getting to Monday morning and hope the contacts are there tomorrow? No, I know what I will do, there is a Specsavers in Biggleswade in the town where I work, I will just pop along there after work and get them to fix the arm back on the frame. I am sooooo clever!
I am told by Olga who works for Biggleswade Specsavers, that the frames are unrepairable so she will have to buy new glasses yes?    errr NO! She doesn't like any of the frames at the moment that is why she chose to have new lenses in old frames......yes but these frames have been discontinued....FFS Olga, how can they be discontinued after a year! No bloody wonder glasses are so bloody expensive.
Olga at last started to read my body language and realised that I was getting proper pissed off, so she decides to look for a similar pair....then OHH WAIT, THERE IS ANOTHER PAIR....no shit! Olga gives the identical pair of frames a little dust and says she will simply pop the lenses into the new frames, the frames are £99. Effing marvellous.
Right, just do it before I start to cry! While she is fiddling about she starts to chatter to me about how I should make this particular branch my local, and I should use them instead of going to Hitchin, it will be much easier for me, just pop over tomorrow and she will see my daughter and make sure the new glasses fit properly, she took my daughters details and did some tapping into her computer, made some stupid soothing noises and asked if I wanted to book a appointment, no, no thank you i do not want a appointment, all I wanted was you to fix the arm on my daughters glasses. As I tucked my bank card back into my purse and began to walk out of the shop, something in the back of my head told me I should have asked for the broken frames back as they had disappeared, I stupidly shook it off and went home with a expensive pair of glasses.
Daughter is very happy, on Saturday, we pop into Hitchin on the bus and whilst we are there we nip into Specsavers just to check on the contact lens situation. They were in, would we like to take a seat while they just get them.
While we are sitting there, a woman comes in with this little girl, and over all the noise in the shop for some reason I am instantly tuned into their conversation. The little girls dog had knocked the little girls glasses off of her face and they had been trodden on, the arm had snapped off. The woman behind the till asked what branch she was registered at, when she said 'here', the woman said that there would be no problem and they would see about getting them fixed asap. A very deep sick feeling starts to rise in my stomach, when the staff lady comes over with the new contact lenses, I tell her about the conversation I had over heard and tell her about Biggleswade Specsavers...She pulls a face, ahhhh you see all Specsavers branches are privately owned, they wouldn't have even attempted to fix the glasses because you are registered with us, if you had brought them here we would have sorted something for you, do you have the broken frames? Shit shit shit, no, I left them with Olga.
I truly wanted to lay down in the middle of the shop and have a full on tantrum. The staff member apologises and says she feels that its very bad practice not to have been honest with me, no effing shit! Sadly she says there isn't really anything I can do, I did think about camping outside the Biggleswade branch with a big sign saying CHEATING TWATS, but it was raining, so I swallowed very very hard, pulled my back up straight, head up high and marched out into the pouring rain with my family scurrying behind my waiting for me to blow. I thanked the staff member for getting the contact lenses and for adjusting the new pair of glasses that I had brought from a different store for nothing.
I am sure everyone has moments when the wind is taken right out of their sails, and that weekend it was my turn, that's well naughty of Specsavers, I wont be using Biggleswade branch again and frankly Olga can get stuffed! xx