No one sells you anything straight anymore

[TykeMerc]

Vets are the ones that piss me off. Our dog needed a shot of antibiotics and a shot of anti inflamatories. Total bill was £107.

As for opticians, I went to Vision Express and the optician told me he was self employed. But wore their uniform, used their kit, treated their customers and appeared to be a Vision Express permie. IR35 anybody?

Franchise maybe?
We all know that IR35 was aimed directly at IT contractors, there are plenty of "self employed" that work a far more employed manner than many of us like medical consultants who aren't IR35 caught despite working full time for the NHS for decades.

[Clippy]

I'm fortunate that I don't wear glasses but would have to agree, in part, that opticians appear to be resistant to change.

For example, why do they regularly refuse to give you your pupillary distance (PD) with your prescription other than to try and prevent you from potentially going to a cheaper retailer/supplier?

This information pertains to me as an individual, similar to medical records, so why do I not have a legal right to it?

Do they honestly think, once they've refused to give me this information and pissed me off by doing so, that I'm going to spend further money with them?

[contractor79]

Let me explain to you the situation the optician had put me in on the weekend.

Say you ask me to cut your grass for £22. I go to your garden and I cut your grass as required. I also plant a few flowers. I ask if you like it and you say it's not bad. Then I say, give me £60 and I will plant you more flowers. You say no thanks. Then I say, OK then, I charge you £25. And if you want to buy the flowers elsewhere you need to get back to me with another £25 because I won't tell you what flowers they are.

That's effectively what they tried on me on the weekend. Phoned them up earlier to ask for £25 refund and mentioned I could take the selling practice to the attention of trading standards. Funnily enough once I did that they offered me double the lenses for £60. Bless.

[contractor79]

This information pertains to me as an individual, similar to medical records, so why do I not have a legal right to it?

Another interesting thing is how they will refuse to sell you any contact except that on your eye test. Once I had an eye test but was given trial contact lenses a notch stronger in both eyes- they were better. But I couldn't buy these contacts anywhere as I didn't have the paperwork. This forces one to go back to the shop to complete the test for another £25 to get the prescription. Con.

[scooterscot]

Sure they do. Take cucumbers for example. Normally in the veggie patch they grow curved liked a banana. In order to save space and keep costs down famers grow them in boxes to keep them straight.