Eye tests are supposed to be free, so why does Specsavers charge for them?

RYANAIR GETS A bad rap for all the extra charges its website pushes at you between choosing your flight and paying for it.

Some opticians could probably give Ryanair a run for its money. It’s not unusual to come away with your new glasses with the uneasy feeling that you have paid quite a bit more than expected.

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 “upsells”.

“I 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,” says one review of Specsavers on Dawson Street from a customer who was shocked to find she was being charged €120 for lenses on top of the price of frames “with no clear breakdown as to why”.

“The pricing was very opaque and there were numerous attempts to upsell,” another writes.

There are also many positive online reviews on Specsavers’ 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 – it writes back to bad reviews asking for more information so it can “take a closer look”.

But is it listening? 

Part of the problem is the way prices are advertised and displayed in opticians. It’s 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 – scratch resistance and anti-glare treatments and so on – that ramp up the final figure.

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.

Nowhere is this price confusion more problematic than when it comes to eye tests. 

That’s because if you’re paying pay-related social insurance (PRSI) or have a medical card, you’re entitled to a free eye test every two years. This is also something that Specsavers itself advertises.

A large LED screen outside Specsavers on Henry Street in Dublin asks: “Why not add ‘get an eye test’ to today’s shopping list?” and goes on to state that “a lot of eye test” – including optic nerve assessment, retinal health examination, and astigmatic correction – is available “for €0 with PRSI or medical card, €30 without”.

However, when The Journal went into this branch to ask how much an eye test was, the answer given was €55. What if you have PRSI? Then, the staff member said, it’s €25. 

When this journalist actually got an eye test in another Dublin branch of Specsavers last month, the charge was indeed €25, with no option of a free test presented at the point of sale.

Irish customers both with and without medical cards have complained of being charged €25 for eye tests in Specsavers.

“Both government and their own site say free PRSI treatment, but they still find a way to charge you €25 once you’re booked in,” states one recent review of Specsavers on Opera Lane in Cork city.

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“My PRSI eye test cost me €25. They added a test without informing me,” states a review of Specsavers in Blanchardstown in Dublin.

Discrepancy

So what’s 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 optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan as standard as part of its eye tests, and charging extra for that.

Some independent opticians also charge for OCT, some don’t. Vision Express charges for it – but the charge is only €10, which is quite a bit less than Specsavers’ €25.

So is an OCT scan something we need?

Declan Hovenden, head of optometry at TU Dublin, said while they may not be necessary in every case, they’re never a bad idea either because they give so much information about the health of the eye.

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. 

“There’s nothing to be lost other than the extra cost of it,” Hovenden said.

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’t be otherwise accounted for.

OCT scans can also detect diabetic retinopathy, a serious eye disease linked to diabetes.

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.

So it’s not that Specsavers is doing a test that doesn’t 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 “eye test Dublin”, the first result is a sponsored one from Specsavers – which means it has paid to be there – mentioning a “free eye test”.

Company responds

Specsavers told The Journal it offers free standard eye tests for PRSI customers at all its Irish stores, while OCT scans are an “optional diagnostic add-on”.

Customers can always choose a standard eye test on its own, and it is in fact the company’s policy that store teams should “clearly communicate all options prior to an exam”, Specsavers said.

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 “tailored lens treatment or coatings that may suit a customer’s individual prescription and lifestyle” during dispensing.

“Full transparency and customer choice are central to our approach, and customers can always purchase complete spectacles at the exact price displayed,” Specsavers said.

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’ll be wondering if they should have gone to Specsavers after all.