My wife felt her glasses that she uses for driving were not as sharp as they used to be and called Boots to make an appointment.

Off she trotted for an eye test. They told her that she needed new glasses for reading, but she told them she was happy with her reading and just wanted her distance vision correcting. They then tried to sell her varifocals, but once again, my wife reiterated she just wanted her distance vison correcting for driving. When she told the optician that her eye consultant told her not to have them due to a slight issue with a cataract, she was answered with a "pfffft', and a shrug of shoulders, the inference being that that was a ridiculous thing to say.

Anyway, she chose some frames and I was present when paying for them when the manager said;"You'll really notice the difference with these specs..."

When she collected her new glasses, once in the car she did a side by side test with her old glasses to find that they were no better, and possibly worse. She stuck with them for a couple of days, but repeatedly found no improvement.

I then took them back to the shop for a refund only to be refused and told" nobody forced your wife to buy them".

I left them on the counter and after several failed attempts managed to get hold of the regional manager who repeated the, "nobody forced...", mantra. I was having a measured conversation with her when she said, "We are going round in circles here" and put the phone down on me!

My point at this stage was that my wife had been mis sold the specs as apart from her reading requirement, her long distance vision prescription had changed by the smallest amount measurable. After a small amount of googling, it became clear that many opticians would not prescribe new glasses for such a small change as the difference would be unnoticed by the wearer.

At no point was my wife asked if she wanted new glasses when there would be no no percetible difference. She already had 2 pairs of glasses which the opticians were aware of, having checked their strength on a machine in the shop.

It became apparent at this point as well that the store wasn't even a proper Boots Opticians but merely a franchise.

I escalated this to Big Boots in Nottingham and went through customer service levels until I got to the team leader of the Opticians team. She was rude, patronising and completely obstructive. She was talking to my wife as she refused to listen what I had to say, dismissing my points with "You weren't in the room."

She constantly tried to trip my wife up on her statements to try and discredit her point. In the end she said,"Nobody told your wife her prescription hadn't changed, she bought the glasses anyway". She seemed to think that was her winning point and would not take on board that proved the specs had been mis sold as it was clear to the optician, if not my wife, that that was the case, and clearly didn't need them from a practical point of view. I spoke to this harridan again (Customer Services shouting? Epic fail!) who just point blank refused to do anything about the £150 wasted and refused to tell me the name of her superior. She also told me that as we had used a franchise it was them I should deal with and not Boots.

Utterly gobsmacked with their attitude. Am I being unreasonable in wanting a refund? Can't believe Boots are behaving this way, totally bizarre.

IMHO, I suggest you cease all telephone contact and start making a formal complaint to their Head office !

This is the 2nd complaint we have over the last couple of days regarding Boots and their "Franchise" opticians.

I will be writing to the head man at Boots. Coincidentally he is also a vice president of the Institue of Custer Service, which made me chuckle.

Have a read of the CAG Customer service guide

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?439552-Guide-to-dealing-with-Customer-Service-Departments&p=4676004#post4676004

Send recorded delivery

If no joy issue a letter before action

Then use small claims court to get the money back.

Advise you to post a draft letter here so people can issue feedback. Knock out personal details though

If you've paid by credit or debit card you can get the money back by contacting your bank.

Then they can chase you if they want, but would they???