My eyes don't seem to work as well as they used to. So I went along to see Peter Gerber, at Eyecare opticians in the Norwich Road. I remember when he used to have his shop in Tacket Street, and he's always been a reliable optician. I take along my last couple of prescriptions, for comparison. He seems rather grumpier than I remember, but he does an eye-test for me, and I get the prescription. Maybe he just doesn't like the online competition! Anyway I order some reading glasses from him (around £60); and I get a new set of distance glasses made up online (around £20).
A couple of weeks ago, I mislaid my reading glasses. So I decided to order another set online. I get the prescription, which is hand-written, and I'm not sure about a couple of figures in it. By chance the previous two prescriptions are with it, so I check to see if they are clearer.
Shock! The prescription from Eyecare is nothing like the previous two. Figures are wildly different. The sphere on one eye, which went from 3.0, to 3.2, is 6.0! And so on. Yet I get my eyes tested regularly. Surely my eyes can't have changed that much in a year?
Only one way to find out. Off I go to Dollond and Aitcheson in Watford. I pay them, and get a new prescription. And guess what... it's got the same sort of figures as the original two. Sphere of 3.4, not 6.0. Allowing for wear and tear on me, it's what I would expect. So where did the crazy figures on the Eyecare prescription come from?
I don't know what happened here. But I don't think that I will go back to Eyecare Opticians any time soon.
