1 pair of Specsavers complete varifocals from £75 in-store (saving £49)

you never pay the price advertized with them it's just a sweetener to get you through the door I woulfd always go to the independent opticions better run and a more personal service

There seem to be 3 common high street prices for varifocal lenses - £79, £109, £159. Specsavers have a lower priced lens (£49), but this would not be a wise buy for anyone used to one of the higher quality lenses. So yes the better Specsavers option is to use the £49 discount off one of the higher quality lenses. At least lens prices seem to have gone down since I last bought a pair, and Specsavers do include scratch resistant coating in the price of some (all?) of their lenses.

Quite apt to see this tonight. I get my contact lenses from Specsavers - in fairness, an excellent price. I got a letter a few weeks ago saying it's been three years since my last eye test which I couldn't quite believe, so I phoned up and was reassured that it was definitely three years. So I book my eye test today, trail all the way there, sit down, get puffs of air put in my eyes and then the optician says "sorry, it's only been a year - we forgot to update the computer!" What a waste of time! I hate Specsavers - they are endlessly incompetent!

have to agree -- lots of bad stories like yours

I'm sorry to be so cynical but I have studied the high st prices and the independant is invariably more expensive. I have had a long chat to more than one Spec Savers store and the feeling I get is that though they have various offers which may overlap and generally you can't have more than one, they wil always try to get you the best for what you want. IE if you have that offer then you pay less than with that offer.

To me it makes no sense to try and annoy customers. Obviously if you know about spectacles you know it's quite complicated (lens types & thicknesses and then single vision/bi or varifocal plus other variations), so you can't expect someone to promote 420 different varieties in a headline! Specsavers are genuinely better value (and try tobe clear) and their offers always genuine - for example the two-for-one where you get the same quality twice, unlike at other stores - how else could they survive with everyone keeping such a close eye on them, being the number one opticians!