Blinded by the light!

I went to get my eyes tested today and paid £25 for the test via the company account, apparently because I need eyes in my line of work as a Financial Adviser. The designer glasses were on offer at a whopping price for a bit of glass and metal and they wanted to charge me all sorts of extra for different types of lenses. As I only need them when my eyes get tired at the computer I didn't see the need for lenses that reflect the sun light or are smudge free and unbreakable by my imaginary children.

It could easily have cost me £250 for the name branded frames and £60 or so for each different lense add on. My point is not to do with the cost of the cheaper non branded frames or the lack of need for the add-ons but more to do with the time I spent with a professional.

Look at all that equipment it must have cost a fortune! Machines for checking your blurriness, your peripheral vision and to see if you have cancer of the eye! All that and the highly trained optician asking lots of probing questions about 'can you see these dots? or if it less blurry on side one or two? All that for £25?
would you get out of bed for an hours worth of your professional time, to pay the staff and cover the rent and rates of your store or even for one of the nice bits of equipment? Of course not.

My problem is that the lenses are made for little or nothing and the frames for less than that even, the fact that we are not paying the correct amount for the professional advice we are receiving and being charged instead for expensive bits of glass and plastic to cover the advice is my gripe. Is it our fault or did someone decide to start doing it and then everyone else followed?

I have no problem paying as I do for my dentist for a professionals opinion, the same as they should have no problem paying for mine. It would be nice to know who started this daft option of paying for the advice.