Yesterday I went to Vision Express, here in Ipswich, as I got fed up with my eyesight getting worse and worse. I wanted to have myself registered with an optician here in the UK, so I Could get contact lenses from here too, not being forced to go back to Hungary every time I ran out of them. 

Anyway, I got lucky, as they had appointment for eye-test, which btw was paid by my company. My eyes were tested, found them got worse 0.5 in about 1 year, which is not too good. Also They could gave me appointment for contact lenses "fitting", so I could finish everything in about two hours. 

This was fine, nice and easy, I started to believe, that was how it should had been done.

The last thing remained was to change the lenses in my current glasses, let's say, to upgrade my vision :-)

As one of the assistant advised, I chose the Anti-Reflective, Scratch protection lenses, as I had the same previously. These were advertised, as the lenses will look invisible.

My previous lenses were from Prague, (Carl Zeiss) which cost me that time at the end of 2007, 3000CZK, lets say a 100 quid. Those lenses were just great, totally non-reflective, scratch protective, lightweight, etc. 

I got my glasses back with the changed lenses, and they cost me 104 pounds. I took the glasses home, and did not try it until the evening, when I realized the lenses were reflecting back the direct light. I did not worry about it much, I believed they were just dirty, and after cleaning them will be different. Well, cleaning did not help.

They are reflecting back the light with a green brightness and these lenses don't seem to be invisible in the frame. Today I got fed up, and believed they accidently gave me the incorrect lenses, so I went back to the shop.

Of course at the shop they did not agree with me, and they believed that these lenses are anti-reflective lenses.

They showed me a demo lense, which was a big (5cm dia) lens, built up with two types of "glass". The outer ring was normal lens, the inside part was this special Anti-reflective (green coating) lens. 

We put down this lens on the table. The outer ring was reflecting back almost everything, the inside part reflected back only the direct light, in kinda green coloured. I asked how they can consider a lens to be anti-reflective if it REFLECTS back the light. Ok, not so badly than the normal one, but still it REFLECTS. They should call it REDUCED-REFLECTION lens, but not Anti. 

Also they advertise these lenses to look "invisible", which they don't as they reflect back the light. 

Of course they did not agree, even in the fundamental facts and kept on saying this is he Anti-reflective lens. And also told me not to expect too much from these "non-expensive" lenses, as the Zeiss lenses I previously had are the Rolls Royces of the optic salons. 

I believe this should not be about the brands, this should be about facts. If something looks invisible and non-reflective, I like it and buy it, and don't care if it is branded or not. However do not try to sell me something if they just don't work as they were advertised.

Unfortunately, the previous lenses were thrown out to the bin, I did not ask to get them back, so I could not even prove them how much better they looked. And now I am stucked with my reflective green coated lenses I paid 104 pounds for, and If I want to change them for better ones, I am gonna have to pay more again. 

I wrote a complaint letter to them over the internet, let's see what will happen.

This whole story is about the principals. I bought something I believed will do what they were advertised, and well, they just don't. If someone gave me more info at the beginning, and I know what I am buying, I would not have bought them for sure.

I would have waited with changing the lenses, until I go back to Hungary, and probably would have paid the same money for Anti-reflective Zeiss lenses I had before.