I am a serving member of the Royal Air Force who is due to do a 4 month tour of Afganistan in a couple of months time.

I have to wear glasses and as such needed to get an updated eye prescription test done for the glasses i take out to aganistan with me.

I (lots of I’s here !!) went into my local specsavers to get a test done which was done ok , however when i asked the optician to fill in a military form with my prescription details i was told it would cost an extra £10 to do this!!!!!!!

i think its shocking that they can charge this amount and do not see why they have to do it or even if its legal to do it??

vent over!!

thanks

steve

Flat rate for form-filling, I imagine. I have to pay a similar amount when I get the eyesight portion of my own medical certificate renewed. Fair? Not particularly, but I live with it. Specsavers doesn’t exist to do things for free, or do you feel that I should be charged for my CAA form but military stuff should be a freebie?

Im not sure what a CAA form is , its the fact it took her all of 30 seconds to fill in thats the piss take!!

Why should they do it for free? Cant see any reason at all why you shouldn’t pay for a service. If its a requirement for your employer get them to pay for it through expenses.

I can’t go into topman and demand free clothing as its a legal requirement to wear some?

Hmmm think I will go in and see if they will do my tax return forms for £10 😉

i paid for a precription fair enough but couldnt see why i had to pay an extra tenner for 30 sec work.??

Why don’t you go to an independent opticians, I find that I get very good service from mine, much better than I ever had from those chain stores.

Life’s shit isn’t it.

no life isnt shit , far from it!!!

nevermind!! off to the A and A thread with you!

Life’s shit isn’t it.

lol

keep the recipt and claim it back on JPA! easy 30 seconds work for you andf the £10 will be in your bank with in 7 working days!

Im not certain if its a peculiarity of a military form. BUT in general if you get an eye test from somewhere they MUST then give you a copy of your prescription for free. However measuring your optical centres (i.e. the centres between your pupils, i think thats what its called) is not part of the eye test so they may try and screw you for this, but you can do this at home with a ruler! Some opticians try not to give you your prescription to force you to get glasses from them

Shouldve gone to… Oh wait you did.

They’ll give you a copy of your prescription for free, but when it comes to form filling there’s a flat charge. I imagine this applies whether it takes them 30 seconds or 30 minutes.

shop in charging for service shocker!

it is a legal requirement to provide a prescription…….but not to fill in forms, these are therefore usually charged for, after all if you go into a shop and want an apple you pay for it, you want a copy statement from your bank you pay for it, why should an opticians be any different?

POL Up the outrage bus and get over to E-Goat or ARRSE and I’m sure someone will have a DS solution to the problem for you! 8)

The gits, if it’s the same form I had to get done it would take them seconds. Maybe fire a letter off to their HQ then consider one to your MP?

ive got no problems paying for it as someone has quite rightly said i will be able to claim it back on jpa(even though admin are moaning about it) .

my point is that sh wrote less than a lines worth or writing on an a4 sheet of paper and charged a tenner for it.

i wouldn’t want anyone military or not to pay for the “extra” work involved ffs.

should of considered the title a bit more really before posting i guess!!

extra work to means something different to me i think.

Daft question I know (and you may have already answered it, I’m not reading through all that) but why didn’t you just have your eyes tested through the usual channels, ie: go to the med centre and be referred to a contracted optician?

Locally employed opticians provide you with the full details of your required prescription, on the correct MOD form and you even get to keep a copy which you can take into any opticians and have a pair of glasses made up from. Oh and you get a free pair of defence specs, just what is needed to get out Freedom Parades etc. 😉

Of course if you really want that £10 then book a few days off and sit yourself down behind that highly efficient JPA system.

Or next time a fairy is calibrating the flange nuts or something on a Tonka laser designator just have a quick peek in the lens for a bit of cheap and easy laser corrective surgery (caution, this may not actually work).

sooty and jim

i work on a civilian site who dont have a clue really about all this military stuff, we are parented by brize though which is about an hour away from us and to be honest didn’t really think about asking about local recommended opticians i just got it done at my local one.

like i said though i have no probs paying it but feel for the amount of time it took her to do it was a bit of a rip off

i thought it was the done thing to charge to sign such things? when i had my eyes tested for job they only didn’t charge as i was doing voluntary work, given dr’s charge to fill in passports and the like you would expect it.

Do you work in a castle Renton?

£20 quid to get one done when i applied for the fire service.

Another vote for the outrage bus to ARRSE!
Be careful ,they’ll rip you for short touring.

Cant you just get your prescription and fill in the RAF form yourself? Send a photocopy of the original SS prescription in with the form. Surely all the bosses need to see is your eye measurements?

So….you fail to understand the system, didn’t ask anyone who might have been able to help, did your own thing, got stung for it and bleat about it on a mountain biking forum.

Ring the Med Centre next time.

Hope That Helps.

tell you what you come and work in my garden for a bit (unpaid) then I’ll do your form sound fair?

Claim it back through JPA, thats what i did.

thanks for that tooo tallll….not

i understand the system fully thanks.

the last eye test i had (in fact the previous 2) the opticians filled it in for nothing so i just presumed this was the case in specsavers.

i wish i had just filed the form in myself afterwards to be honest.

sootyandjim….. no castle around here me old.

ah well you live and learn.

Evidently you don’t understand the system at all – that a Med Centre takes out an enabling contract with a local opticians to provide the required service at zero cost to the customer. All that happens is the documentation is completed, signed and the opticians bill the med centre direct. Thats the system. You have made me laugh tho. I bet you’re a technical trade too. All the best.

do you still pay for eye tests in england?

I don’t 😯