FREE eye tests

[Sue]

http://www.connexionfrance.com/free-eye ... ticle.html

[russell]

Surely it's better to go to an opthalmologist (opthalmologue)? I think the costs are all covered by the Carte Vitale and they do not sell glasses so have no vested interest. They will also do a more thorough examination.

Russell.

[martyn94]

Surely it's better to go to an opthalmologist (opthalmologue)? I think the costs are all covered by the Carte Vitale and they do not sell glasses so have no vested interest. They will also do a more thorough examination.

Russell.

70% on your carte vitale, if they are conventionné which they never are (by streets) in Paris (I don't know down here): some or all of the excess cost might be claimed from your mutuelle, depending how much you pay. Another example of the French exception - a profession which essentially doesn't exist in the UK (in the role it has here) for no discernible value-added. Anyone doing an eye-test checks for the signs of pathology (which are obvious enough, given the kit they now have).

I get my specs in the UK, about the only reason I ever return nowadays: the opticians there are still on the make, but restrained by a very competitive market.

[russell]

I guess my mutuelle pays the 30% then. Either way it costs me nothing and I get a prescription which I can send to an on-line retailer in the UK to get my glasses made up for about a quarter of the price at an optician here.

My main point is that the optician has a vested interest in telling you you need to buy new glasses. It's similar to the opportunity unscrupulous garages have in the UK to tell you that work needs to be done on your car when it's taken to them for an MOT test.

I'm not saying that the opticians here are unscrupulous but that the opportunity is there.

Russell.

[martyn94]

I guess my mutuelle pays the 30% then. Either way it costs me nothing and I get a prescription which I can send to an on-line retailer in the UK to get my glasses made up for about a quarter of the price at an optician here.

My main point is that the optician has a vested interest in telling you you need to buy new glasses. It's similar to the opportunity unscrupulous garages have in the UK to tell you that work needs to be done on your car when it's taken to them for an MOT test.

I'm not saying that the opticians here are unscrupulous but that the opportunity is there.

Russell.

I v much agree on that score, and not just in France. I used to go to an opticians in the Strand who employed a freelance optometrist : a mitteleuropean lady of decided views. She used to say "they will tell you upstairs (the tests were done in the basement) that you need X,Y and Z. Pay no notice".

[martyn94]

Surely it's better to go to an opthalmologist (opthalmologue)? I think the costs are all covered by the Carte Vitale and they do not sell glasses so have no vested interest. They will also do a more thorough examination.

Russell.

70% on your carte vitale, if they are conventionné which they never are (by streets) in Paris (I don't know down here): some or all of the excess cost might be claimed from your mutuelle, depending how much you pay. Another example of the French exception - a profession which essentially doesn't exist in the UK (in the role it has here) for no discernible value-added. Anyone doing an eye-test checks for the signs of pathology (which are obvious enough, given the kit they now have).

I get my specs in the UK, about the only reason I ever return nowadays: the opticians there are still on the make, but restrained by a very competitive market.

Further to this: russell's explanation that he uses an opthalomologue to get an "independent" prescription, and then buy no more than he needs online, seems entirely convincing. It is the rule in the UK that an optician has to give you your prescription if they have tested your eyes, even if you buy no glasses, and that is how I proceed, unless they offer a decent deal on the glasses and they require a measure of fitting, like varifocals. Does that rule apply here?