Many of us visit opticians regularly and are satisfied with the service we receive. If a problem does arise this can often be talked through and resolved with the optician or someone at the practice.

When a complaint cannot be resolved, then the Optical Consumer Complaints Service offers an impartial mediation facility to help obtain a satisfactory outcome. We understand the importance of achieving this fairly and quickly.

For more details on how we will do this, please see our complaints process.

We will:

• Listen to you and work out what has gone wrong
• Identify the key issues of your complaint and what you are hoping to achieve by pursuing the complaint
• Obtain all the relevant information from the practice
• Identify common ground
• Help find a solution which both sides can accept
• Help both parties to appreciate the rights and obligations under relevant consumer legislation and the relevant professional code of conduct.

This may be a refund, replacement or repeat procedure, an apology or explanation of what has happened and why.

Importantly, we will also ask you how we have done and listen to your feedback to continuously improve our service.

As well as providing a mediation service for complaints, we will also be presenting regular updates and guidance for the public to:

• Give advice and help for consumers when seeking optical care
• Highlight the benefits of using a regulated professional based in the UK
• Provide advice on what to do if a problem arises

For further information and answers to queries frequently asked questions, please do visit our FAQ area of the website.