A M.

I sent a pair of designer glasses to be reglazed and another pair for them to use for the prescription. The glasses were not sent within 14 days as promised, but after I contacted them I received a delivery date after a total of three weeks. I waited in for the delivery between 11-12am on the Monday, but received an email saying the glasses had been delivered to my neighbour in the flat next to mine at 11.31am. No one pressed my doorbell and the flat next to mine is empty. The glasses had obviously been delivered to the wrong address. I contacted Lensology and Neil contact DPD, the courier. He told me they had not been very helpful and he seemed flustered and unable to deal with the situation, saying he would do his best but could not promise anything as the delivery driver was absolutely insisting that he had delivered the package - worth nearly £500 - to the correct address. Neil promised to follow up my complaint but seemed at the mercy of the courier - I presume DPD does not offer a free delivery service and therefore Lensology should be able to get on the phone and sort it out satisfactorily. I phoned Lensology again when I did not hear back and encountered flustered and unhelpful responses and it seemed no one was going to do anything about my missing glasses and repeated the driver's story that he had delivered the glasses to my neighbour. After Neil had promised to phone me with another update, I called again and it was clear that the female staff member I spoke to considered me to be the problem, not my missing glasses. Neil was not at his desk, despite having promised to call me that morning (Thursday) with an update, which he had not done. I called DPD myself that afternoon and spoke to Dominic. He revealed that the enquiry into the signature on the delivery note had been closed that morning, as the depot was insisting that the driver had delivered the glasses to the correct address. The closure of the case by DPD was information Lensology would have received that morning and yet no one phoned me as they had promised. However, Dominic believed my version of events and contacted the depot, where he found an employee who noticed an error on the delivery records and promised he would do his best to help re-open the case, as it was clear the glasses had not been delivered to a neighbour, but to an address much farther down the road, according to driver GPS records. After I put the phone down, I checked my email and found Neil had sent me an email repeating everything I had discovered, as if he had discovered it himself. The package had been delivered to an address 13 doors away from my home and the delivery driver was now claiming he had handed the parcel to a builder on site who had "immediately" put it through my door. This was obviously not correct as the glasses were not at my address. I went to the address where Dominic suspected the glasses were and contacted the flat which supposedly had received my glasses in error: they had received a parcel themselves that day, but not mine. The GPS at the depot showed the driver had only stopped outside this address and not mine, so the glasses had to be there, somewhere else, or possibly were still at the depot. There was no builder on site when I visited, there was no response from the flat number corresponding to mine - and there were no letterboxes in the individual flats there, as they had lockers in the lobby, not letterboxes. The case was re-opened by DPD - and I queried how the driver had managed to get in contact with the alleged builder on site to discover he had taken my parcel and posted it through letterbox immediately after he handed it over to him, as this was new and convenient information Neil had advised me of in his email - unless the driver knew the builder, or had his mobile phone number, or had returned and spoken to him, or was telepathic, or had not offered this information on the Monday for some reason. Presumably the alleged builder signed the delivery sheet on Monday and that was that. But Lensology and DPD have failed repeatedly to answer this question and it is not deemed essential by Lensology to find out where my glasses were, only that they had been located and delivered. I had been told by Dominic at DPD that retrieving my glasses would be the decision of the driver who had mis-delivered them - on the Thursday he was apparently already on his way back to the depot, so it would have to be on the Friday this happened, if it happened at all. I heard nothing until Friday night, when I received an SMS saying my glasses would be delivered on Monday, one week late. Despite repeatedly asking were the glasses were found and who retrieved them, Lensology repeatedly tells me they consider this unimportant and the mistake occurred as the result of an "incompetent" driver. DPD has not responded to my queries or complaints. Everyone seems to be avoiding revealing exactly what happened to my glasses, including why they were handed over to a builder in a block of flats 13 doors away from where I live. These are expensive and necessary medical items and neither Lensology nor DPD seems to take this on board. The fact the parcel was worth nearly £500 also seemed to be of no significance, either. Neil eventually refunded me £20 while I waited for the case to be resolved. My glasses arrived on the Monday in a box containing four Celebration chocolates, which apparently Lensology sends to all its customers. I wasn't celebrating, however. I complained to Neil and asked again where the glasses had been found, but again he declined to respond, saying they did not consider it relevant and he hoped we would be able to move on from the matter. I do consider it relevant, however, because if I had not phoned DPD myself, neither Neil, nor his colleagues, nor his client manager at DPD seemed to care where my glasses were - and were quite happy to close the case on the word of a driver who had clearly not delivered the glasses to me and did not have my signature on the delivery form. Neil had promised on the Monday that if the glasses were not found I would "not be left in the lurch", but there was no plan of action suggested. Everything was just glossed over. They really couldn't care less - and the staff who answer the phones have an immature approach and do not appear willing to take on any customer service duties that involve problem solving, preferring to treat you as if you are the problem and trying to get you off the line as quickly as possible. They crumble under close questioning, I find, and become defensive - and DPD customer services actually has a pre-recorded message from the CEO asking customers to be nice to their operators, just in case you decide to phone and are at the end of your tether. I am reporting Lensology and DPD to Trading Standards - and possibly the Advertising Standards Authority, given the plaudits they award themselves in their marketing. The glasses were supposed to have a grey gradient (level 2), anti-reflection and anti-glare, as my existing glasses did. They are hopeless in strong sunlight and the lenses feel thin and fragile. I went back to my optician who will reglaze for £178 - Lensology charged me £81 for reglazing one pair. Frankly, the saving was not worth it as I nearly lost two pairs of frames - including one with a prescription lens in - worth £200 each. Lensology recently had a change of name - if you read the pattern of reviews over time on this thread, it becomes clear that things with the former incarnation Reglaze My Glasses had not been going well for a while. There are some word perfect reviews and maybe some people have had a happy outcome, but when it goes wrong, it goes badly wrong - and unless you have the tenacity to take them on, you will, I suspect, be left high and dry, as some previous customers seem to have found. Any company which provides or delivers medical appliances, which prescription glasses are, needs to ensure the service they offer is up to the job at every level. I could not recommend with company on the evidence of this experience. I threw the chocolates away it's just a pointless gesture really, when all you want is your glasses. I resent giving them one star, actually, but sitejabber demands it as a minimum.