A mother slammed a short-sighted supermarket opticians after she was handed a £20 voucher as an apology for a wrong prescription – which left her son crying with pain.
Harvey Thompson, 10, was told he needed glasses for reading and watching the TV when he underwent the routine examination two years ago.
But the faulty Tesco prescription left Harvey feeling nauseous and suffered such bad headaches he would cry in pain.
Mother Fiona immediately took him to another practice where optometrists retested the eight-year-old and found a completely different prescription was needed.
They also identified he had an astigmatism, which Tesco had missed.
Fiona launched a two-year battle for a sufficient apology but was left disgusted when the supermarket giant, in Quedgeley, Glos., handed her a £20 voucher instead.
Fiona, from Quedgeley, said: “I emailed them to express my disgust. I had to collect Harvey [from school] because he was having headaches and felt nauseous, which meant he was off for another two days.
“When he started crying with pain during a family trip to the cinema we immediately took him to Specsavers, who confirmed that even the new prescription shouldn’t cause this.
“They retested him and found a completely different prescription was needed and also identified that he had astigmatism, which Tesco had missed.”
Harvey’s troubles began in April 2012 when he visited the in-store opticians with his mum.
During the visit Harvey became upset while choosing glasses, but was told by a dispensing assistant he did not need them.
Furious Fiona said: “A staff member, the dispensing assistant, asked Harvey what was wrong and they said he didn’t need to wear glasses if he was embarrassed and told him to sit nearer to the front of class.
“Harvey stopped crying and was thrilled. I explained to the member of staff that in fact he did and left the store in disgust.”
Fiona said she then phoned and complained to Tesco about the issue and took the prescription to her local Specsavers instead.
However, a few days later she said she received a phone call from Harvey’s school to say he was unwell.
After taking him back to Specsavers Fiona made another complaint to the Tesco store manager.
“I gave him copies of the prescriptions and all the details,” she added.
“He took me over to the optical department to photocopy everything and the same assistant, who had told Harvey not to wear them, started telling me off for complaining.
“She said the only reason I had a locum was because the optician was off sick.
Fiona said she also contacted the General Optical Council, as advised by Specsavers, which she claims ruled Harvey should have received a more extensive eye examination.
But, following a two-year battle she said she was sent a letter from Tesco with a £20 in-store voucher.
A spokesman for Tesco said: “An independent body investigated this issue and no further action was taken.
“We are sorry that our customer was not happy with how we handled the complaint and have offered a gesture of goodwill.”
