The College of Optometrists

Having received my letter from coopervision saying they are maintaining their only Optician policy I am a little lost!!! Where did this come from - are tescos etc not selling coopervision lenses - I think they are!!! I thought Sauflon were the only Optician only company. Do they think we are stupid??? Comments please!

they have own label brands that they sell only to opticians,however most online suppliers have a list of own label lenses and their branded equivelant.

do they mean they only sell to companys who employ opticians?

i think the majority of internet companys have opticians because i can't find one company on the internet who don't sell coopervision lenses

I think Ikon is right, they have their own brand Options lenses which are independent only (less than 10 or 12 braches I think) as well as the Biomedics lenses now which are all Optician only and aren't supplied to internet sites.

The type of people who will go looking for internet lenses etc will be smart enough to identify these lenses as proclear etc -as ikon says the retailers will tell them the equivalent lens. At least they are trying something!! PS Biomedics are on sale in some uk onliners

Back to square one. Any new inniatives from suppliers will not be received well by us because we can't trust them or their distribution/distributors and fair pricing.

i had a meeting with them today and suggested an idea which will hopefully bring about a more acceptable and profitable scenario for the indies only. The specially designed lenses will be only made for indies trade and legally binding agreements will be signed.

There will be a daily, monthly and a toric. This supply will by no means be the answer to the section 60 cock-up but if we handle it right then it should impact on other suppliers enough to start negotiating.

Although i've secured my businesses by doing deals to counter the grocers, i still need your help in supporting this buying group initiative to make the stagnant c/l market a bit more profitable for us indies. Come on Guys and Dolls lets fire the first shot.

Thankyou to the indies who e-mailed me their details showing support and your names will be passed on to be added to the group. you will receive a good price if you haven't negotiated one yet and you will be invoiced directly.

i will send you details shortly.

Never say Never, and don't make it a personal issue. It is a commercial world

regards

thehitman

Can you let me know what you have in mind

Thanks

grscarlett@ntlworld.com

A bit of a side issue but pertinent to pts obtaining lenses @ Aldi etc when we issue a spec for CL, which I only validate for max 12/12 is it reasonable to insert on the spec the legend "NO GENERIC SUBSTITUTION WITHOUT THE AUTHORITY OF THE PRESCRIBER" for the lenses so specified. This means if you supply say Sauflon from your diagnostics that is what they must have to comply with the Rx issued.

Comments?

I was under impression they did have to anyway.... All business is so difficult!!

Why bother with CL

I supply Varifocal V`s, german of course a@ £300.00

If the CL manus make it hard for me I will stick to specs.

I am starting to think the same, it gets diffcult to make anything when you fit a multifocal soft monthly which take 3 appointments to get perfect patient happy practioner happy has got right. 2/3 months later patient asks for specification, you can't then retrospectively add fees and if you charge per appointment then you would be looking at fitting fees of £75-£100, which means you wouldn't have done the fit anyway.

when you take out a sky subscription it is for a 12 month contract,perhaps we should only fit patients that agree to buy from us for 12 months.

As ikon and smurfit mention; most on-line retailers will advise the equivalent lens. I notice that the news pages on our very own "The Optician" website, opticianonline.net has ads from google for "Rebranded Optician Lenses. Consumer guide to rebranded Opticians lenses. www.contactlenses.co.uk" Hmmmm.

Dear Roger,

Thanks for telling us that. I have to have these ads blocked manually and I have tried to keep the consumery stuff off the site. If you drop me any offending URLs I will have them blocked.

www. opticianonline.net is of course a business to business site and as such doesn't reach consumers. Needless to say these ads will reach consumer elsewhere so they do need to be counteracted.

michel they cannot substitute a different lens,only the same lens in a different box,so i dont think there is much point in insisting on the same packaging if the lens inside the box is identical, perhaps it would be more useful to stamp a statement saying that under section 60 the supplier is now responsible for aftercare.