Chris Bennett: I’m not one to complain, but...

Optical consumer complaints (In focus) can be a touchy subject but let’s have a look at some numbers.

In the year to April 2016 the Optical Consumer Complaints Service received 969 enquiries – that’s a big jump compared with the 620 complaints lodged with the OCCS in the previous year. But put into the context of over 22 million sight tests taking place each year and suddenly that figure doesn’t look too bad.

And the British are not slow to complain. In 2014 there were 66 million consumer complaints, one every 1.2 seconds. The Financial Ombudsman received 1.8 million complaints last year, each of the high street banks individually had a volume of complaints that dwarf those placed against the entire optical profession.