Complaint Review: Sparkling Eyes Opticians

There is a very bad company which operated out of Northway House, 1379 High Road, Whetstone, London, N20 9LP, England, and the registered address is Halswelle House, London N11 called Eyecare International Limited. Because of the negative publicity it generated, they changed names and company addresses but the scam is the same.

Sparkling Eyes is still one of the Aaron Gershfield companies formally called Eyecare International Limited. It's still around and operating as Sparkling Eyes Opticians along with companion companies CE Apple Corp and Borders & Gates. All new company names using a Watford address but fronted by Andrew Osman, Yogesh Bafna, Sandeep Chauhan, and Oliver Gershfield amongst others. Go to sparklingeyes dot co dot uk and see if you recognise the horrible web page? Aaron Gershfield and Ian Harries must be desperate. Where is Stephanie Kleyman these days? Still clearing through the pile of writs coming in thick and fast to Zorro Law?

For those who don't know, here is the scam. They promises FREE eyecare for ALL employees who need it, but the reality is quite different. Last year they came to our office park and we were given this fantastic talk by one of their reps about how simple and easy it was for us to use them. I've never needed glasses but because the test was free and our HR people pushed the service, I went ahead and signed up.

The testing itself was the only decent part though the trailer they test in, a "Tardis" they stupidly call it, was freezing cold and wobbled every time anybody moved. They told me I needed glasses and tried to sell me some with "bendable" frames. I told them I really didnt want any but they must work on commission so they kept pressing on about their exclusive range which seemed quite poorly made. Eventually, they badgered me into taking some sunglasses, which I was on the fence about, but they wouldn't let me leave until they made me sign a direct debit and sales agreement (a copy of which I asked for but never received).

A few days later, I saw the same pair cheaper at Vision Express and so emailed by "Personal Manager" telling him I didn't want to proceed with my order. I didn't hear anything for a few weeks so I didn't think much more about it. But then I started getting these ridiculous emails from "my glasses" telling me I needed to collect them. I would also get constant emails telling me I had a balance and needed to go pay them. I would repeatedly respond to the emails telling them that I had cancelled my order, had never picked up any glasses, and didn't owe any money, but this only seemed to cause even more emails to be sent. And when I called them, they never answered the phone.

After many, many months of this, they finally stopped, but only because so many other people complained to our HR director, that she sorted the whole mess out. Needless to say, I'm told we won't be having those amatures back to our company again.

To anyone thinking of using them, I would say stay well away as they clearly don't know what they are doing and use high pressure sales tactics to coerce people into buying things that they don't need and into handing over their bank account details so the company can repeatedly make unauthorised debits. 

Having done some research on this company, I have found that they also go by several names, Meade Investments, Rovinge International, Waterfront Investments, Heathmill, and are run by the criminal mastermind Aaron Gershfield who was sued by the Federal Trade Commission for illegal money lending and is currently under investigation by UK tax authorities for tax evasion and money laundering.

There are many articles out there regarding their nefarious activities but I am unable to post these here. So I file this report as a warning to others who might be duped by one of their many scams in the future. DO NOT FALL FOR IT!