I had my LASIK surgery at EyeSTAR in Istanbul, and overall it was a great experience. I’ll be honest, the surgery itself was terrifying for me and I was extremely nervous going in, but the team at Eyestar was incredible and helped me through it every step of the way. From the doctors to the nurses and staff, everyone was calm, patient, and reassuring, explaining what was happening and making sure I felt supported. The clinic is modern, professional, and well organized, and I felt safe and well cared for the entire time. Despite how scary the procedure felt, I’m very happy with the results and grateful for how supportive the team was throughout the experience.
TL;DR? I have a video talking about it on their page as well.
Flew 15 hours from the Caribbean to Istanbul for LASIK - when it's your eyes, you don't mess about. Checked three clinics but EyeSTAR's 500+ five-star reviews all mentioned Sebo, and they weren't wrong.
Sebo (speaks German, Dutch, English and more) is the absolute highlight. She's got this perfect mix of maternal and friend energy, standing right beside you during the procedure explaining everything - not just translating but sharing her 6+ years of experience. Makes all the difference when someone's about to laser your eyeball.
The procedure? 10 minutes total, maybe 8 (4-5 mins per eye). Zero pain. The eye-holding device is probably the most awkward thing of it all...for three seconds, then you just can't blink. Sebo talks you through every second so calmly, you forget it's surgery.
Customer service is 15/10. Being from the Caribbean, our FOREX restrictions are a nightmare - I had to split payment across multiple cards ("half on this, three-quarters on that..."). Could've been an accountant's worst day but nobody batted an eye (pun intended). Just complete patience and "no problem, we'll make it work."
Post-op reality: First 45 minutes fine, then 2-4 hours of discomfort (6/10 max) - bit of pressure, graininess, couple seconds of burning. Then suddenly around the 4th hour, you blink and it's gone. Like a thunderstorm then suddenly sunshine. Now I have perfect vision, no glasses, just hawk eyes.
The whole staff feel like they genuinely love their jobs - you can see it in how they interact. Met Johan from Germany in the waiting room (we were #3 and #4) and 20 minutes later we're taking photos like old friends. That's how nice it is here. There's patients from all over, Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey, USA, etc.
22 hours post-op writing this with perfect vision. In the photo: me (green jacket and blue tee), Sebo (middle), Johan (right) - three strangers who bonded over corneas, cultures and Sebo.
In the Caribbean we say "my vibes take you" - means your energy tells me I can trust you. That's rare in foreign medical settings, but Sebo and EyeSTAR have it. Would fly 15 hours again without question. I even volunteered to speak on video about my experience (in English) if you don't believe me, Johan did too (in German)
Book it, ask for Sebo, thank me later.
READ BEFORE CHOOSING THIS CLINIC (READ MY REPLY TO THEM BELOW)
Unreliable and incompetent. Make sure you read all type of reviews to get an actual picture of how this business is run. Do the surgery at your own risk.
Where do I even start. I traveled all the way from Australia in 2022 to undergo lasik surgery with this company. They had supposedly arranged their private transportation to pick me up at the airport. Not only do they never showed up leaving me stranded, but not once did they apologize or gave me a proper explanation. This led me to arrange transportation myself to get to the city. Not professional at all, but alright. I'd gone there to do the surgery after all.
The lasik surgery was €1200 for both eyes. Despite this, I was charged €900 for one eye because the cost was supposedly higher due to my high astigmatism. They never mentioned this. It should be mentioned they never bothered to put me in touch with the doctor that'd be doing the surgery.
Yet things didn't end there. Nothing seemed to have gone wrong after the surgery, so I decided to let all these things slide as my priority was improving my vision. I was to fly back to Australia a few days later.
However, it turns out my blurry vision didn't improve much, and a year later it was still far from the way it should have been. I let them know this, and was met with complete apathy and abysmal follow-up service. Messages going unanswered for a long time until telling them I had no choice but writing a negative review. I hesitated whether to go back to fix it, but I ended up doing it. Big mistake, as I showed up at the clinic on August 2023 only to be told I'd have to GO BACK TO AUSTRALIA and wait longer before they could make a decision on whether to proceed with a second surgery or not! In addition, I was told I couldn't speak to the doctor as he didn't speak English. What in the hell?
Does it end here? Unfortunately not. They had AGAIN told me they could arrange someone to pick me up and drop me off at the airport the day after. Ok, then. You can figure out what happened. Yes, correct. THEY NEVER REPLIED TO MY MESSAGES. I had to once again arrange everything myself. Did they apologize? No, of course not. Not once.
I have absolutely no idea how they have high ratings. Speaking for myself, I gave this company many chances, but decided it's simply too much.
Please do yourself a favor and find another clinic to do this procedure. I'd rather pay twice as much than deal with these people.
Absolutely not recommended.
PS: They never got in touch to reimburse me or apologize for anything.
UPDATE: Your reply pretty much confirmed what I said. People will decide on who to believe. Nice of you to go over my profile and reviews, by the way. It's very telling of how you run your business and treat your clients.
You haven't reimbursed me either. I give you 1 star because Google doesn't allow 0/5 ratings
