September 15, 2006
by Traci Gardner
My sister Kerri and I set out on an odyssey to get glasses this afternoon. Who knew it would be such a pain in the butt? I will NEVER go back to that store. I would have walked out early on, but I had found what I thought looked okay, so we didn’t leave (when maybe we should have).
Our trial today began when the worker bees were totally flustered that I would want to get glasses at a place when their doctor hadn’t done my eye exam. I went to a doctor who is part of my regular health insurance (benefit of keeping all my health records together) and who was recommended as better than the other options. But that location isn’t approved for glasses. I would only get $75 back, which wouldn’t begin to cover the cost. So I went to a different office/store to get the prescription filled.
After much sighing on their part, I asked if I could just look around and figure out if I wanted anything before they completed all their recordkeeping. As Kerri and I began the process of looking at the glasses that all looked the same, another woman came in and had a fit because she felt she was being charged for something that she shouldn’t be charged for. The complaining woman was inappropriately obnoxious, but so were the worker bees.
I finally figured out the frames (pictures one and two) that seemed right. We took some pictures with the cell phone, so that I could look at them from that perspective. The clincher was having Kerri put them on. I’m used to seeing her with glasses, so I could better tell if they were okay on her.
Unfortunately the arguing woman and the arguing worker bees were still all fully involved in arguing. Kerri and I stood around and tried to pretend that we weren’t really annoyed with the unprofessional stuff that was going on. I sent one of the pics of me in the glasses to Lisa. Kerri and I sighed. Eventually I decided I couldn’t take anymore, so we went outside for a bit while the arguing continued. Lisa called me to say that she liked the glasses while Kerri pretended that we were doing something important in the car.
When more customers showed up, Kerri and I went back in (we lost our place in line by going outside, and I didn’t want to be any further behind). Eventually, arguing people came to a ceasefire, and woman left. It only took about 20 minutes for all that.
When the clerical worker bee flustered about with the difficulty of entering me in their system, the head worker bee in charge of fittings and nonsense decided to help me. We were less than amused by this woman’s method. If I hadn’t done research to know essentially what I wanted, I would have been walking out of there with the most useless, basic glasses in the world.
It was as if she couldn’t be bothered to talk to me about anti-reflection or anti-scratch. But when pushed she provided an unnecessary sales pitch. She was most engaged in the process of adding up that the glasses would cost me and what I would have paid if I didn’t have insurance. Frankly, I didn’t care. I just wanted to pay for them and be done with her; but she was very, very determined to make sure I knew that I saved money.
Throughout this process, Kerri and I kept rolling our eyes at each other. You would have thought that it was unusual to want anti-scratch coating and such things. When we finally walked out, we both agreed never to return to that place for a purchase. Actually, what I said to her was, “All in all, I would rather go through a pelvic exam than do that again.” What a horrible place.
So I ordered progressive lenses (no line bifocals), transition lenses (they get darker in sunlight because bright lights really bother me), and anti-scratch and anti-reflection coatings.
They said it would take 2 weeks (which is also far too long according to everyone. Normally these things take a week.) At least it’s taken care of for now. Who knows if I’ll really get glasses in two weeks?
Backdated. Written 9/26/06
