glasses again
Jan. 17th, 2007 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioIn the past I have recommended NeoVision to folks in Pittsburgh. Put that on hold for a while, ok?
Monday I took the new glasses back, saying that I was having problems with both the lenses and the frames. The guy who had written the prescription was there (as he had been on Friday), and after some hemming and hawing and a bit less civility than I expected from someone who presumably wants repeat business, he said that he can make the focal distance whatever I want. What? That's not what he implied on Friday, but I'll take it. I said to make it the same as with my current glasses (separately, later, I'll explore this variable more), and he measured and wrote something down.
I said that so long as they were remaking the lenses anyway, there was another thing I'd like them to fix. I got the light-adjusting lenses this time; when I ordered them they gave me a choice of gray or brown, I said brown, and they came back gray. He said they're only remaking the left lens (my dominant eye). I asked if having bifocals at two different focal distances might perhaps be a problem; he said I'd never notice. (!) He then said they can't make brown in a prescription as strong as mine. Err, odd, but I wasn't going to push.
He then made "ok we're done" noises/gestures and I said there were issues with the frames and if they weren't going to be fixable, we might want to know that before they remake any lenses. First, the new frames have some plastic bits on the back (I forget what they're called) that sit on my face; the problem is that after a few hours they were leaving abrasions (not just red spots) on my face. He clearly thought I was lying and said that with my prescription all glasses will leave red marks. I said that first, this was more than red marks, and second, my current glasses do not. (I took them off so he could see.) I thought his handling of this was poor.
Second, I said, the glasses were sliding down my nose a lot, and I wondered if the bridge piece was too wide for my face or if this could be adjusted in the side pieces (which also did not sit on my ears). He said "all glasses slide"; again, I said, while my current ones do some, it's not nearly as extreme.
Somewhere in there he said something that boiled down to "you knew all this when you picked the frames so it's your fault". I said that his staff had specifically offered these frames and, when I asked if my prescription was too strong for wire-rims (and that I'd never had wire-rims before), I was told it would be fine. Now, he seemed to be saying that the lenses were too thick for the frames, which I didn't feel was my fault. He pretty much blew me off, saying we'd adjust the frames when the lenses are fixed and everything would be fine.
That's where things stood on Monday. This afternoon, I got a call: they had decided that I need different frames, and could I go to their Shadyside office and look at a specific line of frames that they have only in that office? So I went there tonight after work (Wednesday is the only night they're open that late).
While they were starting to pull out frames I asked if my current glasses, which I had gotten in their office, were by any chance from that manufacturer. They checked -- yup. Great, I said -- are these specific frames still being made? Yup. Ok, I said, we don't need to look at the others; can you get me one of these? Yup. (They're 99% sure and will call to confirm tomorrow.)
When I initially ordered the glasses, I specifically asked if I could get another pair of my current frames, and they said they were no longer available. That seems to have translated to "the South Side office doesn't want to deal with that brand for some reason".
I asked them to measure the bifocal placement in my current glasses, which they did. I have high hopes that the next iteration will actually work.
I picked up two tidbits of information that I wonder about the relevance of. Monday, the guy said remaking the lens is no skin off his nose; my insurance company (VSP) has a lab that makes the lenses. I didn't know that. (The shop has its own lab, but not for folks with this insurance.) Tonight, when they told me the new glasses would take 4-6 weeks, they apologetically said that the folks who make the frames will be hand-grinding the lenses and that takes a while. Do I correctly understand that this time, I will be getting the (or a) regular lab, rather than VSP? Is that why this brand of frames "wasn't available" before -- it wasn't anything about the frames, but they wouldn't have been able to have my insurance company make the lenses? Clearly that's not a strict permission problem (another lab is doing the re-make); I wonder if it's a financial consideration. (For NeoVision, I mean -- the price for me didn't change.)
I will hold judgement about NeoVision's compentence for the nonce; it's possible the problem is specifically in their South Side office and that Shadyside is fine. Their ophthamologist, however, I will judge now: while he was easy to deal with a couple years ago (that's why I went back), this time he has been rude to me, implied that I am a liar, not taken my comments seriously, and given the impression that he will give me as little service as he can get away with. Whether I return to NeoVision's Shadyside office is an open question, but I do not plan to have future dealings with Dr. Gipson or the South Side office.
Monday I took the new glasses back, saying that I was having problems with both the lenses and the frames. The guy who had written the prescription was there (as he had been on Friday), and after some hemming and hawing and a bit less civility than I expected from someone who presumably wants repeat business, he said that he can make the focal distance whatever I want. What? That's not what he implied on Friday, but I'll take it. I said to make it the same as with my current glasses (separately, later, I'll explore this variable more), and he measured and wrote something down.
I said that so long as they were remaking the lenses anyway, there was another thing I'd like them to fix. I got the light-adjusting lenses this time; when I ordered them they gave me a choice of gray or brown, I said brown, and they came back gray. He said they're only remaking the left lens (my dominant eye). I asked if having bifocals at two different focal distances might perhaps be a problem; he said I'd never notice. (!) He then said they can't make brown in a prescription as strong as mine. Err, odd, but I wasn't going to push.
He then made "ok we're done" noises/gestures and I said there were issues with the frames and if they weren't going to be fixable, we might want to know that before they remake any lenses. First, the new frames have some plastic bits on the back (I forget what they're called) that sit on my face; the problem is that after a few hours they were leaving abrasions (not just red spots) on my face. He clearly thought I was lying and said that with my prescription all glasses will leave red marks. I said that first, this was more than red marks, and second, my current glasses do not. (I took them off so he could see.) I thought his handling of this was poor.
Second, I said, the glasses were sliding down my nose a lot, and I wondered if the bridge piece was too wide for my face or if this could be adjusted in the side pieces (which also did not sit on my ears). He said "all glasses slide"; again, I said, while my current ones do some, it's not nearly as extreme.
Somewhere in there he said something that boiled down to "you knew all this when you picked the frames so it's your fault". I said that his staff had specifically offered these frames and, when I asked if my prescription was too strong for wire-rims (and that I'd never had wire-rims before), I was told it would be fine. Now, he seemed to be saying that the lenses were too thick for the frames, which I didn't feel was my fault. He pretty much blew me off, saying we'd adjust the frames when the lenses are fixed and everything would be fine.
That's where things stood on Monday. This afternoon, I got a call: they had decided that I need different frames, and could I go to their Shadyside office and look at a specific line of frames that they have only in that office? So I went there tonight after work (Wednesday is the only night they're open that late).
While they were starting to pull out frames I asked if my current glasses, which I had gotten in their office, were by any chance from that manufacturer. They checked -- yup. Great, I said -- are these specific frames still being made? Yup. Ok, I said, we don't need to look at the others; can you get me one of these? Yup. (They're 99% sure and will call to confirm tomorrow.)
When I initially ordered the glasses, I specifically asked if I could get another pair of my current frames, and they said they were no longer available. That seems to have translated to "the South Side office doesn't want to deal with that brand for some reason".
I asked them to measure the bifocal placement in my current glasses, which they did. I have high hopes that the next iteration will actually work.
I picked up two tidbits of information that I wonder about the relevance of. Monday, the guy said remaking the lens is no skin off his nose; my insurance company (VSP) has a lab that makes the lenses. I didn't know that. (The shop has its own lab, but not for folks with this insurance.) Tonight, when they told me the new glasses would take 4-6 weeks, they apologetically said that the folks who make the frames will be hand-grinding the lenses and that takes a while. Do I correctly understand that this time, I will be getting the (or a) regular lab, rather than VSP? Is that why this brand of frames "wasn't available" before -- it wasn't anything about the frames, but they wouldn't have been able to have my insurance company make the lenses? Clearly that's not a strict permission problem (another lab is doing the re-make); I wonder if it's a financial consideration. (For NeoVision, I mean -- the price for me didn't change.)
I will hold judgement about NeoVision's compentence for the nonce; it's possible the problem is specifically in their South Side office and that Shadyside is fine. Their ophthamologist, however, I will judge now: while he was easy to deal with a couple years ago (that's why I went back), this time he has been rude to me, implied that I am a liar, not taken my comments seriously, and given the impression that he will give me as little service as he can get away with. Whether I return to NeoVision's Shadyside office is an open question, but I do not plan to have future dealings with Dr. Gipson or the South Side office.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 11:26 am (UTC)No, I was thinking in the opposite direction: once upon a time you went to the optician, and when they had tested your eyes and decided you needed a new pair of glasses, they took you through to the front of the shop and helped you choose frames.
Now their time is too valuable to do that, and you have sales staff, who never seem to know how a particular frame will work with your prescription.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-19 09:33 pm (UTC)