Dr. Allen was great. He felt quite personable and I felt confident in his abilities. He did not rush you through or make you feel uncomfortable. He seems to genuinely like his job which makes you enjoy the experience and trust him in general. Although, I had a 80% discount with Kaiser, he was still more expensive than some optometrists, but I liked him, his staff, and his facilities, so I thought that was worth it.
The staff was, initially, also great. That was until I tried to have him fill a contact prescription.
When I scheduled my appointment, I told them that I would need to have the whole thing (examination and contacts) done within two weeks because I would leave the country in two weeks. They said it might not be possible but that I should get the examination, and be fitted for contacts when I came back to Bakersfield. I informed them that it would be over five months until I would be able to come back. I travel a lot, but it has never been difficult for me to get both my examination and contact lenses in two weeks.
When I was able to get my trial contacts, I called Dr. Allen's office. The front desk staff member was that sort of rude/condescending/veneer-of-nice combination that shows that she did have adequate training in interacting with the general public, however, it did not quite cover up what she was really thinking. She did not listen to my questions, so she did not answer them properly. After she finally listened to me and answered my main question, it turns out that I spent a lot of money to see Dr. Allen for a prescription I can never have filled because I didn't fill it within 90 days of my appointment. The only change in the prescription was that my vision improved 0.25 diopters in each eye. She then told me that I needed to contact the doctor as soon as I was in the country next time, and then proceeded to offer more tidbits on how to best live life that were unsolicited, yet (prior to my experience with Dr. Allen) truisms...I already had followed her advice with Dr. Allen and other optometrists and I'd never had a problem getting contacts in the past.
So that's negative four stars to represent the negative space in my bank account where a large chunk of my money used to be, and five stars to represent my initial interaction with Dr. Allen and his staff. Summation = one star. I am in the process of filing a written grievance with Kaiser-
Permanente (it takes them a few days to mail you the official grievance forms) because they said this was unusual behavior.
*** I read some other review sites because I was trying to find Dr. Allen's email to give him a chance to remedy the situation because I hate to post negative reviews. I couldn't find a website or an email for him. Instead, I found lots of negative reviews. It turns out my review of him may be quite a positive one! read more