This was the worst experience at an eye doctor I have ever had. I'm an army kid who has been wearing glasses since I was seven - I've been to a lot of eye doctors. I had the feeling the entire time that they were trying to trick me.
First, they didn't mention until I arrived that the visit might be billed as a medical specialist visit instead of a routine eye exam. I had to very explicitly state multiple times to multiple people that I ONLY wanted a routine eye exam to try to avoid extra charges.
Also, getting a contact prescription in addition to my glasses would have cost me over $100 - not including the price of the fitting. Again - I've been to a lot of eye doctors around the country. Even without insurance, I've only seen the contact prescription and fitting go for $15-59, not upwards of $100.
Then, when I was asking for my prescription so that I could go somewhere else to get glasses, they tried to say that it wouldn't be possible for me to get my glasses elsewhere because they had already pulled the authorization for my insurance for my glasses. This sounded wonky to me - the FTC explicitly forbids eye doctors from refusing to give prescriptions, and to their credit, they did not put up a fuss in giving it to me, but they did make it sound like it would not be possible to get my eye exam and my glasses in two different places. I had to ask a lot of questions to have it be revealed that this was not actually the case. Then I had to ask them to call my insurance and revoke the authorization for my frames. And when I checked with the front desk to make sure that was done, they said they had never pulled the authorization in the first place. Which was it? Either you're trying to con me into getting (expensive) glasses here, or you pulled the authorization for my glasses without my consent.
Then I tried to pay my copay - and they had no idea what it would be! Again, probably because they haven't decided whether to bill my insurance as a routine eye exam or a specialist visit. I'll have to wait 2-4 weeks for my bill - I am worried about what it will be.
To summarize: I felt like I had to be on alert the entire time to ensure I would not be fleeced, no one was clear about what was going on, and they couldn't even tell me what my copay was. Unbelievably unprofessional, and I will never return. read more