This is specifically for the OPTICAL DEPARTMENT.
I would recommend that anyone AVOID this optical department. I have had good experiences at other Costco optical departments around the country, but this one was horrendous. I was helped by a guy named Chris, who was more interested in hearing himself talk and trying to upsell me than he was on actually helping me. He would ask me questions about my prescription, etc.--over and over again, because he never listened to my answers. He got my contact information wrong despite my correcting him TWICE, and he was so busy telling me about his own personal stuff (for example, he was badmouthing another, completely unrelated company because of a personal experience he had there, and he told me, "I told the guy that I was going to tell EVERYONE about this company's poor service!") that I walked away feeling like I had just been totally railroaded. I watched him do the same fast-talking bombardment to an elderly woman who was in front of me. It was really horrible.
It was so unpleasant that I DREADED going in to pick up my glasses. I was thrilled that they were in within five business days--but when I went in to get them, it turned out that the lenses had been done incorrectly and would have to be re-cut (i.e. sent back out and done all over again). Well, Chris was "so sorry" and assured me that he would "make it up to" me. (WHAT does that mean? How are you going to do that other than give me a discount, which I certainly did not receive?) He also said, "When they made a mistake and have to do an order over again, this order gets priority and goes right to the front of the line. We should get them back soon."
A week and a half later, I had still not heard anything about the glasses. I called the Optical shop and got Chris, who said that he never promised that the glasses would get priority and they were probably taking longer "because everyone is quality checking them a lot to be sure they're right." But he said he would find out the status of the order and call me right back.
Surprise, never heard from him.
I called the next day and a sweet woman answered the phone who did help me locate the glasses and called me back to tell me they would be a few more days as they were still out in Washington. She also explained that all the Costco Optical shops throughout the country send their orders to one of two fulfillment centers. TWO in the entire country.
Strangely, the glasses were in the very next day.
Unfortunately, Chris was there when I went to pick them up (I walked up as he and another Costco employee were goofing around, giving crazy high fives to each other and jumping and behaving unprofessionally and like a couple of teenagers). I wasn't even acknowledged right away.
The funniest part of this is that, when I purchased my new frames, I expressed to Chris that I had a serious concern about the fit because of challenges I had with my current frames. I had once been told that the fit issue couldn't be fixed, and his response was, "Whoever told you that was clearly not an optician, because no real optician would say that. They could have been fixed." (I WAS told it by an optician, in fact, another Costco optician from a different location.) He assured me that I would not have this problem with these new frames.
Well, these frames have the same issue. But I guarantee that if I go in to Costco to get them fixed, I am going to go to another location. read more
