My customer experience was the most shockingly poor of any opticians or retail establishment I have ever visited. The staff in the shop seemed friendly except for the Italian woman I dealt with who was rude, incompetent and unhelpful. I have many Italian friends and female friends and have nothing against Italian nationals or women, for the record. She was giving me constant attitude during my entire visit to the shop. She seemed to be friendly to the other customers who came in for eye tests, presumably as they were known, perhaps long term customers, but who were certainly already spending money in the shop. I got the impression that until I spent money there, I would be treated like some kind of lowlife. However, the psychology is all wrong, because with that level of customer service, I won't be spending any of my money in the shop nor going back again, which otherwise seemed to be quite good, with a good selection of frames. I think David Paul should consider his choice of staff or sending her on a customer service course as I think this woman seems to be damaging his business. Some people seem to think that because they work in a shop that sells middle to upper tier spectacles, that they need to act obnoxiously and arrogantly in keeping with their products, rather than just slick and professional. These are not the same thing!
When I walked into the opticians, I was greeted initially with a smile (when i smiled at her first) but that was the last smile I got out of this member of staff. When i said I just wanted to browse, I was followed around and watched constantly like a hawk, with the sales attendant standing a meter or so from me the entire time. She wasn't helping me or pointing anything out, but just staring as if I was about to steal a pair of frames. She could have adequately watched me from the counter but seemed to be doing this to 'flex' and give me some attitude. It was so unnecessary that I was after a few minutes going to ask her why she was standing right behind me just staring but I didn't bother.
I tried on one rimless pair which fell apart when I took them off (one handed but carefully - as I was holding my regular glasses in the other hand). She mumbled something about me not knowing how to take the glasses off properly and looked really stroppy, proceeding to pick up the lens and arm that had fallen off onto the floor. She then said they weren't glued and are normally very robust when made up, to defend the product. I apologised a number of times. I thought she was going to throw me out of the shop at that point, it was that kind of atmosphere. I got the feeling she didn't want me in the shop anyway. Given that she was watching me at close proximity, she could have told me to be careful with the rimless frames as they weren't glued, but offered no advice on this at all I don't think I could be blamed in these circumstances. She proceeded to reassemble and polish the frames whilst standing away from the counter, right in front of me, but the arm kept popping out and falling off, falling on the floor she replaced it and it fell off again this happened 4 or 5 times. Clearly it was ok for her to drop the glasses on the floor a number of times rather than doing it at the counter more carefully, arguably causing the frames more damage than I'd done, not that the frames looked like they had been damaged from what I could see. It would suggest that it would have happened to anyone who picked up the frames to try on. I had been very careful when picking up all the different frames I looked at and didn't understand her attitude perhaps I wasn't dressed smartly enough or some other reason. I told her I was interested in a particular set of Lindberg frames, and I explained they were rimmed glasses. I asked how we could go about getting them ordered in so I could have a look at them and try them on, and she explained that I would have to buy them to look at them but not before she mumbled that first I had to pay for the damage. I was a little surprised and wondered if the frames were indeed significantly damanged and I asked her to confirm that I'd need to pay for the damages (which I then presumed would apply before she'd let me leave the shop!) and she then changed tack and skipped over the comment about paying for damage and said that the deposit to get the Lindberg frames in to view and try was non-refundable and that it would apply to another set of frames if I didn't like those.
She told me they were custom frames, which I thought highly unlikely, as they are rimmed, and I'd already spoken to a London-based Lindberg and Silhouette dealer who had a large amount of product knowledge. She seemed to know very little about Lindberg frames and seemed to be under the impression their entire range was custom, whereas I was fairly sure it only applied to Lindberg's rimless glasses. I clarified a number of times that they were rimmed and were they really customisable in terms of lens read more
