My partner and I stopped by this location on 9/23 at 5:30 PM as a walk-in for his quick eye exam and to purchase a frame. We have done this many times over the years at the Valley Fair location, so we expected the same efficient experience. We also tend to choose our frames quickly and do not spend a long time deciding on frames.
Unfortunately, our experience with the front desk was extremely disappointing.
Brianna appeared visibly irritated that he was a walk-in. She rolled her eyes and spoke to us in an annoyed tone throughout our interactions with her. It was far beyond simply having a bad day. Her attitude made us feel unwelcome from the moment we arrived.
While I was waiting for the doctor to finish my partner's exam, I could hear the conversations happening at the front desk. Another employee, whose name I did not catch because she had already walked out, reminded Brianna that she had one more patient. She was wearing colorful scrubs. Brianna responded sarcastically, "Yeah, I know," while looking over in my direction and sighing. This was after she complained and sighed about how over she was of the day and could not he bothered to do anything else. This was at 6pm.
Brianna and Michelle continued talking about personal matters and were not doing any work-related tasks at the time. They did, however, complain about having to correspond with patients and deal with patient calls and emails.
As a customer sitting right there, having to listen to employees openly express how done they were for the day and complain about work-related responsibilities was incredibly unprofessional and uncomfortable. It made us feel like our presence was an added inconvenience to their "busy" day, simply because we came in toward the end of the day.
Once my partner finished the exam, Michelle took over the rest of our checkout. I will give her credit for being more pleasant to interact with. There were no eye rolls or annoyed tones of voice from her while she was helping us, and I appreciated that. We had actually already selected our frame before the exam because we wanted to be efficient and get out as quickly as possible given the atmosphere.
What makes this experience especially disappointing is that we have been customers at both locations for years. We ultimately spent over $500 on the exam, lenses, and frame, yet left feeling like we were a burden rather than valued customers.
I have also seen reviews from other customers mentioning problems with their completed glasses, including incorrect lenses or orders. I sincerely hope we do not encounter any issues with our order. After this experience, however, I am understandably concerned about whether the same level of frustration and lack of attention we experienced at the front desk could affect the handling of our order.
I made a point of remembering the employees' names because the customer service was so unusually poor. We should not have left an eye-care establishment feeling this uncomfortable after what should have been a simple appointment.
I am including Michelle because, although she was somewhat pleasant with us, she did not make any attempt to address or correct Brianna's behavior. She was also sighing about the work-day and looked somewhat bothered there was another patient. She engaged in all non-work conversation the whole time I was waiting during the exam with Brianna. Michelle ultimately took over the remaining interaction post exam and took the workload while Brianna continued in the same visibly negative mood.
Brianna continued rolling her eyes at us throughout the remainder of our time there. When I asked for their names, she initially did not respond. She only provided her name after Michelle looked over at her. At another point, Brianna appeared to be on the phone, but there was no apparent conversation taking place. From my perspective, it appeared that she was simply pretending to stay busy after Michelle had taken over the remaining interaction.
Customers should never feel like an inconvenience simply because they walk in toward the end of the workday, especially when the store does not close until 8:00 PM and we arrived at approximately 5:30 PM. There were still two and a half hours left in the business day.
The doctor was great, and our experience with her was not the issue at all. The problem was the front-office and the lack of professionalism we encountered there. The front office needs to be evaluated. We will not be returning to this location after we pick up the glasses. It is disappointing to have been treated this way after being loyal customers. read more