Went for an eye exam. very rude, low quality care, treat customers as cash cows, overall just a bad experience.

I had an excellent experience with a routine check up with Dr. Weintraub. He was kind, informative, thorough and very patient. I highly recommend him and Shelburne Eyeworks. read more

Long story short: I was having problems with the prescription Mr. Weintraub wrote me (I had two different pairs of glasses made using his prescription and both had problems), yet when I inquired about a prescription check and reexamination, he wanted me to pay for it! I was first told it would be full price, then that it would be free, and then that it would be 30% off. How did that part happen? My Dad also spoke to him, to see what he would do (I didn't want him to get involved but he did anyways, just trying to help), and he immediately offered a free reexamination. Yet, when I call in the day after to schedule it, I'm told that I DO have to pay. So basically he flat out lied to my Dad's face... either that or he gives preferential treatment. That's when I knew to cut my losses and find another doctor. I'll post the full story below too if anybody wants more detail since it's been an ordeal. The full story: I went in for a routine prescription eye exam. Everything was fine, Mr. Weintraub was nice and all. It was over quickly and I thought nothing of it. I took the prescription he made and used it to have glasses made at my local Walmart (they had a 60 day 100% money back guarantee). Now comes the reason why I gave 1 star. The follow up customer service was horrible. My vision in the new glasses was just off... things in the distance were not sharp. I first went back to Walmart and had them investigate the issue. They were extremely helpful. The man helping me physically inspected my glasses, answered every question I had, and even got other employees involved to get my matter resolved. I was there over an hour but they were very thorough so the time was well spent. They couldn't find anything physically wrong with my glasses construction, and as a last resort, I was given free autorefractor (where you look into a machine and it guesses your prescription). It came out to the same prescription Mr. Weintraub wrote, except with astigmatism correction added. There's two sides of a story, so they said to follow up with Mr. Weintraub and if I was still not satisfied I could get my money back. So I went and back to Mr. Weintraub, explained what Walmart did, and wanted to get his opinion. When he heard about the auto refractor though, he stopped listening to me and instead got annoyed and went on about how they shouldn't be doings things like this because it was illegal, that I didn't do anything wrong, and he was going to give them hell (not in those words exactly, but that was the gist of it). I asked him why he didn't use his auto refractor and he said that he never uses it because his subjective eye tests are already good enough. I tried to get him to talk about the technical details, and why it was supposedly illegal, but he skirted around those issues. He also said that he "couldn't" do anything without me paying full price for another eye exam. And I wasn't even brought in his office to talk about all this. At this point I wasn't sure who to believe: Walmart or Mr. Weintraub. To make matters more complicated, I also knew several people personally who went with Walmart and told me that their lens construction, while good, was not the best, so in some cases, it may be not be good enough. So I played it safe and got my money back from Walmart and then went to another location to get my glasses made. I used the same prescription and while my next pair did seem of a higher quality, it had the same distance flaw. Now I was thinking that I had a prescription problem. I was going to back to Mr. Weintraub and discuss the matter, but before I could, my Dad talked to him instead, and explained the situation (without letting on that it was for my benefit, though we know he and his receptionist two and two were put together). Anyways, after he explained, my Dad was IMMEDIATEY offered a free reexamination on the spot. I was told about the free reexamination and called the next day to schedule it. I explained my situation and the receptionist said it should be free... however she was going to check with Mr. Weintraub to be sure and would update. Oh, she updated me alright... now it would again cost money to be reexamined, though I was getting a 30% discount. I cancelled the appointment on the spot right there. What's with all the miscommunication? And why didn't Mr. Weintraub come to me for a follow up throughout any of this? The bottom line is: if he gets it wrong, you need to pay for it to be corrected. They'll tell you otherwise though. read more