Overall: Good customer service but sh**ty quality control
This is an updated review for LensCrafters (initially wrote on August 25th) - it needed to be done.
My eye test took 20-30 minutes (included dilation) - I NOW believe it wasn't a very thorough test. J went last week for his test and another doctor checked his eyes thoroughly - it took over 1 hour! I have no idea why the different doctors within the same practices vary so much!
Anyhow, after sieving through racks upon racks of designer frames (ranging from $159.99 upwards), I found a pair I liked. I then went to sit with an assistant, I specifically requested photochromic WITH anti-reflective, she says they are in stock, so they'll be ready in an hour. In total my glasses came to a total of $330 (that was because I had price lenses).
We faffed around in Redmond town center for an hour and came back, the glasses WERE ready, adjusted and I happily walked out with them on. I stood FOOLISHLY in direct sunlight with my eyes closed for a good 2-3 minutes, J told me there was no change. I was NOT pleased, so I marched back into the store and asked if the lenses they put in were photochromic. They weren't - they assumed I asked for ONLY anti-reflective! I spoke to their retail manager - Beth, she said we'll order them and charged me a bit more (with a discretional reduction because of the inconvenience) - I was then sent on my way and told to wait for about 2 weeks.
11 days later I got a call to say my GLASSES were ready, I went to pick them up the following day as I was in Redmond going to do our weekly shop in Whole Foods.
Me: Hi, I've come up to pick up my glasses, my surname is... (then spelt it out phonetically).
Stupid assistant: Ok, come and take a seat [took a seat, she rummages through the cupboard to find my tray, nope she couldn't find it].
Stupid assistant: Are you sure your glasses are ready?
Me: Yes, I got an answer message yesterday saying I could pick them up.
Stupid assistant: ok [rushed backwards and forwards in the lab and searched again, she couldn't find them], Are you sure? What's the last name again? And the first name? Are you sure they didn't tell you the lenses were ready and not the glasses?
Me: Yes I'm SURE!
She eventually found the tray in the original cupboard and claimed that "they were hiding", we at this point had been asked twenty questions and had no apology for her being totally blind. Ok, off I went... it was Thursday when I picked them up.
Come Monday evening, I was wiping my glasses and noticed a scratch. How the hell did that happen? I'm always extremely careful with "new" things. I proceeded to clean them and realized the scratch occurred because there was MULTIPLE air bubbles on the anti-reflective coating. I've NO IDEA what QUALITY CONTROL they have, IF ANY - but it's ridiculous.
There are currently about 10 bubbles on EACH small lens, the biggest being 1/5th inch!!!! I spoke to Beth (retail manager) this morning and she told me they have 2 rounds of quality control - why don't I believe that????? She's now ordered replacement lenses and I will get a call WHEN they arrive. So, I have to make ANOTHER trip to bring my glasses back, wait another damn hour to get them done because they couldn't do it properly in the first place! All she could do was apologize and commented "well, it's the case of when it rains it pours".
NOW I know why they give you the "30 DAY UNCONDITIONAL GUARANTEE", it's because they can THEN correct any problems caused by not doing it properly in the first time. Oh yeah, be warned the 30 day guarantee is from when you PURCHASE them and NOT when you pick them up - so go and figure.
We are currently waiting for J's contact lenses too, we'll see how they'll turn out! Really, I am shocked that a place can have such crap quality control on their lenses! It baffles me, I initially gave this place 4 stars - what the hell was I thinking? It'll go down to 2 now... they DO have good customer service and do rectify things, but again if they did it properly in the first place, why would they need to? read more