I was so excited when a new LensCrafters opened at Bridgeport. For years, I just went and got my exams and glasses at the LensCrafters in Santa Barbara, whenever I'd go down and visit family. So clearly, this seemed like a more convenient option. But I was wrong.
Before my last visit to SB (and before I knew about this new location,) I had ordered glasses from TIJN with my old prescription. Because of Covid, though, they didn't arrive right away, and in the interim, I had a new exam at the LensCrafters in SB. My prescription had changed a lot (yay, progressive lenses!) so I ordered an emergency pair to tide me over. LensCrafters has never had a great selection of wide frames (anything over 50, really,) so I decided to take my brand new, super cute, and functional TIJN glasses in to the new location at Bridgeport to see if they could put new lenses in. Initially upon arriving, the manager greeted me. She seemed friendly and helpful, and I told her what I was hoping to do. TIJN glasses are $99 with prescriptions (progressives are maybe $150 tops?) so I could have just reordered them for less, but I wanted to give a local business, well, business, so I swallowed the giant price tag for two sets of new lenses. They pulled up my current prescription, measured me for glasses, said that they might take a while, and sent me on my way.
Flash forward: one pair arrives, the other hasn't. I put them on and they seem blurry. The manager kindly assures me my eyes need to take time to adjust. They are theoretically the exact same prescription as my other LensCrafters glasses from SB, but I accept this and leave. They give me headaches and vertigo and I can't really see, so when the second pair arrives, I come back in and tell them they're not working. The manager sits down with me and measures where the transition for the progressive part of the lens is, and sure enough, it is too high. She apologizes and takes back both glasses after assuring me she got the correct measurement, and I go home, without glasses for another few weeks.
Flash forward 2: I don't make the same mistake and wait until both glasses are in. I go in and try them on, this time with an associate, and again, it's the same problem. She looks at it and measures where my pupils are on the glasses, and sure enough, they're wrong. The manager overhears and comes out, quite irritated, and insists that the associate is wrong and that she personally took the measurements. It was awkward. But, after being shown, grudgingly admits that their in-house lab must have made a mistake and they must be sent out to be done a third time. She is quite upset, the associate is apologetic, and I'm feeling super uncomfortable, and I head home.
Flash forward 3: several more weeks pass, and I get the call my glasses are in. I go in and only the associate is there. I put on the glasses and they are STILL wrong. I gently tell her, "I'm so sorry, but I think they are still blurry." She automatically gets frustrated with me and says, "Well, that's all we can do. We can't do them again," (like I was being unreasonable and as though the previous mistakes had somehow been my fault.) Then, before I even asked, she told me that the manager wasn't there that day but that I could come back in AGAIN and I might be able to get the manager to refund my lenses. Only, it wouldn't be a true refund, because they already tossed the original, brand new, perfectly good lenses, so I would be left with two empty frames and still $198 out of pocket. She was quite rude and basically shoo'ed me out of the store.
Their customer service and attention to detail is clearly abysmal. I would never recommend this store to anyone, unless they want a serious headache. Save your money. read more