Please, don't get me wrong. I love my Target in Diamond Bar especially the Pharmacy Department. I've written a review previously about them. This has to do with the newer Target in Pomona. Again, I really do love Target and this one is just more to love, HOWEVER, this one has an optical department. As much as I love the Pharmacy at D.B. Target, I have come to detest the optical department at Pomona Target. Let me make my case.
A few weeks ago I found out that the newer Target had an optical department. To me and everyone else in the western world, that would mean they have an optometrist. They do. Expecting to go to a wedding soon in Oklahoma and having recently broken my Rx Sunglasses, I went to Target to check out the prices and to definitely get an eyeglass prescription. After finding the prices there were just as high as the rest, I had the eye exam done for a prescription to use for Rx Sunglasses purchase on line.
The usual Optometrist was not in that day but a young man whose name I can't read on the prescription in front of me...Benjamin? something, was told that I needed a lens prescription to purchase some Rx Sunglasses on line. I told him they would be bifocal or progressive depending on what I picked out. He repeated that back to me during our conversation. Everything went smoothly as far as I could tell, having done this three or four times in the past. He gave me the prescription, I looked at it and, noticing some blank space blocks, asked him if this was everything I needed. I was assured it was and if their were any problems to have them call him. I paid the young man $65.00.
I went on line to Glasses USA, picked out two different Rx Sunglass frames which I was able to do for the price of ONE pair at Target Optical or anywhere else I've dealt with to date. I filled in the numbers exactly as was given on my prescription, It was quite easy really and paid for their second fastest shipping to get them here in time for my trip.
A week later, I get a call from Glasses USA. The prescription given did not have the "ADD" column filled in as needed for progressive lenses. I said, "You haven't even STARTED on them yet and you're just NOW calling me? Moving on, I read him the numbers on my prescription again and verified that the prescription couldn't be used without the final numbers. I gave him the number of Target Optical and he agreed to call them ASAP and said he would send the glasses Express Mail at their cost.
Another few days go by and Target calls to tell me that they got a call from Glasses USA and I have to come in and do it all over again. I was incensed! They should have called me IMMEDIATELY after getting the call from Glasses USA, they chose not to.
I go in the following Monday, having already checked on line for the Pomona Target Optical hours...Mon thru Fri 10AM to 8PM. Check! The optical department is open but there is no optometrist on Mondays. I come back late Tuesday, WELL before 8PM, the optometrist left at 5:30 or 6PM. I asked for my check back.
Finally, the meat of the matter. My conversation Tuesday evening and my phone conversation today with the optical department manager Laural Dellapenna or something like that, was the absolute worst. I was always put on the defensive, like this is all my fault. The phone conversation with her was like one would imagine a bill collector and a person teetering on bankruptcy. The explanation I received about the advertised hours being blatently misleading was, "The law prohibits us from discussing anything about the optometrist as they are not employed by Target". She went on to say her hours are posted on her door. I asked her how the general public is supposed to know this, that the hours posted on line for Target's optical department has nothing to do with when you can get your eyes examined. She repeated the hours are posted on her door.
She was also insistant that she couldn't give me a refund as the prescription was perfectly fine. No matter my argument that it WASN'T perfectly fine as I could not purchase Rx Sunglasses with them due to MISSING data. "You probably didn't tell the optometrist you were getting bifocal lenses", was her reply. I reminded her that I EXPRESSLY told the young man what I wanted and what the prescription was needed to purchase. "Well people can make mistakes", replied the manager.
Yes they can Ms. Laural and that's when you are entitled to a refund so you can take your business elsewhere. Now I have to wait until tomorrow, yet another day, to talk to the optometrist, IF THERE IS ONE, and make sure I'm getting my money back. Yes, it would be easier for me to go in and have the regular optometrist fill in the numbers needed but after having to suffer through arguing with the manager of that department and being made to feel that this is all my fault, TWICE, I don't think so... read more