With my glasses suddenly broken and my curiosity spurring me towards trying one of the newly minted online glasses purveyors, I still needed an eye exam. I needed one quickly, efficiently, and at a reasonable cost. Calling from one place to another, I was told, "Yes, we could squeeze you in at such-and-such a time two weeks down the road," else, "We can see you tomorrow. The cost of the appointment is $95." Woaaaah! Until I called up Thomas Turtle.
So this location presently offers eye exams thrice a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The office boasts two examination rooms, both of which are stocked with up-to-date equipment in as orderly and competent a fashion as any ophthalmologist's office (my parents were really, really worried when I was really little), optician's office, or et cetera I have ever visited (save this one place in Japan which blew my mind). The gentleman who examined me treated me with the detached civility of someone who spends all days seeing eye after eye full in the knowledge he might never see eye to eye with them ever again. But he certainly was competent and communicated to me the result of every action he took.
So my prescription changed nary a bit in five years, it turns out. And it cost me $65 to learn that fact. (Without any insurance to mitigate any of the damage to my wallet. I imagine most others should fare much better.) Necessity aside, the speed and efficiency were worth it. Should I need an eye exam again in the Buffalo area, I wouldn't hesitate to board the 25 north to this Thomas Turtle.
Per my review, I did not buy glasses here, but I did take some time to peruse their selections. Given that Thomas Turtle is still something of a small business despite now occupying multiple locations, I expected a quaint selection of slightly out-of-date frame offerings. But the frames match well the offerings of places like LensCrafters. Sufficiently stylish, else sufficiently bland. Inconspicuous in a positive way, I guess. None of the frames they offer say anything about the people wearing them.
5 stars for the eye exams
3 stars for frame selection
4 stars for service read more