A disappointing experience from start to finish!
Perhaps we…read moregot off on the wrong foot when, first, my 94 year old father and I waited for twenty minutes in a completely empty waiting room before being taken into the inner sanctum - to wait some more.
This was my first visit to a new provider after a fifteen year relationship with a very thorough and personable optometrist, Amy Mummert, in Traverse City, Michigan. The "wrong foot" atmosphere was decidedly
reinforced when optometrist Carl Roth insisted on referring to Dr. Mummert as my, "girlfriend". He did so repeatedly, even after I pointed out that she was not my "girlfriend", but a professional, licensed, and experienced doctor of optometry!
My father was displeased that his complaints of blurred vision were dismissed because he was elderly. He was told, "your vision is fine for your age". Neither of us received the 'special testing' that signage in the office advertised, nor was that omission explained. Neither his prescription nor his glasses were adjusted, though Costco adjusted the fit of the nosepiece shortly thereafter, greatly improving his vision for reading.
I bought three pairs of glasses that day, spending approximately $1200 despite purchasing only one frame, providing two other frames myself. (One purchased new through my "girlfriend" because I liked them so much, received so many compliments, and Bridger was unable to obtain them.)
The lenses came with much lauded super duper, scratch resistant, coated lenses, with a two year replacement guarantee. Let me interject here that I either wear my glasses or keep them beside my bed. Rarely I remove them, at which point I put them in their case, which is always with me. I clean them only with Dawn detergent or a spray sold by an optometrist, wiping them ONLY with the cloth intended for glasses. (In other words, I am OCD about lens care.) I have never had a problem with lenses scratching. Never before this, that is.
However, in an amazingly short time, my daily wear glasses were scratched beyond belief. Within months I had to go in to ask for them to be replaced under the guarantee. This was met with the observation that there was a small chip on the painted metal frame. (The scowl made the translation pretty obvious, "AHA! This was YOUR FAULT!"). They did, however, replace the badly scratched lenses.
Before six months had passed, the scratching had reoccurred. This time I went first to a different optometrist for their opinion. They were aghast at the extent of the scratching and ventured the opinion that, since lenses are coated before the prescription is ground, it appeared that the scratch resistant coating had failed to be reapplied after grinding the lenses. In any case, I returned to Bridger for a second replacement. Their opinion was "bad luck" (at least no blame game this time!)
I recently purchased new glasses. The ophthalmologist in Bozeman stated that the lenses prescribed by Bridger, compared to the previous ones, done by my "girlfriend", (the optometrist in Michigan) was 'neither consistent with my previous lenses nor my current needs'. In her opinion, they 'accounted for both my vision difficulties and, very likely, my recurrent headaches.'
I am wearing, storing, cleaning, and treating my new glasses precisely like I did the ones purchased from Bridger. In the six months I've had them, there's not a single scratch! No headaches or vision complaints either. They were bought at Costco!
Sorry, but I cannot, on any level, recommend Bridger EyeCare.
