Congratulations! You got my business once, I won't be back and I'll be sure to tell my friends &…read moreanyone in need of your services to avoid you like the plague.
I selected this business because it was close to home. For my next optometrist I'd happily drive 100 miles for a better experience than I got here.
Having never needed glasses before, I booked the appointment with the intention of getting a fashionable pair of frames for work since I'm spending more time than ever on Zoom meetings, and black frame glasses seem to be all the rage these days. Figured might as well get a check up while I'm there since I hadn't seen an eye doc in years. Pretty straight forward, easy sale, and a great opportunity to earn a client for repeat business in my mind... yet in hindsight, can't believe I had the audacity!
Arrived on time for early morning appointment, some light paperwork and brought to the back room. After a few minutes looking into some ill explained devices with the assistant, I met Dr. Anderson and was moved to the exam room. I was candid with him in a personable sort of way expressing, "I'm here for fashion", "don't feel I need glasses", hadn't been to many eye doctors over the years because I'm pretty skeptical about the whole eye exam process being "subjective". I feel like, upon learning this, a good doctor would have responded with some sensitivity, maybe an anecdote, some education, or AT LEAST some further questioning... Dr. Anderson responded with a cold, plain-looking gaze, and instructions to "sit here, hold this over your eye, and read the smallest line you can clearly see." Felt like he skipped all the foreplay and took me straight to the "bent-over at the barrel position." With zero regard what-so-ever for my input on what actually brought me in today.
I read the bottom line, correctly have you, with my right eye. Time to switch... Well my left eye has just been covered with this black paddle and you know what happens when you open your eye after having a something pressed to it for 2-5 minutes in a dark room. It takes time to adjust. I tell him, "give me a sec, my eyes are adjusting sometimes they take a sec to focus".. thinking he'd understand. I'm sorry I did, because he didn't miss a beat when he repeated it back me later in an effort to convince me I need a prescription.
We press on with the exam, the entire time with no consideration to communicate to me what's going on aside from, "what's better A or B", "A or B", as if I'm supposed to just trust this impersonal stranger's subjective judgement of MY EYES because he wore a lab coat and asked double-binded questions. Like honestly Doc, really wouldn't have killed you to say, "this one has no prescription, this one does", this is a level one prescription, this is a level 2".
The entire time, I felt like he was trying to trick me into a prescription I didn't need or want. At the end of this extremely scientific exam, it was time for the glaucoma test. "Here, these eye drops won't dilate your eyes so don't worry." No explanation of what they were or why they were needed. Nope, I just let this random dude in a lab coat put an unknown substance in my face then subsequently take a tiny telescope and position it a centimeter from my retina. "Eyes open and look forward" was about the extent of his summary regarding this procedure.
Time for the verdict: "Well your right eye is good, but you have farsightedness in your left eye.", Dr. Anderson says objectively, with no consideration for any of my input or the overall subjective-ness of the everything so far. He did hand me a tissue to clean the yellow drops from my eyes, so I guess, "Thanks for grabbing me a towel when you were through on the barrel, doc!"
I explain again, "I don't feel I have vision problems and I'm cautious about getting prescription lenses I don't need because I don't want my eyes to get dependent." "That's a myth." he coldly offered up "and they'll help you with that and I quote, sometimes my eyes take a moment to focus issue." I was dumbfounded. Like for one, I get that it might be a myth, but as prevalent a myth as that is, as an optometrist that's the best explanation you got?! For as frequent as I imagine that come up, you've decided the best way to handle that statement is to write it off as mere myth with no follow up?! For two, do you even care to understand that my eyes don't normally take time to focus, that's circumstantial to everything we just did?!
I ask him, "Is it possible I just get two pair, one with the script and one without, this way I can try both and see what I like best?" Reasonable question in my mind, but met with "Oh I don't handle that, take this and talk to them out front."
Dude up front was no better. Told me to just buy them online if I don't want a prescription and seemed offended I even suggested the idea. "F' me right for supporting local business in a pandemic."
I could go on... but I'm out of room and frankly, they aren't worth it.