How much do you enjoy being misled?
How much do you like being promised an order within a certain timeframe, only to be told, *after* the glasses were supposed to be ready, that the timeframe in question won't work?
Better yet, how much do you just *love* having the store owner then cancel your order entirely because, you know, that will absolutely expedite getting new lenses on your frames, right!?
If you're like me, not very much. And if you're like me, you'll avoid Visionary Optics like the plague.
What happened?
Unfortunately, that store handled my business in an incredibly unprofessional way.
First when an employee made promises they knew the store couldn't fulfill the very moment he made them.
Then when the store owner, a week later, canceled my order altogether, causing further delays to fitting new lenses on my frames.
From a great first encounter...
Things started off well enough. When I dropped off my glasses at the store on 4/17/2019, the bulk of my conversation with an employee there centered on timeframe, as I was working under tight constraints due to upcoming travel:
1. I repeatedly asked how long it would take to get my frames back with new lenses.
2. We didn't just mention timing in passing: that employee confidently assured me he understood the constraints and could deliver the order swiftly.
Specifically, he went out of his way to make and repeat the following claims:
1. We at Visionary Optics work exclusively with Zeiss optics!
2. We order our own blank lenses, and have our own lab downstairs!
3. The work would normally be complete by 4/19, but given this is Easter, it might be an extra day!
Further, I walked out of the store having amply communicated I was covered by VSP, to avoid any surprises. The same employee assured me, again, that this was a common scenario the store was familiar with.
... to a botched order.
This is what ended up happening instead:
1. Since I hadn't head back on 4/22, I called.
2. The person on the phone casually mentioned that the store had sent my glasses to an external, VSP-operated lab, that the store doesn't control VSP's timing, that the glasses might be ready "some time this week", but that was both out of their control and not certain.
When I expressed surprise and disappointment, explaining how much that new timeline diverged from everything that had been promised just a few days earlier:
1. That person dismissively offered to retrieve my glasses as is from the lab. Seriously? How would that accelerate getting new lenses onto the glasses in any way!?
2. In response to my inquiry about the possibility of having the VSP lab ship the glasses directly back to me, once ready, to expedite the order, the employee suggested the lab had to ship back to the store, but the store could then ship my way (I live blocks away, so that wouldn't save any time) for a $15 fee!
Do they actually care this little?
Keep in mind that no new information surfaced between the moment I walked out of the store, with assurances that the team was working on fitting the glasses with their own Zeiss lenses, in their own lab, on a tight timeframe and the moment, mere hours later, when they shipped the frames to a different lab without notifying me of the ramifications.
The store knew I was covered by VSP, knew how they'd need to handle this order. So they effectively made promises they knew they couldn't deliver on, at the very moment they made them. Why?
I reached out to the store to try and resolve the matter, looking to confirm an updated timeframe or at the very least figure out how such a major miscommunication had occurred.
Instead, the store owner summarily canceled my order, resetting the clock on getting lenses for my new prescription.
Avoid. read more