OK, I know what you are thinking. Walmart for eye care? I felt the same way and I have to say that I owe Walmart an apology.
Up until 2 weeks ago, I would have never thought of going to Walmart for vision issues. I ranked it right up there as if they had surgeons on staff (would you go get your appendix out at a place like this). I was completely wrong.
This office has just about the same modern equipment as my previous optometrist minus the very expensive Opto-map. Initially you sit down and get checked for glaucoma, initial prescription measurement and some other device.
In the main room, he broke out all the fun stuff from the funky eyeglasses to a huge assortment of headgear, lights, hand held lenses and charts. Overall I was in the office for over a half hour. This visit was way longer than my previous doctor.
What was nice is that he explained every step he was doing. Overall, I felt as though I received more than I paid for. Excellent! I know for a fact that every aspect, angles, inside/outside of my eyes were checked. Wow. I never left any previous doctor with this feeling before.
The outside staff is a bit bland on their customer interaction but guess what, I kind of liked it. No hand holding, hovering, forcing you to buy the most expensive stuff. He pushed the script to me and began to process my initial contact order. I had to ask him to buy glasses on top. Nice! NO Pressure!
Overall the pricing is excellent. Copay, contact fitting, 1 pair of titanium, transitions, full scratch/glare protection, another pair of Safety Prescription glasses and disposable contacts for....$680. I don't know about you but if you go to some doc's that is the cost of 1 pair! I think I paid 500 bucks for my previous pair of glasses.
Thank you WalMart. I will be going to your Vision Centers from now on. You helped me realize how much the markup is on glasses.
Opto-map? Quick comment. It's a costly machine which takes a picture of your retina for the doc to scan on a PC's display. Much hype but insurance usually doesn't cover it. This doc uses light and lenses to peer into your eye and inspect the retina. Same thing, old school. WORD! read more