Doctor Sanders here is a real jerk. I came in this morning at around 9:30, when there were no other patients around, and told the receptionist that, last night, I was rubbing my eye, when something happened to my contact lens. I told her I was 90% sure it had just popped out and gotten lost, but I was hoping someone could take a quick look and make sure it wasn't still up under my eyelid. This is a procedure that can be done in about two minutes with minimal effort. Doctor Sanders said he could do it, but there would be a charge. When I asked what the charge would be, I was informed a contact lens office visit was $75. For two minutes, and most likely no actual work, since my lens probably just popped out and got lost. I would have paid $20, no questions asked, but $75 seemed excessive to me for what I was asking for. When I balked at that, he told me he was not running a charity, that their rent and equipment was not free, and that I could go to the ER. I reminded him that it would only take a moment, and that he wasn't seeing any other patients then, to which he said he was doing other things. I didn't point out that the "other things" he was doing were chatting with the two receptionists in the otherwise empty office. I was hoping that I could just stop in quickly on my way to work, since this office is right on my way to the BART station, and quickly and conveniently get this thing taken care of, and I would have been perfectly willing to pay a nominal fee, but it's ridiculous to ask to charge me $75 for a full office visit for two minutes of work. So instead of taking care of my issue quickly and easily this morning, I had to suffer through an encounter with an unsympathetic, patronizing jerk, and will have to go out of my way, taking time off of work, to go see Kaiser to deal with probably nothing. Again, I understand the need to make profits, but seriously? $75 for two minutes, when it's not taking any time away from any other paying clients? Nope.
EDIT: I am editing this review for a couple reasons. First, it was written right after my encounter, in the heat of anger, and as the business owner's response rightly points out, was unnecessarily filled with expletives, which I have now removed. I would like to mention, however, that my anger had much more to do with the way in which Doctor Sanders talked down to me, patronized me, and treated me with a lack of respect than it did with me not getting my way.
And second, I'd like to clarify what it is I actually wanted out of the encounter. I didn't want to be booked and processed as a new patient. I didn't want to undergo a battery of tests. I didn't want my visual acuity checked. I simply wanted to hold my eyelid open for 60 seconds, while the doctor looked into my eye, then said, yup, looks like the contact is gone.
Perhaps I was not clear enough at the time that that was all I wanted. If he has medical or legal reasons for not performing this service without all the rest, I get it. If he had explained all that to me at the time, I would have politely declined and left, and Yelp never would have heard about it. But what actually happened is that I was told I would be charged for a full office visit (though it was never explained what's involved in a full office visit), and when I thought it seemed unreasonable to charge a full visit when all I wanted was a quick look, he talked down to me and treated me without respect. Again, just to be completely clear, the patronizing tone he took with me is the reason for this angry, 1-star review, not the fact that I didn't get my way. If he had politely declined to treat me, I never would have posted this review here.
Incidentally, I did go see an optometrist at Kaiser Permanente, who confirmed that there was no contact lens lost in my eye, and gave me a full visual acuity check, for no charge. West County Optometry would have been much more convenient for me, and I would have been willing to pay for that convenience, just not $75. read more
