WWYD: DD18's bizarre optometry experience...

[RegGuheert]

A couple of weeks ago DD18 (who is away at college) was jogging early on a Sunday morning and tripped while jumping over a chain barrier, falling hard on her face. She was hurt, but she seems better now. Unfortunately one of the lenses in her glasses was scratched badly.

 

Even though this was her first time dealing with a medical issue on her own, she did a good job of following our instructions to get an appointment to get a checkup to get a prescription in order to get new lenses. Her checkup was a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason this place took two weeks to get the lenses made. They finally came in a couple of days ago and they told her she could come by "at her convenience" to get them fitted into her frames and to also get fitted for her new contacts.

 

She planned to go today, but instead she got a call yesterday saying that the branch office in her town was now closed and that her lenses and contacts had been sent to another branch which is 90 minutes drive from her. She does not have a car or a driver's license, so that is not very workable. Interestingly, the office where the lenses went is near where DS21 goes to school. He DOES have a car.

 

I will post a poll asking what course of action you would take, but please write any thoughts you may have on this bizarre situation.

[MHowell]

How strange that they'd give no other option, but I would have DS pick them up and take them to DD.

[RegGuheert]

 

How strange that they'd give no other option, but I would have DS pick them up and take them to DD.

The problem is that they are just lenses right now. She is still wearing the frames. If he did that, he would have to pick her up and take her there and back. It would be about seven hours of driving (plus waiting time) since he is on the opposite side of the second location.

[Harriet Vane]

I would be really irritated and yes, demand a refund. That's a real imposition. They may try to yank her around because she's young, but tell her to stand her ground.

[FaithManor]

Full refund or they need to contract with another optometrist in the area and have her lenses sent there.

 

You cannot arbitrarily decide someone needs to drive 90 miles to another office when the order was placed in good faith. They should be getting a little bit of a firm earful because it is highly unlikely that the office was closed on the spur of the moment. They probably knew before she placed the order that their office was on a list slated for possible closure and that should have been disclosed to all of the patients.

 

Also, if you have optical insurance, the insurance company should be notified of the refund so she is still eligible to have lenses covered at the new optometrist.

 

Faith

[RegGuheert]

I would be really irritated and yes, demand a refund. That's a real imposition. They may try to yank her around because she's young, but tell her to stand her ground.

We totally agree and we have coached her on this. DD18 is much more mild-mannered than her mother or me, so being assertive is not something she does easily. We'll see how things go.

Full refund or they need to contract with another optometrist in the area and have her lenses sent there.

 

You cannot arbitrarily decide someone needs to drive 90 miles to another office when the order was placed in good faith. They should be getting a little bit of a firm earful because it is highly unlikely that the office was closed on the spur of the moment. They probably knew before she placed the order that their office was on a list slated for possible closure and that should have been disclosed to all of the patients.

You would think! The lady at the second branch claimed that they would not have known. Still, they have completely misrepresented what would be done, whether knowingly or not. It's a very strange problem. We wish she didn't have to face this right out of the gate.

Also, if you have optical insurance, the insurance company should be notified of the refund so she is still eligible to have lenses covered at the new optometrist.

Thanks! We hadn't considered that, but it is an important point. We are thinking about just getting the lenses done here at Costco and I don't think they take insurance, so perhaps it won't be an issue. Fortunately frames were not involved, since she isn't yet at the 2-year point.

[LidiyaDawn]

 

She planned to go today, but instead she got a call yesterday saying that the branch office in her town was now closed and that her lenses and contacts had been sent to another branch which is 90 minutes drive from her. She does not have a car or a driver's license, so that is not very workable. Interestingly, the office where the lenses went is near where DS21 goes to school. He DOES have a car.

 

 

Does her brother live at home and drive to school each day? Is his school in a decent sized town/city? If he does, and it is, couldn't she just tag along in the morning, go take care of the lenses, and then do some shopping, have a coffee at Starbucks, stuff like that while he's in classes and then meet up to drive home?

[Alenee]

Another option: have the office mail the lenses to her and she can have them put in at another office in her own town. Shouldn't be a problem.

[RegGuheert]

Does her brother live at home and drive to school each day? Is his school in a decent sized town/city? If he does, and it is, couldn't she just tag along in the morning, go take care of the lenses, and then do some shopping, have a coffee at Starbucks, stuff like that while he's in classes and then meet up to drive home?

Thanks! No. They are each about 3.5 hours away and about 2 hours from each other.

Another option: have the office mail the lenses to her and she can have them put in at another office in her own town. Shouldn't be a problem.

That may be what she ends up doing. Hopefully someone will be willing to do this cheaply. But since she has already paid for the service, we feel the company she paid should foot the bill.

[In The Great White North]

Full refund or they need to contract with another optometrist in the area and have her lenses sent there.

 

:iagree:

 

Another option: have the office mail the lenses to her and she can have them put in at another office in her own town. Shouldn't be a problem.

 

They will most likely charge for this. And not accept liability. What if they don't fit? Or are the wrong prescription? Or damaged? The second office will not solve it and she will have a harder time getting the original one to pay for it after they have been mailed to her.

 

She should not have to either drive there or pay another optometrist to install them.

[KidsHappen]

I would demend that make it right or fully refund her money so that she can go to someone who could do a better job.

[Hwin]

I would request a refund. If they had transferred the glasses to a provider in the same town then I'd go with the flow, but this? Bizarre is right.

[mrs.m]

I would demand a refund. Did she pay with credit card? If they refuse, I would do a charge back.

[RegGuheert]

DD18 finally got a call back from the store manager over the weekend and she said that the store that closed was financially independent of their store, so there was no way they could refund her money. :glare: (Let's not go there right now...)

 

Anyway, she was very helpful and offered to provide DD18 a FREE set of frames to go with her lenses if they had the same type in stock. That way they could install the lenses and send them to here as a complete pair of glasses. She checked and she DOES have the frames. So she did that.

 

So yesterday the UPS man drives up here and delivers, guess what, DD18's new glasses. :confused: Urghhh!! Anyway we will just hold them until she comes home next Friday. That will be approximately SIX WEEKS from when she had her appointment. Unbelievable! Hopefully they are right after all of that. :tongue_smilie:

 

On the contacts side of things, since they will not refund her $99.00 sitting fee, the lady agree to forward the prescription to an eye doctor up here to have her fitted. Once she got the results from the fitting, she promised to provide a 6-month supply of contacts for free.

 

BTW, does anyone know if Costco will fit for contacts, or do they only do eyeglasses?

 

I really don't think they could have made getting new eyeglasses any more difficult!

[Jean in Newcastle]

DD18 finally got a call back from the store manager over the weekend and she said that the store that closed was financially independent of their store, so there was no way they could refund her money. :glare: (Let's not go there right now...)

 

Anyway, she was very helpful and offered to provide DD18 a FREE set of frames to go with her lenses if they had the same type in stock. That way they could install the lenses and send them to here as a complete pair of glasses. She checked and she DOES have the frames. So she did that.

 

So yesterday the UPS man drives up here and delivers, guess what, DD18's new glasses. :confused: Urghhh!! Anyway we will just hold them until she comes home next Friday. That will be approximately SIX WEEKS from when she had her appointment. Unbelievable! Hopefully they are right after all of that. :tongue_smilie:

 

On the contacts side of things, since they will not refund her $99.00 sitting fee, the lady agree to forward the prescription to an eye doctor up here to have her fitted. Once she got the results from the fitting, she promised to provide a 6-month supply of contacts for free.

 

BTW, does anyone know if Costco will fit for contacts, or do they only do eyeglasses?

 

I really don't think they could have made getting new eyeglasses any more difficult!

 

Yuck! I'm glad that she finally got them (or will get them on Friday).

[AdamsFamily]

I am glad that the new office at least attempted to help, even though they mailed the glasses to the wrong address. I would look into one of the cheap online eyeglass places to get a back up just in case she has a problem with her glasses again. The frames might not be pretty, but they would work in a pinch.