Fred Miller is a kind and thorough practitioner. He is the ONLY reason this review got two stars instead of one. The recent purchase of my spectacles is 100% the worst experience I have had in all my vision augmented years. I am 47, I have worn glasses since age 15.
So what went wrong? First and foremost, I have NEVER waited a longer period of time to receive my glasses. Not even in the “old timey” days.
The lenses were back ordered for the frames I ordered, and you might imagine that I learned this by being informed from the staff at Southern Optical, but you would be wrong. After calling in week after week, to staff who were both indifferent and arrogant, I FINALLY learned what the issue was. At EXACTLY
no time did a staff member reach out to me to inform me of the delay or the reason for the delay. I do not blame people for things out of their control, but you had best be making that tough call to me to explain why a pair of glasses take almost one month to arrive. Delays happen, communication about the delay is a choice.
Next? Let us talk about lenses. It has been enough years of glasses that I had forgotten that “regular” glare lenses were actually a thing. AT EXACTLY NO TIME IN THE PROCESS was I offered non-glare lenses. It’s a freaking upsale, and a damned easy one at that! Price was never an issue in this transaction, I was paying in a two part manner split between insurance at $250 and ALL THE REST from my pocket. I would have actually paid whatever it took to end up with glasses I could actually wear now.
I have some super fancy designer glasses that literally sit on a shelf now until I can get up to Calgary to my old optometrist and buy new ones at 100% cost because I wasted my insurance coverage at Southern Optical, that actually correct my vision without a ridiculous glare.
If you enjoy your vision, want new glasses, and don’t prefer to be treated like a heap of dung by the front end staff for the simplest question, beginning with booking the appointment, then avoid this place like the plague.
The glasses they sold me are only good for shelf decoration or driving. I literally NEVER wear them, and the frames are gorgeous, and I am still stuck wearing a seven-year-old prescription. The problem is that we need to see things at other times than that. Thank the heavens that my greatest issue is astigmatism and that my overall prescription has changed little over these years.