Complaint Review: Eyeglass World 22

After purchasing one pair of eyeglasses and being promised a second pair free on Nov. 6, 2003, I was told I would have to return to pick up my glasses as their machine just broke down.

I returned two days later to pick up my glasses. I tried them on and found that they made me dizzy. The person who assisted me seemed to be in a hurry to go to the next customer. I took the glasses home and tried to get used to them. After three days I took them to a local optical shop and was told that they did not conform to my prescription and that they had "prisms" in the lenses.

I took them back to Eyeglases World (a 140 mile round trip) and was told that the ocular centers were in the wrong places and that my prescription distance at 100 was too strong. Since it was Saturday and they could not call my doctor to request a lesser distance, they recommended that I see the doctor there in the store. Not wanting to make another trip, I agreed to see their doctor.

Their doctor talked non-stop, told me he had been in the busicess for 35 years and said my doctor had not given me the right prescription. He then gave me a prescription for 150 distance, which I questioned. He insisted that he was correct and also ordered correction for astigmatism, writing on the prescription form that the glasses should be made exactly like the pair I was wearing.

I had to return ti pick up the new glasses because they said their were other glasses ahead of mine. When I returned for the glasses, they made me even more dizzy that the previous pairs. When I asked for something to read with them, the clerk had to look around for reading material. When I complained that I was dizzy, she told me I had to get used to the new prescription.

After trying for 3 days to "get used" to them, I took them to a second local optical shop. The technician there said "These glasses are terrible. The ocular centers are wrong, the bi-focals are crooked." She then read both pairs of glasses and found that one pair was 112 for distance, plus 50 for reading and 9 and 0 for astigmatism, while the other pair was 100 in one lens and 125 in the other lens for distance, plus 75 and plus 50 for reading and 175 and 10 for astigmatism. In other words, neither pair of glasses conformed to the prescription nor did they conform to each other.

I called the regional customer service number and asked if I could use a different Eyeglass World store, since this one is clearly incompetent. I was told that each store was responsible for own work and I would have to go back to Mobile. I called the Mobile manager who expressed no concern or surprise that my glasses had been so poorly made. He told me that I could bring them back for correction AFTER I went back to my doctor for a new prescription. I am not sure why a new examination from my doctor was required, as the last two pairs were made from their doctor's prescription.

I have re-visited my doctor and my prescription has not changed from my August 2003 examination. I called Eyeglass World to insure that they would have the correct lenses in stock when I drove the 140 mile trip to their store for the fourth time. They said they would have the manager call me back. Two weeks later, no one had called me back.

I contacted my credit card company, who placed a "dispute" against the charge and contacted Eyeglass World. In the meantime, I wrote a 3 page letter and sent it, along with the glasses and the local optician's notes about the discrepancies, to Eyeglass World 22, return receipt requested. They received the glasses a week ago and have told my credit card company that they will not issue a refund. I must now drive back to Mobile and ask them to make two new pairs of glasses. which I will then have to have checked out by a local optician.

I just want my money back and to forget I ever heard of Eyeglass World.

Mary
Bon Secour, Alabama
U.S.A.

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