my experience was just as awful as MattS and Anna and all the other bad reviews. first i want to respond to Matt's experience. I was an optician for years. i was TAUGHT to spend as little time as possible with the people that come in on welfare or use Apple insurance, in other words , where the state pays for their glasses. When i dispensed my first pair of " WELFARE GLASSES" - I did it just as you would with ANY OTHER PATIENT. say hi, greet them with a smile , have them sit at the dispensing table, ask their name and get their glasses. have the patient put them on, and then fit them. so they stay up on their face. so they are comfortable. i always try to make sure my patients had fun. I MADE THE EXPERIENCE FUN. AS much fun as getting glasses can be. i did it with a smile. i adjusted them so they fit comfortable and gave him a case and a cleaning cloth. when I was done with my first "welfare patient" , my boss pulled me aside and explainexd to me not to spend any extra time with THOSE KINDS OF PEOPLE. just give them the glasses. when I asked why he said- "because we don't make any money off THOSE PEOPLE, so don't spend any extra time on them." yep. AND I heard this more than once in my 20 years as an optician! thankfully not all places act like this. TODD place DOES. he is listed as the owner. he doesn't have to treat people this way . he chooses too. it's not a LAW or even a POLICY that you cant be nice to EVERYONE. no one says you HAVE TO BE RUDE to welfare patients. that wasn't part of my testing to become an optician. Todd's behavior was BLATANTLY RUDE. HE went out of his way to be AS LAZY AND RUDE AS HE COULD. when we walked into pick up my nephews glasses, TODD recognized my nephew. he grabbed the tray of glasses and tossed them at him on the table at him. he knew what he was doing. i don't think he knew- I knew what he was doing tho. i know. i see you Todd. he did as much as he could to make this an unpleasant experience for everyone there. i had some questions to ask about various hi index lenses, but he would only gIVE me some of the info, not all of it. he kept cutting me off. so I had to keep dragging the answer out of him. one question at a time. again, he knew what he was doing. he was being as unhelpful as he could. that's when he started arguing with me. when I said that I'd heard about him and his behavior already, he started getting even LOUDER. HE KNOWS. then he started talking over me. he was just short of shouting at me. i really was blown away. and I said I can't BELIEVE , YOU ARE GOING TO YELL AT A CUSTOMER. ARE YOU KIDDING ME ??? this guy is ARROGANT and RUDE. HE THINKS HE IS BETTER than these people that are on welfare. he makes it very obvious that he feels this way. I've seen it before. here's the thing TODD, you don't know why these people are on welfare and it's really NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. IT CERTAINLY ISNT YOUR PLACE TO JUDGE THEM! who do you think you are ???? you know nothing about them. one of my patients was an MIT GRADUATE, but suffered a stroke at the age 25, he'd been school mates with the KOCK BROTHERS. At MIT. his life was totally derailed by an unexpected stroke. some of my patients were born with neurological injuries, due to the fault of the doctors. some were paraplegics from sports injuries. these people aren't losers. these are people that are struggling in this life. the last thing they deserve is to be mis treated. i saw you do the same thing to a little girl when you dispensed her glasses. they were OBVIOUSLY TO BIG. she going to spend more time pushing them up becuase they are to big and lose than she will spend time looking through them. you adjust them. you can't just ask someone if they fit. you need to LOOK. you need to see. when they are just standing there in the office, doing nothing, of course they fit. it was like you don't want to touch these people. your behavior and the way you treated us today, tells me what kind of person you are. rude. small minded. seriously TODD, WHO CARES if they are on welfare. who cares if the state pays for their glasses. WHO CARES !!! how does that affect your life at all? It Doesn't. you still get paid. change your perspective dude! you never know how life is going to turn out for you. your life can change in a SECOND due to no fault of your own. obviously you have a problem. many other people had the same problem with you. your the common denominator here. be nice. don't try to justify this. that just looks even worse. it would just prove my point even more. read more

Dear Colonial Optical, If you can't work with kids then please don't tell people that you welcome kids. Not child friendly and won't recommend this place to anyone. Specifically the optometrist. read more

This is still a great small but Professional business. I got a wrong lenses twice at the Opthalmology & Eyewear Clinic nearby after being a long time patient. Todd the owner of Colonial brought in an Optometrist who gave me Correct prescriptions for glasses & contact. A pleasure to be their patient! read more

BEST place E-V-E-R - service is quick, friendly and family-friendly. My husband and I love working with Todd - he always goes above and beyond. My daughter's rims broke recently, so we ordered her a new pair. She looks great AND she loves them. read more

Wow, what a horrible experience! We got glasses here for my 16-year-old disabled son. The person who "helped" was neither friendly nor polite. We had to wait weeks and weeks for the glasses to arrive. When they FINALLY did arrive we went in to pick them up. We were waited on by a young woman who brought out my boy's new glasses and just plopped the case on the counter, "there", she said. I picked them up and had my son put them on. I was very surprised that she had zero interest. I asked her, "Don't you fit and adjust them now?" "Nope, that's it" she replied. She tuned away, sending the clear message that she was done with us. "Wow, OK", I thought as I walked out. Either they have some amazing clairvoyant skill in determining fit without the customer trying them on, or we have just been had. Turns out it was the latter. I was SHOCKED, I have NEVER had a glasses retailer do that before, everyone else makes sure they fit! Very obvious that BASIC customer service is not trained or valued here. Needless to say, the glasses are of very poor quality generally and because they never fit properly have been nothing but a source of misery for my son--he is autistic, T1 diabetic and epileptic, so ill-fitting glasses from a lazy, unconcerned, corner-cutting hole in the wall like Colonial Optical was about the last thing he needed in his life! I had to throw them away as the junk they were and I bought him a new pair elsewhere, from a professional source. I am at a loss to understand how this store is even in business, its owner is unethical, callous and has no place dealing wit the public, he is an utter embarrassment to the Kirkland business community--I say that as a 51-year-old Kirkland native from a five generation Kirkland family. I don't know how a person can treat customers, especially vulnerable ones like my boy, like this and remain in business. read more

This is the ONLY place my husband and I trust our eyes to. Not only is the Doctor knowledgeable, but the owner Todd and his employee Wendy are incredible and always know EXACTLY what glasses to put us in. We have purchased glasses, contacts and sunglasses from here and have never been anything but thrilled with the final product. His prices are very reasonable and he occasionally has coupons on his website. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of this shop (or even if you aren't!) it is well worth the drive here and totally beats those 'cheapy' shops that don't take the time to know you or the frames you would look good in. Also, if you ever need adjustments or just have questions that you think other shop's might not take the time to answer, this is the place to go and ask! I would give this place 6 stars if I could! The website is www.colonialoptical.com. read more

Colonial Optical - Love the Maui Jim's! Thanks, Todd! - Eyewear & Opticians Near Me - Kirkland, Washington

I think that they have a nice selection of eyeglasses but I wish they had more economical priced glasses. I'm trying to save money because I'm going to school now and it's funny how tacking on an extra $100 for anti-reflective coating can make you think about looking around some more! I was able to find another place for 1/2 the cost! I would recommend this place for someone who has good insurance and money to spend. They are nice people and it's too bad that I wasn't able to purchase my second pair from them. read more

Been waiting so long for my sons glasses and then they had breakages- so now we wait some more! This is for eye therapy- so while we are waiting 5 weeks to get these glasses his eyes are getting worse. So frustrating. Everyone is nice - but this wait is nuts. read more

My experience with Colonial Optical has been great. I went in for a new glasses rx and expressed my desire to obtain a contact lens rx too. I knew that my insurance would not cover it nor the lenses so I was very pleasantly surprised when the Dr told me the price and all of the services included. As a first time contacts wearer they kitted me out with many samples to try and a week to work on wearing them and putting them in. I came back a couple more times to wear the lenses and get the final rx. The staff was always pleasant, affable and helpful. While initially it felt like a bit much to go back twice ultimately their process worked out well and I'm happy I did. I will definitely return. read more

We were referred to this office after my daughter's eye appointment at a pediatric eye doctor (Their optical department doesn't accept her insurance but Colonial Optical does). Our experience from the moment we walked in the door until the moment we left was nothing short of fantastic. Our daughter is three years old so she is getting the flexible kind of glasses, we were told right away that these need to be custom made and that they will probably take at least a month. It's nice knowing right away that there will be a delay so that we weren't anticipating them to be ready right away. Todd was so friendly and patient with our daughter, who was very grumpy and not super cooperative after just having an hour long eye appointment at the eye doctor and getting her eyes dilated. We could not have asked for a better experience. Thank you Colonial Optical! read more

I am not a knowledgeable person when it comes to prescription glasses and this is especially true when it comes to kids, but I am learning.  This place was recommended by Specialty Eye care in Kirkland.  I regret going here and wasting my time and gas since I don't live nearby.  I originally went in and the owner I believe it was, Todd maybe, helped us choose a frame for my child who is in kindergarten. I thought it looked ok at the time. I have state insurance so my selection of frames was limited.  3 weeks and a day later I called and I was told the glasses were ready to be picked up. State insurance takes longer.   The guy wasn't there but a lady was.  She put them on my daughter and they didn't look right at all. They were way too big.  By the time the lady adjusted the temple pieces they  were ridiculously long and would not even fit in the eye glass case.  I told her I didn't like them and she agreed and we chose another frame and it was sent in for a "restyle" I believe they call it.  That was last week.  I got a call today stating that the insurance rejected my request for properly fitting frames until I drove back to the place and had the owner verify they were too big.   Here are the numbers on the glasses.  The frames she got were 51/17/140.   I ended up going to Costco, not using state insurance,  to buy 2 pairs and proper frames for her are more like 46/15/125.   The numbers are not even close.  I looked up the size frame I was sold and the charts say this is usually for kids 10 years old and up.  My daughter just turned 6.                                                                         I am not returning to this place and we are not using the glasses I obtained here.  If I were to give this place the benefit of the doubt at all, I would say that if I  knew anything about the sizes of glasses when I ordered these then I would have never ordered these just by looking at the numbers on the frames. But I didn't and I should not have had to.  When I went to Costco they talked about the sizes and experience was much better from beginning to end.  Buyer beware. read more

Had a pair of rimless Silhouette frames. If you go to a dealer of Silhouette frames, paying for lenses would be very $$$ with all the stuff I wanted....anti-reflective, thinnest sense, transitional. This place was cheaper. read more

Alert!!! Do not go there if you have state insurance. A guy who is working there will make you humiliate in front of other people, no matter if you are with your children or not. And he gets mad if you don't order glasses from him. He told us to go to other place next time... WOW what a nice way to treat customers. I'll never go back there again. read more

I've been going to Colonial Optical for several years. They provide excellent service and are very helpful with finding a frame that best suits you. I have always received compliments on the new glasses I've purchased. If you need glasses, give Colonial a try....you will be glad you did! read more

Just had a warranty exchange with Colonial Optical. I had new sunglasses in 2 days! Fantastic service and Todd Jubie, the owner, was a pleasure to deal with. Highly recommended. read more

The depth of knowledge and customer service at Colonial is absolutely fantastic! In addition, Todd was able to order in my progressive lenses in just a few days and grind them down to my frames (or whatever the correct term is) while I waited. Cheaper than my regular optometrist and without the 10 day wait. read more