TLDR: Staff was insulting and probably at least a little racist - immediately felt threatened. (and…read morethey do not take insurance) More context below.
I arrived at little after 10 o'clock this morning at the Optical Shop to find a potential customer sitting waiting for them to open. I parked, got out of my car, and tried the door, but it was locked and I could now see that the lights were out. I sat in my car for a few minutes before the other person drove away. Another person came and went. I waited for until 10:15 and then decided to drive away, too. The posted opening time is 10 a.m.
I stopped into another optical shop on my way home.
Now at the second shop, I was greeted right away with a smile in this already bustling shop that had just opened in the last 20 minutes. I was checked-in and introduced to a specialist who walked me through all the frame choices and she summarized my options relevant to my vision care insurance plan. I saw several frames and she offered suggestions. A very pleasant experience, indeed. I decided to check out some more choices before committing to a big expenditure and said I would come back later to decide on a frame.
On my way home, I decided to try the Optical Shop again. This time, the lights were on and I went inside - no other customers were present. The shop has a dim, closed in feel - not terribly welcoming. I noticed an older gray haired man in a gray tee shirt sitting facing away from the doors at a desk. After a few moments of browsing, he asked if there was anything I was looking for in particular. I said, "yes, I'm looking for prescription sunglasses, but I understand that insurance doesn't cover the Maui, Costa, or Oakley frames."
He stood, approached me, and said, "we can help put in your out-of-network claim for you, but we don't use insurance."
I said something like, "oh, ok, I gotcha."
He replied, "yeah, we don't sell 'Made in China' mass market frames. Insurance only covers mass produced cheap 'Made in China' stuff."
I said, "no, that's not true, I got the glasses I'm wearing with insurance," and he interrupted and said, "well, those were made in China, let me show you."
I took off my glasses and looked and said I didn't see any Made in China markings, but I was pretty sure they were made in Italy. He reached out and grasped my frames and I said, "wait, no, let go," and he let go.
He said, "yeah, those are cheap LensCrafters 'Made in China'." In fact, my glasses are Dolabany and I did not get them from LensCrafters.
By now, this man had insulted me, my glasses, LenCrafters, and China, all within about 3 minutes, so I decided to leave. I said, "I've already decided to not spend my money with your shop."
He replied, "ok."
I then said, "you've got a terrible attitude, sir," and as I was walking out the door, he just replied, "ok."
This man has no business working in a customer service job. I was deeply uncomfortable and honestly, he was aggressive and insulting to me, a potential customer, who was willing and able to spend hundreds of dollars on prescription Maui Jim sunglasses.
It's true, there are a lot of frames that are made in China. But it is not true that my frames were and he had absolutely no basis for such an assumption. It's also not true that insurance only covers frames that are made in China. It's also not true that frames that are made in China are necessarily of poor quality. Very nice, high quality things can come from China and terrible quality things can come from western countries, too.
It's a pretty backwards, small minded view to cut out an entire side of the world just because it's not something you understand. How about trying to learn about it? And I'd prefer to buy American, too. Not saying China's necessarily better by any means, but don't be so plainly ignorant. Perhaps what disturbed me more was his whole air of grievance he carried with him. It was almost a point of pride for him that they didn't take insurance.
Instead of pointing out the positives of not doing so, or what quality his shop had to offer, he only expressed (false) opinions about how everyone else did business and how bad it all was. When prices are going higher and higher all the time, it seems like insurance is something you would want to offer. I know there's an expense for the vendor, but not offering it could be why his shop was a ghost town and the other was very busy.
I will not be shopping at the Optical Shop again and I will steer anyone asking away from there, too. There are many options in town for eye glasses and this shop does not need to be on anyone's list.
Good riddance!!
