At least two times a week, we are in tysons II I love tysons II better b/c it's a 'smaller' mall where I generally feel like we get amazing service in any store we walk into. Have gotten to know some of the employees in the mall, and from what they tell me, Tysons II is a different kind of mall in that the rent is really high, and most customers are repeat customers who need to be 'cultivated'---ie babied and pampered, with follow up telephone calls, emails on private sales, etc.
Whenever we are on the upper level, I walk by Georgetown Optician and I USED to think, 'geeze, they have some amazing frames, whenever I need a new set I'll go in.'
Having been born in Mclean, I have gone to Dr. Davidson in tysons I as my optician since the mid 1980's, and b/c of convenience, ended up at Sterling Optical, which has always had a great, friendly staff, but never really had an amazing collection of frames. This time, Dr. Davidson mentioned something about insurance, and all of the sudden I found out that my insurance is pretty good and gives me a HUGE discount on frames, and even covers the eye exam. His advice was this----when you go to an eyeglasses store, the markup is high----so it doesn't hurt to ask for a discount. Maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't---but the stores can easily afford a 15%, discount, and I shouldn't be surprised to get a 30% discount on the frames. The internet is changing eyeglasses with warbyparker.com, and with the show on 60 minutes more people are questioning the value of really really expensive frames. So after my eye exam, I went to sterling optical, who happily told me they would give me a discount, and would give me the paperwork to provide my insurance provider so that I could get insurance to cover part of the frames. The only thing was, none of the frames at sterling optical were really that amazing----so I was honest with them and told them I would just stop over at Georgetown optician and see what kind of frames they had, and go from there. The Sterling Optical people were downright nice, and said no problem, come back if you have any issues.
Now the present story-------So one day, right after thanksgiving, I was in tysons ii with the wife and kids (we live about 1/2 mile away so we usually go weeknights)---it was not at all busy----and I told my wife after dinner that I wanted to check out some frames at Georgetown Optician. We walked in, the girl immediately found a frame that looked good on me, and then when I asked her the cost (it would have been just about 900.00, I asked her for a discount, and she said that Georgetown Optician doesn't do discounts---after a bit (a bit, seriously, I'm not a haggler----I just asked her some questions) of back and forth, she said, maybe they'd give me $50.00 off, and that was it. Fair enough. My wife and kids were there, but other than the two women in the store, not a single other customer----but I just got this vibe that they wanted me out of the store b/c I had the thought, or the gaul to even ask for a discount. But she picked out a nice pair of frames for me, they seemed a bit tight around the temples----so my wife told me to go home and think about it, and if I liked them, come back and get them. I got a weird vibe from the girl that was selling, but didn't think much of it.
I went to the store again on Saturday, this time ready to purchase. However, I was unsure about the fit of the frames, b/c they still pushed on my zygomatic arch (from the eye to the ear) a bit, and I tend to get headaches when this happens so I asked the girl to adjust the frames to relieve the pressure before I bought them. Normally, I'd just buy the frames, but after reading the other reviews on yelp about the store and it's gtown branch, I just thought to ask what the return policy was and one has 1 week to return the frames, but the lenses are 'you bought them and they are yours'. So I kept asking the girl that was helping me to adjust the frame off of the zygoma----but it kept being uncomfortable. I asked her to go back and adjust them about 5 times---which even I admit, is a bit excessive-----but with a store that has a terrible return policy, takes no insurance, and doesn't really do much in the way of discounting----I figured I was paying for the service because it's really only whiny and annoying people like me that will actually pay full price for a pair of eyeglasses----and at some point she just stopped and said ----'these frames don't fit you---I can't adjust them because this a sample and if I adjust it more then I'll ruin the frame'. case closed. It's like I annoyed her so much that she didn't WANT to sell me the frames. Fine.
I then drove to the old staple Sterling Optical. Picked out a nice pair of silouette frames (not amazing, but nice enough), that the saleslady made fit perfectly, and happily gave me a large discount on, just by asking. Did I mention she was helpful?! Lesson learned. No more Gtown Opticians. read more