For many years, I would have my eyes examined at an optometry practice next to a high fashion eyewear store, but take my prescription to the local Walmart Vision Center for a fair price. Before Covid, for example, I got my first progressive lenses at Walmart and was 100% satisfied. Fashionable frames and Zeiss lenses. Fast forward to October 2021 and I had my eyes examined by the independent optometrist who rents space at my Walmart Vision Center. Afterwards, I ordered new glasses from the Walmart optical technician who said I'd be getting Zeiss lenses again.
Walmart apparently changed to a low-bid optical lab far away, because it took a month for my new glasses to arrive and they were unusable. Returned them next day and spoke with a different technician who explained that Walmart doesn't carry Zeiss lenses anymore. Didn't recognize the name of the maker. The post was so narrow I couldn't read more than the width of one newspaper column without turning my head from side to side. And the prescription was ground so low on the lenses that to see through the top, the long distance part, while driving, I had to tip my head backwards.
The technician measured the position of the script in the new lenses comparing them to my old glasses. She agreed that the lab must have made a mistake and ordered the lenses remade. For $90 more, she ordered Nikon lenses. My new frames were the same make and model as my old ones.
As soon as I put on the new glasses I felt that something was wrong, but since my prescription had been changed, I thought I just had to adjust to them. Unfortunately, I would return to the Vision Center three more times asking the technicians for help. With the new glasses, I could not focus both eyes at the same time on any image, sign or word. If an image was in focus for one eye, I had to slightly turn and tilt my head to bring it into focus for the other eye. The technicians tried bending the frame and adjusting the earpieces, but only provided the slightest improvement. I could not read a book for more than a few minutes without feeling strained.
Finally, I asked to speak with the optometrist who had given me the prescription. Her greeting was a curt, "Why are you here?" She took my glasses away for a few minutes, returned and gave the glasses to a techician who could only apologize that since more than 60 days had passed, she could not refund my money.
Including the cost of the eye exam, $442. down the toilet. I have since learned that the optometrist did not correctly compensate for my astigmatism. Please learn from my mistake. Have your eyes examined by an ophthamologist (MD) or at a thriving, independent optometry practice. You get what you pay for. read more