LensCrafters

Very friendly staff, very convenient hours. It was easy to set up an appointment and Dr. Wu and her staff were very helpful. Would recommend to anyone.

I recently had an appointment with Wu Family Eye Care at LensCrafters. The optometrist who examined my eyes, Dr. Yan Wu, was very thorough. She explained my exam results well and in words easy for me to understand as I know very little about optometry and eye care. I highly recommend Dr. Wu and #LensCrafters in Aiken.

I have worn glasses for 21 years. By far, the worst experience I’ve ever had is with one of the optometrists and the staff at this LensCrafters. Originally, I had an appointment with the doctor on December 8, 2011. I obtained contact lenses, and when I returned for a mandatory follow-​up visit, the optometrist explained to me that my contact lenses prescription would be valid for one year, while my eyeglasses prescription would last for two years. Unfortunately, she did not dispense a written copy of either prescription.
Yesterday, December 26, 2012, I went to a vision center where I now reside to purchase new eyeglasses. I called the optometrist’s office to find that she had relocated and taken my medical record with her. (I found this strange since I had visited a national retailer, and the old office had absolutely no record of my appointment.) I then called her new office to discover the doctor had left my file at home. (I was also disturbed that my records had been left at her personal home. Are they under lock and key? Is this not a breach of my privacy?) Still calm, I politely requested the optometrist fax my prescription the next day. The staff member agreed.
Today, December 27:
Approximately 11:30 AM: I called the vision center to which the fax should have been transmitted. They denied having it.
Approximately 11:40 AM: A staff member assured me she would ask the optometrist to send the fax after she finished with her current patient.
Approximately 3:00 PM: I arrived at my current vision center. No fax had been received.
Exactly 3:17 PM: I called the optometrist’s new office. A staff member said the fax would be sent.
Exactly 3:29 PM: I called the optometrist’s new office and explained I was standing in my current vision center. I again requested the fax. The staff member said it would arrive in LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES.
Exactly 3:44 PM: 15 MINUTES AFTER the staff member said I should receive the fax in LESS THAN 5 MINUTES, I called back. She said she would fax the prescription immediately and abruptly hung up.
Exactly 3:45 PM: I called again and requested that I be allowed to stay on the phone during fax transmission. I was put on hold for approximately 8 minutes. No one returned.
A couple subsequent calls were again curtly dismissed.
Approximately 4:00 PM: A woman came to the phone and said my prescription had expired. This was NOT communicated to me previously. Why had the staff continued to tell me (since BEFORE NOON today) that my prescription would be faxed? This insinuates the optometrist had only recently even glanced at my prescription for it to be sent. A staff member then sent the fax, and the optometrist had written «Expired» beside BOTH my contacts and eyeglasses prescription.
Approximately 4:10 PM: The optometrist actually answered. She explained she typically writes prescriptions for contacts AND eyeglasses for ONE year. I have never had an optometrist do that, and I believed her statement to be directly contradictory to what she had told me the previous year. In an ostensible effort to be conciliatory, she said she would re-​fax the prescription, striking through where she wrote «Expired» beside my eyeglasses prescription. She said my eyes could have changed, but it would be okay if the vision center filled my prescription. A new fax was sent with these corrections on a fax cover sheet, NOT a prescription pad.
Approximately 4:20 PM: My new vision center requires an actual signature, place of employment, and phone number for the optometrist. I called back one last time. Another fax was sent with a statement at the bottom invalidating my eyeglasses prescription.
Approximately 4:30 PM: A licensed optician at my new vision center called the optometrist’s office. She was informed the optometrist would NOT validate my prescription, which she said expired 19 days ago. The optician, who had witnessed the entire ordeal and was VERY nice, asked why they had wasted my time and three faxes. The staff member at Lenscrafters said I wouldn’t stop calling and requesting my prescription, even though it was expired. (REMINDER: IT WAS ONLY AT 4:00 PM THAT I WAS INFORMED BY THE STAFF MY PRESCRIPTION HAD EXPIRED. AFTER THAT, THE DOCTOR TOLD ME SHE WOULD VALIDATE MY EYEGLASSES PRESCRIPTION.)
Summary: I understand that practitioners can elect to assign premature expiration dates to prescriptions for eyeglasses. However, the amount of time I wasted in tandem with poor communication with the staff was inexcusable. Also, the optometrist never should have conceded that she would send a valid prescription if she did not intend to do so.
I would suggest that anyone brave enough to patronize this establishment obtain a WRITTEN prescription for eyeglasses and/​or contacts. I would STRONGLY discourage patients from making an appointment at this LensCrafters.