Sears Optical

I recently moved out to Carol Stream, IL and was looking for a new eye place. I knew I needed new prescription since it’s been a year or so and I was starting to get headaches and started squinting. My husband recommended Sears optical at the Stratford Mall. One thing that made me happy was that they have reasonable hours especially for people who work late!
When I walked into the center I didn’t have a appointment because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do an exam that day but then when they told me that they could get me in I opted to do it. My eye exam wasn’t long but it was good. The doctor was great! Sweetest doctor ever!
Only reason I’m not giving this a 5 star is because the selection in glasses isn’t all that great and one of the associates tried to convince me into getting the plastic frames when I really wanted metal ones. I think if a person is comfortable with what they are used to don’t try to get them out of their comfort Zone.
I definitely have recommended this location to my friends and family :)

Omgosh Nicole L is so right about the staff here. I went to see Dr. Troyka for a first time visit. I made an error on the appointment date and the barely a lady person was completely rude. She snidely said there are no appointments on Thursday. She did at minimum ask my name and said my date was tomorrow. So I said ‘oh ok, will come tomorrow’ and then she made a snarky ‘alrighty’. I promptly left and went to Lenscrafters. Sorry Dr. Troyka, I guess I’ll see ya next lifetime.

Sears Optical is located within the Sears at Stratford Square Mall. It’s straight ahead of the entrance near tools on the second floor at the northeast corner. I was incredibly thankful for this as that’s where I happened to find handicapped parking and didn’t have to hobble too far.
One of my friends works at Sears Optical — Prairie Towne Center in Schaumburg and I had planned to go to that location; however, the doctor’s hours just didn’t mesh well with my availability, so she recommended that I check out this location closer to home.
I scheduled an appointment for Friday at 6:30pm, which was only a few days later than when I placed the call. I showed up a little early and was helped immediately by LaShawn (sp?). She had me fill out some paperwork and then I was whisked away to the exam room.
Dr. Troyka is great. He’s very professional, knowledgeable and approachable. We talked about my eyes and my history with glasses. He took some measurements of the prescription of my 5 years-​old lenses because I couldn’t remember what they were. Then, he made some adjustments to start out measuring closer to my old prescription and had me go through the tedious (but much needed) task of reading off letters and numbers in various size fonts through the Phoroptor. He also made sure to account for my Astigmatism, which gives me some wicked awful night vision which makes bright lights and signs often become fuzzy.
My exam was wrapped up with a pressure test. It didn’t hurt but it did startle me. In fact, I was actually unreasonably offended by it. I said nothing because, ya know, it’s silly. So be prepared to have your eyes violated by puffs of air at the end.
After my new prescription was established, I asked for a copy and took it out to the optical lobby. I paid my $ 5 co-​pay through EyeMed insurance and started looking at glasses. They have a decent selection and many nice looking glasses, just nothing that really spoke to me or looked good on me. I’m picky about what goes on my face, so nothing was purchased this visit. However, I hear the location at Woodfield has many more frames to choose from. I’ll probably take a look there, but I did keep a couple options from here in mind.

Perhaps it is because I have been going to this store since I was in first grade, maybe it’s because I have a less than lukewarm relationship with my new eye product provider, Visionworks… But I really like Sears Optical. The optometrist and staff was very friendly. They also had a whole bunch of trial contacts, even for high-​powered astigmatism lenses (I’m pretty freaking blind), so you could wear a new pair out of the store.
I guess I do have a big caveat, most of my experience was with my parents’ insurance footing most of the bill. Once the coverage changed, I was out. So while I can’t attest to their prices, I can say their optometrist was worlds better than the big guy at VW…

I’m often torn about this place because the staff annoys me. I really like the doctor, though, so I come for my yearly eye exam and then order my contacts from 1800contacts because they have the best customer service and price match their competitors so you always get the lowest price possible. Plus they deliver to your door. If the Dr. ever left I’d never come back here.

I would give them zero stars if I could, both for the quality of their eye exams and their complete lack of customer service. I learned the hard way that «you get what you pay for» when you opt for a discount eye exam. To start with the optometrist incorrectly diagnosed my vision leading me to end up having to pay for another exam with a different (absolutely wonderful!) optometrist at an independent eye doctor. Yes, I could have chosen to go back to Sears and have it done for free but after the completely horrible customer service I had to deal with there was absolutely no way that I was going back there and preferred to pay for it out of pocket.
The optometrist and his staff didn’t give me the customary wear the contacts for a week and call back to order them that all other companies have always given me and made me order them on the spot. Since I was wearing my last pair I didn’t have another choice but to order them and also ordered a new pair of glasses at the same time. They told me a week to ten days for the contacts and my glasses to get in and they would call me when they were. After two weeks I never received a call and decided to go into the store while I was at the mall just to check. The office staff went in the back to «check» and found my contacts, but not my glasses. After another week of no call to let me know that my glasses were in, I called them and SURPRISE my glasses had been there for two weeks! They claim they called me and told me, but they never did and I asked why they didn’t give me the glasses when I picked up my contacts the week before and they told me that I must not have asked about them. Why in the heck would I have made a trip to the mall to pick up part of my order and just leave the other part there? I mean seriously are the normal people they deal with that dumb? My mother was with me at the time and remembers them saying that my glasses were not there and it would be another week before they were in. So I made yet another trip to the mall to pick up the glasses and after a long painful fitting process where the sales associate seemed to have no clue how to fit a pair of glasses I gave up and just left with my crooked glasses (the other wonderful optometrist happily fitted them correctly for me in seconds so I don’t know what was so difficult).
After weeks of constant headaches and blurred vision I began to suspect it was my contacts causing them and decided to make an appointment with someone different and pay out of pocket to have my vision rechecked and again surprise the prescription I was given was very wrong. I called Sears and was told that all I had to do was bring in my unopened boxes and they would credit me back for them. I brought them in and was told that they would not return anything without the original register receipt (and why was that NEVER mentioned when I called them). So I went home, searched for the receipts and once again returned to this horrible store. I finally got the credit for the contacts and my new contacts will be MUCH less expensive, which is about the only positive I can say about this experience.
I have finally been in contact with their corporate offices to discuss and am happy that they have taken the time to look into this for me, but it still wouldn’t make me go back to this Sears Optical.