Sears Optical

Go ANYWHERE else but here!!!
I made an appointment here only because I didn’t want to wait to get an appointment for contacts at the place I wanted to go (a week wait). From the get-​go, it was a complete pain in the neck! There was a 45 minute wait the first time I went — with a previously scheduled appt. The layout is cramped & chaotic & it’s hard to find.
The optometrist (Dr. Robert Askary) is an impatient, arrogant man who doesn’t listen to what you want. I went in for a contact exam & he put a trial pair of contacts in. I told him it felt like sand in my eye, they hurt! He just told me that it had been too long since I had worn contacts & to wear them for a week. A pain filled week later, after waiting the seemingly customary 45 minutes, I told him I wanted another brand. He put another pair of disposable contacts in & during the process, I asked about contacts that I could sleep in. I had worn them for years before without any issue & have numerous friends & family members who wear them as well. You would have thought I insulted the guy’s mother. He became belligerent, refused to even consider it — whipped out an eye chart with ulcers & detached retinas & aggressively laid on the scare tactics. If you’re looking for contacts you can sleep in — don’t even bother asking here. You won’t get them. His opinion regarding the matter should be secondary to what I want — I am an adult who is more than capable of weighing the pros & cons before making a decision. I don’t need a bias forcefully shoved down my throat. Needless to say, I walked out with a Rx for contacts (not ones I can sleep in) that I honestly had absolutely no intention of filling at that location.
I kept the 2^nd trial pair of contacts & wound up having to leave for a month on business. Upon my return, I wanted to fill the Rx for contacts before leaving on a trip & wound up going back to this location on a Sunday hoping they would have the contacts in stock & would fill them immediately. When I got there I was told by the only woman working that her supervisor had to verify the information & she was on her way, to have a seat & wait. A couple was seated nearby, also waiting for the supv. They finally got up to leave & said they would come back another day. I was told that she was to arrive any minute — & the minutes kept ticking. In the mean time, I gave all of my info to the lady — twice — including my address, phone number & insurance info. She said «I have one box of each here for you. With your insurance, it will only be about $ 4. As soon as she comes & approves this, you will be good to go.» At least with the assurance that they had contacts there, I silently endured the growing wait which was getting close to an hour. Apparently the supv was coming from church & then had to stop for food on the way, despite having been told that customers were waiting.
The supv finally arrived with fast food — after talking about the drive, how hungry she was, etc. she looked at the screen & found that the lady at the desk had entered my Rx incorrectly. Then they found that the register had not been closed out from the night before so that had to be done & the computer rebooted before I could swipe my card to pay for my contacts. After waiting several more minutes, they accepted my payment & it was only after stapling my receipt to a piece of paper did they tell me that my contacts had to be ordered, they didn’t have them on site — they would call me when they came in. I was beyond livid. An hour+ of my time wasted enduring this complete non-​sense for nothing. I would have much rather dropped off my Rx at ANY other place & waited on them.
During my wait, the supv was telling the lady that she would be shutting the office down to the public on Sundays because she can’t find any licensed optometrists to work there — she had searched all the way to Tennessee! I can certainly see why.
Almost 2 weeks later & I had not heard anything from Sears. When I called, the woman who answered the phone just giggled & said, «oh honey, they’re in but I think we have the wrong phone number for you. We called but someone from Minnesota or somewhere like that called us back.» When she read the number back, the area code was entered as 987 instead of 980. That would have been understandable had I not repeated the phone number MULTIPLE times during my horrendous wait.
Their selection of frames is almost laughable. The customer service either sways between non-​existent or overly sweet with the women oozing tons of «honey, darling & hons» at you. Not my preference either way. I have been 4 times for various things & not one time was it professional or pleasant. DO NOT go to this location for ANY reason! Waiting 2 weeks for an appointment elsewhere & having your eyeball fly out of your head, I am convinced, would be less stressful & rage-​inducing. Believe it or not, I tend to be a very rational & nice person. This place will bring out the worst in you!

Never again! From the get-​go, the experience at this place was awful. I made it clear over the phone that I needed my peripheral distance reading to order glasses from another optician. They said no problem. I didn’t think it was a big deal — I was a paying customer, and it IS my medical information after all. When I got there, they made a scene and insisted they wouldn’t do it for me. I said well then, there’s no reason for me to get this eye exam because that’s what I need. They obliged.
I got my prescription (and my PD reading), but had to wait a few months to save up for the glasses I wanted. When I got the glasses filled, they were all wrong. I went back to have my prescription checked and Dr. Askary had given me a totally wrong prescription. Hey, everyone makes mistakes. I asked that Sears replace the (expensive high definition) lenses I had filled or refund my visit. They said they would talk to their supervisor and that the issue would get resolved one way or another.
When I called to check up on it, I couldn’t believe how rude they were. They kept insisting that the place that sold me my lenses should replace them (even though they were at no fault at all! the glasses were made perfectly! It was the prescription that was wrong!). When I asked to speak to the supervisor, they didn’t have the decency to put me on hold but had a snide conversation about me while I could hear every word. I knew the manager wasn’t interested in working on a solution with me, and I was right. She was beyond rude, very defensive and accusatory (why had I waited so long? why this? why that?), and absolutely unyielding. She even tried to suggest that my prescription changed because my eyes had gotten better! WHAT?! I have worn glasses since I was 8 years old and honey let me tell you, these babies ain’t getting any better! And never in all those years have I had such a negative experience at an optician OR received the wrong prescription for glasses.
Sears is known for their customer service and quality, and I was so disgusted by the interaction that I reported the situation to their national customer hotline. The person I spoke with at that level was wonderful, and very sympathetic. Within 24 hours I received a call notifying me that regional management had decided to refund my eye exam.
Called them back and got the same manager and she continued to lecture me about all the trouble I had caused. She said «Yeah we’re basically giving you a refund just to make you happy.» I mean, really?! Uh, no.