West County Optometry

I love this place. I recently moved to the East bay. I came in for my yearly exam and brought my daughter in for her annual exam after complaining of headaches. It turned out that she needed glasses. The ladies in the front are great. Sean was extremely helpful with the frame selection. He brought out many frames for my daughter and I to try out. He was genuinely interested in our style preference and allowed us time to choose from the many great selections. I would highly recommend this place. The prices are reasonable and they have great customer service. Many selections to choose from. i think I want a second pair…

I called last Tuesday to be seen as a new patient for an initial consultation/​exam. The receptionist was able to give me an appointment for the following Friday. She asked for my insurance information and was able to verify it almost instantly.
Upon my arrival, the checkin process was pretty seamless and the tech was able to get my preliminary screenings/​procedures done very quickly.
I was then seen by Dr. Keswani, who is very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in my overall wellbeing. He was very attentive and honest with me about all of my inquiries.
The last part of my visit was the eyewear selection process. Although the staff was pretty confused about my insurance plan at first, they didn’t hesitate to call my plan administrator and clear up their confusion.
I told them that I wanted my entire purchase (lenses, frames, enhancers, etc) to stay within the allowance that my insurance provided, and they obliged without trying to up sell or convince me otherwise. They took their time to help me find the frame that complimented my face and at the right price point.
Overall, I had a great experience and was very impressed. I’m looking forward to my future visits.

I have been coming to WCO since for over a decade and seeing doctor Keswani!!! Unfortunately, my vision insurance changed in the middle of the year and I could no longer use them and had to go to Site for Sore Eyes in Berkeley (DO NOT GO TO THAT PLACE). Anyway I cannot wait until January 1^st since my insurance changed again and I can go back. Shawn is amazing when it comes to picking out glasses for me and the service is top notch! Highly recommend this place even if you need to make an appointment in advance its worth it

Warm staff and excellent doctor. I’ll stick to this place.
I was there for eye checkup with Dr. Gerald J. Garrels. The staff greeted us warmly and took us in the waiting room to fill up the forms. Small cozy room with a big tv. After filling the forms the clinical staff did quick checkups and measurement. She offered one additional checkup from a fancy device (can’t recall the name) for around $ 35 dollars which she said would give a clearer picture of the inner eye and will be helpful for quicker diagnose of cancer. We agreed and did that as well.
Then we met Dr. Gerald. He listened to the eye problem and inquired in details to probe the problem. He tested the power with a pretty cool device, patiently asking every time if it’s better/​ok/​worse he switched the lenses and altered other parameters.
The most impressive part was his honesty. He was very frank to tell that if he prescribed glasses, that’ll be a total nuisance for the vision was ok, just there was problem with dry and itchy eyes leading to uneasiness. He offered sample medicine and an additional prescription that we could use if the earlier one didn’t work.
His sample medicine for dry eye is working perfectly. I’m so happy to have remediated the problem of the dry eye.

I requested an appointment online because I needed an eye check-​up as well as new glasses, and received a very quick response. When I went in, I received great customer service and everyone was very polite and professional. Not only did they help me in a timely fashion, but they also took the time to fix a pair of sunglasses at no extra charge. Looking forward to my next visit!

I have been going to West County Optometry since it was located at Hilltop Mall. At that time I was going to Dr. Sucher. After he passed, I started to go to Dr. Keswani. I have had nothing the the best of experiences there. Staff is familiar and friendly and addresses me by my first name whenever I come in. I would enthusiatically recommend this place to anyone looking for an optometrist.

I have never, in the last 18 years, had anything but great service and care at this office. The staff are always courteous and helpful and prompt. I wear soft contacts, and have bleupherospasm, so I am especially cautious about my eye health. Through the various eye exams, I have always felt that the staff gives me a pretty complete summary of my eye health, which is pretty reassuring.

Been coming here for years. Although we have moved about 30 min. away, they can never be replaced. We attempted multiple times to find an optometrist nearby, but the service and hospitality will never compare. From the moment you walk in its that feeling that you and your family are welcome. Great selections of frames. Accommodating, friendly, knowledgeable and most of all they give you choices that fits your needs.
Thank you for the service you have provided all these years to my family.

Both my husband and I go to Dr. Keswani. What is not to like, the friendly staff, the care and warmth given, the after normal hours, the appointment reminders, the convenience? Highly recommend their services and dedication to eye health and care.

I have been coming here for several years now and I have to say that I love it.
The staff is so inviting and warm. Everyone has such great spirits that it really makes your mood a lot better. The wait time is truly nonexistent. The Administrative, Clinical staff and frame stylisits are efficient and very on top of everything. Dr. Rahul L. Keswani is amazing and very friendly. He makes my time there awesome. We talk about sports a lot. He is a 49ers fan as well. YAY! Forever faithful here! :)
Also, there selection of glasses is to die for. Gucci, Dolce & Gabanna, Michael Kors, Vogue, and so on… AMAZING! I got myself some Gucci glasses and I cannot wait to wear them.
Honestly, this is my best and favorite place to go to for my visual needs.

Doctor Sanders here is a real jerk. I came in this morning at around 9:30, when there were no other patients around, and told the receptionist that, last night, I was rubbing my eye, when something happened to my contact lens. I told her I was 90% sure it had just popped out and gotten lost, but I was hoping someone could take a quick look and make sure it wasn’t still up under my eyelid. This is a procedure that can be done in about two minutes with minimal effort. Doctor Sanders said he could do it, but there would be a charge. When I asked what the charge would be, I was informed a contact lens office visit was $ 75. For two minutes, and most likely no actual work, since my lens probably just popped out and got lost. I would have paid $ 20, no questions asked, but $ 75 seemed excessive to me for what I was asking for. When I balked at that, he told me he was not running a charity, that their rent and equipment was not free, and that I could go to the ER. I reminded him that it would only take a moment, and that he wasn’t seeing any other patients then, to which he said he was doing other things. I didn’t point out that the «other things» he was doing were chatting with the two receptionists in the otherwise empty office. I was hoping that I could just stop in quickly on my way to work, since this office is right on my way to the BART station, and quickly and conveniently get this thing taken care of, and I would have been perfectly willing to pay a nominal fee, but it’s ridiculous to ask to charge me $ 75 for a full office visit for two minutes of work. So instead of taking care of my issue quickly and easily this morning, I had to suffer through an encounter with an unsympathetic, patronizing jerk, and will have to go out of my way, taking time off of work, to go see Kaiser to deal with probably nothing. Again, I understand the need to make profits, but seriously? $ 75 for two minutes, when it’s not taking any time away from any other paying clients? Nope.
EDIT: I am editing this review for a couple reasons. First, it was written right after my encounter, in the heat of anger, and as the business owner’s response rightly points out, was unnecessarily filled with expletives, which I have now removed. I would like to mention, however, that my anger had much more to do with the way in which Doctor Sanders talked down to me, patronized me, and treated me with a lack of respect than it did with me not getting my way.
And second, I’d like to clarify what it is I actually wanted out of the encounter. I didn’t want to be booked and processed as a new patient. I didn’t want to undergo a battery of tests. I didn’t want my visual acuity checked. I simply wanted to hold my eyelid open for 60 seconds, while the doctor looked into my eye, then said, yup, looks like the contact is gone.
Perhaps I was not clear enough at the time that that was all I wanted. If he has medical or legal reasons for not performing this service without all the rest, I get it. If he had explained all that to me at the time, I would have politely declined and left, and Unilocal never would have heard about it. But what actually happened is that I was told I would be charged for a full office visit (though it was never explained what’s involved in a full office visit), and when I thought it seemed unreasonable to charge a full visit when all I wanted was a quick look, he talked down to me and treated me without respect. Again, just to be completely clear, the patronizing tone he took with me is the reason for this angry, 1-​star review, not the fact that I didn’t get my way. If he had politely declined to treat me, I never would have posted this review here.
Incidentally, I did go see an optometrist at Kaiser Permanente, who confirmed that there was no contact lens lost in my eye, and gave me a full visual acuity check, for no charge. West County Optometry would have been much more convenient for me, and I would have been willing to pay for that convenience, just not $ 75.

Great staff very helpful. The customer service was awesome.

Let me first start off by saying that I love this place! The staff are knowledgeable and super friendly. It truly seems like they enjoy their jobs as well as helping people to the best of their abilities.
As of recently, I unfortunately lost my glasses that I purchased from here and my insurance wasn’t going to cover a new pair until December. I couldn’t possibly afford another pair of glasses let alone settle for contact lenses, so for weeks I tried to get by without glasses (even driving, what a drag!). But finally I remembered the glasses that I had prior which were also from here but broken. I tried to fix them myself with the kits that they sell in drug stores. That didn’t work out too well because the screws provided in the kit were far too big. My friends told me that maybe I could go to an optometry place to see if they sold better kits so I just went back to where I bought the glasses from. When I inquired about whether they sold kits or not they told me that they didn’t, BUT they welcomed me to come in with my broken glasses so that they could try and fix it themselves. Soon enough I came in the next day with my glasses and they assisted me right away. It was a bit of a wait, but I didn’t mind since I wasn’t in a hurry and also they were fairly kind. As soon as I got my glasses back I tried them on and it was as if they were never broken! I was extremely happy that they were able to fix it and on top of that they DID NOT charge me at all!
Wonderful experience, and hopefully these glasses last me until I’m able to upgrade next time.

I went here through recommendations from my insurance provider. Staff were friendly and welcoming, wait time was reasonable for appointment. Things of concern, this facility is outdated with old technology, not to mention the florescent strobe lights. My optometrist’s Dr. Sanders, talked a lot. However, he seems to forget things and didn’t give me much confidence during the appointment. Time for a retirement? Frame selections are okay, glass prescription took longer to come back into the office than promised. Things that can be improved includes a more cleaner and modern facility. Great customer service and nice staff, thanks!

I went in to get some glasses adjusted/​fixed, and they fixed them right up, without waiting, at no charge — even though I got the glasses somewhere else!
Fabulous customer service. I will definitely be doing my eye exams and glasses shopping there from now on.

West County Optometry is amazing. Dr. Keswani is a true professional. I highly recommend going to him. very friendly and caring. The glasses specialist are great! Kathy helped me with my frames, and she picked the most amazing frames out for my skin tone. Sean helped my husband find his sun glasses. It is great to have specially pick out frames for is versus us being left to our own devices to search tirelessly for frames. Dave is super sweet and knows what he is doing. I absolutely love everyone at this office. You’d be a fool not to go here!

I started going to this place in 1989 when they were in the Hilltop mall. I was a patient of Dr. Sucher, the founder, for many years because he was skilled in dealing with my complicated eye issue that requires very specific prism base. He, primarily, was very professional, yet personable. Unfortunately, he passed and I was referred to another doctor in the office who was rude and unprofessional, Dr. garrell. I continued to go there because I really liked most the staff. In 2008, I found a pair of frames that I liked, but it did not work out for me because of complications with the prism, so I asked for a store credit for a different pair of frames that would accommodate the base out better. Dr. Garrell refused, despite the fact that I had been their patient since 1989. I never in almost 20 years, needed an adjustment, so requesting a store credit, didn’t seem unreasonable. Because Dr. Garrell refused, I asked the legal system for help. He was forced to give me a refund. Needless to say, I stopped going. Despite that, I continued to recommend the business because I did not think the whole business should suffer because of one Doctor there. Flash forward to 2013. I decided to give them my business again and since my spouse was now a patient, i thought it good to go to the same place for our exams and frames. I called to make an appointment with a different Doc, Dr. Sanders. My appointment was set. Later that day, I got a message saying, due to my past issues (as if I was the one being unreasonable and not Dr. Garrell), they said they were not going to see me and cancelled my appointment. The issue was ONE doc who refused to be a good businessman and I was willing to put that aside and see a different doc. They refused me. How insulting. If this is how a long-​time customer is treated, I no longer respect the company as a whole and do not recommend them to anyone any longer. Bad business practices.
Legal action was taken as a last resort after my request for store credit was denied several times by Dr. Garrell. I even made a last request stating what my alternative was (though I did not want to do so), and he still denied me store credit. Store credit: I would still have spent over $ 500 in the business, yet I was treated as if I was trying to take advantage. I take pride in my personal integrity, so that was disheartening, to say the least..

The customer service alone will keep me as a returning customer. There is absolutely no pressure and no obligation in the shopping experience. The associates will keep it real with you when it comes to the shape of your frames in comparison to the shape of your face. Some people will just tell you what you want to hear so that they can get a sell– not this place. They have quality information that is valuable when purchasing eye glasses.
I originally came in to purchase trendy, thick, black framed glasses, which were over $ 300. The person helping me told me that they were too big for my face and said that I wouldn’t be happy with them in the long run. Instead she showed me frames that complimented by face and they were not as pricey as the ones I had originally sought out. She also recommended that I should pay attention to the shape of my eyes. Because i have almond shaped eyes, a particular frame would be better for me. I really appreciated this honesty, especially since I was making an expensive purchase.
Over all, the people here know what they’re talking about and will help help any individual figure out what frames are best for them. If you’re curious to see what glasses are best for you, come visit West County Optometry.
tip: The associate who helped me is Kathy. She rocks!!!
Also, I’ve been getting so many compliments on my glasses, so I know that I made the right choice. Thanks West County Optometry!!!

I’ve been seeing west county since I moved from the east. The entire staff is knowledgeable, Beth at front desk is amazing and sweet. Dr Keswani is friendly courteous, knowledgeable and accommodating.
Parking is easy, and selection if glasses are great. If they don’t have what you see, I believe they can special order it for you. It I’d a very pleasant experience and if you are deaf or hard of hearing there is a staff member that knows sign language.
Overall, I would highly recommend West County for all your eye care needs!

Attentive to detail, great staff, immaculate. A client for 12 years. What can I say? I absolutely love this crew… top notch! Parking is great, wait time is good.
The only thing I would change is that bloody, yammering TV that drones on like a Hitler documentary on the History channel while I was filling out forms and waiting. It is annoying and I have no idea what the mosquito-​like nattering was about, but assume it had something to do with vision… just make it go away please! That is the only bad segment of my wondrous journey through the land of optometry! Trust me, team A++ …annoying sponsored TV? –10