It always annoys me when a company doesn’t take responsibility for its actions. Now I know that an argument can be made against what I’m saying… but there is a principle involved here.
The story is as follows: I was at the local mall with my wife as she was buying new work clothes. On the way out we passed through SEARS… yes I am very specifically stating that it was the SEARS in the Puente Hills Mall… and my wife saw the Optical department and suggested that while we were there I should go ahead and look for new glasses. It had been a while since I had new glasses, probably about five years. I resisted as I’ve found glasses shopping to be a very long and arduous task that NEVER ends in my getting a pair of glasses I like. Seems the frame makers of the world have decided that glasses should be tiny and I’m not a small guy. But the wife insisted and every once in a while I let her win some.
I went over and looked through frames and as expected… I hated ALL of them. Knowing that I found a pair that weren’t horrible and the optometrist was available so next thing I know I’m being rushed into the side room to have my eyes examined. The woman was nice enough but the equipment was kind of on the discount side and most of the time I had to bend or stretch to make anything work. She did the obligatory “better like this or better like this…” and came up with my prescription. She had also mentioned the word “astigmatism” that has never come up before. I never got the “oh, that’s it there” moment and let her know that, but she was confident in her prescription and sent me back to the most annoying man I have come across in a very long time.
Dennis, the manager of the SEARS optical in the Puente Hills Mall proceeded to take a very long time to put in my order. Mainly because the man, who could easily be Gilbert Godfrey’s brother, spent a lot of time talking about himself. He asked what we did, Deb mentioned that she was starting work selling musical instruments and then for the next thirty minutes or more, Dennis told us about his days of being a guitar player in a band. Now if Dennis could have told these stories as he was entering my order, then it would be so bad… but Dennis couldn’t talk without his hands so he was constantly stopping to tell us more about himself… all in a very Gilbert Godfrey way.
What I feared would already be an arduous task was made far worse by the equipment and the annoying manager. But at least it was done… I had new glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses on the way.
After two weeks, having received no calls from SEARS Optical in the Puente Hills Mall, I made a trip up there on my own and found my glasses waiting for me. I had to wait my turn as there was only one employee working that day and I was the third customer in line. Once I got my turn, the woman working was obviously more concerned with something else other than her job. I told her the lenses didn’t seem right. She took the time to check the prescription versus the actual lenses and insisted they were correct. She did nothing to adjust the frames to my face or anything of the sort. Then in the middle of helping me, she started going off about how her side view mirror on her car had been stolen that morning. This of course delayed my ability to get away from this crazy place. When I told her again that the glasses still seemed wrong, like I had to magnifying lenses strapped to my face… she said to give it a few days to adjust to them. I’ve been wearing glasses since the sixth grade and I know about adjusting to a new prescription… this was just off. I took them and left.
I tried the sunglasses on the ride home and found it was okay-ish if I was looking straight forward but if I had to suddenly glance to the side the difference was distractingly different. I don’t mean looking outside of the lenses; I mean still viewing through the lenses. I got home and got out the latest Dan Brown novel and sat down to ride with the new glasses. This lasted about ten minutes before I had to take them off and throw down a handful of Advil as my head was pounding and my eyes were burning. This continued over the next two weeks as any time I used the new glasses, I ended up with a horrible headache and burning eyes. Multiple attempts to use the sunglasses never got me comfortable with them either. So I decided to take the glasses back.
I drove up on Monday morning, a little while after the optical department was open. There were no other customers so I got a woman’s attention immediately. I told her the situation and was informed that neither the optometrist nor Dennis was in. I told her that since the lenses had been checked against the prescription that the problem was with the optometrist’s exam and I didn’t have any confidence in the doctor nor her equipment and wanted a refund. I was told that the next step would be to have my eyes reexamined. I told her that I was not going to waste any more time and wanted a refund… and that their policy stated that if I wasn’t satisfied for any reason within 90 days I could get a full refund. I told her that I wanted the refund and I wanted it to include the cost of the exam. She told me that only Dennis had the ability to do a refund and he wouldn’t be in till the next day. I asked her to get the store manager, because he should be able to do it… that’s when I was told that SEARS Optical is not part of SEARS. I was not happy with the idea of wasting MORE of my time having to come back. I asked her for a number for their corporate office… which I was not given. But she did tell me that since I had used my SEARS card to purchase the glasses, she could take them and the receipt and have Dennis process it when he comes in the next day. I told her I wanted the exam refunded too… she said they don’t do that, but would have Dennis call me.
That leads me to today. I received a call from Dennis who tried to convince me to come in for a re-exam. I told him that I had already wasted far too much time and just wanted a refund. He then tried to explain that it’s their policy to do a re-exam if the lenses are wrong but match the prescription. I reminded Dennis that their policy was actually to refund no questions asked within 90 days. I told him I wanted the $50 for the eye exam back as well. He said they can’t do that, but they would be happy to re-exam. I asked him why the only resolution to this problem involves me wasting more of my time. He said that was the only thing he could do. I asked if it turned out that the exam was wrong and I get re-examined… would they then pay ME for my time? He said they can’t do that. I said well your optometrist made the mistake, why should I have to pay for that? He then informed me that the optometrist is not actually part of their company… who is not actually part of SEARS. At that point I asked for the number for their corporate office which I did not get… again.
End result here? I have no new glasses. My credit card is supposed to be reimbursed the glasses but not the exam. I’m out $50 plus a lot of time and SEARS Optical is an independent contract set up in SEARS but SEARS has not control over… and the optometrist that is immediately next to SEARS Optical is NOT part of SEARS Optical and they do not take responsibility for them. And it seems that the corporate phone number for SEARS Optical is a closely guarded secret.
AVOID SEARS OPTICAL, especially the one located in the SEARS in the Puente Hills Mall.