Pearle Vision sucks

I cannot express how disgusted I am with my recent experience with Pearle Vision. They have always been the only place I’ve trusted when getting new glasses and after the horrible customer service and job they did cutting my lenses, I will never go there again.

I should have known to run far far away the day I walked into their establishment a little over two weeks ago and the girl who eventually took care of me didn’t know they were having a 50% off sale even though I had just been told about it by another girl working there. From there it was nothing but aggravation. When I said I wanted to get the same coating my lenses currently had, the two girls argued over whether it was a UV or anti-reflective. The total price came to $172 and that was with a $100 discount and with me using my old frames! Can you believe that? It’s highway robbery!

Not only that, but they never called me when the lenses came in like they were supposed to. After 10 days I finally called to check on them and Smug Employee told me “they’ve been here” like I was an idiot for not knowing it. I asked why they didn’t call me and she said “we normally do” and when I said they didn’t she didn’t apologize or anything. When I asked how long they had been there she said she didn’t know (yea, right). So then I tried to find out when the lens cutter would be in since they don’t have one on staff full-time like the other Pearles I have been to. She had to keep putting me on hold and would tell me everything BUT what I wanted to know.

For example, here’s the conversation I had on Monday:

Me: What time will someone be available tonight?
Her: Hold on …. after 6. Probably 6:30.
Me: Ok, and what about tomorrow in case I can’t make it in tonight?
Her: Hold on.
*Puts me on hold for three minutes*
Her: Ok, if you want an afternoon someone will be in on Wednesday at 2 pm.
Me: What? I asked when someone would be in tomorrow.
Her: Wednesday they will be in at 2 pm.
Me: Will someone be in TOMORROW?
Her: Yes.
Me: What time? I want to know what time someone will be in tomorrow. Just because I can’t make it tonight doesn’t mean I was asking when someone would be available in the afternoon.
Her: Ok, tomorrow around 6 pm.
Me: Thank you.

Talk about retarded!

I had Joe call them again later in the week since I was ready to rip their collective idiot heads off. I had no intention of getting aggravated with them after work so he got the lens cutter’s schedule for the weekend. So we went in yesterday at 4:30 like we were advised and the lens cutter wasn’t there. Even worse, Smug Employee (same one who didn’t know about the sale) said to us, “that’s why you should call first” before even asking if we had. She just ASSumed because she’s a condescending moron. When I told her we had called first, she just looked at us. Again, no apology. Gee, why apologize to an upset customer on behalf of the establishment? That’s only good customer service!

So I asked what time someone would be in today and she told us “I don’t know, I don’t even work tomorrow”. Well what does that have to do with anything? WTF kind of business are they running there that they don’t know when someone is available to cut the lenses? Isn’t that a HUGE part of the service? I asked if I could take the lenses to a different Pearle since I was fed up with them at that point and she refused to give them to me. In fact, she scolded me, “I can get in a lot of trouble if I give these to you” as if I was supposed to know there’s some law against it. It was all about her and what might happen to her instead of doing what she could for the customer. She was very defensive and unapologetic about all our hassles even when I said to her, “You could see how as a customer how frustrating this is”. Seriously, I wanted to knock her block off.

One of the other employees just standing there with their thumb up their ass finally spoke up and said someone should be in at noon. So we called at noon today and the lens cutter wasn’t there. But the girl who answered said she’d call us when someone came in and then actually did call us back about an hour later, so we dropped my frames off. We went back an hour later and they were done. And now that I have them I have to say that it’s the worst lens cut I have EVER seen and I’ve been getting glasses since I was six. Maybe they need a full-time person instead of someone who, based upon the information I’ve gathered, works two hours a day. They obviously did not take their time or put any care into the cutting of the lenses. They are not smooth around the edges like my old ones were which causes light to bounce off them and distract me because I see it out of the corner of my eye. Plus I paid $20 extra for scratch-resistant coating and they gave them to me with two deep, albeit small, scratches in them. They look like apostrophes. Luckily they aren’t in my line of vision.

Honestly, if I thought I could take them back and get a refund, I would, because the quality is that poor. But after everything else I’ve endured with that place I cannot see them being that accommodating considering the fact they can’t even apologize for all their previous mistakes.

So I guess I’ve learned my lesson the expensive way. Stay away from Pearle Vision! I don’t know where I’m going to go next time I need glasses since I already tried Lens Crafters once years ago and hated them. I’s just unfortunate because I never trusted any other establishment more than Pearle and now I will never trust them again.