Derek lives quite a distance from Lenscrafters, but he went there for his latest glasses because he always has. That’s fair enough. What he didn’t expect, though, was to find an understaffed shop that was seemingly unable to get his glasses right, and unable to even give him a call to save him a trip when they broke his waiting glasses.

I went in on NYE and ordered a pair of lenses. First issue was when I came back a few days later took pick them up – they only had two employees working and the store was full. Took just short of a half hour to get someone to hand my my glasses.

Brought the glasses home, and they messed them up (something wrong with coating peeling/scratching on them) I bought them back the next day and they told me they would replace them. I came back later that night, and again the store was full and only two employees working (fitting people with and selling new lenses). It again took a half hour to have simply give me my glasses.

When someone was finally available, they told me they broke them, and did not have them ready. It is worth noting at this point that this LensCrafters is pretty far from my home, and I just went there in the first place as it was where I was brought when I was younger. They had my phone number, but they could not give me a simple call about this saving a long drive and a half hour wait for nothing? The employee I spoke to was embarrassed, apologized many times, and when I asked about a refund, offered to ship the glasses to me so i would not have to come back tot he store. I agreed. That night, I wrote about my experience on their website, and was responded to quickly: apologizing and telling me they would have the manager call me. About week later, with no call from the manger or about my glasses, I go back to the store to demand a refund. I find out they had gotten my new lenses and they were just sitting there. Never told me, never called me, never shipped them. They had my money, so I guess they didn’t really care. Stay away from LensCrafters. From speaking with their staff I was basically told that it was a continuous problem not staffing to appropriate levels and there were always complaints about their service. I would definitely recommend a local store over this chain.

Some local opticians are good, some aren’t: like with most businesses, the best thing to do is ask around. In this case, it’s easy: find people who wear glasses, and ask them where they go.

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