Keith’s daughter wears glasses, and recently a pretty mundane thing happened–her glasses broke during gym class. No problem, though: he bought the glasses at BJ’s Optical, where replacement insurance is included on childrens’ glasses. Except the “free” replacements somehow cost $39 under this insurance plan. And BJ’s took several weeks to lose the frames on their way to or from the site where the glasses are actually made, then start the whole process over again. Keith is not satisfied.

When my daughters needed glasses last year I shopped around and ended up buying two sets of eyeglasses at BJ’s (BJ’s is sort of the Costco for the Midwest and East Coast). One of the advantages of BJ’s optical is that they have built-in insurance when you buy your kid’s glasses. So come a few months later, when the school calls after gym class, and my kid’s glasses come home in a zip lock bag (or two), my wife dropped them off at BJs to get replaced.

Somehow, she comes home with a $39 receipt for the “free” replacements glasses, and my daughter tells me that she’s sad that they didn’t have the zebra frames that she used to have, but there was one set of frames that she can live with when they’re ready in a week to ten days.

Two weeks later, with no communication from the store, my wife called to check on them. …”There not here yet… but we’ll call you”.

Today I get a lunchtime call from BJ’s optical. You know what a lunch call is. You call people at lunchtime when you don’t what to speak to them, you want to speak to their voicemail. So today the call comes at 12:45.

“Uh I’m calling about glasses for your someone, uh, Elizabeth… well, she doesn’t really need need her glasses does she, she just has a scratch or something right?” I tell him that my kid is the 4th grader with tape on her frames. She needs new glasses, we paid for new glasses. –“Well, uh, the She’ll have to come in and select new frames. The frames you picked are lost. ” I asked what happened, didn’t they have a tracking number for the frames. Well, I guess that ups doesn’t provide tracking information for frames going to the glasses factory. He tells me that “well we sent them UPS and somewhere between here and there they are lost.”

And somehow this is was the last copy of this frame at any BJ’s.

Not to blow this out of proportion, but I am not happy with they way I am getting serviced by BJ’s. Has anyone else had problems with BJ’s optical?

I would argue that BJ’s is what you belong to if you like buying things in bulk, but have no Costco nearby. But maybe I’m just bitter.

We don’t have any executive contact info or EECB addresses on hand for BJ’s, unfortunately. Try making polite, reasonable phone calls to let people running the club know what’s going on–starting with the store manger and up the line.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.