I got a comment to a post the other day that curled my hair. Read...

My optometrist's receptionist called the law on me claiming I was disruptive, when I questioned why Dr. H walked away from me after I asked for my PD. When the cops came and questioned us both, the optometrist told them that the PD varied according to which frames a patient chose and how thick the lenses were, and that that's why he was refusing to give it to me.

I told the cops the PD was the distance between your pupils and they told me Dr. H was a doctor and that I wasn't, and that I didn't know what I was talking about.

My mother, another patient of Dr. H, was in the office with me when this occurred! I hadn't been to the eye doctor in five years because I couldn't afford it. If I weren't legally blind with uncorrected vision, I'd give up on them completely after this fiasco. I still need progressive lenses and I still don't know my PD...and I'm out $74.00.

This is obviously a person in need of affordable eyeglasses. The doctor, an "a-hole" to be sure, could have done a better job of explaining the fact that there are two PD's for multi-focal lenses -- and then provided the numbers. Isn't there some equivalent of a Hippocratic Oath for optometrists?

This is exactly the reason that I have a problem with the "connected" optometrist. It's like trusting Ronald McDonald to bring you to the best place in town for a hamburger -- sort of.

...and again with the angry optometrist.

"smosh" posted with a question on how to get frames adjusted -- even plainly stating that he didn't want to "resort to subterfuge" again:

a couple of years ago I bought a pair from framesdirect.com - at that
point I saved $350 or so...from $600 down to $250. My ears are
slightly different heights, so the earpieces always have to be bent.
I took the framesdirect.com glasses to my optometrist and passed them
off as sold by another of their locations (i had seen the frames there
first, then started googling, leading to framesdirect.com)

I want to buy another pair, but I don't want to resort to subterfuge
to have them adjusted.

So what do people do?

The people of the GlassyEyes forums had a number of helpful suggestions including "deborah's" experience:

I plan to take mine to the optometrist who prescribed my lenses. I
told him what I was doing, and he said that of course I could (and
definitely should) bring them in to have the prescription tested and
to have them adjusted.

At this point "adameyeball" chimed in with the smugness and vitriol we've seen so often by a number of people "connected" to this industry.

Here are the highlights (with my responses in blue):

> deborah i have a better idea for you. why don't you lay your glasses
> on the computer and have the computer adjust them. thats what you
> signed up for when you bought glasses online.

Or she could do exactly what she said she was going to do and take them to her optometrist who is apparently more interested in the vision of his patients than in moving his "100 thousand dollars worth of frames". Look in the mirror, adameyeball. Really look.

> need a screw replaced, ask the computer to do it since the reason i
> charge a higher price is that i have customers who pay for that
> service (they get unlimetd adjustments and service).

Or you could just pick up an eyeglass repair kit for like a buck and fix it yourself. Or ask a professional and offer them a few bucks for the trouble. I guess I wasn't aware that optometrists worked on a retainer basis. Even my worst pair of frames from a brick and mortar store only needed to be adjusted 3 or 4 times (before they broke on my face). I'd guess that was less than 15 minutes of time in the "unlimetd adjustments and service" (I don't normally call out spelling and punctuation, but you kind of deserve it). By your logic, and the price difference, that works out to more than $1200/hour for adjustments. Um, I'll pass.

> please don't come into my office trying on frames and trying to get the model
> number ,instead try them on virtually online.

That's a fantastic idea. Optical4Less and EyeBuyDirect offer excellent "virtual try on" systems. They do a pretty good job with the technology.

> why should i expect to service a product you didn't purchase from me
> for free! would you go in and ask them to fix the watch you bought
> online for free??

You shouldn't -- and if it's your store, feel free to be a dick about it. The other option is charge a fee. $5? $10? You might make enough for lunch for you 2 minutes of time.

> so go save a hundred dollars and buy your glasses
> online just remember not to come into my office not to get them
> adjusted .

Please let us know where you are so we can "remember not to come into [your] office". If I'm not mistaken, it's a little place in Park Slope? I would hate to have anyone "wasting your time".

FWIW, I have the same issue with one ear higher than the other and I just give my frames a gentle twist. Works every time (unless we're talking titanium -- and then there is a need for more "physical" measures).

If there are any illustrators out there, I'd love an "angry optometrist" image to pop into articles such as this.