America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses — Attraction in Austin

Bait-and-switch advertising got me in the door. When all was said and done, "two pairs for 69.99 with free exam" turned into "one pair for 17x.xx with a 50.00 exam fee". When I received my glasses the bifocal dividing line was very pronounced and too high up on the lenses, making them useless for driving. The near-field section of the lenses was that "bubble" thing that doesn't span the width of the lenses. This was a very cheaply (and incorrectly) made pair of glasses at a designer price. I brought the glasses in today for a refund, excluding the exam fee. I was led back to a small cramped space and told to sit down a foot and a half from an employee who was wearing her mask completely below her nose, nostrils exposed. I counted three employees wearing their masks this way while I was there, two of whom were in that tiny space where I had to go to get my refund. The employee turned extremely rude when I told her to wear her mask properly and maintained a hostile demeanor for the rest of the time I was there. I had requested from her a printed copy of my prescription, as the O.D. who wrote my scrip made it illegible. She said she would add that to my paperwork but did not. I called this location back to re-request a legible copy of my scrip and was told they would not be able to do that for me. I will be re-re-requesting a legible scrip from corporate tomorrow morning, and in lieu of receiving that I'll be requesting a refund for the exam as well. This review will be updated accordingly after I see the result of my efforts tomorrow, but meantime I advise avoiding this location, and avoiding all locations if you don't like being a victim of bait-and-switch.

UPDATE: Corporate is even worse to deal with than the uncaring folks at this location. They seem to be going out of their way to be unhelpful. At this point I've returned the glasses and gotten that refund, but the exam netted me an undecipherable prescription that the company so far is not reissuing me in legible form. Now I'm chasing after that or a refund for the fifty dollar exam fee. Corporate is one part rude, one part technically deficient (phones don't work well??) and eight parts completely unresponsive. My only option may be small claims court, which isn't really too difficult a thing to pursue here in Austin. From what I've experienced so far, small claims court will be a walk in the park compared to dealing with these knuckleheads...

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: The act of withholding prescription information, it turns out, is ILLEGAL, so in addition to small claims court for the refund I will also be filing criminal charges. The woman from about a month ago who described a similar problem a month ago should take note of this and file charges aa well. It's not just bad service, it's criminal.

THIRD UPDATE (6/10/21): I have now received two handwritten and two printed out scrips from AB, four total, and no two match, different numbers, different abbreviations, written in different columns. I still don't have my prescription after all the effort to try to get it without resorting to litigation.

FINAL UPDATE: This company was unable to provide me with my correct prescription information even when they were actually trying. The eye doctor who performed my exam signed off on two very different printed versions and submitted two handwritten versions with different numbers on them. You decide if this sounds like a good fit for your eyecare needs. All I got for my efforts was my money back and two weeks wasted. I...

Is this place under new management in the past year or so? I came here about two and a half years ago and had an excellent experience. The optometrist was friendly and helpful and all the techs were helpful while I got my first pair of contact lenses. The trial experience was great and I received follow up within a week of the trial and the person on the phone was happy to walk me through using my insurance to order my years supply. It was so easy. I unfortunately had to change doctors as my insurance changed briefly, but was excited to come back January of this year with new insurance (again). I made my appointment and showed up about 5 minutes early and noticed immediately that something was different. There were probably six people working but it didn’t appear that anyone was doing anything and I waited about 30 minutes after my exam was scheduled to start before I was seen. The optometrist herself was excellent. She was friendly, funny, and worked with me until my vision was practically perfect. It appears the organization around her is where the problem lies. They didn’t have my trial lenses available in hand (no worries it’s unreasonable to think they have something for EVERYONE ready to go) so we ordered them and I left. I got a call about a week later saying they were in, and I went in to pick them up about an hour later. Same feeling when I walked in the second time. It just felt chaotic for no reason. I was asked to wait for about ten minutes, again not a big deal, and then the man at the desk asked what I was there for. I told him I was picking up my contacts and then he searched for my file for about ten minutes then told me someone would be with me soon. Another ten or fifteen minutes go by and he brings me to an exam room and tells me the optometrist will be with me shortly. I ask him why I need the optometrist for a trial lense pick up and he just responds with “oh. Hold on.” Another woman comes and gets me and I take my lenses and go. Really disorganized but fine I guess? So I waited for a follow up call for about a week and then life took over and I got preoccupied with work/life. It’s been about six weeks since then now, and I finally realize I’ve been wearing my trials too long so I called to find out what’s going on with my year supply/order. The woman who answered, Terry? Theresa? I can’t remember exactly, seemed really annoyed with having to pick up the phone. No big it’s EOD. I told her I was calling because I had my trials, never received a follow up on them, and wanted to order my contacts. She said with “well we wouldn’t call you for that, but we’ll order your contacts.” I replied with “Oh well I’ve received follow up in the past.” She said “Mmkay.” And put me on hold. When she returned she immediately said, “So will this be on your card?” I asked her what she meant and she replied, “Are we putting this on your card or insurance. How are we doing this.” And I told her I would figure it out elsewhere. I’d rather just pay for my lenses out of pocket at this point. The whole environment of this location is a polar opposite of my first time there. It doesn’t feel like they know or care what they’re doing. It’s especially disappointing because the resident optometrist is excellent. Hopefully I’m the...

I ordered my glasses on 9/3 and did not get them until 9/30. They said it would take 7-10 business days, but usually takes less time than that. I called after 7 business days and they said they weren't delivered from the lab yet. That's okay, there was still an extra 4 business days for the window. I called again on the 10th business day, and they said there has been a delay, and that they would be ready the following week. I understand, delays happen. I called again the following week and they said that my glasses should be there, and that they would get back to me. No one got back to me. I called again for another update, and they told me once again they would look into it and get back to me, only to not get back to me again. I called one more time, was transferred to another associate who said that my glasses had been lost in transit, they would have to order another pair and it would take another two weeks. This associate seemed frustrated with me, even though I expressed my gratitude (despite my frustration) that they were able to finally give me an answer after no one was giving me any answers or updates.

A couple of weeks later my glasses finally arrived (almost after a month of waiting) and the prescription seemed off. I thought maybe that I just needed a few days to adjust but my vision was so much worse with the glasses on. So, I scheduled another appointment to see what the problem was (I thought they had maybe gotten my prescription wrong). It turns out, they accidentally swapped my right and left lenses.

They confessed that they knew they accidentally swapped the lenses but did not contact me to correct the problem or take accountability.

It would have been nice to receive some sort of compensation for the delay and mixups, or even at least an apology.

The staff was polite, but definitely could have done a better job at addressing all of the problems that arose with this order. I understand things happen, but this situation was simply due to incompetence...