Empire Visionworks 20 Mall — Attraction in Town of Guilderland

My teenage son broke his glasses yesterday, and needed new ones asap so he’d have them for school. Made an online appt for an exam b/c I thought his script was expired and we had already made an appt in May at his usual (actual) doctor. So, I was initially so excited that we were able to snag their last same day appt. It so happens it overlapped with a family event so we had to cancel that to be able to go to the appointment. Left in plenty of time to get there and missed the exit by mistake. Got back on the route, now about 7 minutes behind. I called the store as a courtesy to let them know we were running a few minutes behind but were on our way. The person who answered the phone was exasperated and sounded like I had just called her home at 3am and not the store where she is employed. She could not have been less friendly or more rude. Thank you for letting us know? Nope! Not ONE friendly word then or upon arrival, in fact she was just as rude to my son and me in person. I asked right away who I spoke with on the phone and no one wanted to fess up!! I had to ask a couple of times and she finally said it was her. I told her that beginning with the call I made as a courtesy, it was clear they have no interest in working with the public. I spend every moment of my own work day leading three public-facing functions at my company and customer service is near and dear to my heart. I would NEVER speak to or treat a client the way we were treated. What’s more, I would absolutely fire someone ON THE SPOT if I heard one of my staff speak that way to ANYONE, whether internal or external. I am so disappointed that these two aged women in the store were so horrendous and then to see all the poor reviews. It is now my mission to contact the owner and I will be filing a complaint with the BBB as well as corporate VW. Unreal. In the end, I told her that it is clear she has no interest in helping us and the store was ridiculous and walked out. I don’t have the time or energy to deal with inadequacy like this and I def will not spend a PENNY in a situation like this, whether through insurance or otherwise. In fact, I will also be filing a grievance with my plan. In any event, wasted half my afternoon on this BS and now am at our usual place who was happy to help us when I explained the situation. Staff AND ownership should...

DO NOT GO HERE.

This is where my previous eye exams had been so I thought it would be easiest to just go here again instead of switching providers. Firstly, I needed the appointment because my ophthalmologist suggested I get my eyes re-examined because I was experiencing horrible ocular migraines and he thought it was caused by a wrong lens prescription. Well it took me several months to snag an available appointment- which was still a few months out. It didn't seem like that big of a deal but when it was finally the day of my appointment, I got a call only 1 hour prior to my appointment stating that "The computer had let me book an appointment that wasn't actually available and they were cancelling it." What? They should've notified me MUCH sooner than this and also offered me the option to reschedule ASAP as this was their mistake. They left that up to myself and the website again which luckily I snagged another appointment that was only another couple of weeks out. I got 2 confirmation emails and a confirmation text the day of my appointment and when I showed up I got the same spiel of "The computer let you book an appointment that wasn't actually available so you can't be seen today." They hadn't even called me this time. SIDE NOTE: They were giving 3 other patient's the same exact spiel while I was waiting for them to speak to me about when I could reschedule. While I was waiting I remembered the malls had just re-opened so I tried calling Lenscrafters and they got me an appointment right away because of my migraines- and then I promptly left. HERE'S THE KICKER: At my Lenscrafters appointment I found out that at my last exam there, the doctor at Empire Visionworks had completely overlooked that I needed bifocals and not just distance prescription lenses-which had also been way too strong. (Even though I went back a month after the appointment because I felt like the lenses just weren't right, to which I was met with, "We weren't wrong, some people's vision is just like that.") I suffered almost 2 years of terrible ocular migraines due to his complete incompetence. My new provider was completely appalled that it had been missed and confirmed it was the source of my migraines. My life and career were severely affected by this and I am writing this review because I would highly recommend not gambling your eye exams on...

I would love to be able to give zero stars. Avoid this place at all costs. Not only are they usually busy and you have to wait for at least 30 minutes to get just about anything done here, I''l walk you through my most recent issue. I called during the week to get quoted on a box of contacts without insurance and I was told 74 bucks, not bad, so I said go ahead and order for me I'll be in on Sunday to pick them up which I was told would be fine. They are not even open on Sundays I found out when arriving there, which I had to drive about an hour to get there. So I gave them another chance, showed up the following Wednesday, about a week after I ordered my contacts to find out after waiting 20 minutes that the order was never placed! I demanded my prescription and left thinking I was done with them forever and I would order online. When ordering online, federal law mandates they review a copy of your prescription before ordering contacts for you. So it has been long enough that I over nighted these contacts to myself online. I wait about 5 days, and still no contacts. I call the online company only to find out the same doctor that gladly handed me my eye prescription the day I went in, DENIED the online company authorization to fill my contacts when just days earlier he gave me a valid copy of my prescription and stated there were no issues with it. The doctors and people that work here are just simply an untrained team that should not be running this sort of operation. Please save yourself the weeks of stress I am going through regarding this place before walking...