University of Houston College of Optometry — Local services in Houston

The doctors are great, but the subsequent service is terrible!

The University of Houston Eye Institute has scammed me financially! I visited the clinic in June 2016 after recommendation from a friend for dual vision exams, glasses and contact fitting, paid for both services and NEVER received anything in return! I called from July to August to see if the trial pair of contact lenses ordered for me had arrived before I relocated to Dallas from Houston, and never received a return phone call after leaving several voicemail messages. I never received one phone call to inform me of the arrival of the contact lenses! Finally, in September I spoke with an employee in the contact lense center who was very rude when asked what I'd need to do to get the contacts being that I no longer reside in Houston, and never received a call alerting me to the arrival of the contacts. She told me that I didn't pay for the contacts, they were a free trial pair, and that if I didn't make an appointment for the fitting, the lenses would be sent back to the manufacturer; to which I replied I'd call to schedule an appointment as soon as I plan to return to Houston. At the end of September, I again attempted to contact a staff member to schedule an appointment for contact lense fitting and to be sure the contacts were still there, and once again I received NO return phone call. I have called for two months since and have yet to receive a reply to any voicemail messages I have left, having called several times everyday for a week prior to the week of Thanksgiving.

Today I was finally lucky enough to speak to a receptionist who informed me that the lenses are still there, however I'd have to pay $40 to be refitted since I haven't visited within 90 days. This is the first I've EVER heard of this policy, and I feel totally cheated being that I've tried for months to schedule appointments to no avail. I was informed that the clinic will be closed from this Wednesday to January 9th, and that I wouldn't be able to book an appointment until after January 9, 2017! When I inquired about at least receiving my glasses prescription, I was told that unfortunately nothing has been finalized, and due to this, I have no glasses or contact prescription. Therefore, the University of Houston Eye Institute has charged me financially, and I have received nothing in return for the funds paid. I don't even have an updated glasses/contact prescription and must now wait 6 months to be eligible for a new exam through insurance coverage. Please learn from me and take your benefits, funds, and service elsewhere! The service here after examination is less than subpar, and you may NEVER receive what...

I also posted this on Yelp. I want to make sure that everyone is aware of this potential issue if you decide to come here. This place has okay doctors and staffs but a TERRIBLE billing department. You will have to extremely careful if you are seeking for a Ortho-K treatment here, and be aware that you may be mis-charged by their billing department.

I had my Ortho-K treatment with Dr. Parker a year ago, and she was always very nice and caring. Unfortunately over a 3 months Ortho-K fitting, she'd never found the right lens for me (the avg Ortho-K fitting takes 1-2 months). During the 3 months fitting session, I suffered from decreased work productivity and incapability to drive, due to the side effects from Ortho-K fitting. I decided to terminate the treatment after I gave my 6th Ortho-K lens a try. The policy here will still charge you 750 dollars up even they can't find the right lens for you, and they return you the rest of payment for Ortho-K in the format of "credits" that can only be used in the eye institute. No cash back option.

I purchased soft lens from eye institute by those "credits." However, in the past half year, their billing department has kept sending me a 225 dollars bill for those soft lens. I've had to visit eye institute in person, talked to different staffs to make sure those were bills sent by mistakes. It takes hours to get answers from them, and every time they will log into the system and ensure me that I will no longer be charged. I also directly talked to billing department by phone to make sure I will not be charged in the future, and viola I just got my 5th bill requesting payment for those lens again. I had to visit eye institute again and this time I also asked a letter stating that I don't owe any of the amount claimed by those bills. I was declined because writing such letter is "out of the norms" for billing department. Interestingly, you don't get to talk to the staffs and the manager of billing department in person, because they are not opened to the public. That being said, if you end up having billing issues like me, you could only hope that they would deliver whatever they'd promised you (e.g. no longer sending you a bill, your account on the system is clear, as what they told me), but according to my experience, they...

My brother was having migraines so I took him here to get his eyes assessed. The appointment that was meant to be a routine check up lasted 2 1/2 hours in which I finally spoke to someone at the front desk in which they proceeded to lead me into the room where my brother was. Upon entering the room, I noted a student assessing his eyes without gloves on. When she finished she did not sanitize. She proceeded to documenting and stated that her attending will be in. We waited for an additional 20 minutes for the doctor to arrive. He walked into the room without sanitizing his hands and did not acknowledging me and without gloves proceeded to touching and assessing my brother's eyes. He concluded that it was just an ordinary migraine. My brother stated that multiple UH optometry students came in and touched his eyes without sanitizing and gloves which shocked me and I witnessed as well. It was so surprising that the attending failed to follow aseptic technique during assessment of my brother's eyes. After failing to do anything for h, they proceeded to charge him $209. Two days later my brother's eyes swelled up severely and he is unable to see in his eyes and is currently dealing with cellulitis of his eyes associated with bacterial infection. The negligence demonstrated by doctor wheat and administrators at the eye clinic is beyond me. The administrators are stating that the practice of the students and attending coordinate with practices of their school and clinic! We will be contacting our lawyer. My brother ultimately needed higher medical care now for his eyes due to Dr. Wheat and his students. I spoke to Dr. Piccolo who is in charge there, he wanted me to email a copy of my brother’s medical record (HIPPA violation) and refused to give me an appointment in person with him. I chose not to email him my brother’s medical record because it is illegal to email such documentation. He said the only way the would refund my brother’s money is if he could prove my brother almost went blind because of them and that it was at Dr. Wheat’s discretion whether to wear gloves or not when touching patient’s eyes. Therefore showing that Dr. Wheat’s students are perpetuating these same health care practices that are unsafe for both them and the patients that...