Sitterle Vision Source — Local services in San Antonio

I needed to find a new eye doctor for myself and my daughter, since my company changed vision insurance. I found Sitterle through my insurance carrier website. I checked out the Sitterle Vision Source website and everything seemed fine and acceptably professional.

When I arrived this morning, I did notice a few pieces of art that promoted religion. I don't personally feel that a doctor's office is an appropriate place to promote religion, but I let it roll off my shoulders, as I am not easily offended by any religious paraphernalia. However, as my daughter and I waited to be seen, we noticed the religious music that was being played. We also kept noticing more and more religious art and paraphernalia. It was everywhere and extremely in our faces, even with manger figurines (and this is early September). We became extremely uncomfortable.

So, I decided to cancel our appointments and leave. I will never have my daughter and myself elect to receive medical care when we are not at ease with the location and how that reflects on the discernment of whoever is in charge of the facility. If anyone chooses to go to a doctor office that has religious displays and music, that is completely fine. I support everyone's right to their own religious preferences and where they think they should be displaying them (again, I feel it is unprofessional to do so at a medial care facility, but that is my own opinion), but I recognize that everyone has that choice.

What I really felt was absolutely NOT okay was that the Sitterle Vision Source website gave me no warning/reason to expect what I walked into today. If you want to display your religion in a doctor office, then it is reasonable to expect any of the pictures on your website or even one of the many religious text quotes you had on the wall, or something to indicate what to expect on the website, so that future patients aren't feeling blindsided and uncomfortable on their first visit. If I had any warning to expect this, I would have just respectfully decided it wasn't the best option for us and went about my business and found somewhere else. I feel both deceived and disturbed today, and for that reason, I am leaving a bad review. This shows an alarming lack of professionalism and awareness I expect in the medical field.

And no, I clearly was not a fit for your company. If you had honestly indicated that on your website, I would have respectfully not chosen this place for myself. However, you are not transparent and honesty about your proselytizing and I was not given the option to make that choice for myself. Imagine how you would feel if you went into a medical provider office for the first time that happened to display art and play music that expressed their religious faith if it was Satanism. You would probably be uncomfortable, I'd imagine. That is how I felt. The problem isn't your religion, the problem is that you aren't honest about what I should have expected, which shows a lack of consideration. Unfortunately, in my personal experience, this mindset of lack of consideration for other views and empathy towards anyone with a different belief system than your own is severely missing in Christians. That is why I would have politely just skipped over this option if you had done literally anything to indicated this on your website. Highly unprofessional and disturbing in the...

Every time I come to Dr. Sitterle office there is always a problem with the bill statement. I have been a patient here for more than 10 years, as well as my whole family (we all were hard contact lenses) so I know very well what I have being paid for me in the past and for my family as well. Anyway, during this visit and without ordering any new contact, I think this is the first time I come here and I don't order a new contacts, my bill was $170 dollars and I usually pay around $120-140 ordering with new contacts, when I inquired Chad about my concern, he said that my vision insurance had changes the cover for the contact lenses exam and now I needed to pay more deductible so after a 10 minutes talking I paid him and I left the office. About an hour later I called my vision insurance to ask what were the new changes in the cover and the customer representative, doing an excellent work, called Dr. Sitterle office to know about the discrepancies between this present charge compared with previous visits to the office, and she was told the problem was they had given me a "specialized contact lenses exam" and not the "standard contact lenses exam" which is the one full covered by the insurance, and also that they had made a mistake on my previous visit (2 years ago) and they didn't charge me for the special one on that occasion. The representative from the insurance also let me know they didn't have made any new changes in the cover or in the deductible. In all the years I have been coming to this place, or any eye doctor place, I have never heard of any standard or specialized eye contact lenses exam, but in case they have two different type of exams, one full covered by the insurance and one partially covered, they have to explain the patients about this difference and which do you prefer to follow. The problem with Dr. Sitterle office is they have very low ethical procedures and they have used in many opportunities shady lies in order to make more money. The perfect evidence of their poor professional behavior is when I asked Chad why the price increase in the bill statement compared with prior visits, and if they had increased their consultation charges for any reason, and he did not mention anything about the two types of contact lenses exams, blaming the insurance company instead and inventing this lie about the increase of the deductible; people only hide the true and are unclear this way when they are sure they are ripping off someone else. Unfortunately as many other professionals in the health field, Dr. Sitterle seems to be desperate for the money, and the money is always a priority before the patients even if they have to lie and use tricky practices in order to satisfy their financial necessities. Very disappointed.

Respond to Dr. Sitterle

Dr. Sitterle if that was the cause of the price increase in my statement, why I did not receive that explanation when I inquired about the price, and instead Chad just blamed to a change of cover in my vision insurance. Besides that, if you looked into my statements since I have been going to your office, you will see I have never paid this amount even when I ordered new contact lenses, don't say this was a previous visit charge mistake, so it looks you have been doing the same mistake for 10...

This is by far the most convenient optometrist near where I live, and I thought it would be a great one due to all the positive reviews, but I ended up cancelling my appointment before it even happened due to the obvious disorganization and lack of knowledge by the administrative staff.

TL;DR: I'm sure the doctor is great, but with as difficult as it was to get basic information and a straight answer as to what I would be paying, it was SO not worth dealing with them. Also, the $35 retinal scan being mandatory as opposed to dilation seems like a moneymaking scheme.

The full explanation: When I initially called to make my appointment, the woman I spoke with seemed very confident and knowledgable, verified my insurance while I was on the phone with her, and told me both the eye exam and contact fitting would be covered, with the exception of $35 for the retinal scan because they don't do dilation. I was fine with this initially, and all seemed good to go.

I called back the next day to make sure the fitting I had scheduled was correct for the type of contacts I was looking at, and the woman I spoke with on that call seemed to know little-to-none and had no idea what I was talking about. She had to put me on hold several times to pass on my questions, before eventually saying she had to call me back later after she asked the doctor. Ok, no worries, but when she called me back she said something about a $95 fitting fee. What? I informed her I had been told all was covered but the $35 retinal scan, she seemed confused again, put me on hold, checked and eventually said yes, that was correct. After all the confusion, I assumed I was good to go and eventually did get the information I was looking for.

Then, the final straw. I received a text today asking for my insurance card to confirm, which I had been expecting. What I was NOT expecting was a follow up text stating that "the contacts can go up from $95 depending on the prescription"... FROM $95? Implying, again, that I would be paying $95? I thought from her phrasing maybe she was under the impression I would be ordering the actual contacts from them so I clarified that I would not, but she said "the $95 is for the fitting so it will be charged regardless." After much back and forth, I confirmed again that the fitting was indeed covered, but that the price "could vary." At this point, I started looking into other offices, as well as researching dilation vs. retinal scan. As it turns out, dilation seemed to be the more thorough exam option anyway, PLUS the other office I called seemed very knowledgable, was fully covered (I would not have to pay the $35 fee), and was able to verify immediately and with no hassle that I was fully covered. I cancelled my appointment with Sitterle and booked with...