Stanton Optical — Local services in Town of Tonawanda

So, I personally have mixed feelings and opinions about this particular location of Stanton Optical. I am a regular costumer of Stanton Optical for two years and after having not a good experience this last month, I have come to my thoughts that I no longer would prefer to be seen as eye patient at this company.

First, their areas are not sanitary. The people are just fine, on what I understand that they do not like their job only by not showing up when they are supposed to do so exactly when you have an appointment with them. Back to sanitary issues, the building itself looks amazing but inside it gives you the wrong idea. Most of the times there is no receptionist available so you may want to sit tight and wait a good six to ten minutes for the person who most likely will put you on hold until another person is available.

Second, their ridiculously priced exams. They have "deals" on where you can get two pairs of glasses and a "free eye exam" for XYZ amount of dollars, while you can absolutely order your glasses AND lens contacts online by saving an enormous time going back and forth to this location. While I did that, I understand the high convenience you get once you learn there is a way to really save time and money.

Third, the appointments. I always go online and set up an appointment for a certain time. You show up five to ten minutes (I show up way earlier than that) hoping to get settled right away or at least sometime earlier than you scheduled. No. It sure does not happen even when you are right on time. It's short-staffed and one person does many things at once for all costumers. Like what in the world do you do this? Run around, take one costumer and put them on hold and go back to the other one, back and forth.

Fourth, this is personalized issue. For the sake of my life I needed contacts. I went at the location (where everything went the same as the description above) on a Saturday, and bam!, the internet went off. We had to reschedule for the next Saturday. I did. They tried to call me but never left a message (reasons I do not know). Went on Saturday and while I scheduled on my phone this appointment, the Staton Optical representative stated on the phone together: I will make sure the store is informed to give you an additional price discount since you went through this particular issue where internet disconnected and you have to go again. Alright, thanked the girl who was helpful and understanding but did not call the store (I am guessing). Never received a price discount but it's okay.

We do the exam and then for next Saturday (January 30, 2021) I had to come and see again the same individual to show me how to put my contact lenses on. I come in, wait for the guy who surprisingly did not show me but made another gentleman who I did not know do his job. Again, reasons that I do not know.

At the end, I want to say that you have lost me as your costumer but please you must understand that many people out there see you as their first choice to stop by their eyesight. Behave good and treat them well because you are not paying us for those...

I do have mixed feelings, albeit mostly negative. Their scheduling system doesn't seem to work, for one. I scheduled an appointment from the website, was shown a confirmation message, and even tried scheduling a second appt at the same time, just to make sure. I arrived and was told there was no appointment for me, waited for a very long time before being addressed again. At which point the young man, who was bordering on rude in his interactions, regardless of how much he made me wait, tried to convince me to go elsewhere. While I'd been waiting, I had scheduled a new appointment, as well as played several online chess games. He said I still had no appointment, but eventually stopped trying to push me out the door and handed me a tablet to check myself in. Waited another near half hour before the pre-exam, done by robots. Waited again, just as long, for the actual exam, which was done by another robot, remote controlled by a man from India talking to me from a television screen.

At which point the one single positive of my experience; a woman named Ashley was tremendously kind, helpful, and efficient. If anyone at corporate or the office reads this, Ashley at the Sheridan location in Tonawanda NY is a godsend, and the literal only element of the location keeping me from leaving a 1 star review. Thanks to her alone I thought about leaving a 4 or even 5 star, but everything else was so ludicrously bad that I can't go above 3 (and that feels overly generous).

Anyway, two days after my exam, I tried calling to ask for a copy of my prescription, because I had forgotten the printed copy when leaving Stanton. The local number redirected to a call center, again in India, where I was told that I would need to fill out a consent form, send it in, wait 48 hours, then fill a request form, and eventually receive a copy. I can't view my scrip online, because it isn't showing on my account. Monday I'm going to drive the half hour to the store for a copy, and I'm genuinely worried that they won't have it in their system at all. Also, anything you order through them (contacts, glasses) is delivered to the office, and you have to come to pick it up, instead of it being mailed to your home.

None of these problems would be major enough for me to leave a negative review, but in the aggregate, I am not going to be using...

I needed to find a place that did same day glasses. I read reviews of this location and there were a few reviews that stated that they don’t do them… Even though the website says that they do. They stated there are paper signs on the door saying they are not doing same-day glasses. Some of these reviews were two, four, and six months ago, so I thought well maybe something was up and I will call to find out if that’s still the Case. So I called… I asked specifically if they did same-day glasses because I read reviews saying that that location didn’t do them. They assured me that they do! And made me an appointment. I drove over later for my appointment. I’ll need to see as people had stated before paper signs all over the front of the building saying we don’t do same-day glasses. I walked in to cancel my appointment and mentioned it, and the gentleman said well our lab was hit by a car so until that’s fixed, we can’t do it. I said OK thanks. I said the call center should be aware of that then so they can tell people that if they call. He said “well we have a couple hundred stores and over 70 people in the call center so there’s no way for them t Do that.” I find that to be very odd because other stores that have large presence… Such as let’s say Starbucks that has thousands of stores nationwide manages to mark stores as closed when there’s an issue. So I thought well that’s a poor excuse…. (There’s no way to talk to the local store You get a call Center.) I left and I called the call center back to let them know that I couldn’t get a same-day pair of glasses because the store had been hit by a car at some point and the lab was destroyed. The response I got was well “thats only temporary” I said well, I understand that… but this is not a one or two day temporary thing. This is clearly been something that’s been six months or longer so that’s not really “temporary” is it? and you should update your website and let callers know in the interim. He said yeah we don’t do that. Is there anything else I can help you with? I said no. And he hung up. extremely poorly run business. With today’s modern technology, there’s absolutely no excuse that they can’t alert a call Center and Mark a store so they are aware that if customers ask about same-day service it’s not possible. Absurd. Will never give this company...