Location: Canada
Background: When I first started wearing glasses the optometrist would just give me a piece of paper that I could take to any shop to get my lenses made. Then they started refusing that paper and insisting I either leave my frames with them for two weeks, or that I buy new frames.
And now it seems like even asking for the script, or the measurements, is ‘against policy’.
I recently went in for an eye exam and some new glasses, and the optician said something I have never been told before.
I had asked if they could give me the prescription for my sunglass lenses since they don’t deal with the brand that I prefer, and he said that I would have to schedule another appointment at a shop that deals with that brand, because the prescription was not enough, and I would also need the measurements he took.
I asked if I could have those measurements and he said it was against policy.
Is he lying to try to get me to buy new frames from his shop? Or is there something to what he is saying?
Confession - When he walked away I took a picture of the measuring app he had used which seems to show all the measurements.
Would this be useful to another shop? I’m just trying to buy lenses without spending a fortune on yet another frame.
It all feels like a scam.
Can’t speak for where you live but if the optician is being a, excuse the expression, little removed about it then that is poor behaviour on their part. I have never heard of an optician refusing to hand out the measurements here.
On a slightly related note: Opticians often get the glasses made elsewhere and simply install them into the frames (at huge markup), you could try locating a glass supplier and have your glasses made by them directly (saves you a bunch of money, speaking from experience). Assuming they offer individual glasses of course.
Since I was able to get the measurements from the app he was using I think this is going to be my course of action. I will ask for my script from the optometrist and then take the pupil measurements from that picture and send them to someone who will make the lenses for my sunglasses.