I've been taking my family to Colonial Opticians for almost 10 years; every member of my family has frames from there and we have always had an incredible experience there. We've all seen Dr. Kromm for exams and gotten multiple pairs of frames over the years.
Until this most recent situation.
My daughter's $300 frames, less than a year old, had the wire holding the nose pad break off. This is not something that would be a big deal ordinarily, but in times of corona everything is different. I'm pregnant and high risk so my husband took my daughter in. The person who waited on them who says he is the owner, John Williams, offered my husband the option to replace the front of the frame or to sauder the nose pad back in place. He did say the saudering might damage the frame. He did not say that saudering it would void the warranty on the frame.
My daughter needed her glasses quickly instead of in a few weeks, so my husband opted to do the saudering.
When he got home I saw the entire outside of the lovely frames was completely discolored and jagged. The workmanship was incredibly sloppy. They had replaced one nose pad but not the other, so one was old and discolored and the other was nice and new.
I called to speak with them and was told that even though Mr. Williams did not mention that the warranty was voided, that is too bad for us, as it is now voided. He made some rambling speech about my husband being an adult and making his own decisions; not sure how that is relevant since he made a decision without the information that Mr. Williams could have easily provided. Now we are left with damaged frames and $320 wasted.
I have never been treated so poorly here and will simply go to another optician in future. Most of the employees who work here are lovely and have always gone above and beyond to ensure a high level of customer service. It's kind of surprising given the way we were treated by an owner. Apparently the owner is the only person working right now so be aware if you go in for repair at this time that your level of workmanship will not be up to what it typically is. I seriously cannot imagine any other employee handing me back the damaged, melted, frames this man did and thinking it was ok.
Mr. Williams did not tell us saudering the frame would void the warranty. He did not tell us saudering the frame would melt the entire top of one lens. Why? The nose pad holder is nowhere near that. He did not tell us the top of the lens would have melted curly plastic edging into the field of vision. He did not tell us that we had the option of replacing the front of the frames UNDER WARRANTY. I think it's funny he admits to not mentioning the warranty to my husband; he wanted to put one over on us, and he did. If he had told us about the warranty ahead of time, we could have replaced the front of the frames for free; instead he wants us to shell out $150 for them now that HE chose to void the warranty without explaining that to my husband.
