This is a hard place for me to review, because it's very situational. This is going to be a very critical review, but also a four star review. That's actually quite good, and honestly without the wait times, they'd probably still be five, even though things didn't go well for me personally. More on that in a bit, it's complicated.
Truth of the matter is that for MOST issues, this is a very good place. For my wife, this was an excellent experience. For me, not so much - but I am a bit of an outlier, with a weird prescription where every online site will tell me "are you sure? most people don't have a prescription like this" -- and that's before you take prism into account. My eyes are challenging.
I have to mention the wait time here. They are clearly in much more demand than they have people they can meet that demand with. They are friendly, and generally good, but it's clear that things are very tight, schedule-wise.
I would absolutely come here to see an ophthalmologist. This is clearly where they shine, I'd have no hesitation there.
But for optometry and routine eye exams- things become more difficult. First of all, the wait for a new appointment is likely to be VERY long, like several months, which is usually not a great sign. But also, the testing isn't quite as thorough as I've had other places - it's fairly rudimentary. It's not bad, it's just not as contemporary as it could be, and as I've seen elsewhere.
I think if you need a prescription that doesn't involve any prism correction, they are quite good. They definitely sell quality lenses and glasses, and my wife had a very positive experience here, and came out with excellent glasses that really work for her in ways that others have not.
My experience wasn't so great, maybe it's because I require prism correction. The first prescription and glasses I got here were very problematic - I was seeing ghosting, and it was harder to see things at a distance than it was before, and it felt worse than my prior pair from a year back. I did NOT feel like it was safe to drive in them. So I went back, and they checked the glasses, which were as prescribed, so they set me up for an eye recheck. In a month and a half. As I said, clearly more demand than they can meet.
Anyways, I get rechecked, and when the new, re-checked updated prescription came in, it just felt really really bad... Maybe clearer for near vision, but overall, not great. I thought it was a period of adjustment due to the prism, but no, after giving it time, it was definitely worse than it was before the recheck.
I ended up getting a second opinion, both eyes are way off from the prescription I got here - one off significantly power wise, the other off significantly astigmatism wise, and the prism correction was way off in general. I can say this with some confidence, because the glasses I got from my new optometrists prescription are PERFECT.
I have a hard time reconciling my experience with my wife's excellent experience. The optical department is otherwise great here - Great selection, they take their time with you, and sell very high quality glasses (yes, they cost a bit more, but there's no arguing that these are excellent glasses/lenses.)
But I don't think I can personally justify coming back to a place that got it wrong with me twice in a row, with the second version being somehow worse than the first. I started having a lot of anxiety over my vision, being afraid that it was either changing rapidly, or maybe I just wasn't good at eye tests. But, again - going elsewhere, I didn't have a single problem.
I'd still come here to buy a new pair of glasses that were prescribed from elsewhere, or see an ophthalmologist, with absolutely no reservations. But getting the prescription wrong twice - when i immediately got a perfect one elsewhere (granted, a specialty optometrist) - makes me think that they aren't really able to deal with the outliers like me in terms of testing. For everyone else, they are probably great. I think I'm the problem.
