Suggestions on what to do, please (long)

[Alfie]

Update:

I suspect the manufacturer knows this product is defective & that's why it was discontinued. But rather than do a recall & offer to fix it or reimburse their customers, they quietly discontinue it and don't tell anybody until someone complains. Jerks!

How old were your glasses? Because that may have something to do with them breaking. I would expect for my glasses to break eventually, just because of old age.

And also, they may have discontinued the glasses because they were no longer popular, rather than just that they realised there was something wrong with them. I'd expect for this to happen quite frequently with glasses.

Hope you have fun picking out a new pair of glasses though!

[Crazeyal]

Hardly.

Wrong.

But we don't know who's error it was.

Yes we do. The store has a duty to keep the client notified of changes or problems. Perhaps you glossed over the fact that the poster politely and consistantly inquired about the situation, only to be given no information with no followup.

Terrible service? They're looking at every store in the chain to find out if they can find the exact item being looked for. That's darn good service.

No. You are siding with the merchant out of what appears to be a lopsided empathy. They are NOW doing what they should have done all along. There is a REASON clients go to big chain stores. Price, selection, professionalism, just to name a few. These people dropped the ball. THEY WERE LAZY AND INCOMPETANT.

.
And IMHO, gimme grabs are simply wrong.

That is an insult to laundryhater and I don't think it is warrented. I suggest you re-evaluate what you say and why.

[myswtghst]

I know that the situation seems to have been (basically) resolved for laundryhater, given that the glasses broke in the end, but I would like to add my two cents.

In this situation, I would definitely contact both the store's management and the manufacturer. In contacting management for the store, you could make sure to note that in the future, they should try to do a better job keeping the customer up to date, and more aware of the situation, but also impress upon them that the lady did a great job going above and beyond to help you out. You don't want anyone punished or anything from them, but you want them to be aware that this was a problem, the lack of communication. It also would help to contact the manufacturer, especially now that the glasses broke, to let them know, calmly, of the issues you had with their products. My train of thought is usually that I'd like to let them know if something went wrong, so they can correct it for the future.

While I think "gimme grabs" are wrong, I feel that if someone was treated as the OP here was (made to wait for several months for something she was told would take a few weeks with no updates!) they deserve something for their patience. Think of it this way--they screwed up, LH was wonderful and patient enough not to cause a scene or have a fit, and by doing something for her, they could encourage her to come back and continue doing business with them. I'm completely against asking for free stuff when you've not been wronged, or asking way above and beyond what is deserved (see PFB for examples) I have no problem with someone asking for something they deserve. And in this case, I think that LH deserves something for her troubles.

[Crazeyal]

Exactly myswtghst. Compensation isn't the problem. People abusing it is.

[Broomjockey]

For your glasses to simply break while you were standing around says to me they probably were defective some how. That sucks immensely, and lucky that you keep a spare pair. I do believe that part is called the arm. Not that that's important anymore It's too bad that the situation resolved like this, but with luck, you'll be able to find a good pair for a decent price that you like as much or more.

[Broomjockey]

Wrong. <snip>
That is an insult to laundryhater and I don't think it is warrented. I suggest you re-evaluate what you say and why.

I'm going to ignore the rest, and focus on these two parts.
Compensation:something given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, loss, injury, suffering, lack, etc.; indemnity:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compensation
You'll notice a lack of "free" in there. So, no. I'm not wrong. I'm the one not inventing personal definitions.

Also, IMO, you were the one advising the freebie grab, so technically, I was insulting you. Not laundryhater. If she took offense to that, I apologize.

[Crazeyal]

I'm going to ignore the rest,

hmm

If she took offense to that, I apologize.

Good enough for me.

[ds_36]

Anyway, I'm not ordering glasses from that store ever again. I know it's not the store's fault the glasses were poor quality & broke but they order from a manufacturer who makes bad glasses and therefore I won't order from them again. I do feel sorry for the store because if they continue to order from that manufacturer they'll probably lose a lot of customers.

Even highly reputable companies occasionally have a poor product slip through. I wouldn't automatically assume one pair of glasses breaking means everything the company makes is bad.

I suspect the manufacturer knows this product is defective & that's why it was discontinued.

I thought only the blue was discontinued. I doubt if the color that it's finished in makes any significant change to the product's quality.

[It's me]

If you have the manufacturer name and model number, there is a very good chance you can buy the same frames on-line. I did exactly that when a pair of glasses I really liked broke (I actually bought two frames). Any decent place that makes glasses can easily have lenses fitted.

[Ree]

Note to Broomjockey and Crazeyal:

I trust there will be no more bickering back and forth between you two, so, in the future, take it to PM and keep it off the board.

As to the OP, the company dropped the ball completely with their service. They should have been following up with you all along so you knew what was going on.

I would really be interested in getting Juniormintz' perspective on this, since this is something she deals with daily in her work.

[iradney]

I dunno, I had a pair of glasses for...*counts on fingers* 12 years, and they didn't fall apart like that. Yes, the screws did come loose (damn you gravity!) and lenses fell out once or twice, but the arm never just disintegrated while I was wearing it.
I would have to say they were rather badly made.

[laundryhater]

How old were the glasses...

In response to Alfie's question: The glasses were only 18 months old. I've never had glasses break so weird like that & I've been wearing glasses since I was 5 yrs old.

I don't know what brand they are and the only identifying info on the glasses is a number across the top of the nose piece. So if I wanted to order it online, I'd have to call the Optical place I ordered them from and get the brand's name & verify the model #.

I think I will write a letter to the Optical place's main office to let them know what happened. I think they should know. I will make it clear that I'm not writing to ask for freebies because that is not my intent. I just think they should know they need a better policy in place for order errors and delays. I will also be asking them for the manufacturer's name and address so that I may write them a letter advising them how they dropped the ball on for not notifying the Optical place that blue was discontinued the first time the part was ordered (and the second time for that matter). In fact there should be a way for them to link to Optical's ordering computer system and flag that part as discontinued and lock it out to prevent it from being ordered (I've seen computer software that does this & it's very helpful...you know instantly that you can't order that item because it's discontinued or there'll be a longer wait because it's out of stock).

I wasn't offended by posters' comments about "freebies", I just chalked it up to they failed to read my posts correctly because I never stated I wanted freebies...I stated that a discount would have been in order if the sunglasses did ever come in. I don't expect something for nothing. That's all I'm gonna say about that, no sense re-hashing that old topic any further. I just wanted to clarify for the record.

After all this I'm seriously considering switching to contacts! I never used to be able to wear contacts b/c I have astigmatism & moderate dry eye but I've been seeing commercials for contact lenses that cater to these problems so I think I'll check them out.

Laundryhater

[myswtghst]

Laundryhater--Just a comment on the contacts part of your last post. I've got astigmatism in one eye, and I've been wearing contacts for some 8-10 years now, without any problems. The lens in my left eye is weighted, to counter the astigmatism. I've also learned, especially with dry eyes, it helps to just always keep eye drops on you.

[laundryhater]

Myswghst

Thank you Myswghst, yeah I carry eye drops with me all the time but good to know ahead of time that I'll still need to carry them if I get contacts.

Laundryhater