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The closest eye doctor/glasses place my insurance covers is Eye Gallery (pretty sure it's locally owned), and it's conveniently right across the street from my store - which means it's less than 2 miles from home.
Got my eye exam today for new glasses, since I lost my regular ones and the prescription is over 2 years old, so they couldn't make new ones. I still have my prescription sunglasses - a retardedly expensive pair of Oakleys (these are the ones I have, except with ice blue lenses). The frames were a bit over $200, and the lenses for them were $240. Like I said, expensive, but they're damn nice, and my flexible spending account covered them last year.
They did upsell me on a couple of things - the first one being a new machine they have that takes a photo of the back of your eyeball, so they don't have to dilate your eyes. $39, and my insurance wouldn't cover it, but I was already paying with an employer funded flexible spending account, so I wasn't too concerned about the extra cost. I HATE eyedrops, and I especially hate having my eyes dilated, I'm already extremely sensitive to bright light thanks to the medications I'm on.
The eye doctor was honest with me and told me my prescription hasn't changed at all since my last exam (shocked me), and extremely friendly while remaining professional.
The staff spent 30 minutes with me helping me pick out new frames with no pressure to go with more expensive frames or to hurry up (which I've gotten at chain places like LensCrafters) - they mostly have high end stuff (Gucci, etc), but I told them I was trying to stay under $200 total, including the exam (my insurance covers up to $130 for glasses, and I have a $10 copay for the exam, $10 copay for glasses, plus the $39 from the space age eye photo machine thingie). She gave me an honest opinion about how various frames looked on me, narrowed it down a bit by sizes, and we finally found a pair that look damn good (and don't look cheap at all).
The other upsell was a 2 year anti-scratch/anti-reflective coating on the lenses. They figured out how much my insurance would cover for that (half) - they didn't push it, just told me what the difference was between the 1 year and 2 year coatings since I had already stated I wanted that coating. I usually wear my glasses for 2-3 years, so I went with the 2 year - it was only $20 more and is a lot tougher, plus if they ever get scratched, I get new lenses free.
I walked in expecting to spend about $500 - $200 or so for the exam and glasses, and at least $250 more for new lenses for my sunglasses (they have polarized, mirror tint, anti scratch, anti reflection lenses - basically every option you can get on them, and only Oakley can make them), which would come close to wiping out my FSA. Instead I left paying $170 - some nice frames, polycarbonate lenses for them, and a 2 year anti scratch/reflective/UV coating (warrantied for 2 years, my insurance covered half of that cost), and they told me I could keep the same lenses in the sunglasses unless my prescription changes.
Overall, very happy, and I have $250 extra left in my FSA for prescriptions. And yes, I do plan to email a slightly reworded copy of this post to them (with staff names included).
Got my eye exam today for new glasses, since I lost my regular ones and the prescription is over 2 years old, so they couldn't make new ones. I still have my prescription sunglasses - a retardedly expensive pair of Oakleys (these are the ones I have, except with ice blue lenses). The frames were a bit over $200, and the lenses for them were $240. Like I said, expensive, but they're damn nice, and my flexible spending account covered them last year.
They did upsell me on a couple of things - the first one being a new machine they have that takes a photo of the back of your eyeball, so they don't have to dilate your eyes. $39, and my insurance wouldn't cover it, but I was already paying with an employer funded flexible spending account, so I wasn't too concerned about the extra cost. I HATE eyedrops, and I especially hate having my eyes dilated, I'm already extremely sensitive to bright light thanks to the medications I'm on.
The eye doctor was honest with me and told me my prescription hasn't changed at all since my last exam (shocked me), and extremely friendly while remaining professional.
The staff spent 30 minutes with me helping me pick out new frames with no pressure to go with more expensive frames or to hurry up (which I've gotten at chain places like LensCrafters) - they mostly have high end stuff (Gucci, etc), but I told them I was trying to stay under $200 total, including the exam (my insurance covers up to $130 for glasses, and I have a $10 copay for the exam, $10 copay for glasses, plus the $39 from the space age eye photo machine thingie). She gave me an honest opinion about how various frames looked on me, narrowed it down a bit by sizes, and we finally found a pair that look damn good (and don't look cheap at all).
The other upsell was a 2 year anti-scratch/anti-reflective coating on the lenses. They figured out how much my insurance would cover for that (half) - they didn't push it, just told me what the difference was between the 1 year and 2 year coatings since I had already stated I wanted that coating. I usually wear my glasses for 2-3 years, so I went with the 2 year - it was only $20 more and is a lot tougher, plus if they ever get scratched, I get new lenses free.
I walked in expecting to spend about $500 - $200 or so for the exam and glasses, and at least $250 more for new lenses for my sunglasses (they have polarized, mirror tint, anti scratch, anti reflection lenses - basically every option you can get on them, and only Oakley can make them), which would come close to wiping out my FSA. Instead I left paying $170 - some nice frames, polycarbonate lenses for them, and a 2 year anti scratch/reflective/UV coating (warrantied for 2 years, my insurance covered half of that cost), and they told me I could keep the same lenses in the sunglasses unless my prescription changes.
Overall, very happy, and I have $250 extra left in my FSA for prescriptions. And yes, I do plan to email a slightly reworded copy of this post to them (with staff names included).