The Eye Place Optometry

I came by for my yearly contacts exam and I was met by a technician named Serena. Her friendly nature and professionalism immediately put me at ease and made my visit truly a great experience. I telling all my friends to come here and ask for her specifically and I can’t wait until my appointment next year! Thank you so much for making me feel good on this snowy day…

My wife and I have been going to The Eye Place for the past five years. They have a new office on Huguenot Road. Dr Spittle is great. They do a very through exam and really try to do the best for you. We jumped around a bunch of years going to whoever our insurance recommended. We have found a good eye doctor and we are going to stay with them.

I will continue to go for my annual exams, I like my dr and the staff, but my husband and I decided today we will no longer be buying any products from here.
Go to pick up prescription sunglasses today (more of a want for eye fatigue than an actual necessity for correction) and there is a HUGE banner stating half price sunglasses on Friday– THREE days away. We mention it when we go in and the front desk staff say «mention when you get over there». We mention it and he says «sorry nothing we can do».
Mind you my husband also got necessary reading glasses that same day. Grand total for exams and both sets of glasses was over $ 550 and there «is nothing we can do». It’s not a week or a month before the sale– THREE DAYS.
Fine– do nothing, we will NOT be purchasing anything from here again. As a Richmond native I felt comfortable recommending The Eye Place– we won’t be doing that.

Very nice facility and do about everything here. Good Contact lense prices too. My daughter has been going here several years and now my wife as well.

I requested that a copy of my prescription be faxed to me from my recent contact lens exam. When it was received I went ahead and ordered a years worth of contacts on line, when the box arrived I just happened to check my old contact lens box and realized the new lenses were the same as the old ones. I called the office and was told that they did indeed fax me last years script. I heard excuses as to why this was done and no real apology. The woman at The Eye Place said it wouldn’t be a problem for me to return the incorrect contacts and get a refund. That’s wasn’t the point, I was at the doctor 3 different times to make sure the contact lenses were correct and then was given the wrong prescription?
In previous physician offices there were 2 people that would check to make sure the right prescription was being given, the person at the front desk could not do this on their own. Maybe this needs to be done here — now I have to wonder if this hasn’t happened in the past.
Quality and accountability is the key to providing good patient care.

Update:
I just have to repost this, possibly monthly, since apparently they just don’t get it… somehow it seems businesses can alter the effects of reviews on here. either that or I just need to post more to get my reviews more visible and not pushed to the ‘unrecommended’ section at the bottom. BTW, see the bottom for a very entertaining response from Dr. Brian to me after honestly reviewing his practice after many many years of business with them, and then being completely bullied by multiple employees on the phone, on top of less than stellar experiences the last few years (pretty much with the shiny, new building appearance). The experiences have been on all sides of their business, front desk, optics, and the ‘dr’ side. We have bought many pairs of glasses over the years, and recently have had mixed experiences in all aspects, especially incompetent billing, and in addition to the recent bullying… BTW, I post honestly, good and bad, because people need to know how a business is before they go there, isn’t that the point of Unilocal?!
And as for Dr Brian’s response to my review, originally… shame on YOU for not taking the time to honor your clientele and not only to allow, but to publicly endorse your rude, self serving employees over all else! You are correct, YOU have personally and publicly put your good employees jobs at risk by employing some really awful ones! This is about human decency, and not the price of glasses. I thought you were more than a dispensary… So sad for them…
Now for the original review:
Wonderfully AWFUL in every way. Beware beware beware… Shiny pretty building, though. The front desk always has new people and they never seem to know what they are doing. They have a tough time answering questions; I suppose it is hard to judge which ‘truth’ they should answer with each time. It’s hard to get service in the optics side and, again, there is a lot of ‘guessing’ happening. Overall, there’s not a lot of competence with the high tech equipment. Also, buyer beware… frame selection is vast, however, markup is more than 30% above retail! That is an additional $ 60 on what should be $ 165 frames on the designers website (read now $ 225…) We are not even talking about the REALLY expensive frames! Even with insurance, that is the part that comes out of your pocket, and this is just the frames. Their office manager (Jay) is presumably getting a cut of this because he is a pompous, hot headed,‘lovely to deal with’ person, very unprofessional in every way… don’t even think about going to him with an actual issue. Bigger is not always better and they have definitely gotten bigger… unfortunately, it’s in the size of their egos, office building, pockets, and number of mostly incompetent staff. Such a shame to see a local business lose touch with clientele and as a result lose clients after so many years. Their predecessor, Dr. Toler, I’m sure would have a few remarks about how to run a business.

Excellent staff and great selection of glasses. The price was better than the other leading eyewear stores. I was blown away by their technology that they provide to ensure not only a perfect fit, but precise lens crafting. I’m glad that I had decided to try this place before I went to purchase from another nearby store (which I had previously visited two other nearby stores). I highly recommend!!!

Alright, appointment at 1030… it’s now 11 and I’m still sitting here. Not sure why there is a schedule if their not going to stick to it. I’m the only one in the waiting room.
Called back to exam room at 1105. Very friendly and professional. Did a great job! Exam rooms were nice. Assistant seemed very good.
Glasses way over priced! Service was nice and friendly but I don’t understand why they can’t be more competitive. It doesn’t have to be the cheapest, but it doesn’t have to be double the price either. Bought my glasses elsewhere.
Good experience though. Will go back for annual exam. If I could give a 3.5 star rating I would.

This is a very clean office. The staff is all very friendly and the Drs are really personable.