Eyenet gives me that impression too. Some people just have really bad luck. Could be the most simple outside job but something bad keeps happening to it. I think it boils down to karma. I think they actually deserve it.
Eyenet gives me that impression too. Some people just have really bad luck. Could be the most simple outside job but something bad keeps happening to it. I think it boils down to karma. I think they actually deserve it.
I worked for LC(as written prev.)and can't read any more complaining.
It was the Renaissance popes who split the Western church through (among other things) obliviousness and waste. The DelVecchio's must intend the same.I never have seen so much time and money wasted. So close...
I am sticking to the Optics page. This thread breaks an old man's heart.
Next on the schedule: Back to Basics (again) :pOriginally Posted by edKENdance
Spexvet:
I hear they're bringing back AR in one hour! That was a winner, huh?;)[/QUOTE]
Ya they might even bring back that paint brush they used to paint that stuff on.
That was terrible. It used to peel, rub off ect. Good luck!
casey:
I worked for LC(as written prev.)and can't read any more complaining.
It was the Renaissance popes who split the Western church through (among other things) obliviousness and waste. The DelVecchio's must intend the same.I never have seen so much time and money wasted. So close...
I am sticking to the Optics page. This thread breaks an old man's heart.[/QUOTE]
I have no idea what brought this on but as the old adage goes: " if you can't stand the heat then maybe you should get out of the kitchen" Just my 2 cents
First a disclaimer: The use of the term "Evil Empire" in discription of The Luxottica was, has been and is a copywritted, registered and the private domain of the Eyeman and should not be used without his permission.:finger:
Having sit through numerous discussions marketing sessions about the future of L.C. and Pearle, the L.C. brand will stay pretty much where it is, ie. mall enclosed,tech driven Gen X style eyewear.
Also, look for a fairly complete merger between Eyemed and Cole Managerd Care by the beginning of 2006 with everything being Eyemed.
"Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"
I disagree with "tech driven". For a long time they didn't want to upgrade to newer lab equipment because labor was cheaper than technology. Maybe that philosophy has changed?
I did, Jediron1, I did. But it wasn't the heat of any kitchen, it was the heat of hell. I don't mind heat, I've worked in places WORSE than LC, too.
I work in a hospital, now. I make glasses and profits instead of meeting goals and have my 'spiffs' ripped off. My bens are paid. I have 401k and a pension. The money is better and I have a lot of time off.
AND I'm not embarrassed to tell folks where I work. I'm proud to proffer my card, now.I never mentioned my place of employment when I worked for LC. Esp. not to opticians. LC is a great place to start off or end up. But, a career? They don't want YOU that long. Look around the room. See those teens?
When LC values its opticians as it does its marketing dept. the company will be better off.
Read your own posts, Jediron, and those of your fellow Lensburgers prisoners: Get out of the kitchen? Hell, yeah: And get into the optical trade. You may remember why you liked it...
casey
I did, Jediron1, I did. But it wasn't the heat of any kitchen, it was the heat of hell. I don't mind heat, I've worked in places WORSE than LC, too.
I work in a hospital, now. I make glasses and profits instead of meeting goals and have my 'spiffs' ripped off. My bens are paid. I have 401k and a pension. The money is better and I have a lot of time off.
AND I'm not embarrassed to tell folks where I work. I'm proud to proffer my card, now.I never mentioned my place of employment when I worked for LC. Esp. not to opticians. LC is a great place to start off or end up. But, a career? They don't want YOU that long. Look around the room. See those teens?
When LC values its opticians as it does its marketing dept. the company will be better off.
Read your own posts, Jediron, and those of your fellow Lensburgers prisoners: Get out of the kitchen? Hell, yeah: And get into the optical trade. You may remember why you liked it...[/QUOTE]
I m glad you got out. But some of us have to work at places like the Evil Empire and others. But make no bones about it, if I had the opportunity and
could find a job in private practice or a job like yours I would be gone in a New York second. But the problem is in western N.Y. I have not seen nor heard of a private opportunity that would be worth prosuing. But I m glad you made it!
PS: I don't or have ever worked for the Evil Empire!
Ya they might even bring back that paint brush they used to paint that stuff on.
That was terrible. It used to peel, rub off ect. Good luck![/QUOTE]
Actually the coating used with the Matrix for the 1 hour AR wasn't bad at all. The coating was UTMC and far better than the Reflection Free junk you got on the rest of the orders that called for AR. If the tech processing the order with the Matrix knew what he was doing, minus powers usually came out pretty good. Plus powers on the other hand always ended up horrendously thick.
Personally, under the right circumstances, I liked using the lenses from the Matrix. If the order was for a moderate to low minus, the lenses were great. Particularly when you take into consideration the low end finished AR stock the labs carried. The real problem with the Matrix is that it wasn't well suited to a busy lab, especially a lab where techs were usually working multiple jobs. If the tech's weren't careful it was easy to get dust or bubbles in the lamination, and I noticed in quite a few of the labs, the unit ended up fairly close to the buffing wheels which made for a bad combination.
Despite the fact that I didn't absolutely despise the the Matrix like many of the lab techs, the last thing that I wanted to happen when the lab was busy was to have a Matrix order come in.
I'd like to know exactly how much money LC WASTED on Matrix. And, what a surprise - LC's habit of cutting labor was the culprit again!
Well I had heard that the units alone were 28k each. Figure at the time of roll out there were somewhere between 900 and 1000 locations. The wafers were also pretty pricy, something like 6 bucks for 2 training wafers. I wouldn't be surprised if the model stocks for Matrix wafers cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 and 15 thousand, possibly more.
When Matrix died (in North America, I believe it's still holding on in Europe) LC returned all unused wafers to SOLA for a refund though I don't know if it was a complete refund. They also planned to return the bonders (laminators, whatever) for some sort of a refund though I understand that once some (large) number were filling the warehouse SOLA asked them to bin the rest (I'm less sure about this).
I now understand that the new 'AR in about an hour' scheme involves AR coated semifinished blanks as delivered by either the manufacturer or a third party coater, surfaced and back side hard coated and AR coated in the shop. There's a candidate tool to do the AR coating that I understand has been qualified by LC. This business model may work better than Matrix did but the thought of retail opticians running an AR tool (no offense but it's considerably different than surfacing and edging equipment, note I said different not more complicated) would give me chills were I a lab manager and the thought of hiring a skilled person to run ever coater would give me chills if I were an account.
As Mike likes to say, amature comments and I may be wrong.
I can tell you in my area we were told to throw the matrix machine in the garbage and to save the uv bulb to return it.What a waste of money !!!! How much money do you think LC has wasted in the last 6 yrs i've seen matrix being thrown out and then we had the ar machines from Satis fall by the wayside.Don't get me wrong I hated to see the Satis machine go it was a great idea they should have at least picked a couple or at least one store in each region to do ar.I'm sure we all probably would have a better turn around time if they had done that instead of cl to coating lab to store.
P.S. just my 2 cents
Could you expand a bit on "Satis fall by the wayside"?
Incidentally the company that really lost on the Matrix deal was SOLA not LC. As stated above most of the product was returned to SOLA for a refund (or thrown away for a refund, whatever).
DPalmer:
I am extremly happy to see I am not the only person so totally frustrated with the direction of LC that I could spit nickels.Tell me your feelings on the prospect of someone getting written up because your multiples aren't high enough (over 20%).How long do you think people are going to stay then???[/QUOTE]
Maybe it's the economy but LC has not lost that many people and when they do they replace them with more stylist's. I once ran into an LC manager who I was meeting to see if I could posible work there ( long story ). To make a long story short we were talking about some optical principles about light and refraction and he looked at and said:" I have not a clue what your talking about but one thing I can tell you if the company wanted me to have a license I quess I would have to sit down for about a month and study and pass the exam but it's not that big of deal" Right there I said I would not work for a clown like that, but right now that clown has the highest grossing store in his region, but he still is a clown. So you tell me is LC losing people i don't think so, what they are after right now are basically used car salesmen because they can sell and they don't care how they do it. This used to be a proud business now it's gone down the toilet with the likes of LC running the show. Just my 2 cents
I am employed at a Lenscrafters, and am undergoing this new change. I have 16 year in the industry as a Licensed Optician and am not very happy about the change. It is modeled after the selling technicque of the cosmetic and jewelry department in Bon-Macys. It is a scripted verbal delivery. I find it squeleches individuality as a perfessional and its use is to uncover a customers everyday activities in order to sell multiple pairs, its underlying motive is just that higher sales for the stockholders. The outfits feel rediculous, a walking penguine is more how I think they resemble but it may add a professional touch. I like there previous dress code, it was more relaxed and the customers responded better, I dont think they know what to make of people all identically dressed, it is the way they want it and have warned all personel that you either do as they ask or they will dismiss you . This lead to another point, since the buy out of pearl, and bordering monopoly of the industry, demanding requirements have become more threating from corporate levels. I dont see anything of good coming from this monopolistic take over.
They wasted plenty, the machines did a poor job and LC had one in almost every store. Its funny that they have the money to waste on everything imaginable and have the money to take over new companies but every year at pay raise time they find a way to not allow anyone to recieve a raise, they only permit a 3% increase, when the cost of living increase at a higher percentage than 3%. Funny every year fram prices increase 10% and so do lenses. This company is in existance for the benefit of the shareholder, that is the bottom line. The good slogans is just to win over customer support. The staff is made up mostly of frame stylists, and fill orders based on thier commisions. The industry has produced a monster.
The range was too limited, it only encompased plastic ar, like you said low minus came out ok and plus rxs were horentous. Much too limited usage for the cost and inventory needed on hand to process a very few Rxs. Im glad to see them gone our store actually threw the machine in the garbage, once again money thrown away and cost of living increases remain at 3% a year. I dont think the word pay raise is in the Lenscrafters dialog.
As I was saying before and maybe not so well was that LC and now Sears are in it to please the shareholders. To H_ll with the patient just get as much money out of them as possible and move on to your next VICTIM! Just ask any Sears employee about there selling model. What they tell you is it is all devoid of any compassion just numbers and you better sell them the best (what they consider the best) for $282.00 even if they came in with that coupon that said 2 for $98. They tell you from what I have heard to sell from the top down but what they give you to sell with is from the bottom up. Any first year business student will tell you it is much harder to sell from the bottom up then it is to sell down. But from what I hear those are the selling models you are given and you better not vary from them. You also better keep your multi-pairs at 60%, A/R at 45% and now the big push is Polaroid suns. They want at least 15% and what they call there protection plan better be at least 60%, if you don't meet these goals you can be written up.
Where are the good old days! As I said before this used to be a proud industry now it's gone in the toilet.:hammer:
Just my 2 cents
Lets not forget that in any commerce a happy employee makes a happy business environment.
A happy business environmenr is a heck more productive than a dissatisfied one. All these post's from LC employees indicate that there is a heavy north wind blowing in that environment and everybody seem to get goosebumps.
You will probably see some major head office shake up in the near future. I know that in european chains that are successfull, personel is highly trained, qualified and very well paid.
Unfortunatley this is not the case with Lenscrafters. Lenscrafters employees are one of the lowest wage paid companies.. The only thing they have going for them is thier benefit package. I have been offered three dollars more an hour from many competitors, what has kept me there has been the number of years I have with the company. With the changes made, I may decide to opt for one of the wholesale clubs again. Costco has a wonderful pay plan and benefit compensation and they dont want you to push sales on thier customers, since the optical is only a portion of costcos business.
come back to this thread. Darn.
People, Listen: PLC is not the whole game. There are options. More opportunities than you can imagine in and outside of our trade. Ya wanna stay in? If western NY doesn't work,what's wrong with 20 other fine American towns? Or 50?
Or, like ALL of my family, quit the business. The Lensburgers people in my town are in shock. Still. And that's saying something. Imagine the poor illiterates that don't bother to even visit this 'board'. And thank god for it. Healthier than going to the bar, I guess.
Actually the cost of living has been below three percent for the last 5 years. The last time it was over 3% was 1999.
http://www.aier.org/colcalc.html
Rep
casey:
come back to this thread. Darn.
People, Listen: PLC is not the whole game. There are options. More opportunities than you can imagine in and outside of our trade. Ya wanna stay in? If western NY doesn't work,what's wrong with 20 other fine American towns? Or 50?
Or, like ALL of my family, quit the business. The Lensburgers people in my town are in shock. Still. And that's saying something. Imagine the poor illiterates that don't bother to even visit this 'board'. And thank god for it. Healthier than going to the bar, I guess.[/QUOTE]
Maybe your a little naive so I will hold back. Did it ever cross your mind that some of them can't get out? I quess not. And yes Western N.Y. is pretty sewed up. But your second rant what is up with that?:hammer:
"It was the the best of times it was the worst of times"
Tale of Two Cities
Sounds a lot like this thread!
Last edited by jediron1; 04-24-2005 at 07:14 PM.
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