Biggest mistake you've made...

[optigrrl]

I know we get enough negativity on the job and therefor find it whimsical to laugh at mistakes that others have made, but from time to time it's good to laugh at ourselves.

What was the most embarrasing mistake, I mean just plain illogical thing you have ever done on the job?

Mine was writing down another patient's rx on the work order, dispensing the job and when the patient couldn't see out of them, I schedule the rx check but tell them to "take them home to see if they get used to the new rx."

Dr. sees the patient, says there is no change and cannot understand why VA is like 20/50 through the glasses - asks me to re-check the rx, which I do (but insist the rx is bang-on)...I take the pt. file back anyway...only to find out that I TOTALLY made the wrong rx up for this patient!!!!!!!!!!:hammer:

I ate some humble pie in a big way explaining THAT ONE to the dr. and the patient!!!

(did I mention I was blonde...once?)

[Happylady]

This was over twenty years ago but I have never forgotten it. I had a couple that both had names that could be male or female. I put his rx in her frame and her rx in his. This was NOT funny at the time, but they were nice about it. :o

[For-Life]

There was once that I put the new left lens in the right eye and right in the left, twice within a week. Never made that mistake again.

There was also another time when our doctor gave my aunt, who was visiting from out of town, an RX, and wrote it in - and not +. So we mailed them to her and could not see out of it. Not really my mistake, but I should have know it and checked in the computer. Main thing was that it looked bad.

[Nyssa]

I had one a few years ago, was in such a great hurry to sent my patient over to the cashier after her routine eye examination, had the segment height of a bifocal written wrongly, it was supposed to be 19mm but I missed out the "1"!!. My lady processing the order was too scared to re-verify with me again...well, as a result, it was a pair of real cute tiny little 9mm segs peeping from the very bottom of the frame...:hammer:

[Ory]

This wasn't me but it was brought to mind by For-Life. While I was doing an external at an office, a patient came in complaining she could see fine for distance but not near after the OD had fixed them last night.

She had shown up after hours and he was just finishing up some paperwork. The glasses were horribly mangled and both lenses had popped out. He managed to get them straight, but had apparently swapped the left and right lenses. Her Rx was close enough for distance, but trying to look through a progressive with a corridor on the outside of the lens is apparently not so good....

[Barry Santini]

They are soooo bad with Cust service and credits!

Very User UN-friendly!

Barry Santini, ABOM

[Italia]

I was refracting a patient once and while she was debating between 1 and 2 I took a sip of coffee. It went down the wrong pipe and I started choking. She got out of the chair and thought I was having a heart attack.

[hcjilson]

A couple of years ago I was honored by the Opticians Association of Massachusetts to be named Optician of the Year. It came unexpectedly as a complete surprise, and perhaps undeservedly....but I wasn't going to argue!
I was extremely proud of this award and hung it in my office the next day. Later that afternoon, a long time customer came in with both lenses out of her frame.(almost perfectly oval of course!) I reinserted the lenses. She was back in 5 min complaining about not seeing correctly.

Yep, you guessed half of it...............Optician of the year 2002 or 3 had put her lenses in wrong side to! I guessed the problem immediately and switched the lenses. Still no luck, she was having a problem. Apparently the Optician of the year had put the Varilux comforts in upside down! She did think the plaque looked good on the wall!

[OptiJim]

Telling a lady her eyebrows were crooked, not the glasses. DON"T EVER DO THAT!!!! :hammer:

[Ory]

Was that a lady whose eyebrows were naturally crooked, or had she over-plucked and drawn them crooked? :D

I always tell people they are built lopsided...as long as you say it with a grin, most are ok with it. Typically you can pick out who won't be ok though.....

[ziggy]

this was 10-12 years back, I hadnt been out of the lab very long and was new to the dispensing side. A fellow came in with a lady to pick out glasses. They were both very nice and seemed to be in love. It was a great sell. A few days later the same fellow came in with an older lady to pick up his glasses. During the adjustment I ask where his wife was............... not pleasent.:finger:

[For-Life]

Had one today.

Was cutting lenses into a patients frame for a doctor change. It was a plastic frame, so I had to cut it down a couple of times for it to fit. Well We were short of staff the phone was ring, people were coming in, but I got the right lens cut and inserted. I needed to cut it down -0.20. So I set up the left lens, cut it down -0.20 and it is too big. So I took off another -0.05. Answered a few phones, came back and saw that I took down the left lens with the the right settings.

Then I was out the door and there was a pick up by an older lady. She was going away tomorrow and wanted clips immediately. Well we did not have anything to fit here (I wish they would make these decision upon purchase) and she asked about her old glasses being tinted, I said sure. I was nice and did not charge them. Thought these would only take five minutes. Pop them into the dye, get one lens brown and one lens blue. These lenses are 10 years old, so I guess they may have a different coat, monomer, maybe even cured different. Anyways, I had to play around but was able to fix it.

Good thing I got golf

[Andrew Weiss]

Years ago, 1972 -- I fitted a patient for a pair of Ultex PGX bifocals in a white, cat's-eye type zyl frame. It was a busy Saturday, and I didn't bother to check the bifocal height with the patient standing up.

She came in to pick up the glasses. I put them on, adjusted them, everything looked fine. Then she stood up. She was a rather buxom woman and walked with her head tilted back, so standing she was looking right through that fuzzy Ultex line, and she walked right into the door-jam! Oops!

Second one: 1974, at Village Vision Center in Garden City Park, NY: I told a patient I needed to measure her PD and she slapped me. Little did I know she was an obstetrical nurse and in her parlance, "PD" stood for "pelvic diameter." :o

[hipoptical]

What was the most embarrasing mistake, I mean just plain illogical thing you have ever done on the job?

Many years ago, I was sitting down talking to a couple of friends of mine. The subject was, of course eyewear, and I didn't know anything except that they went on one's face and improved vision. I put on a good show, pretending to understand things I had never heard of before. I think they saw through me, but they were still impressed. Well, long story short....


They asked me to come work for them and I accepted. :bbg::o;)
I used to go to the optician, and now I are one.

[CME4SPECS]

The year was 1980. The 1st time I had repaired a zyl bridge by soaking strips of acetate in acetone and wrapping it around the bridge. After the acetate had dried I got out the sandpiper ans sanded the bridge down until it was nice and smooth. So, I have it looking real nice and wipe a little acetone on the bridge to bring the shine back. Oh crap!! Was I suppose to take the lenses out 1st?? One pair of super no lines in the trash! They were all scratched from the sandpaper. That never happened again.

[jherman]

remember, a Chem unit can hold 2 trays.

I sunk to PGX in the crown and vise versa.

Think I broke about 40 lenses that day.


No Birthday card from the Glass department that year.

James Herman
Breakage King

[C-10]

I was in my early years of dispensing when a young women came into the store and complaining that the plaque came off her eyewear. No problem I would just order a new one so I order a new temple call the lady and told her That the side piece was in and went for lunch. My boss who had stop dispensing eyewear to do just contact lenses got stuck with replacing the plaque. Well instead of exchanging temples he remove the new plaque and start to super glue on to the old temple. The tube breaks superglue goes all over the place over the lenses all over the frame. I get back just in time to see him trying to pull his fingers apart. Last time I was allow to leave him by his self.

[harry a saake]

had a lady in for a routine adjustment, wire frames, as i went to take them off of her head, someone to the left of me said something, and i turned to look at the person who said something while i was still taking off the glasses. Her hair had meanwhile caught in the temple cover and off came her wig. i don,t know who was more embarresed

[chip anderson]

One night it was slow at Modern Optics. I decided to clean things. So slow that I decided to blow off the finer (line of machines before my polishing operation) with an air hose. I think this caused every piece of glass in the entire plant to be scratched that night.

Chip:finger:

[optigrrl]

OMG! - I am laughing soooo hard! Everybody's stories are GREAT!

This is making my day! (oh, is it night?)

[EyeFitWell]

I had a woman come in for an adjustment on her drill mt frames. I could have sworn I had seen that frame just a couple weeks before when we had put lenses in it (very distinctive/hideously ugly/ frame).
So, I pull out my pliars and go at it, and crack a lens. Poo. I asked her what her name was to pull the file.
Long story short, she wasn't who I was thinking of. They were regular plastic progressives from Japan! We didn't know what type of progressives they were. Had to replace both n/c.

[EyeFitWell]

Here's one that made Doc and I laugh until we cried yesterday!
We decided to check around and see how our prices compare to local vendors. So, he calls LC to ask what their price on a Varilux Comfort is. He says he's pricing his prescription, and his doctor told him to get a Comfort or Physio. LC employee says, "I've never heard those words before" He says, I think the brand name is Varilux? She says, "OH! Varilux is a new technology which allows us to grind lenses thinner and lighter so they will fit into smaller frames!"
HAHAHA!!!!:bbg:

[CAopticianmgr]

Ok, everyone has experienced this one maybe-

About 8 years ago, relatively newbie- a patient asked to have her frames adjusted. It was an original Optyl frame, (cannot remember the name) Very large frame. Well as everyone knows you have to practically melt the temples to make the adjustment. Guess what? It was not hot enough, snap! I had the hardest time trying to explain that one. Luckily a friend of mine at another shop had a spare pair of temples, wrong color though....LOL

[Happylady]

I had a woman come in for an adjustment on her drill mt frames. I could have sworn I had seen that frame just a couple weeks before when we had put lenses in it (very distinctive/hideously ugly/ frame).
So, I pull out my pliars and go at it, and crack a lens. Poo. I asked her what her name was to pull the file.
Long story short, she wasn't who I was thinking of. They were regular plastic progressives from Japan! We didn't know what type of progressives they were. Had to replace both n/c.

Oh, those lenses from there often don't meet standards we have in the U.S. I once put my finger through the middle of a glass lens from Hong Kong that was as thin as a piece of paper. Luckly I didn't cut my finger but the woman wasn't very pleased. This was before high index lenses and we couldn't get anything near as thin on the edges.

[Grubendol]

There was once that I put the new left lens in the right eye and right in the left, twice within a week. Never made that mistake again.

There was also another time when our doctor gave my aunt, who was visiting from out of town, an RX, and wrote it in - and not +. So we mailed them to her and could not see out of it. Not really my mistake, but I should have know it and checked in the computer. Main thing was that it looked bad.

My first week of lab managing, after doing the tracing, and then writing down the decentration, and blocking, I forgot to switch back to the right lens first, slipped the right lens into the edger and promptly cut it to the left shape.