Tales of Unreasonable Expectations

[WFruit]

What would you rather we do -- express our annoyance here or to our patients?

This is a public forum open to any and all of your patients to read......:hammer:

My personal opinion is that a thread of this nature probably should be in the professional forum. :p

On another note, it's stories like these that are one of the reasons I'm glad I don't work in a retail enviornment any more....

[AngeHamm]

This is a public forum open to any and all of your patients to read......:hammer:

My personal opinion is that a thread of this nature probably should be in the professional forum. :p

That's not entirely unreasonable. I wouldn't be offended if a moderator moved it. But it seems pretty good-spirited and harmless to me.

[AngeHamm]

Then again, pretty much anything WFruit says is okay by me thanks to the Dune quote.

[Jana Lewis]

That's not entirely unreasonable. I wouldn't be offended if a moderator moved it. But it seems pretty good-spirited and harmless to me.

It is harmless...Sometimes we just need to vent!

[Wes]

Here's an unreasonable expectation: bring your broken down frame from optical chain#1 into optical chain #2 to see if it can be replaced. Duh. I dont take my Honda (purchased from the Honda dealership, with the Honda warranty) to the Ford dealership. I take it to the Honda dealership where my warranty is and where the Honda parts are.
Here's another: will you take my grooved (and chipped) plastic lenses from my mangled semi-rimless frame that I got online and sat on and put it all back together and do it free?
Last: despite having boxes of lens wipes sitting in plain view in several locations, random passersby, often not customers, stop by and ask, "will you clean my glasses?" HELLO!?! Clean your own glasses! I don't stop in at random dentist's offices asking if they'll brush my teeth for me. Yeah yeah, I know, this is an opportunity to talk to them and make a customer out of them, right? RIGHT? Not so sure if I want people who are too lazy to clean their own glasses as customers. I see enough face cheese as it is.
Just venting.

[DragonLensmanWV]

Then again, pretty much anything WFruit says is okay by me thanks to the Dune quote.

All hail WFruit Muad'Dib!

PS. are your eyes blue?

[Wes]

This is a public forum open to any and all of your patients to read......:hammer:

My personal opinion is that a thread of this nature probably should be in the professional forum. :p

On another note, it's stories like these that are one of the reasons I'm glad I don't work in a retail enviornment any more....

I hear you, however, it takes a certain amount if intellectual curiosity and computer savvy to find this forum and see what's up. The smart patients are never the ones I gripe about. I like the smart patients and they like me.
Its the epically retarded that draw my ire, and I have serious doubts as to whether many of them can even read, much less own a computer and know how to use it. I think we're mostly safe.
Anyone complaining about engineers better watch out, though. Send the engineers my way. I like them. My first year of college was in an engineering school, so I know how they think, even if I'm not as smart as most of them are.

[optilady1]

I know this forum is open to the public, (anyone remember when I was complaining about a pt who openly admitted to reading our forums-like duh!), but I think that it's pretty clear that this is an opti-geek website. If anyone not working in this field were to come here, I'm thinking that they would be more interested in the 'what is better' threads than many of these 'lets complain about foolish patients' threads. Ever seen People of walmart website? They don't even black out faces of people in their photos.

I'm happy to come here and lean but I'm even more happy to vent. When I get together with my 'mom' friends, we come together to share our experiences with kids (or husbands) that drive us crazy. If we don't let it out, one of these days there's gonna be a story in the newpaper of the crazy optician lady who shoved a pd stick up someones nose when they finally snapped.

[NeGlassesGirl27]

Here's an unreasonable expectation: bring your broken down frame from optical chain#1 into optical chain #2 to see if it can be replaced. Duh. I dont take my Honda (purchased from the Honda dealership, with the Honda warranty) to the Ford dealership. I take it to the Honda dealership where my warranty is and where the Honda parts are.
Here's another: will you take my grooved (and chipped) plastic lenses from my mangled semi-rimless frame that I got online and sat on and put it all back together and do it free?
Last: despite having boxes of lens wipes sitting in plain view in several locations, random passersby, often not customers, stop by and ask, "will you clean my glasses?" HELLO!?! Clean your own glasses! I don't stop in at random dentist's offices asking if they'll brush my teeth for me. Yeah yeah, I know, this is an opportunity to talk to them and make a customer out of them, right? RIGHT? Not so sure if I want people who are too lazy to clean their own glasses as customers. I see enough face cheese as it is.
Just venting.

Haha *like* a billion times!

Like the patient that just came into the office from the street. Comes hurrying up to me in the dispensary, interrupts me while I'm with a different patient and asks me to fix her "Cheap $10 readers" and she's not a patient here but she's on lunch blah blah blah. I turned around, looked at her and said "I'm sorry..did you say something? Did you need help?" She looked at me and said "I just told you what I needed" I said to her "I apologize, I was helping this patient when you came up to me. Now..what may I help you with" Her "I NEED MY READERS FIXED..IT JUST NEEDS A PIN!!" Me "Certainly. Please have a seat in the waiting area and when I am finished with this patient I've been working with..I can absolutely help you". Her "Ugh..forget it!" and walks out.

Now, I'm waiting for people to say "Now how come you just didn't help her?" Well would YOU have? Would YOU have allowed some random person to come running up to you WHILE you're with someone to put a "pin" in a $2.10 reader? I'm sorry but I am in the middle of an order and you completely interrupted me...how rude!! I don't go up to a car salesman in their office working with someone else and say "Um sir..I need you to fix this $4,000 I bought from the lot across the street"

[Wes]

It seems rudeness is a common occurence these days. Heck, people are so customarily rude to me most of the time that I didn't even think to post how many times I've been interrupted while working with a patient by some non-patient that wants a screw in their dime-store readers or their GLASSES CLEANED or some other such nonsense. I remember telling one such interruptor "sir, I'll be happy to clean your glasses for you as soon as I finish with this patient. If you don't want to wait the 10-15 minutes this order will take, you're welcome to pull a wipe out of the box in front of you and do it yourself."

[Jana Lewis]

Might as well chime in here! :P

Just yesterday late in the afternoon, I had a young lady present with an RX for Acuvue 2. I told her I was sorry but I don't stock AV2's. I tell her I can order them, may take a few days to which she replies " oh, I can't wait. I need them now because I am leaving for China at 6:00 a.m TOMORROW." --- "I'm completely out do you know anyone that carries them?"

Ummm... what? You are JUST NOW thinking about your contacts before leaving to go to CHINA?

And really, who the heck carries AV2 anymore? I don't even think Wally World does!

GAHHHH!!!

[Wes]

Around here almost all of the chain stores carry AV2s. It'd be interesting to see if it varies by locality, but they're one of the most-prescribed lenses I see in the Columbia-metro area.
And yeah, who waits till the very last day to go looking for the things you SEE with?

[opty4062]

Some people might think it is an unreasonable expectation to wear the same pair of freshlook contacts (color=brown) for 5 years without them yellowing and the "medicine falling out of them", but according to our mid morning appointment yesterday, those lenses were "faulty" and we should give her some new ones on the house.

ETA: Those babies were worn extended wear, too. How extended I was too afraid to ask, maybe 5 years worth.

[Wes]

Oh, just thought of this: isn't EVERYTHING made in China anymore? The pt might have better luck finding AV2s in China than in America!

[optilady1]

Might as well chime in here! :P

Just yesterday late in the afternoon, I had a young lady present with an RX for Acuvue 2. I told her I was sorry but I don't stock AV2's. I tell her I can order them, may take a few days to which she replies " oh, I can't wait. I need them now because I am leaving for China at 6:00 a.m TOMORROW." --- "I'm completely out do you know anyone that carries them?"

Ummm... what? You are JUST NOW thinking about your contacts before leaving to go to CHINA?

And really, who the heck carries AV2 anymore? I don't even think Wally World does!

GAHHHH!!!

Don't they make everything in china? She should just buy them from the source.
It never fails to amaze me what people leave to the last minute. Of course, let me preface this by saying:

I'm a major procrastinator!!! I wait to the last minute for EVERYTHING. So hello pot, this is kettle, I'm back too.

However, having worked at the LC for years, I have heard the most bizarre and crazy tales. How's this for ya: I'm a doctor, and I have surgury scheduled for this afternoon, and my only pair of -10's broke. Do you think you can make them for me? Oh, and I only want them in glass.

Cue my inner optician, falling to the floor, grasping her hair and pulling, whilst screaming "Why God? Why?" Meanwhile, calmly and politely I say, no sir, we cannot. Let me see what I can do for you.

[Wes]

Some people might think it is an unreasonable expectation to wear the same pair of freshlook contacts (color=brown) for 5 years without them yellowing and the "medicine falling out of them", but according to our mid morning appointment yesterday, those lenses were "faulty" and we should give her some new ones on the house.

How do you know they were freshlooks?
What if: the contacts were really an old pair of clear AV2s that were brown from 5 years of wear?

[opty4062]

How do you know they were freshlooks?
What if: the contacts were really an old pair of clear AV2s that were brown from 5 years of wear?

Oh even more gross, thanks for that... :)

[AngeHamm]

How do you know they were freshlooks?
What if: the contacts were really an old pair of clear AV2s that were brown from 5 years of wear?

I may vomit.

[NeGlassesGirl27]

Mmmmmm

[NCspecs]

Oh Optiboard how I've missed you!

I had a gal freak out on me this week and all I could do was laugh. She called to cuss us out because she had ordered contacts and she felt uncomfortable with the fit. Being the helpful person I am, I pulled up her chart to see what I could do to help her out. She had her exam LAST AUGUST!!!! Furthermore, she didn't order the supply from us!

I had her on hold and when I came back to the phone I asked her incredulously, "So you had an exam?"

"Yeah."

"Back in August."

"Yeah." She is probably is rolling her eyes and thinking I'm an idiot.

"And you didn't realize that the contacts weren't comfortable then?"

"Well I just ordered them and I think something is wrong." obviously over wearing them...

"I see you didn't order contacts with us, so are you calling to complain about the quality of the lenses?

"Yes!" thinking, finally this stupid eyeglass lady gets it!

"Well I think you should address the issue with the company that provided you the contacts. We only provided the rx. In August."

Stunned silence. Then a string of curses and a phone hanging up. Have a nice day. :)

[David@Soflex]

As a manufacturer we have unreasonable expectations from optometrists and opticians who seem to think that we owe them the world.
I know that the problem started with manufacturers who, in order to convince shops to order their product, offered the lenses with a 100% guarantee that the patient would adapt. Now this has spread to every manufacturer and importer. The optician is now covered by this guarantee even if he writes the Rx incorrectly - he just sends it back and says the patient couldn't adapt to the lenses.
I think that my worst instance of unreasonable demands was when I received a pair of progressives, uncut and still with the markings on, with a demand for a full credit as the patient couldn't adapt them!
I sent them back to the shop and asked them to at least glaze them and pretend that the patient tried them out!!!!!!!!!!

[Optixx]

Here's an unreasonable expectation: bring your broken down frame from optical chain#1 into optical chain #2 to see if it can be replaced. Duh. I dont take my Honda (purchased from the Honda dealership, with the Honda warranty) to the Ford dealership. I take it to the Honda dealership where my warranty is and where the Honda parts are.
Here's another: will you take my grooved (and chipped) plastic lenses from my mangled semi-rimless frame that I got online and sat on and put it all back together and do it free?
Last: despite having boxes of lens wipes sitting in plain view in several locations, random passersby, often not customers, stop by and ask, "will you clean my glasses?" HELLO!?! Clean your own glasses! I don't stop in at random dentist's offices asking if they'll brush my teeth for me. Yeah yeah, I know, this is an opportunity to talk to them and make a customer out of them, right? RIGHT? Not so sure if I want people who are too lazy to clean their own glasses as customers. I see enough face cheese as it is.
Just venting.

Thank God, Wes is a flesh and blood optician with real-life frustrations! Alphabet soup after your name aside, he's an honest-to-God optician!

[Optixx]

I hear you, however, it takes a certain amount if intellectual curiosity and computer savvy to find this forum and see what's up. The smart patients are never the ones I gripe about. I like the smart patients and they like me.
Its the epically retarded that draw my ire, and I have serious doubts as to whether many of them can even read, much less own a computer and know how to use it. I think we're mostly safe.
Anyone complaining about engineers better watch out, though. Send the engineers my way. I like them. My first year of college was in an engineering school, so I know how they think, even if I'm not as smart as most of them are.

Wes, I'm really starting to warm up to you!

[Wes]

Thank God, Wes is a flesh and blood optician with real-life frustrations! Alphabet soup after your name aside, he's an honest-to-God optician!

I'm not sure I understand the point of your post. Perhaps it's because you're new here (Oct 2010) but I've been posting here for well over three years now and no one has ever insinuated that I wasn't an optician. The "old-timers" saw me show up with a license and basic certification. I earned all of the other certifications while reading and posting here and learning from people who knew more than I. As for the "alphabet soup", what's wrong with that? Aren't opticians supposed to strive for higher education and certifications? ABOMs still deal with the public, and the public are fickle.
PS: I'm glad you're starting to"warm up to me".

[chip anderson]

NC: You could have avoided all of this if you had "fit" her contacts. Including: Trial pair and a follow-up after one week. Reading a chart after measurements does not constitute "fitting" contacts.

Chip