I agree. It happens, and when it does I turn it upside down on them - if my sales of your frames are down, it isn`t about me....it`s about you. If you can`t design product people want to buy, despite our displaying it as we have in the past, then go and complain to your marketing-product development team.Originally Posted by Barry Santini
Sometimes they are doing us the biggest favor by threatening to, or actually pulling the line from us....
Can you please help us bring in Oakley to our store?
what about the PAINT?
oakley plastic frames, ophthalmic and sun, hold up amazingly well....however in my experience the PAINT PEELS AND CHIPS off of many many of the metal frames in the first year...VERY disappointing.
please comment on your experience with OAKLEY PAINT and if karen would like to chime in about any quality improvement in this area, it would be great to hear.
I personally would not stock Oakley. There are far better sun wear on the market with more mature and customer service oriented staff. I would take a very close look at Kaenon Sunglasses. They have the leading lens technology in the industry. http://www.kaenon.com
I got a hold of an Oakley Sales Rep. Minimum is 100 frames. Ouch
I did the same size initial order its a lot of upfront money. Best decision I've made yet. The Oakley ophthalmic is my best selling and most profitable frame line mens and womens and the sunglasses fly off the shelf.
Take two.
what about the PAINT?
oakleyplastic frames, ophthalmic and sun, hold up amazingly well....however in my experience the PAINT PEELS AND CHIPS off of many many of the metal frames in the first year...VERY disappointing.
please comment on your experience with OAKLEY PAINT and if karen would like to chime in about any quality improvement in this area, it would be great to hear.
Thanks for resurrecting the Oakley topic AK. Thought I should give an update on how things have gone for us. Ophthalmics are selling like hot cakes at a logger's convention. Suns a little less so. Our rep has made two or three visits total (had sporting accident that kept him from travel). We definitely plan to see him more often in the future. All in all, I say it is a successful relationship.
We brought Oakley in about two months ago. It sat and sat and sat with almost no sales for weeks. In the last couple weeks sales have taken off like a rocket. Weird, but nice.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
I don't often post much anymore, but I do lurk a bit. I had to log back in to chime in on this post. We carry quite a bit of Oakley product between our two offices. Probably close to 200 pieces between us (which I guess doesn't count as 'quite a bit' anymore seeing these posts about 100 piece buy-ins). I've had my share of issues with them in the past, some of the most egregious coming after all the so-called changes they've made. We have the same issues voiced by many here; arrogant reps, poor customer service etc. None of those are worse than any of the other big companies (That doesn't make it good, or even acceptable though). The BIGGEST issues I've had recently have been with completely different issues though. The first of these issues came up about 18 months ago. I noticed they had started to charge tax on warranty opthalmic frames. A bit of backstory: In Canada there is no tax on opthalmic frames. They're classed the same as prescription drugs and prosthetic instruments, so I was a bit concerned when I saw it. Figured it was just a mistake... nope! The line I got from both the CS folks as well as my rep was that they consider warranties a service, and tax is very applicable to service fees. Nevermind the fact that they don't charge a fee, just the full wholesale cost of the frame, but hey, you can claim it on your tax and get it back at the end of the year! I still question the legalities of charging tax on these items, but it ended up being a case of choosing your battles. Almost two years later, they're still the only company that I know of that does this. The biggest issue came up about 8 months ago. If it had only happened the once, I would have passed it off as an uninformed CS staff member. But then it happened a second time about 3 months ago. I'm sure you've all dealt with Oakley's backorder issue. My most recent order currently has 17 pieces on backorder. Not a huge deal when talking about stock, but when it comes to patient warranties? Calling into their CS line to try and order a frame under warranty, twice I was told the following:
"I'm so sorry, we don't have any of that frame at our warranty facility. We also have no expected date as to when we will be getting them back. However! If you want to purchase a new frame, we will be able to send it right away!"
Excuse me? Let me get this straight. My patient, who has already purchased his frame, has a legit warranty issue, but you're telling me you have no way of getting me a replacement frame for him under said warranty plan... but If I BUY a new frame, I'll get it right away? Well that's no problem right? Just send back the broken frame and get your credit. Not so much. Anyone familiar with Oakley warranties know they don't do the whole credit thing the same way other companies do. You get a frame. So if I try to return said broken frame, I'd just get a third one in it's place.
I'm sure Karen is a great rep. Reps can make a huge difference in the experience of dealing with a company, and my rep has been the only silver lining of the entire company. She helps me sort through the crap Oakley throws at me.. but that doesn't excuse the culture of arrogance the company has, and the fact that we have to deal with the crap in the first place.
...PS: If you depend on Oakley's website to purchase frames/show customers different colors, I'd suggest not doing that for a bit. They just revamped their site and due to some errors (Again, CS's words) it caused a bunch of discontinued product to be listed. I was told this on Thursday of last week when I called them after receiving a frame that looked nothing like the photo on their site. A week later and the photo is still unchanged. Doesn't seem like they're in much of a hurry to fix it. Surprise surprise.
I had a problem with them recently...our Dr's wife had a pair of suns that had temples that needed replaced under warranty. (She got them through our office) They wouldn't send me the temples. Instead, I had to send them in to the warranty department for them to take care of it. After we already sent it (knowing that it would take a long time since it is Oakley and it always takes a long time) the wife found out she was able to get temples from her office (she works at lenscrafters and we are private practice) with no problems. It took us over a month to get her sunglasses back from Oakley for warranty. What a mess! As assumed...they give special treatment to Luxottica retail stores. Figures.
There are absolutely no frame lines that are critical to the success of an optical. Why any of you put up with everything listed in this thread is beyond me. I've been Lux free for 15 years and can't recall but a handful in that time that walked because we didn't carry them.
The infuriating thing about Oakley is their stubborn refusal to do anything the way the rest of the optical industry does it. Using their website to place an order or even to price one is an exercise in extreme frustration. I spent 40 minutes today trying to just get a damn price for a patient only to find that the source of their website problem was that the frame was "so new" that they hadn't priced it in their own web system. What??!!! First of all, the frame is "so new" that I've had it in my office for over two months. And second of all, why in the name of Beelzebub don't you have accurate pricing for your own product in your own computer system?! It's little things like this that make me want to throw the double-wide tower into traffic.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
Get Rudy Project you will be happier and their gear is top of the line, they have no buy in amount and the warranty and quality and staff are top notch.
See post #137
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
A) I do have [and love] Rudy Project.
but B) I never had 3-5 patients a week walk in and ask "Do you have Rudy Project?"
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
This is true but we started doing a lot more radio adds to get the Rudy name out there and we are slingin a ton more of them, plus we got a lot more of them in house for people to see and handle, the results have been great.
Although the additional sales and draw provided by the Oakley brand is definitely worth it in our situation, we rarely see the rep. Since his last visit, I have been trying to follow up with him on a couple of items. He has not returned my calls or e-mails. A rep can make or break the brand. I hope ours can turn it around.
We just met our new rep yesterday. He is a MASSIVE improvement over our previous one.
I'm Andrew Hamm and I approve this message.
Interesting, no one will bite on my earlier post about paint finish on their metal frames...I guess its just me!
in my experience the PAINT PEELS AND CHIPS off of many many of the metal frames in the first year...VERY disappointing.
Update: Our rep still has not returned my calls or e-mails (since June 4). Perhaps Karen would like to switch territories?
Has anyone encounter problems with lens peeling on Oakley Polarized lens? I am concerned as a few customer has showed up at my practice with peeling lens; some even less than a month old (not bought from me). I'd hate to be kept busy dealing with warranty claim and angry customers.
So I was wondering whether or not I should scrap the idea of opening an Oakley account. But quite a number of walk ins requesting for Oakleys. Dilemmas.
The number of companies selling Oakley's on-line has probably quadrupled in the past year. One person I know buys up entire lots listed on eBay, then sells them off piecemeal.
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