Whoops!

[optilady1]

I'm not sure that we have a oh **** I screwed something up thread. We have lots of, "I saved this person's site, I donated this, gave that" threads, but I thought I would start a "Here's what I did stupid today" thread, because:

a. No one's perfect
and
b. Someone might learn from my dumb mistake(s).

So for my I did something stupid today post, I tried to dispense a pair of glasses today, and embarrassingly enough, I realized as I opened the case that it was the wrong pair of glasses. So my hope was that we put the wrong person's frame in with the paperwork. But nope. It wasn't my job, and about 8 different steps happened that could have caught the mistake, but I was the last person to final inspect, and I didn't even check the frame to make sure it was correct. It couldn't have even been more wrong! He ordered a huge drill frame and I finalled a small metal round metal.

Thankfully he was pretty cool about it. I was honest and told him that it was ultimately my fault. ugh. I hate when I do stupid stuff.

[opty4062]

I'll share: a patient came in to have new lenses put in her silhouette frame. Her current lenses were cracking around the drill holes. She was standing with me next to the work bench and we were just talking away while I took the old lenses out. In the process of removing them, they both completely chipped off at the temple outside drill holes. I wasn't being as careful as I could have been because I was going to put the new lenses right in. That is, until I picked up the new right lens and found it didn't have ANY holes drilled in it. And the left one didn't either. I didn't check the lenses in, but just the same, I should have at least given them a cursory look over instead of gabbing with the patient.
Luckily she was very understanding and had her back-up pair with her so she could get home. But I felt so stupid!!

[Robert_S]

My colleague tried to bend a wooden temple today.

[Dave Metzger]

Back in 1982, I had the contract to supply glasses for the ILA longshoreman and their families in Hoboken. Well, it was a long morning. Maria Scrivanich came in to get her $XX.XX glasses and lo and behold, by the end of the day , saw 3 more with the same name!!!! Of course with the limited selection I offered, they all ordered the same frame in the same color . When I dispensed them, I mixed them all up, but only one complained. Oops.

[AdamS]

A couple years ago, a lady brought in almost perfectly round frames for us to make lenses for. I put them in the frame and she left. A couple days later she came back concerned that her lenses weren't working. I read them in the lensometer and compared them to her prescription. Needless to say I had put them in the wrong sides. I switched them, apologized profusely, and proceeded to have double the amount of coffee I normally intake for the day. She was very kind to me.

[Pogu]

The first store I worked for was part of a small local chain of about 6 stores, 3 of which were in town. The generator goes down and we need to surface 2 pair for a priority patient. The boss sends me to the sister store across town, this is kind of a big deal as the boss at the sister store is my bosses boss (we're the younger sister). I rush and block up the lenses, drive across town. At the other store I bash in the program on their computer, cut, fine, and polish with ruthless efficiency wanting to show the big boss how badass I am. He gives them the once over in the lensometer and says; "You do good work Mitch, it'd be even better on a 6 base like you told the computer you were using." very embarassing

[cocoisland58]

I always told my staff "If you never make a mistake you aren't working very hard".

[optimensch]

true!
Niels Bohr said something like that too - paraphrase: an expert is someone who has made every mistake possible in a narrow field.....

Reminds me of a story I heard that went something like this. An engineer at a high tech firm makes a mistake which winds up costing the company many millions of $ in a recall of product. The link to the person is found - and he was not fired. The wise CEO is asked why he didn't fire the errant employee and replies that after spending several million on this guy's education, you think I will now let a competitor scoop him up?

[NCspecs]

Oh, I've commited some doozies, too many to recount. A reoccurring theme is forgetting to order photochromic for patient's lenses. I can't tell you why I have a mental block against it. Sigh.

[Java99]

I think they worst thing I ever did was about 7 years ago. A very high minus patient with no back up glasses, and when cutting the end off the screw I just replaced, I snipped the eyewire as well. Of course the place I worked then didn't solder, and it was non-tapeable. I had to drive her home and replace her frame which of course was not in stock, cash taken out of my paycheck for it.

[WFruit]

Every time I stab myself in the finger in the exact same spot where I just stabbed myself in the finger 20 minutes before...

Or the cuts from knife edge lenses that I only notice after the acetone or alcohol gets in them....

Probably the worst would be when I tightened a temple screw a bit too much, and then broke the temple trying to close them in front of the patient... He was not understanding....

[pseudonym]

Oh, I've commited some doozies, too many to recount. A reoccurring theme is forgetting to order photochromic for patient's lenses. I can't tell you why I have a mental block against it. Sigh.

Last week, I ordered the right lens with transitions and the left without. Thankfully, the lab called. of course, he wanted trans. so I had to pay upcharge for the left lens. I could have called the patient and asked for the $$ but paying for your mistakes somehow helps you to make fewer mistakes. I hope!

[Fezz]

One of the worst GOOFS that I ever made, and I make a lot, was:

Asking a young lady when the baby was do?



Needless to say, she wasn't pregnant!

UGH!

[Fezz]

Another big WHOOPSIE of mine is the time that I put my thumb through a ladies lens.

No big deal.......except that she had like a -23.00 in glass with like a .001 center thickness!!!!!!!!!!

Lets just say.....I didn't make her day!

[Robert Martellaro]

About fifteen years ago I was adjusting the bridge of a zyl frame with a spot heat blower when the frame caught fire. Fire doesn't quite describe it though, not like a candle flame, more like a slow motion explosion. Torch a ping pong ball to get a better idea of how this went down. This was in full view of the dispensing area because the heater was at eye level on the top shelve of the partition to the back room.

Hopefully there are no more old style Zylonite (cellulose nitrate- essentially gun cotton) on the streets!

[huskypaul]

Way back in the 20th century I was dispensing some glasses to a local news anchor, a very lovely news anchor. I was placing her newly made glasses on her while sitting across from her at the table when my chair decided to move in the opposite direction from underneath me, sending me soundly to the floor. Fortunately, I am taller than most, and managed to keep her glasses in place on her face while sitting on floor, I looked up at her and said ,they look pretty good from down here.

[vcom]

Ive done many of the same, breaking POF's in front of patient, chipping old lenses, for quite a few years I was renowned for throwing away patient's old lenses without thinking, and of course they always wanted them back. Countless times Ive had that moment where something breaks, and you get that rush of 'oh crap' adrenaline, and then the MacGyver instinct kicks in and you start srambling around searching for something to try and secretly fix it so they'll never notice. Unfortunatley super glue, heat shrink tubing, nail polish and a sharpie don't quite cut it.

The worst moment I've ever had (and I think I've told this story on Optiboard before so I'll give the Reader's Digest version) is when I was edging a lens for a very irritable high minus patient and the edger's vaccuum motor caught on fire. Not really my fault, but the fact that he was standing there watching me through the lab window the whole time as I scrambled around carrying a molten hot vaccuum motor pouring black smoke out in to the back parking lot, and then had to calmly explain to him that I would need to re-order his lenses, kinda made it stressful.

[lensmama]

The time I did an I&R after winning the office hot chili pepper eating contest. I guess the I should have washed my hands more than once. I could not really give a good answer when the patient asked if soft lenses always hurt.

[Chris Ryser]

Hopefully there are no more old style Zylonite (cellulose nitrate- essentially gun cotton) on the streets!

When I was an apprentice there was nothing else than cellulose nitrate frames and no frame heaters, we got them hot over the bunsen burner (gas flame) and they caught fire once in a while. We learned to instantly blow out the flame.
The damage was only on the surface, and a file and some fine sandpaper and then the buffer wheel to polish and the damage was all gone.

However later when newest acetate frames where overheated they would develope bubbles and that could not be repaired and you had to feed the garbage can.

[harry a saake]

The late great Ralph Drew, who I was privileged to know, had a favorite story about cellouse nitrate frames and a patient who lit up a cigarette while wearing a pair and caught his frame on fire, god I miss those days and those Ralph drew lectures, nothing else has ever equaled them. Now as far as stupid goes, I had a patient come in years ago when AR was in its infancy, and I was to duplicate the rx. So I got out my trusty base curve clock, which for some reason would not give me a good reading, it was an aspheric lens, by the time I was done trying to get a good reading I realized I had now scratched the hell out of his brand new lenses, needless to say he wasn, t happy and I had to replace it.

[SeaU2020]

I was attempting to put a thick rubber band onto a pen clip about 2 weeks ago and I had my hands about 16 inches apart when the rubber band snapped back on my middle-finger knuckle and it IMMEDIATELY swelled up about an inch high. I iced it for about 3 hours and the swelling went down. The next day my whole finger was bruised. It still hurts to "knock" on that knuckle. Hey, at least it didn't get me in the eye!

[Robert Martellaro]

When I was an apprentice there was nothing else than cellulose nitrate frames and no frame heaters, we got them hot over the bunsen burner (gas flame) and they caught fire once in a while.

Talk about "fine lines"!

We learned to instantly blow out the flame.

Mine just burned faster. You could hear it burning! I dumped it into a pyrex dish of cooling water next to the salt pan.

However later when newest acetate frames where overheated they would develope bubbles and that could not be repaired and you had to feed the garbage can.

I damaged a few new materials also. It was fun learning the hard way!

[kentmitchell1961]

Mine did the same a few weeks ago....

[kentmitchell1961]

bend a wooden temple that is...

[BigGuy]

Way back when I first started dispensing the first pair of glasses I got to dispense to a patient was a pair of glass straight to trifocals in a drilled rimless frame. Needless to say, as I sat across from her at the dispensing table I broke both lenses as I attempted to adjust the endpieces. When she came back to pick up the newly remade glasses she asked for "anyone but that new kid!"