Nova/Nassau and Essilor

[LENNY]

Is it true that Essilor is in process of buying Nova Lab and Nassau lens Co?

What is your experience as a customer of a Lab that was purchased by Essilor?
Pricing? Service? Same people running the lab?

[johntricity]

I'm supprised it has't already happened, An Essilor person said it was going to be so more than a month ago.

When Essilor buys a lab they usually change very little at first and then slowly make noticable changes about a year in.

[LENNY]

No it did not happened as far as i know.

Do they raise the prices for surfaced and stock products/ Contacts?

[Jo]

I actually hope they do. We use to get most of our stock SV from Nassau and many of our contacts. We have been less than happy with shipping errors and poor customer service from Nassau lately and have started to order FSV through the lab that does our surfacing regardless of the slight extra cost.

If Essilor buys Nassua Vision Group, hopefully they will straighten out the supply chain and customer service issues.

[LENNY]

Jo !

Never order your lenses from a MAN!!!

As soon as i hear a mens voice i hang up a phone.

My orders started to come with much less errors!!!

[Jo]

Lenny,

It doesn't seem to matter who you deal with. The final straw came when I called to see about an order that hadn't been filled in three days. I called about a half hour before their cut-off time to find out if we had missed a special order call back or if there had been a shipping problem. I was told by customer service that they were busy, "too busy to look for an order and that I should call back tomorrow." I wouldn't have minded waiting till the next day if they at least offered to take down the information and call me back.

There was no need for me to call them back the next day because I told her to cancel the order and I placed it with our local lab. The risk of a patient cancelling an order and getting as upset with us as I was with Nassua outweighed the difference in lens cost. It is true, in terms of quality service, you get what you pay for.

[Johns]

Lenny!

Never order from a man ???!!

You're cracking me up...but now that I think about it,
I have to agree.:bbg:

[LENNY]

You probably recieved the order anyway couple of days after:bbg:

[Jeff Trail]

johntricity said:
I'm supprised it has't already happened, An Essilor person said it was going to be so more than a month ago.

When Essilor buys a lab they usually change very little at first and then slowly make noticable changes about a year in.

Hi John,

A newbie to the board? I don't remember anyone from Tri-City being on..oh and I also am a member of OSC :) ..
Actually they might move a little quicker in doing something about Nas. if it comes through, I know a bunch of guys up through the other labs Essilor bought (Southern etc., etc.) and they did take there time because not a lot of over lapping in area and once they did start to do some chopping they started with transforming some of the outer branches into finishing labs only.. Nas. might need to move on a quicker basis for a couple of reasons.. they over lap big time some of the other labs (ELOA )and the pricing for Nas. is to low compared to the other labs in the structure.. so they bring the pricing into an equal basis (lose a few accounts) and than blend some over to the other labs .. I almost think it was as much a "buying out competition" as it was getting a lot of orders...
Ya think? .. just wish we smaller guys were to the point where you toss a round millions to get rid of your competition

Jeff "this job market STINKS" Trail

[aaron]

Hey Lenny,

(you and I must have ordered from that same man

I heard the same thing a couple of weeks ago accept that I heard it was a done deal. I was also told that there is already a plan "in the works" to change the way they are structured quite a bit. As far as when or what that means, I have NO IDEA. But I am assuming prices and products will change pretty dramatically. But I am definetly with Jo. Nassau/Nova has always gotten the most horrible customer service award. I am no fan of Essilor but I am sure they can do better.

ad

[LENNY]

For the price that Essilor charge they should be more than much better!!!

I also need to clarify the question that i am asking.

Are they buying nova AND Nassau Lens?
Or just nova?

[johntricity]

Yes, Nova and Nassaw are the same company. I recently heard part of the motivation for Essilor is Nassaw has an extensive distribution in the orient that Essilor needs. Also the Varilux Labs including myself have been complaining that thay have grey market Varilux listed on their price list.:hammer:

[Chris Ryser]

iF THIS RUMOR IS SOMEHOW TRUE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Chris Ryser]

LENNY said:
Is it true that Essilor is in process of buying Nova Lab and Nassau lens Co?

If this is true ..........................................

They are getting another good company !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LENNY]

John!

How do you list a Grey market Varilux?

Is it because they are not Varilux authorised distributers?

[johntricity]

Lenny, there are lots of labs that sell Varilux without being authorized by Varilux USA, the rumor is the lenses come from canada. Until recently they were not able to list Varilux in their printed price list. Nova chaged that by responding to Varilux's legal department that if they can get it, they can publizse the fact. Varilux decided not to test it in court. Before we were an authorized Varilux Lab, we had offers from Canadan labs to sell us Varilux for less than we now pay for it. Typical political B.S.
John Z.:shiner:

[hcjilson]

I was told last Friday, while at the show, that the deal had closed the day before. Everyone was talking about it but it is still unconfirmed. I guess we'll just have to wait until Steve publishes it in Optical Industry News

hj

PS nice to see johntricity posting right out of the blocks!

[Texas Ranger]

My personal experience with dealing with pre-eloa and post-eloa labs was with Omega/Dallas and DBL in Minnesota. I never dealt with Omega Dallas much prior to their acuisition by eloa, but dealt well with DBL, which was an excellant lab. Well, eloa completely revamp Omega and made it into one of the better labs, and had their initial Crizal Lab there. DBL is likely as good or better than before, there was certainly no drop off. We also use their other Crizal facility, Opti-Craft in Portland, Ore. there are advantages to using a lab that is a trwo hour time difference.

[NXTwoThou]

Over in the marketplace section, there's one or two places listed that offer stock lenses through the internet if the change over doesn't improve the service.

[harry888]

Interesting about the male voice and Nassau screw ups, and I have to say I've seen the light. Got to agree.

Nassau had typically had the best prices, but there were way too many order errors and they called after hours (not leaving a message on the machine, I have caller ID) to say something was out of stock. Next day it just wasn't in the box and no explaination. Ended up costing more in the long run.

In short, you get what you pay for. I've found ABB more reliable.

But you have to love the Nassau 60 flat finished SV plus lens.

Harry

[Jo]

We just started ordering Contacts through ABB and are happy with them as well.

If you are looking for a similar lens to the Nassau 60mm, have you tried Essilor Thin?

[aaron]

Who is ABB?

[Jo]

http://www.abboptical.com

[LENNY]

Sooooooooooooo!

Did it happened or not???

[Jo]

Hard to tell from a 20/20 article on Nova Labs last summer.

SuperNova

NVG lab leads growth of company’s lens processing business ...

2020mag.com
Vol. No: 29:08Issue: 8/2/02