Find a great Optician? in SF?

[bobgaskins]

I'm a consumer trying to find an Optician. I live in San Francisco (right in the city, in Pacific Heights), and the independent Optician with whom I've dealt has gone out of business. I have a new prescription in hand from my MD, I've studied the web for information about lens materials and frames until I have some ideas about what I want, but I don't have a clue as to where I can find a really experienced and knowledgeable independent Optician to order and fit my glasses (I need 6 or 8 pairs).

This query seemed a bit peripheral to Optiboard, so I sent mail first to Steve Machol. He answered me: "your email brings up an interesting dilemma though. And that is - how can a typical consumer judge the quality of the Opticians they are considering? <snip> I encourage you to post your question on OptiBoard itself. I'm sure there will be some OptiBoarders who can give you more specific advice."

So there's his general question: are there tips on how a consumer can pick out a great Optician? (Taking an hour to interview each of half a dozen people seems unrealistic.) And there's also my own narrow question: does anybody know an Optician who has such a reputation in San Francisco? I'd really appreciate specific recommendations, posted here or by private email.

Bob Gaskins
robertgaskins@gaskins.org

[bobgaskins]

I received one set of tips (sent to me off the board) that I'll transcribe here:

* Ignore how nice they are. You are spending a lot of money, so they're going to be nice anyway.
* You already have a good idea of what you want, which can be a very easy dispense. But a good optician will still absolutely interrogate you about your lifestyle and general spectacle usage, and may suggest something different. (I'm sure your research is good, but it doesn't make up for years of experience!)
* They should check the fit of the frame BEFORE dispensing you.
* They should make sure the frame actually suits you. To test that, try a big, awful thing on, and ask their opinion. If they say it looks OK, ditch them. They're only after your money.
* They should check the optical centres of your old glasses. A small thing that normally separates the amateurs from the pros.

I'd still welcome further guidance as to how a consumer can locate a top-notch Optician, and especially recommendations of an Optician in San Francisco (private email OK).

Bob Gaskins
robertgaskins@gaskins.org

[Jackie L]

Bobgaskins................Just ask if the Optician is Licensed or is ABOC. (American Board of Opticianry Certified) You can also call the Chamber of Commerce to seek out how reputable they are or contact the state board to see if there are any complaints filed against them. If you are in a non-licnesed state you can contact your Attorney General's office. Hope this is helpful.

Jackie O

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Still a Maina for now

[Steve Machol]

When I suggested that Bob post his question on OptiBoard, I really expected more of a response (Jackie's excellent advice notwithstanding.)

Specifically, what criteria should consumers use to choose and judge an eyecare provider? Since most of us claim to be an extraordinary practitioner of the optical arts (I know I am! :D), then what skills and qualifications set you apart from the ordinary?

Perhaps we can turn these answers into an official OptiBoard 'Consumer Guideline for Choosing an Eyecare Professional.'

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OptiBoard Administrator

[hcjilson]

Steve et al, A few years ago I had an occasion to contract a professional market survey before spending a pile on a television ad campaign.The object was to find out the source of customers in an area in order to design a campaign to incorporate that into the ads.A statistically valid survey 1/2 of 1% of the population in a given area(not of my customers, but of anyone wearing glasses)was done and very surprising.Word of mouth was overwhelmingly the source of business in my area, followed by location, and the yellow pages brought up the rear with less than 2%.(Why was I devoting such a high %age of ad money on the phone books :( ) In any event, bobgaskins's request was suspect because he hadn't asked another soul before contacting optiboard.Also suspect was the request for an "independent"optician which is not a very valid criterion for choosing an excellent optician.Although I am an independent I know some excellent opticians who are affiliated with chains.One in my family works for the dreaded Lenscrafters and she is extremely competent.Many are surprised to learn that the proprietors of some mass marketers are in fact independent, (c'mon Eyeman, help me out here)
Well anyway that begs Bob's question.How should a consumer choose an optician?
A state license will show at least minimum acceptable qualifications.National certification reinforces that or substitutes in the case of non licensed states.Any Optiboarder also qualifies....An excellent optician doesn't have to HAVE all the answers
we just have to know where to get them :) (Right Steve?) Another source for choosing an optician can be the competition.If your competition can't say anything bad about you, you must be excellent.Excellent opticians also never knock the competition, its unprofessional!What I like about it is that it can work to your advantage either way!
Shoppers also develop gut feelings.Trust your instincts Bob, you will find that most of us are quite competent and have your best interests at heart.Best Wishes from the Cape



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Harry J

[This message has been edited by hcjilson (edited 01-23-2001).]

[Maria]

As I understand it, Bob has been doing quite a lot of research, and Optiboard was just one aspect of it. He's not 'suspect', but he will be spending quite a lot of money when he finds an optician, so he wants a good one!

[hcjilson]

I wonder if I could convince him to live on Cape Cod.If he's going to spend THAT much money I don't think I'll be sending him to the competition either! :)


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Harry J

[Maria]

Bob wants about 7 pairs for himself, and the same for his wife. I think you should all be very nice to Bob. :)

Just to amuse Harry, I missed out the 'i' in the word 'his', hence the edit :)

[This message has been edited by Maria (edited 01-24-2001).]

[bobgaskins]

I can provide an update on my search for a great independent Optician in San Francisco (now concluded successfully) which may possibly be of some interest here.

A personal recommendation would have been best, as hcjilson observes, but all of my acquaintances say that they buy their eyewear where they get their prescriptions. I'd gotten my prescription from a large ophthalmology practice near my home in San Francisco, where apparently nearly 100% of their patients order glasses from the small "shoplette" located in the waiting room of their own offices. (This observation probably explains why it's so hard to find an independent Optician these days.)

But I wanted to find someone who made a business of optical dispensing, with a larger inventory of frames and a larger experience of lenses and patients. As for seeking an "independent", I'm really hoping to find someone that I can buy glasses from for years, maybe decades. I would expect to find such a person as the owner of an independent business, not as the possibly-mobile manager in a chain (or in an ophthalmic or optometric practice), no matter how accomplished.

I did, as Maria suspects, read virtually everything I could find on the internet, looking for any source for a recommendation: the archives of sci.med.vision, papers at the websites of local optometry schools, online texts on opticianry, the sites of all the lens suppliers whose names I could find, the consumer sites rating opticians in the Bay Area, the web sites of optical shops themselves, and much more. (The more I learned from the internet, the better I understood why I needed to find an experienced Optician.) Optiboard looked to be the most likely place to find a trustworthy recommendation, because of its obviously-knowledgeable participants.

In addition to my posting on Optiboard, a week later I searched the Optiboard membership list and sent personal email to everyone identified with a San Francisco (or nearby) address, asking the same question. There were no email replies.

Following up on Jackie O's suggestion to find someone certified by the American Board of Opticianry, I sent email to the ABO asking for a list of ABO-certified opticians in my area. I received back an acknowledgement saying that someone else would respond, and (more than a week later now) no further response at all.

In the end, I turned to another part of the internet. Because I liked the information on the Zeiss website, I went back there and queried their database of "Zeiss Certified Vision Experts", which yielded a list of twenty in the greater Bay Area arranged by distance from my zip code; from these I excluded the dispensaries of MD or OD practices, and started telephoning. The "Zeiss CVE" closest to my home was on vacation for two weeks, according to his answerphone recording; the one next-further from my home sounded great, but was leaving the next day on vacation for three weeks. (Business must be good--the beaches are full of Opticians!)

The one next-further still is one hour driving time from San Francisco down toward Silicon Valley, but turned out to be exactly what I wanted to find: a second-generation family business, established for forty years, the wall festooned with diplomas and certificates, the back full of equipment, with an owner who is knowledgeable about lenses, who has a large inventory and is eager to order in overnight any frame found on the internet, and who is meticulous about taking time for fitting. Initially my wife and I have ordered from him 10 pairs of TiFlex and Flexon Select frames with all kinds of lenses (Zeiss Gradal progressives, single vision, sunglasses), with more duplicate pairs and variants to come after the first batch. (He's not impressed, though, because he once sold 57 pairs of glasses to a celebrity customer on a single visit to the shop.)

It does seem odd that information should be so difficult to find, since such an Optician should be as eager to find me as I am eager to find him or her. It's also odd that the ABO does not have a web-hosted database to find your local ABOCs, whereas the product manufacturers do have similar geographically-arranged databases of their customers.

Even if I didn't find an Optician through Optiboard, I did learn a lot from the postings on other topics. Thanks to everyone.

Bob Gaskins

[hcjilson]

Dear Bob,
Congratulations upon the sucessful completion of your quest! 40 years in business is a whole lot of experience, and while it doesn't keep you from making mistakes, you will have learned quite a lot.Again, I think that you probably drove by a passel of great opticians on your hour long journey south, but you are the customer and if you're happy - we're happy.
If you ever find yourself looking for a great optician, don't be fooled by the wallpaper.(ie diplomas and certificates) To paraphrase Yoda,
Wallpaper and equipment do not a great optician make! Most of us have "I love me" walls!
Don't be too hard on OAA, if they had a 10th of 1% of the resources maintained by frame,lens, and equipment manufactures they would be able to have the most up to date database available as well as people to respone to e-mail inquiry's.
Lastly, if you ever decide to leave California, PULLEEEZE come to Cape Cod and look me up :)

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Harry J

[This message has been edited by hcjilson (edited 01-25-2001).]

[chip anderson]

If he's in San Francisco, be carefull if he drops something under the table, Check wrist tension, male? jewelry, etc.

[Maria]

And as Chip cleverly uses the gay stereotype to reinforce the redneck stereotype in all our minds................. :)

[hcjilson]

Please don't infer anything sinister by my invitation for Bob to move to Cape Cod!Its just that its January here in this summer haven, and its a long wait between customers.If it weren't for this website I'd have nothing to do all day :)

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Harry J