I wanted to see what your opinions are on this. I really appreciate your knowledge and wealth of experience!

We have a patient who has been prescribed a total of 20 diopters of prism secondary to an injury (10 base out each eye). He is a forklift driver and has been out of work due to this, and needs the glasses to get back to work, as he cannot safely drive the forklift with double vision.

We ordered his glasses 5/18/2021. The patient is a big and tall guy and thus had to go for a larger frame. Ten days after ordering, the lab calls and says they want to change the material. I say fine, we'll eat the cost. I get another call back saying, no, they don't want to change the material (I guess we heard them wrong or some miscommunication), but rather they are demanding he restyle to a smaller size. I mean, I understand why, but he is a larger man and it has already been 10 days (5/28/2021) and now we will be starting from square one. He also lives a distance away and has to have a driver bring him. So he comes back in same day, picks out smaller ones - the fit isn't ideal but this is a small as we can really go. I wish we could go with a smaller frame, but it just isn't feasible for his size.

We hear nothing until 6/10 and they say there is lens spoilage and are restarting. It has been in the prism block phase for several days if not a week, and no end in sight. Patient is getting upset and now his employer is too, as they don't want to keep paying out medical leave. We use an outside lab. They are going to still have to mail them to use when done via UPS.

I am at the point where if/when they come in, and the patient accepts them, I feel that I should refund him. He has been out of work for 5 weeks because there was a week or two before the doctor prescribed prism after the injury. I am just waiting for him to call or show up and yell at me. :( Does that seem reasonable? His glasses are not going to be cheap for him and I hate to collect that money knowing we have put him and his employer out like this.

Thanks!