Joe of Clarks Summit PA (9/16/03):
I wouldn't allow the ranting of a few optometrists to disparage your site or discourage the great service your
provide. Your advice was well-intentioned and well-founded.
I have been wearing glasses since the 4th grade and I'm 61. I have had no problem with trusting my eye care over the years to optometrists, all who have provided excellent care. But my care has always taken place in a professional, private, by appointment office, staffed with both optometrists and opticians.
What I do object to is the walk-in eyeglass joints popping up in the malls across America peddling eye care and eyewear. I'm not about to trust my eyes to some eyeglass joint operating 50 feet from the Sears tool section, or in front of the Wal-Mart checkout counters, even if they are staffed, along with opticians, with "trained" optometrists.
This is not a professional setting, it does not make me feel safe (more like on display), nor does this setting encourage me to trust my long term eye care to a possible transient storefront and staff. Unlike the professional, private office, I have less assurances of the staff's credentials (despite diplomas hanging on the walls) nor any assurance of a long term relationship.
For all I know, the staff in the eyeglass joints could turn over faster than Wal-Mart clerks. I generally stay with the same optometrist (and their optician) for many years, they know me, I know and trust them.
Maybe I'm old fashioned and don't see things clearly (after all I do wear glasses) but eye care is a serious business that seems out of place alongside of Old Navy, or inside of Sears or Wal-Mart. Or maybe the mass eye care marketers have an image problem. Either way, I won't be visiting any eyeglass joints in this lifetime.
