Lenscrafters

My glasses broke on a recent camping trip. All my earlier eyeglass purchases were in India, where glass lenses and good frame comes to Rs. 1500-3000. In San Diego, I decided to go to Lenscrafters, a chain store. Their service pretty much sucks, and prices are high too. I wonder how these guys stay in business. I told the salesman I have used glass lenses earlier, and would like to try if something new is available. He took a look at my prescription, and told me to go for Polycarbonate.

As I later discovered after an internet search, polycarbonate lenses have an issue with peripheral vision. For people with cylindrical power in the -1 or more range, the image is not clear when looking through the edge of the lens. And I am not talking edge edge: the image becomes fuzzy half way between the edge and center. Anyway, the salesman gave me no warning of this issue, and gave me a $350 eyeglass (that included a $25 polishing fee that he sprung on me at the end of the deal).

The eyeglasses irritated me with this off center problem, and I finally had to return them. The only saving grace is that the return policy was a 30 day no questions asked. I don't know if lenscrafters is a franchisee based operation, but if it is, they should keep better tabs on the franchises.

okay, end of rant now.