Location: Canada
Background: When I first started wearing glasses the optometrist would just give me a piece of paper that I could take to any shop to get my lenses made. Then they started refusing that paper and insisting I either leave my frames with them for two weeks, or that I buy new frames.
And now it seems like even asking for the script, or the measurements, is ‘against policy’.
I recently went in for an eye exam and some new glasses, and the optician said something I have never been told before.
I had asked if they could give me the prescription for my sunglass lenses since they don’t deal with the brand that I prefer, and he said that I would have to schedule another appointment at a shop that deals with that brand, because the prescription was not enough, and I would also need the measurements he took.
I asked if I could have those measurements and he said it was against policy.
Is he lying to try to get me to buy new frames from his shop? Or is there something to what he is saying?
Confession - When he walked away I took a picture of the measuring app he had used which seems to show all the measurements.
Would this be useful to another shop? I’m just trying to buy lenses without spending a fortune on yet another frame.
It all feels like a scam.
As far as I know, at least in BC, your Rx is your property and your right to have and take elsewhere.
It wasn’t always this way iirc. A lot of shops before 20 years ago or so would act like in your example.
What a scummy way to act. I paid 220 dollars for the exam, I think I should ‘own’ the output. Especially since it is literally my personal health data.
I’ll poke around to see if I have any recourse.
Good call. I imagine it’s different provincially, but that shit is yours and you paid for it. A physicians office has no right to force you to their pharmacy nor should an optometrist have rights to your post-script sales.
Shit was like that in BC. But when Costco, Clearly Contacts, and similar came along it started to become absurd. I mean, I get why, but it also showed the chasm in costs and selection.
FYI
In BC I pay about $190 for a comprehensive exam minus about $45 paid by the provincial health plan, so it comes to about $145.
Other exams might be more and that didn’t include a prescription.
A few years ago a partial exam with a contacts prescription was $45 (75 - 30) and included them emailing me my prescription, tailored to the contacts I liked to buy from a third party.
I would think, you went and paid for his services as an optometrist to diagnose your problem and give you a prescription. Buying your glasses is a seperate service.