Monday, June 2, 2008

Throwing good money after bad

There comes a time in every retail relationship where you say to yourself, "Is this really worth the aggravation?"

I asked myself this question on Saturday and the answer came back loud and clear.

No.

No eyeglasses for Franny Glass. Ironic, no?

I'll give them this. The second pair of lenses were slightly better than the first, but not good enough.

The alteration they'd made was fine for my left eye, but now I was experiencing trouble with the right. Part of this, owner insisted, was that this was a more "modern" lens.

You're kidding me, right?

The owner insisted this problem would likely correct itself over time. That if I simply paid the remainder of the balance and took them home with me, all would be right as rain.

I thought about it for awhile. A long while. My natural reaction is always the path of least resistance.

The easiest thing to do would have been to take them and give them a try, but my gut-check said walk. Take the loss. In your heart you already know.

Given the difficulties I'd had up until this point, I'd lost complete confidence in them.

So, I'm out the deposit.

He wouldn't budge on this. In fact, he even did a ten minute sermon on the mount follow-up call where, barely taking a breath, he insisted that they hold themselves to the highest standards of service.

Since I need glasses right now, I'm going back to my optometrist. Her frames are cheaper, and at least I know she'll be more concerned with my vision than my fashion sense.

But I'm also going to acknowledge the collective wisdom of my friendly contributors and order a pair from our good friends in Bangladesh. As far as I'm concerned, the distance between myself and the rejected College West optician is now farther than between here and Dhaka.

Let all who see, believe.

1 comment:

wendywalnut said...

being quite demanding about customer service excellence, and having exacted money/goods out of various companies who have failed on this front, i would suggest writing an official letter of complaint, detailing the litany of crap encounters you had and demanding return of your deposit. if by chance this optician is part of a bigger conglomerate, i'd write it to the most senior person, and CC everyone and anyone relevant under that. it works, i've done it numerous times. :) xow