Visionworks

Frustrating place. There seems to be some operational difficulties at this branch. The salespeople are perfectly pleasant, but they don’t seem to have the right support, either their computers are too slow, or they can’t get the answers they need in a timely way. I had to call back 4 times to get an answer about a pair of glasses – (each time I was promised that the sales person would get back to me within the hour.) I agree that the eye doctor is very good and nice, per some previous reviews. But I’m not sure why the sales and customer service is so uneven.

The eye doctor herself was really nice and sweet. She was super friendly and responded to all my questions. I wish I could give her alone 5 stars. However I think every thing else was a bit off. If I was the owner of the business, I would tell him or her to make the wait time a bit shorter. Try not to schedule to many people the same time. I had an appointment and was seen 20 mins after I was scheduled. Another guy was there and he left because the wait was to long. If I didn’t get a discount on my insurance for coming here, I would have left too. The lady doing the frames kept trying to get me to upsell me glasses which was pretty annoying when I just wanted the basic stuff. I understand as a business person you want to try but then after the first no, leave them alone. All in all, if you want your doctor to be great, don’t mind waiting for a while, know how to stick to your budget, and are looking for a vision works then go here.

Complete lack of competence and professionalism! In total, they had to make 6 pair of glasses, before they had it right. Can you imagine what a margin of profit the company makes when they can afford to make so many mistakes to make 2 pairs of glasses right?! My wife and I needed a pair of glasses each (progressive and transitional). The glasses they initially sold us were just wrong. Then, they were not made transitional. The manager was luckily accommodating, but it took several months and six visits to have the glasses right! We used this company/​store because this is one of the few places covered by our insurance, otherwise…

The only reason I suffer through coming to this place is because my insurance gives me a discount. Terrible place. Customer service is terrible. My first bad experience was a year ago, I ordered contacts and they never even called me when they arrived. I had called twice and they said they weren’t there. I was totally out and they didn’t have enough samples to give me during the eye exam. Ridiculous.
This year, I’m back for more. I had an appointment and came and waited for 15 minutes to be called in. I came in 15 mins early to fill out paperwork and then waited. I had another appointment right after so I couldn’t wait any longer to be called. So I was able to reschedule (barely) for another time. And here I am sitting here waiting again (15 minutes late already) as I write this, waiting for my second attempt. Luckily I didn’t have high hopes and allowed myself lots of extra time. I work in healthcare, I’m aware of what appointments mean and how important it is not to keep patients waiting. And certainly not every time .
Then when I ordered contacts a few months ago one woman said «oh you have this insurance? So you should get 20% off. «and I said «how come no one mentioned it before when I ordered all the other times ?»
This place needs better management. The customer service is extremely poor. I see no reason to come here other than the location .
Don’t waste your time.

So unprofessional. We had an appointment for the kids at 11. We waited 50 minutes for the doctor only to discover that she won’t see kid’s their age, although we specified their age and birth date when making the appointment. Obviously won’t return

Not sure what all the complaining is about. Just had my first experience. Had a full eye exam with Dr Tssesler, so nice, explained everything etc. And the customer service out front was fine, lack luster but who cares. I was in and out in 50 minutes. I will pick up my prescription in about a week and assuming that nothing goes wrong, I will be coming back. Great that my insurance paid for it.

My entire family goes to this location for the service and staff members. Dr. Tsesler is so nice and knowledgable. She takes the time to answer any questions without rushing you out of the exam room. Her exams are thorough and precise. She really cares about helping her clients. The front dest receptionists ate very polite, Nicole is my favorite, she great at answering any questions related to insurance details and frames/​contact lens questions. They all work very hard to answer all phone calls, booking appointments, and assisting the clients in any way possible. I would definitely recommend this location, but be aware that the appointment times get booked up quick, and are usually scheduled half hour of each next appointment. Try not to be late because they are booked all day and may have to reschedule the appointment if missed.

Why bother scheduling an appointment? They’ll make you wait at least 25 minutes past your appointment time with no explanation or apology. Some people have jobs during the day, but the people at Visionworks couldn’t care less about your schedule. Plus, one of their salesmen was harassing me so badly to buy glasses, when I wasn’t even there for that purpose. I had a contact lenses appointment! Don’t bother with this place. There are so many better options in the city.

Don’t bother with these people, go somewhere else or just get along with your old glasses.
1– They had to make my glasses three times to get it right.
2– The least caring staff Ive ever experienced.
3– The quality of lenses are the worst Ive ever had (and believe me I have had enough), they are scratched so easily, and very very difficult to clean ! Something I’ve never seen before !
4– Comparatively expensive.

If I could, I would give 5 stars to Dr. Kostogiannis and 2 stars to the office staff. I recently changed jobs and had to switch to a new eye doctor that was covered under my insurance. I’ve always been hesitant of vision «stores» like Lens Crafters, Sears Optical, etc. because I think the customer service factor goes way down… And I was right about Visionworks unfortunately.
Dr. Kostogiannis was wonderful. Much better than my previous optometrist. She was thorough, friendly and helpful. She answered my questions and explained everything to me.
However, the office staff was meh. Once my exam was done, I was instructed to look around at the glasses and someone would be over to help me. No one ever came to help me pick out glasses even though there were three women working. So I ended up spending about 45 minutes looking and glasses with no help on fit, cost, brand, etc. I had to ask one of the women what ones were discounted with my insurance. She helped answer that question, but by that time, I had already gravitated towards the Kate Spade glasses which are expensive and not covered by my insurance.
I finally found a pair without any input or help and checked out with one of the sales staff. While I had been there looking at glasses, the three women talked about other coworkers and one woman’s pregnancy. There were a number of people in the store, but they seemed uninterested in helping anyone and chose to chit chat instead.
I will go back because this is one of the few places covered by my insurance, but I now know that I can’t rely on Visionworks for suggestions or help related to selecting glasses.

After 7 visits to this establishment to get an eye exam and a pair of single vision glasses, I am cutting my losses. The glasses they have sold me are just wrong. Is the prescription wrong or are the lenses made poorly, or both? I’m not sure at this point, but I have headaches and blurry vision with these glasses. With such poor customer service and poor quality glasses, I don’t know how they stay in business. There are so many other options in the area.

I was a little scared (ok, really scared) going in, because of all the negative reviews.
I had originally went to Custom Eyes over in Cambridge, but walked out because of the pushy and rude sales associate. I’m a timid person and I can’t stand that kind of attitude.
But the sales associate at Vision Works, Deborah saved the day!!!
She was caring and friendly. She explained very thoroughly why I should get the high index versus the regular, even though it does cost extra. She never rushed me, took her time explaining and made sure I was happy with my choice.
Deborah, You are awesome and thank you!!!

I agree with all the other Unilocal reviewers that Kira and the rest of the rude front desk staff are the reason why CED has lost my business and my relatives’ business. Dr. Lana Tsesler is a fine optometrist, but since we need to endure the rude, disrespectful attitude of Kira and the staff each time we want to get an appointment with Dr. Tsesler, we’ve decided it’s not worth it.
I agree with the other Unilocal reviews that CED’s prices for contact lenses are a rip-​off, and you’re much better off buying your contacts from 1800 contacts or another online provider. The problem is that Kira and the front desk staff will try to preach to you about their «medical» and «legal» knowledge — umm… Kira and the staff did NOT graduate from medical or law school so they’re NOT qualified to be forcing their overbearing attitudes onto customers who want to use the contact RX to buy contact lenses elsewhere. The last straw was when Kira said that she would speak to the doctor and call me back within 30 minutes…2 hours later when she didn’t call me back I called Kira again and she forgot about me. Enough said. Never wasting anymore money or time at CED again.

I can’t speak to the quality of the glasses. I didn’t get that far. All aspects of customer service that I experienced were poor. When told about it, they evinced zero interest in doing anything about it. As for the optician I spoke to, he was only a big red rubber nose short of a total clown. Teaser prices were for Groucho glasses. After this place, my last optician looks golden. From my experience, I can’t see how they’ve stayed in business in fussy BROOLINE for 16 years. They have to be the worst possible option among the many available in that thoroughly bespectacled berg.

As indicated in some of the other reviews, the customer service at this store is lacking. Both when I went for the eye exam and when I was picking up my new glasses, i was subjected to very long waits when multiple staff members were present. The eye exam itself was fine and is not the reason for my low rating. The staff comes across as being lazy and not very professional. They know how to do the job but the customer service aspect is terrible. I had to wait 40 minutes to pick up my glasses while there were staff members who appeared to be free and counter space available to use. i have been to the Harvard Square location and the service was much better, so I won“t be coming back to this location.

They are now becoming Visionworks, and I don’t know if they have better training from them or what, but my last two visits for my contact lens exam and my dilation went just fine and everyone was more than nice and accommodating.
My only beef with this place is that the prices on contact lenses are outrageous, even with a 20% discount from my insurance company, 1 – 800 contacts still would have been cheaper and faster with delivery.

I went to Cambridge Eye Docs in Brookline and was very impressed with my care, treatment and product. I worked primarily with Deborah and Nicole. They were so professional and accommodating. Everyone else who worked there were positive and kind. They have gained a customer for life.
I highly recommend Cambridge Eye Doctors in Washington Square, Brookline.

I’m writing a quick review on this store that I will update in more detail later. I am MORE than impressed with this store. Not only can you make appointments quickly (within the week) but they are one of the few places that really does honor their warrantee.
I have purchased two different pairs of glasses here and I have not been disappointed. They also have a nice selection of brands including Armani, Bebe, Coach, Guess, Oakley, just to name a few.

I needed to get a new eye exam done and was planning on getting a new pair of glasses. I had Harvard Pilgrim insurance, so I booked an appointment with Dr. Tesler, which was very pleasant, quick, efficient, and informative. She was very patient, made sure to explain everything and answered any questions I had.
The eye glass frame selection was decent, I went in the day before my exam to pick out my frames since I knew I would be short on time. I chose two pairs. One that would come free with my insurance, which was on the no name brand selection, and one Michael Kors. The lady helping me helped me choose the right pair for me, even though she wanted me to explore other shapes. I have a very squarish face, so there isn’t much I can really pull off… Anyway, I was very pleased with my choices, even though it was pretty hefty in price.
And folks, you might actually really like your free no name brand pair. I actually wear my no name brand all the time while my Michael Kors pair sits in its case at home. I kinda wish I didn’t pay the $ 350+ for the Michael Kors pair… but what will regret get me?

Only go here if it’s a last resort. I loved my optician but she moved far away so went here because of my insurance. Got an appointment right away, which was nice, but that was the extent of my joy with CED.
The optician is nice enough, no problems with her. I was greeted warmly too. However, the front desk assistant, Kira, needs to go. She is absolutely clueless when it comes to anything related to payments or ordering contacts. She didn’t know how to order contacts that she wasn’t familiar with and wasn’t all together with it. It’s not a big place, but she cant’ multi-​task.
I really won’t be returning here because I just don’t like anything about it.