Today’s Vision

I’ve dreaded going to see optometrists because of the hassle on getting appointments, long wait times and up selling, however this time was different. I woke up one morning with a swollen and very red eye that I knew wasn’t pink eye. As a contact lens user I was worried and called to get an emergency appt, they were able to get me in during lunch 10 mins later! Long story short, I ended up having a corneal ulcer in my left eye and irritation in my right eye even though it didn’t show signs. I had mistaken sudden allergy symptoms (watery eyes) and neglected my vision. The doctor was kind, prompt and took the time to explain what they were doing and what to expect. I walked out with a prescription for drops and a bottle of steroid drops for my right eye. The doctor asked me to return the next day (co-​pay free) to check on the progress after an agressive series of drops. My eye has yet to heal but I’m glad I chose this place due to the prompt attention and care.

Wow. Appallingly rude employees here. I actually had to sit in my car for about ten minutes cooling off before I drove home. When I arrived I waited in line behind ONE lady while 4 or 5 employees sat in their seats behind the counter not helping me, looking at me or greeting me. After finally being given the form without being greeted and as the employee handing it to me was on the phone and facing the computer, I filled it out and turned it in. I waited half an hour AFTER my appointment time, at which time one of the employees told me to fill out a section of the forms that I had missed. I politely explained to her that I saw it but that none of it applied to me, and she basically told me to fill it out anyways. As I sat back down I heard one of the employees say to the other, sounding very annoyed «Where are her insurance cards?» the other said in obvious amazement and annoyance that I had not brought them. The first one said, «Not even her ID?» which they had not even asked me for. This was after she told me it was fine that I had not brought my insurance cards– I offered to go get them and she said that it was not necessary. I have to say though that they were actually very polite and attentive to the three other (older) customers that were in the store and the contrast in their attitude toward me was despicable. I saved this review on my computer for awhile, thinking about whether or not to post it. I went to another place to get my eyes checked and when I arrived they told me that I could not be seen because Today’s Vision had not released the authorization for another optometrist to see me. AS IF I would return.

Yesterday I went in for my yearly check up and I must say that my experience was very pleasant. First of all as soon as i walked in i was immediately greeted and given the necessary paperwork to get started. After I was done with the paperwork a few minutes later I was called to the back for the initial testing. The young lady who did the initial test was very nice, welcoming and me feel at ease. After the initial test were done she escorted me to the doctors chair and I waited for the doctor. There some miscommunication and apparently the doctor was not ready to see me just yet so she very apologetically explained that she wasn’t ready for me quite yet and she would be with me shortly. So after a small 10 minute wait Dr. Kovar called me to the back and finished the eye exam. She was very polite, answered all my questions and was not pushy to sell me anything that I didn’t need. Over all my experience was great and I plan to keep going to see Dr. Kovar and the staff at Today’s Vision for all my vision needs.

So today I went to Dr. Kovacs at today’s vision. Since I have astigmatism, is very important that I have a thorough optometrist. She spent plenty of time taking care to properly diagnose my current prescription. Since it was my first time at her office, I was also glad that she asked to review my previous doctors file. I could tell that I was working with the doctor that cared about the trend in my overall ocular health. The selection of frames, was adequate and the prices very competitive. I got all the upgrades and scratch protection and even got transitions for a lot less than my previous prescription. She was happy to order upgraded lenses discounted, on a set of Oakley’s that I already owned. There was no hard-​sell and never once did I feel pressure to take any extra services I did not want. I really like professional way the office and boutique is run. Even when it got busy the entire staff work together to try to accommodate all the patients as there were a few walk-​ins that needed priority. Never once did I feel I was not the most important person or patient in the room. I think that’s quite a feat in today’s world. When I asked how and why did they try so hard I got my answer, the previous doctor was a complete halfwit that neglected the prior patient load. If you have to come back from –10 and work your way up to zero you try really hard. The reason I’m writing the review so thorough is they are 10+ operation. I have never written a review and usually don’t do this, but this time I feel it’s really necessary. A lot of times in the past my previous doctor when the office got busy like it did today, would try and tell me you do not need to do the glaucoma test this time, to me if my insurance pays for it, I do not want to skip any areas in my overall vision. My livelihood depends on my vision for that matter all of our quality of life depends on vision anyway. If you want to work with professionals and are sick and tired of the target/​Walmart type of service in this country I suggest you go first world and go to Today’s Vision, Esther Kovacs. The location I went to is 1337 — B W. 43^rd St., Houston, TX 77 018. The doctors phone number is 713−686−3221I bet she’ll get you an appointment right now running its business hours. Thanks for reading my epic review.

I had such a great experience with Dr. Kovacs + staff! They are welcoming, friendly, and super informative. They even helped me to pick out a fabulous new pair of glasses! I definitely recommend this place!

Wow, what an improvement. I had been a patient here before. Dr. Thomas was fine my first few visits, but the last one was not so great. Tests that she suggested but wouldn’t explain the results. Upsell to zeiss progressives that I couldn’t see well out of but they told me they were fine, it was my problem and I had not adjusted to them yet. They would not check the glasses to verify that the prescription had been filled properly. I decided I needed to find a new eye doctor.
Then I noticed Dr. Thomas’ name wasn’t on the door anymore. So I decided to give it one more try. Let’s start at the top with Dr. Kovacs. She took the time to explain recommended tests and results, never made me feel rushed even though I was the last patient of the day. She was personable without oversharing, overall, just a very pleasant experience.
We wrapped up the eye exam and the task of choosing glasses commenced. Her staff was very helpful, did all the measurements, no rush on picking out glasses even though it was after their «closing time».
My glasses came in a couple of days before I was expecting them, and I picked them up today. I walked out to my car and almost started crying — I could really see again!
I am very happy with the end to end experience, and I highly recommend Dr. Kovacs and her staff.

Dr Kovacs is wonderful! I’m so happy. I’ve been a patient here for several years due to the convenient proximity to my home. And it’s important to me to support the OF community.
I love Dr Kovacs (and her fab staff). I’m was immediately impressed by the time and care that Dr Kovacs took with my yearly exam. I’m the kind of person who asks lots of questions. Dr. K took the time to explain everything to me. She makes you feel like her time is YOUR time. Even when I had an «eye emergency» ie a paper-​cut on my eyeball (Scary and OUCH!), she saw me immediately and saved me from having to go to the emergency. Thanks Dr K!
Great selection of glasses too!
In a nutshell: Great Doctor /​Sweet Staff.

My husband Bruce and I had a good experience here yesterday. we booked back to back appointments. We were taken on time and everyone was helpful and professional. Dr. Kovacs is friendly and knowledgeable and appears to take a genuine interest in her patients. Decent selection of glasses. I’m excited about my new Aviator sunglasses. It was nice to have someone help my husband and me pick out our new frames. We will be back.

New Doctor! Dr. Kovacs was fantastic! She was very sweet and friendly. Her staff were wonderful as well. I will definitely refer my family and friends to this optometrist.

My experience at this location was nothing but wonderful, the staff was nice and friendly. The tech explained what she was doing for each test that I was taking, she was very informative. Despite all the negative reviews, I had to experience it myself, plus the reviews were referring to the previous staff. My husband had his appointment a few weeks before me and when he came home saying he like them, I knew I was going to be taken care of at my appointment. I never felt that they were trying to nickel and dime me at all. Once I got to the back to see Dr. Kovacs, she was very friendly and always asked if I had any questions. I would recommend this office to the friendly residence of Oak Forest.

Had a good experience here. I was a new patient but was made to feel right at home. Great staff here.

New owners and staff! Doctor Kovacs and her staff were incredibly helpful and friendly! They have brand new technology including Optos retinal screening (no need for drops and dilated eyes) and were able to order the exact frames I wanted. Super nice people and they worked with my insurance to knock as much money as possible off my total bill.

My appointment was on January 14, 2014, My Mom had had a good experience here, so I took her at her recommendation rather than wait for an appointment at the University of Houston Eye Institute. My mother also told me that this doctor was affiliated with UEI, so I felt relatively comfortable making the appointment.
That comfort disappeared the moment I walked in to this office. My appointment was later in the day (5 pm), but I’m a school teacher — that time is the only one that I can make. When I walked in, what appeared to be a drug rep was talking to the front office person so loudly, it practically echoed. She was blocking the entire front desk. I stood there for no less than 5 minutes before the clerk at the back of the reception area motioned me over to fill out my paperwork. No «I’m so sorry for the wait,» no «Welcome to Today’s Vision, do you have an appointment,» NOTHING. Just, «here, fill out this paperwork.» While I’m standing there filling out this paperwork, the optometrist, Dr. Thomas comes out of her office. She ignores me completely, despite the fact that I am literally less than 3 feet away from her, standing at her front desk, and proceeds to complain about her financial situations. Her verbatim statement: «How is it that you can pay off all your debt and your credit rating goes down? Maybe I shouldn’t have paid off that loan. That’s how the mortgage companies get you! You pay an arm and a leg and they punish you for paying early!»
I guess you know now where all that money from the unnecessary tests went.
After 15 minutes of waiting (I’m still the only person in the waiting room,) the PA takes me to the back. She gives me the cover test, but has me looking to my left, not straight on. Because of my prescription (my vision is BAD), there is a significant level of distortion when i look to the right and left out of my lenses. Then she does the cataract/​glaucoma test (the air puff test). There was no warning or «this is the next test we are going to do.» Just «put your face there» and BAM. I got really flustered. I am most happy when I know what to expect. When I relayed that to the PA, she states «well, when we tell our patients that it’s coming, they close their eyes, so we just stopped telling them.» Nice.
Before I move on, I have to say that I’ve had glasses for 28 years (I’m 33.) I have had glasses for nearly my entire life. I know how this works, I usually know what tests I need, and I know what concerns I have. I also understand that my eye exams traditionally take a little bit longer than most, because the prescription is so strong and so hard to get right.
Dr. Thomas came in to the actual eye exam room at this point and proceeded to take my glasses to get the prescription out of them, all the while, telling me that i needed this test or that test, none of which my insurance covered. Once I made it clear that I would not be partaking in any of these tests, it was like I no longer mattered. She rushed through the eyeglass fitting (you know…“which is better, one or two? Three or four?”) and advised me that she didn’t honor my insurance guidelines — she offered a blanket 30% off of frames. That’s all well and good, but for that to be financially comparable to what my insurance offers, I would have had to choose $ 400 frames alone, never mind the lenses. Which is par for the course — I didn’t see a single pair of frames for under $ 200. I know it’s Oak Forest, but dang… school teachers, shopkeepers and other not-​so-​rich folk live there, too.
Towards the end of the exam, I asked her to please give me a prototype of the prescription so that I could take it outside. I explained to her that I’ve had many issues in the past where the glasses felt great and I could see wonderfully in the office, but once I got them on my face while driving, I couldn’t see far enough to see exit signs on the freeway. I am practically blind without glasses, so going without to drive is out of the question. Needless to say, she refused. She said she went ahead and «adjusted» my prescription to account for that necessity, and that if I had issues with the lenses her office made, she would get them corrected. I wasn’t letting her within an inch of my glasses after what I experienced,
Basically, it boils down to three things. One, I should have paid attention to the Unilocal reviews that I read while I was waiting to be seen. Two, I should have hustled out of there the minute that I felt uneasy (which was about 3 minutes into the visit.) Three, I should have called to get a refund on my eye exam so that my insurance would reverse the charges so that I could go to a place that was more reputable, kind and compassionate towards their customers. However, asking for a refund would mean that I would have to deal with Dr. Thomas and her sorry excuse for a front office staff again, and frankly, I would rather wait for an entire year than deal with them again.

Don’t come here. It’s terrible. They try and gig you for unnecessary tests which aren’t covered by your insurance, and then make you feel bad when you decline. They’re rude and unprofessional. They have zero selection for glasses and if you decline to have their expensive tests, they won’t bother to dilate your eyes. I’m reporting this to my insurance as well. I got to my favorite glasses store to purchase glasses (eye contact on westheimer ROCKS!) and realized this idiotic place didn’t even bother to give me my prescription. They rolled up a bunch of receipts. Ridiculous. I will tell all my oak forest neighbors, my daughters school moms and anyone who will listen to me to not ever ever ever come back here.

Ugh, horrible experience here. I found one of the customer service staff to be very friendly, but everyone else was rude and unfriendly. The doctor pretends to be friendly, but is very judgemental and lacks good «bedside» manner. I felt like she didn’t hear me and didn’t want to help me.
On my first visit I had just formed a stye, which I promptly informed the check-​in clerk and the doctor, who still wanted to proceed with my contact & glass exam. The doctor frowned on me because I did not want to do the extra tests that my insurance did not cover. My RX was similar to what it had been before, my left eye had gotten slightly better. She recommended glasses but the entire visit was an attempt to sell me everything they had. While I was trying to do my exam, she talked incessantly about what my insurance would cover and what it wouldn’t and asking what decision I wanted to make about glasses and contacts. I just wanted to complete my exam and was so confused by her talking that I had to ask her to finish my test before trying to get me to make a decision.
By the end of the visit, she had convinced me to get glasses in addition to my contacts, which she led me to believe was mostly covered by my insurance. She sent me to the glasses wall to choose frames. I was leery to try anything on because of the stye, but she told me it would be alright. Then while I was trying on some glasses, I heard one of the staff make a comment about how I was trying on too many pairs and that I shouldn’t be allowed to because I had a stye. By the time I chose a style, the staff informed me that I could only get glasses or contacts on my insurance, and that I’d have to pay in full for one. Also, in the visit, the Doctor told me that the Doctor’s visit included a free box of contacts, which I thought was generous, but when it came time to check out, they informed me that it wouuld be taken out of my contact credit from my insurance, so I had to order fewer boxes.
I got the glasses anyway, at the Doctor’s incessant sales pitch, and when they came in a week later, I was excited to try them on. When I did, I realized that I could not see through them. I complained about them saying that I didn’t think the prescription was correct, but they just told me to take them home and try them for a week. I drove home in them and boy was that a mistake. Everything was so off balance and items were «closer than they appeared». I almost got in a wreck and thought it was unsafe to wear them anywhere but at home. I got an awful headache after wearing them at home for less than 2 hours. After a week, I called and told them the RX just wasn’t working. So they took me back in to check the RX again and gave me new lenses. A week after those came in, it was slightly better, but still not clear. I could see better without the glasses than with them, and so I complained again. They told me to take them home for a week… again, so I did. And a week later I returned telling them that I still could not see in them and couldn’t accept them. They refused to help me any further, even though in the first session, the person helping me fit them heard the doctor say that if they didn’t work they’d accept a return on them. When I asked for a return, they told me they didn’t do that. When I confronted the doctor and that clerk, they both denied saying or hearing that. I made a big enough fuss and wrote them an email and started a complaint with the BBB that I think eventually they just got tired and refunded my money.
I will never go back to this place. I believe they are crooked and liars and just out to make sales. I may be forgetting to tell you more details, but take it from me, you don’t want to mess with these people. And during one visit, I heard a young girl with her mother who was having the same issue as I was having.
Also…their glasses prices were very expensive anyway. They had a limited selection of their glasses on special and the special was not even good. With just a basic pair of glasses from their sale wall and an anti-​glare coating, I paid almost $ 200.

Dr. Thomas is exceptional. I needed to renew my prescription so I went to Dr. Thomas because I live in Oak Forest and she was on my insurance plan. Dr. Thomas is a true professional and someone who truly enjoys her profession. Her employees are so nice and helpful. What a delight! I have found my eye doctor and I think I’ll keep her. This woman is an exceptional professional. I recommend Dr. Thomas.

The customer service with their staff is non-​existent, and the Doctor is completely blasse.
I went in for a simple eye exam for new glasses. The staff seemed confused about appointments, but since it was so close, I pressed on. Dr. Deborah Thomas’ chairside manner is coarse and matter-​of-​fact. When I finished my appointment, I was denied access to my prescription until the next day unless I was going to buy glasses there (the turnaround on which I was told typically takes 1 – 2 weeks with a small selection of frames.) When I tried to procure my prescription the next day, I was told the Dr. was not available to sign off on it, and because of their erratic hours (closed on Wednesday and Sunday and early close on Saturday, which is fine – it’s their choice, but the Dr. never actually seems to be in to sign off on things otherwise), I was unable to pick it up until 1 week later (add to the fact that the completely refused to fax it to the place where I was purchasing my glasses.)
Fast forward to a few days later, when my glasses arrived – the prescription she gave me is completely wrong… WAY OFF, not even close. When I called to see if I could get a new appointment to check my eyes, it took them about 5 minutes to understand why I was calling when I didn’t get my glasses there. Finally, they decided I was a «glasses re-check»…even though I can’t see a thing and NEED GLASSES… so the 1^st appointment isn’t until September 1. When I let the receptionist know that I wouldn’t be returning, she hung up on me. I then called to re-​confirm that there were NO appointments available until September 1, and another receptionist hummed and hahhhed until the other one figured out that it was me… to which she let me know that NO, no appointments available.

Pro Tip: even if you hate your job, act like you like it in front of your potential patients. Front office staff seemed more concerned with getting their enchilada order (seriously, no red sauce, extra guacamole) placed than telling me what my insurance covered.