Rockaway Beach Optometry

Awesome place! The staff and doctors are all very friendly. They’re always willing to help and answer any questions you. I got have. I haven’t had a single bad experience here!

Very informative, kind staff. Dr. Lee was great. She took her time and answered all my questions. They have a great selection of frames. I would recommend this place to anyone.

I’ve been going to Rockaway Beach Optometry for about 7 years now and my original optometrist was Dr. Sheer. When Dr Sheer left, she was replaced by Dr. Lee who I’ve seen several times at this point. Dr. Lee is patient, extremely thorough with her exam and takes her time answering all of the (many) questions I have. I wear contact lens and also wear glasses occasionally. Dr. Lee gave me lots of different options (as my vision is changing) and explained all of them. I would highly recommend any of the optometrists at this office (I’ve been seen by Dr. Quirante before). I also never have a problem making an appointment and in fact can usually get in within a week (or two at the most) from when I call. Staff is also equally helpful and always take the time to explain the breakdown of costs including what my insurance covers.

I used to really like Rockaway Beach Optometry before Dr. Lee joined the practice. She replaced my original optometrist (Dr. Sheer). She seems nice enough but I have been suffering with her last prescription for the last year and very unhappy with it. When I picked up my glasses, I explained to her that the new prescription was worse then my previous one. I could actually see *better* with my two-​year old glasses than the new ones she prescribed. She had a very medical/​academic answer which still did not help me understand why the new glasses sucked and the old ones worked. Since then I have even tried on my sisters glasses and can see better with someone else’s glasses then my own! I think Dr. Lee is not a good doctor and/​or not a good communicator. I am happy to have found another office for my future vision needs.

Our entire family of four has being going to Rockaway Beach Optometry since 2000, with the exception of a brief move out of the region, and we are always pleased with the opthamological services provided by Dr. J. Quirante and Dr. S. Scheer.
Besides the exceptional manner and attention that both Quirante and Scheer give to their patients, a unique feature of the RBO practice, is their Zeiss equipment used for eye exams. RBO is one of a handful of practices within a 150 mile radius that uses this for eye exams, which offers a greater level of precision (diagnostic assessment done in .10 increments instead of the routine .25 increments). This allows for eyeglass lens to be more closely tailored to the patients needs and vision requirements. Also the «retinal vision scan» saved in digital format each year allows for a very effective comparison of any changes in the health of a patient’s eyes.
Administratively, we like the automatic email reminders for appointments, plus the voicemail call reminders. All helpful when you are busy and distracted.
Finally, the selection of frames seems limited per other reviewers, which is not unlike other practices. Some years we buy frames at RBO when we spot what we prefer. Other times not.
We are overall very satisfied and remain steadfast in our loyalty to this practice.

First off, Took over a month to get an appointment. 3 days prior to this date the doctor cancels for personal matters. When calling to reschedule this appointment they have nothing open for yet another 3 – 4 weeks.
They clearly don’t have it together over there, the staff is rude and actually had balls to HANG UP on me during my call trying to reschedule.
As for costs, I wouldn’t know. It took nearly two months and three attempts to just get in this place and she hung up on me trying to get something else. Rude, unorganized and rushed. Take my advice and go elsewhere

If your looking for a new friend, Dr. Q is the way to go. If you are looking for a FULL SERVICE eye care practice then I would look elsewhere. I think Dr. Q is an OK eye doctor but she also is the business owner and the positive experience ends after you leave the exam room.
Buying glasses at a small shop is never going to be cost effective but the upside is getting the service. That did not hold true based on my experience. In my opinion, having been wearing glasses for 40 years, they pushed low quality lens solutions (high margins for them) and had very little knowledge of the available products. However, there is no shortage of attitude from the people who are selling the frames and lens to the people running the front desk.
I chose to spend my money somewhere else.

I got my husband a pair of expensive sunglasses. He took them to Rockaway Beach Optometry to have prescription lenses put into them. They lost our glasses, then said we never brought them, and refused to compensate us. I had been planning on switching my eye care to these people, but they’ve now lost me as a potential patient.

EXTREMELY disappointed with this place. They are very nice and do appear to know what they are doing which kind of makes what happened worse.
Went with my husband to get glasses/​contacts for me and see what he might need. After a super expensive visit (we have no insurance and they knew that), I got nice glasses and contacts. Now, my husband didn’t need anything but reading glasses. Unfortunately, I wasn’t with him in the exam room or at his appointment. Dr. Q. as people call her, convinced him he needed these super expensive prescription glasses (NOT!) He just needed the simple $ 20.00 reading glasses you find at Walgreens. What upsets me is that the doctor knew this, but sold him the super expensive useless glasses anyway. He even got tint and transition, etc… For reading glasses?
Again, the service is not bad, but to prey on ignorance for money is NOT cool! Especially as we didn’t have eye insurance and are paying out of pocket and they knew that!
Result: My husband now has $ 1300.00 (or so, don’t remember exactly) reading glasses. Not cool at all.
We’re never going back.

The staff and Dr. Q were amazing. I tried out this office after having had an eye exam at another place and getting an ill-​fitting prescription. Dr. Q was extremely thorough and explained everything she was evaluating. This office uses Zeiss technology to map your eyes and identify higher order aberrations — which was exactly what I was looking for. If you’re looking for a great place to get glasses, contacts, or an eye exam, look no further!

Like many others before me I have nothing but positive things to say about Dr Q. I have been a customer/​patient for many years when she first opened in Rockaway, over 20 years ago. My kids and I have been regular customers all that time because of her kindness and expertise.
My most recent experience with RBO was outstanding. Over the years, I have run into the occasional front desk person there that was difficult, but the service I have received there this year has been the total opposite. The staff has been professional, friendly & helpful.
My most recent visits there this this summer & fall involved switching from glasses to contacts and for me, the learning curve was steep. After many visits the staff of RBO helped me find a solution that included contacts and glasses that fit my life. Anna was especially patient when I had a hard time with lenses and Kari made sure that my glasses looked nice and were in my budget. Dr. Q spent well over 40 min with me– answering questions & making helpful suggestions.
There may be cheaper places out there but there is no place that has more personal care which to me is the real value.

Don’t appreciate the usage of an RoboDialer to attempt to schedule new business.
Especially accoyed when you robocalling device /​service has misidentified the Calling Party Name (CPND) and Calling Party Number (ANI) ! Update your the records to display the business name.

I really, really like Dr. Q and Dr. Scheer a lot. My whole family sees them for their eye care. I have never had a bad experience with them. My son has been seeing Dr. Scheer since he was 17 months old and she’s fabulous with him — he is now nearly 3 ½ years old.
This week, I had my check-​up and things were great. Dr. Q was amazing as usual and took her time, answered my questions, explained things. Whenever I go in there, they seem to know who I am. It’s nice.
However, when it came to pick out my new frames, the guy who was helping me really was no help at all and even said something that I took as an insult. I told him that I only wanted to see the frames that were covered by my insurance. I always tell them that. He looked at the amount and said, «There isn’t anything in that range that will fit your face.» Um. Huh? My face is no bigger than most people’s faces. The shape is of a normal shape that faces come in. Usually they send me over to the walls of glasses and have me pick out what I like and then we try them on, etc. He picked for me and seemed a bit frustrated that I didn’t like the styles he chose for me. He actually said, «These are the only ones that would work. Try these.» Um. Yeah. NO. so I found a pair I liked and were only $ 17 over after the discount for overage. He had already filled out the paperwork for the more expensive lenses with extras and with the amount that I wear my glasses, just basic, completely covered were fine. But he talked me into it and I ended up paying more.
I do like the frames I picked out — from what I could tell while being dilated and fuzzy. But I felt like he really didn’t want to help me, was in a rush to be done with me and he just wanted me to spend more. There weren’t any other patients in there at the time I was there.
So, the stars are for Dr. Scheer and Dr. Q. They are great — I hope I never have to leave them. The stars are for the women at the front desk. They were great!
The guy helping me pick out frames… I left feeling railroaded. Sorry, no love.

Dr. Scheer is by far the best optometrist I’ve ever seen. She noticed two chronic conditions that were never observed by previous optometrists. She was also able to easily and thoroughly answer a couple of questions that stumped both an optometrist and an ophthalmologist. She is also very personable and professional.
I can’t imagine going anywhere else!

I was looking for optometrists that accept VSP insurance. Spoke with Jerome on the phone and he was very pleasant and very nice to answer the few questions I had as a potential new patient.
The standard practice to get more income (not just this practice but others) is to charge a «fitting fee» of $ 40 – 60 for contact lens. This forces you to alternate either glasses or contacts credit every other year.
I thought my current ophthalmologist in San Mateo was being disreputable, but after calling around to different places, I guess this is common.
I still don’t understand if I have the premium eye insurance, why I should end up paying an extra $ 60 charged to me directly.

Everyone was so nice and helpful! They are very thorough and helped me realize that I have to take better care of my eyes! Happy I found them.

So I bought my prescription sunglasses at Costco about 2 years ago, until a few days ago one of the screws fell off :(
I didn‘t know what to do, simply because my membership at Costco expired and I really didn‘t want to renew the membership just to go back and fix my glasses for God who knows how much they would charge me (maybe like $ 20? Pssssh EFF that!)
My Dad was the one who told me to come here, he has gotten glasses here and has got them fixed here before so I decided to try it out. Before I went to work I came here right when it opened and asked them if they could fix it for me. It was nice because one of the associate’s took my glasses and handed them to someone else and the guy who helped me told me he can fix the broken side and replace the screw from the other side with only the price of $ 2! DEAL! I expected it to be way more then that honestly. So I only waited for about 5 minutes and right away they asked me to try it out and I was very satisfied. My glasses fit my face way more then it did before and I‘m very happy with it :)

I agree with the rater who said, «The front office staff is in great need of either a swift kick in the ass or a crash course at charm school.»
Here’s my advice to the OWNERS on training their staff:
1. Always acknowledge people when they walk in the door, *especially when it’s obvious you see them.* DON’T obviously see someone and then quickly look away so you don’t have to deal with them.
2. If you’re busy, tell them you’ll help them as soon as possible and THEN ignore them. We all understand busy. Personally, as a customer, I have no problem waiting for up to half-​an-​hour or coming back another time when it might be less busy. Treat customers with consideration. Give them a heads up. Ignoring them in hopes they go away means they will go away.
3. When you finally do turn your attention to the person that’s gotten tired of being ignored, gotten tired of politely pretending to browse, AND has by now decided to position themselves in front of your desk staring at you, your first reaction should be an apology. Treating them as if you are trying to get rid of them as soon as possible is probably the worst thing to do at that point.
*** Older lady, I would have had better service if, while standing in front of your desk, I had used my cell phone to call your store number.***
4. If you don’t have enough staff to answer the phones and help the customers at the same time (and it’s not just poor labor division/​poor time management), please create a voice message that says, «We are busy with customers right now, but please leave us your name and number and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.» Let the the fifteen calls a minute go to voice mail and help the customers standing in front of you. Return the voice mails promptly and apologize. Explain how busy your store is. Doing this will actually make you look good.
5. If you examine the goings on in your showroom and find things efficient and well-​managed, consider that you might be understaffed. IF the attitude of your reception is scaring off customers, consider whether the attitude comes from job dissatisfaction or ignorance of repercussions (i.e., loss of business).
***Owners, you do not sell five dollar trinkets. You sell medical devices costing hundreds of dollars. Each customer represents several hundred dollars plus recommendations to friends. Your selection of glasses isn’t great. If people walk in, it’s likely to do business, not to browse.
You will not get my business. If your front showroom is so ineptly managed, what’s your back work room like? You will not get my recommendation to friends and strangers. Your front office staff are perhaps poorly chosen, perhaps poorly paid, perhaps poorly trained – who can say, but I blame you.

I have been coming to Rockaway Beach Optometry for a year now after having my Lasik done.
Both Dr. Quirante and Dr. Scheer are great!!! Friendly, professional, helpful, and totally honest.
It’s always easy for me to schedule an appointment with them and I have never had an issue with any of the staff like other reviewers have mentioned.
At the place I used to go to, all the optometrists always seemed like they were in such a hurry! They would rush through my exams and appointments… and on top of that, I felt like they judged me because I wore eye makeup daily while none of them did. I didn’t really appreciate the disapproving «eye makeup is not that great for you it can lead to various eye infections» lectures either. But I digress.
The first time I met Dr. Quirante, I felt very very at ease. She walked in and the very first thing I noticed (laugh if you want, I know this is silly) she wears eye makeup! I knew right then and there I would be comfortable coming to Rockaway. No disapproving lectures, zero zip zilch nada.
Dr. Quirante and Dr. Scheer have seen me throughout after Lasik check ups, pink eye (gross I know) and regularly scheduled exams.
Thanks everybody for all the great work and your professionalism. Also, please don’t laugh at me for this review the next time I come into the office, thanks. hahahaha

I can see clearly now with contacts on!!!
It’s funny I’ve been living in Pacifica for a little over 2 years and saw this place a million times but never thought to get my eye exam here. Well better late than never… right?!
The staff is professional, knowledgable and very friendly. They also have a very clean and well kept office as well, I was extremely impressed with the office. Also they helped me find a pretty awesome price for lasik and have my contacts already in stock.
So if I don’t pass the Lasik eye exam, I already know a great optometrist to help with my eye needs.