The Ocularium

I couldn’t find the model of sunglasses I was looking for and the gentleman at The Ocularium referred me to a store that did. Top notch customer service; I couldn’t be more pleased.

Been buying glasses here since they opened. Bob is a great guy and the service is outstanding. Bob explains all the options you can have on glasses and let’s you make the decision– no hard sell. He stands behind his products. I had a pair of glasses that were out of warranty and he called manufacture and glasses were replaced free of charge. You’d be hard pressed to find a nicer guy that has his customer best interest. Give him a try and you’ll be happy you did.

Unparalleled service and a good selection of glasses. I found a beautiful pair of Oliver Peoples sunglasses while window shopping. Quality glasses, not inexpensive, so I wanted to come back a second time. Bob and his wife were kind and generous with their time. The glasses are perfect and just being able to stop by to get my frames tightened in my way to run errands made purchasing them at the Ocularium a no-​brainer. Stop in!

Great service and knowledge with candor about options without a sales pitch. Reliable timelines and good options for styles are another reason For my rating of five stars.

I am a longtime customer of The Ocularium dating back at least 15 years when they also had a shop on Union Street in Cow Hollow. I have always received excellent service from Bob (and his wife, Pam, when she fills in). Bob is an experienced and knowledgeable optician. I’ve bought many frames at The Ocularium, and have always been happy with them. Bob always graciously services my eyeglasses for free when needed (no matter where I purchased them) and, also keeps me informed about upcoming scratch protection warranty deadlines on eyeglasses I purchased at his shop so that I can take advantage of this service. Once, he even helped me locate a frame I really wanted from a company he no longer stocks which was part of an upcoming trunk show at a rivaling optical shop. I had called at least a dozen shops and could not locate the frames myself. There was nothing in it for him money wise; it was just good customer service.
I have always found Bob to be courteous, friendly, and accommodating. He is low-​key; he does not push me to buy. There are other optical shops just down the street staffed by much younger salespeople who aggressively peddle their trendy frames. But, I stick with the tried and true because I can get the same trendy frames at the Ocularium, but, at the same time know that I can count on the experience and workmanship. Eyeglasses are a major purchase. I want to deal with an optician who gets the lens right the first time. I also want to deal with an optical shop which adheres to good, ethical business practices without the customer having to go through a lot of hassle to resolve misunderstandings. Without hesitation I can say that the Ocularium has earned both my trust and my business over the many years.

I have hard time giving The Ocularium even one star; sure, the glasses, are ok, but the man running the show is absolutely appalling. He is extremely rude, unprofessional and condescending. The experience my friend and I had with him was hugely disturbing, and, in turn, I want to warn others about this place. The guy needs some serious attitude adjusting. Watch out, people.

I stopped in last weekend for a repair. Ham (I’m not sure if that’s how she spells her name) was lovely — friendly, knowledgeable, and took care of me right away. I also observed her with other customers. She was very good at matching frames to faces and honest with them about which glasses were (and were not) flattering. I’ll certainly be back when I need frames.

I have dealt with the Oculareum for twenty years. They listen to me and figure out a way to give me what I really want. They explain why it meets my needs. I have a certain shape and size of face that limits some choices but they go to great lenghts to mix and match or customize frame pices. Kind of like customized motorcycles.

Liike others, I found this guy to be rude to the point of abusive. He berated me in front of many other people as someone who he assumed was wasting his time. Although I tried to explain that I lived out of town, and might want to actually buy the glasses by phone.
I hope he sees this because I just spent over $ 800 on new glasses at Googles and Rims… so he was absolutely wrong about my intentions.
Really, his behavior toward me was inexcusable. All I did was ask him to write down a model for me as I was trying to gather information about my options… glasses are so expensive, and difficult to judge, commfort wise, that it does take time to make the decision,
I did get his card, and would be writing him a private email as well, but… guess what, no email address on the card. If he is not the owner, he should be fired, but my guess is he is the owner. Might be time to think about retirement, before he gives himself a heart attack.
Conversely, at Googles and Rims, I checked out all three stores and in every one I was treated well by very helpful and knowledgable people. The other frame stores on Chestnut were also fine enough.

I stopped in on my way back to my office with a cheap pair of glasses I got online ($ 22) and steped in and asked if he would be willing and had the time, If I could pay a little $ to have the frames warmed up and bent out as they were so tight they were squishing my brain outta my ears.
I was having a great day and was very honest and said that I bought them online just as a cheap back-​up for an upcoming trip and the guy took them went to go to the back, then turned around and handed them to me saying he does’nt need my coffee money, told me I should have lied and said I got them from my uncle rather than online and escorted me out the door. I have gone in here many times looking at a pair of frames that I wanted to get myself for X-​mas. I’ll never go in there again.
What a total jerk, and saying I should have been dishonest and lied to him?
Does he lie to his customers?
By the way he treats people, someday he may have to live off of coffee money
People should just be kind and help people out.
This guy is his business’s worst enemy.

Recently I had the unfortunate experience of having my favorite (only) sunglasses destroyed in the heat of battle at a bar one late night. I thought all hope was lost until I called the Ocularium. A gentleman by the name of Bob greeted me, surveyed the damage and immediately jumped to start fixing them. Mind you I did not buy these here, nor have I ever been here. I told him no rush and I can come back later as I didn’t want to hover over him. So two hours later I show up, glasses are in the best shape they have been since nearly the day I got them. I was very happy. I asked what I owe him and he said nothing. I offered again and he declined. Clearly he is trying to get business through me (the right way), but at least for me at the moment he did such a good job fixing my sunglasses I won’t need any for a while I hope. So that leads me here to hype them up. Thanks Bob, excellent job!

I’ve had the glasses I bought here over two years ago and I’m still getting compliments on my look. I stopped in recently and he adjusted the frames for me and resupplied my galls cleaner. Great guy!

My friend an I were in shopping and this nutcase salesperson kicked us out because my friend told him that he would prefer to support a local business but the sunglasses were priced much lower online. He was simply asking if he could do any better on them and we were escorted to the door before I could even try the pair on that I was considering.

Thanks Ocularium! Great experience all the way through!!! From the moment my 5 year old daughter walked in till now, we have been very pleased with our experience. The staff (Bob) was really good with Anne by treating her as a valued customer. The selection of children’s frames though not huge is very good — Excellent quality, good looking. We are difficult customers as we needed special handling. They were able to accomodate us. We will be bacj again!

This place is the very best. First rate service by husband and wife team and wide selection.

I haven’t picked up my frames yet but so far I’ve been super impressed with the owner Bob’s service. He was friendly and very nice, offered to call my optometrist to get my prescription and says he’ll be able to have my glasses ready within five days.
The shop is small but it’s full of many many great and unique frames at different price points (though most tend to be on the higher end). It feels very comfortable and Bob lets you do your own thing without pressuring you or following you around endlessly like other shops in the area.
If you have insurance or more than $ 250.00 to spend on frames then I’d say this is the place to go if you want unique frames (Oliver Peoples, Paul Smith, Prada, etc).

I had a really lovely and easy time at this store. The only reason for the 4 stars is that it didn’t have as much of the diversity as I wanted in kinds of frames. I would have given 4.5 but that wasn’t available. I was really surprised by the prices people gave for the shop, I came thinking it would be über expensive, not so. Plus, Bob was super patient and nice, and I didn’t get sticker shock from anything I saw. There was even some great steals there with some that had been discounted from some good designers like gucci and prada, it just wasn’t the style I was looking for, in that rack.

Best eyeglass experience of my life – and I’ve been wearing glasses since I was eight. My favorite pair of glasses broke so I was wearing an old pair. Brought the broken pair in and they were able to find a match that was nearly identical, fits my nose bridge perfectly, and are both stylish and comfortable. They spent a lot of time with me and even made phone calls to the frame manufacturer to see if my old frames were still available. (They weren’t.) Best customer service of my life!

Great experience; personal attention, competitive prices with other high-​end frame shops, and a broad selection. I was especially pleased that they were willing to order a frame for me just to try on without a deposit; said a lot about how they feel about customer service. Definitely recommended!

Of the 5 eyewear stores I visited yesterday, this one had:
–a somewhat friendly yet quirky-​in-​an-​unintelligible-​way sales person
–a wide variety of styles
–high prices
–no other customers the entire 25 minutes I was there
The bottom line is: Go to Optical Underground before you make your final decision on buying glasses here.