Scotia Optical

When my insurance plan changed some years ago, I was required to change opticians. I hadn’t a clue what was available locally, so I put off the change for about a year. Then I crushed my glasses. You know the kid that drops his glasses, then steps on them while looking for them? Yes, even at my age, it’s possible. Fortunately I had a back-​up pair of my last prescription so I could see.
I called around for an appointment. Scotia Optical was the first one I could get. An exam was set for two days out. I was greeted with a friendly smile and sincere ‘good morning’ from Scott. He and his wife own the place. The exam was done promptly, frames were chosen and the glasses were ready that evening. The cost was VERY reasonable. A bit more than half of my previous pair with equal quality.
I’ve managed to damage, destroy and/​or otherwise alter my glasses three more times over the past four years. Each time I return to Scotia Optical with whatever was left of my specs and each time Scott has put me back in order in one day. Twice on the same day. His shop/​lab is in the basement so he can handle a rush job without outside services.
Scott will be my go to guy for all things optical as long as he is in the trade. I hope for a very long time. As a bonus, this is a privately owned local business, not a franchise that sends the money elsewhere.

If there were an option for negative stars, that’s what I would give Scotia Optical. I recently relocated to the area, and needed to find somewhere close to home to get my eye glass frames adjusted since they got squished during our move. I went in, and the optician, Scott, immediately made a negative comment regarding the thickness of my lenses, and frame; which I specifically chose with the help of a high end optometric store with over 50 years in the business.
The optician then said he was concerned he might break my frames when adjusting them. This caused me immediate concern. I called the optician from my hometown who sold me the frames, and asked them if this is something I should be concerned about; their response was that they were concerned about Scott at Scotia Optical’s experience since most opticians should have common knowledge that high heat, and low pressure would be the best way to fix my frames.
Scott was obviously very insulted that I consulted a second opinion of someone I trusted before I had him touch my frames. I asked for my frames back, and Scott suggested I go somewhere else. So I remarked I would, and left. As I was leaving, Scott stalked my partner and I out the door, and yelled after us in a rude, loud, and obscene tone.
If verbal assault, inexperience, rudeness, and a rotten attitude is what your looking for then by all means, Scotia Optical is the place to go. If you’re looking for a quality, high end, customer service experience I would suggest looking elsewhere.

Whenever you move to a new area, finding new service providers is a challenge. I mean you have to start over with everything from dry cleaning to dentists. So I had been putting off finding a new optometrist for quite a while. I watched as the stack of disposable contact lenses grew shorter and shorter. Finally, I was down to my last pair and it had been too long since my last eye exam to just order new ones online. So I went looking for a local shop.
I had a bad experience with a mall chain many years ago, so that ruled out a large percentage of options. I like to shop locally whenever possible so I punched Scotia Optometrist into my old pal Google and voilà I got Scotia Optical. The store is on a side street just off Mohawk Ave. It’s small, but nice inside. The husband-​and-​wife team who own and run this shop are very professional and extremely nice. They were able to schedule my eye exam the next week, and I was able to get my contacts the same night. I’ve since been back to get prescription sunglasses. Their prices are way lower than anywhere else I’ve seen and they offer a ridiculous warranty on their frames and lenses. They have a good selection of frames to choose from and they can get even more than they have in the store.
The coolest part of the whole operation is downstairs. These guys are one of very few places that actually make their own lenses. Most optometrists have to order your lenses from some far away location, these guys go downstairs and make them right there. How cool is that? Ask them to see it, it’s pretty amazing, at least it was to me but I’m kind of a dork so…