Pearle Vision

EDIT FOR UPDATE 9÷11÷15 — I received a call today after submitting reviews in several places, from someone at the Webster location named Leslie who seemed very nice. She apologized for the negative experience and informed me that the doctor was spoken to about her attitude. I was also informed that there is a doctor at their Irondequoit location who is trained in Pediatric Optometry that I should have been referred to. (How hard was it to call me? Why doesn’t the website state this? Why was this option not presented to me at ANY time from making the appointment to leaving the store, angry?) FAIL FAIL FAIL.
This is all well and good, and I definitely appreciate the followup from someone, but it doesn’t negate the nasty attitude of a professional doctor of optometry, especially in front of my children. I receive better customer service from teenagers at McDonald’s.
Also, the call disconnected before I could really say anything, and she didn’t call me back.
Since our vision insurance is accepted at places not owned by Pearle’s parent company, we will still be moving all of us to a new practice.
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My child had a vision screening at her 3 year appointment and passed, however my pediatrician suggested that prior to her beginning preschool this year that she attend a regular eye exam as both her father and I, and all of her siblings wear glasses and some of us have done so since early childhood. She explained to me that their vision screening only catches certain problems, and that I would need a regular eye exam to see if she needed glasses. She suggested to me, and I checked with my eye insurance, and they also suggest that the first eye exam with an optometrist be at age 3.
So since the rest of our 7 member family uses Pearle Vision (we spend a lot on glasses with 5 of us already in glasses and contacts!), we made our appointment for my 3 year old with Pearle on Holt Road in Webster NY where my husband and I get our contacts and glasses and where we take our three older children.
I had no problems making the appointment. I received a reminder email on Monday, the day before the scheduled appointment.
Upon walking into the store for her appointment Tuesday night, the optometrist immediately, and rudely asked how old my daughter was. My husband told her that she was three, and she kicked back in her seat and shook her head and said no, they can’t do eye exams on three year olds, it is impossible. I am well aware that it is, in fact possible to perform an accurate eye exam on a three year old because I know plenty of parents who have children under the age of 3 in glasses.
She told us my daughter needed to know her alphabet, to which I responded «she does» and the woman just shrugged and continued to sit there, staring out the window. My husband tried to show her that our daughter could read her letters, but she didn’t bother paying attention and my daughter was getting upset and refusing to read them because she had been excited about her first eye exam.
She then nastily informed me that children receive vision screenings from the pediatrician, to which my husband and I both attempted to tell her that we already did that, and that it was recommended by her to come get an actual eye exam and that those screenings were NOT THE SAME (they ARENT); But she kept interrupting by shaking her head no, and saying they can’t do it.
She never once stood up, she spoke to us very rudely, and just refused to do it. She never made eye contact with us, just crossed her arms with a bored look on her face, and REFUSED.
Now if this particular optometrist is not trained to administer an eye exam to anyone under the age of 5, or their policy doesn’t allow it to be done, or they don’t purchase the technology to administer exams to non-​verbal children or those who otherwise cannot read letters, that is certainly just fine — however, the nasty attitude was uncalled for.
I certainly will not be using Pearle any longer for our family. I am especially irritated because we just took the two older boys in for glasses, and now I wish that I brought that business elsewhere. Unfortunately their glasses are already on order, and I already used their insurance for the eye exam at Pearle, but our next round of exams and new glasses will NOT be with your company and will NOT be with any other of your affiliated companies.
By the way, I am required to enter my daughters birthday when I made her appointment online. You’d think they could have informed me about their refusal to do it BEFORE my husband and I left work early to bring her in and drive all the way there? Nope, they just waited til right when we walked in. No greeting. No «Hello!» just «HOW OLD IS SHE WE DON’T SEE THREE YEAR OLDS»
Lastly, I want to point out that she had zero issues performing an accurate eye exam and prescribing lenses to our 4 year old, and our 3 year old who was denied an exam knows her letters and numbers better than he does.

I went in after scheduling an appointment for a contact lens fitting. I waited for over half an hour, and finally got in. The woman had me read off charts (I already had a prescription) and proceeded to tell me that I was legally blind in one eye. She refused to fit me for lenses, claiming that my eyesight was too bad for them. I later went to another place and got fitted, and was reassured by my ophthalmologist that I was not legally blind. Tread carefully with their optometrists.