Grace Lang Optometry

Phoned around for competitive prices for a contacts and eye glasses exam. Grace Lang Optometry provided reasonable prices, so booked appointment.
Store is welcoming. The creative window displays are impressive and attention-​grabbing. Good selection of trendy glasses. Store assistant was nice and pleasant.
Exam was uneventful. Grace Lang was professional, though not friendly, but also not rude. She caught that my prescription of 10+ yrs had changed.
When it was time to pay, the amount was more than what was quoted on phone. The trial pair of contacts used in the exam wasn’t included with the price. I wasn’t told this during the exam, so it felt almost like a bait-​and-​switch. Some places provide complimentary contacts. Some will even give a few pairs for free to hold you over if you’re low on contacts. Some will charge extra for a pair of contacts, but they usually ask you first. My experience with Grace Lang Optometry taught me to clarify the pricing extras beforehand.
My longstanding online contacts supplier requires a prescription confirmation from the examiner before shipping the contacts. When I asked the Grace Lang store assistant if they could handle that, she said yes.
A few days later, someone from Grace Lang Optometry phoned me to ask permission to release information to the contacts supplier that contacted the store. I granted permission.
A few weeks later, I contacted the contacts supplier to find out why my contacts had not arrived yet. They were still waiting for confirmation from Grace Lang Optometry.
I phoned Grace Lang Optometry to find out what the hold up was. The sales assistant placed me on hold, then came back on the phone and apologetically said that the store does not provide that service.
Why was I not told that from the beginning? Or when the contacts supplier initially contacted them? The poor communication was a huge inconvenience, and greatly delayed my shipment.
I have not returned to Grace Lang Optometry due to my negative customer service experience. Maybe there was a new sales assistant who didn’t know the policy. Maybe the optometrist herself was having a bad day. In any case, I have since found a better and friendlier place to go for eye exams.

Every time I walk past Grace Lang Optometry I’m surprised and delighted by their window displays.
A few weeks ago a gorgeous multi-​storeyed sandcastle — yes, made of REAL SAND — complete with turrets and sea shell decorations stood in the window, and then when I passed by yesterday this had been changed out for a new display of cut outs of circus animals in bright colours promoting specials on spectacles. Both of these window displays have been a cut above the usual mannequins and posters you see in every window along Ponsonby Road, and I can imagine they do their job well — they must work wonders on potential clients! I know I’m really tempted to change optometrists simply based on these works of window art!
The women that work in Grace Lang also seem to be pretty lovely. When I stopped to photograph the windows they came out and talked to me and were completely fine about me taking the photos, as well as complimenting the artwork themselves. This friendly laidback attitude is another reason why I’m seriously contemplating changing to Grace Lang!
Whether you wear glasses or not, I recommend popping along to Grace Lang just to have a look at their windows displays — they’re incredible!