Jim Black - the North Carolina Democrats’ answer to Duke Cunningham. He was the Speaker of the NC House, who pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges. Among other things, he passed out blank checks to legislators and “persuaded” a Republican Representative to switch parties so he wouldn’t lose his position.
He’s on his way to Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison in Pennsylvania.
He was an Optometrist when he wasn’t selling legislation for cash.
Former (2 years) employee of 1-800 CONTACTS here.
You would not believe how prevalent the OP’s situation (ODs lying to patients about availablility of lenses, prescribing lenses based on profit margin rather than suitability, reluctance to release Rx so that patients can buy from another retailer) is.
One of my jobs at 1-800 was that of a liaison between us and our contracted optometrists. The terms of the contract were that, when we spoke to a customer who didn’t have a valid Rx for contacts, we would refer them to a contracted doctor in their area for a discounted eye exam. The contracted doctors would perform the exam, then give the patient a copy of their contact lens Rx so that they could go ahead and buy their lenses from 1-800. The benefit to the doctors was the exam fees, plus eyeglass and sunglass sales to the referred patients (about half of 1-800 CONTACTS’ customers wore eyeglasses as well as contacts). The benefit to our company was that we could then sell contact lenses to the customer.
Anyway, as part of this job, I would sometimes “secret shop” our contracted doctors - basically go in and have an eye exam under the guise of being a 1-800 CONTACTS customer. There was one week where I had 14 eye exams! The purpose of the secret shopping was to see if our customers were being treated well, if the wait times were unreasonable, if the optical staff was doing a good job selling glasses to our customers, and whether the doctors were releasing the prescriptions to the patient without trying to sell them lenses. Almost half of them tried to sell me contact lenses, in clear defiance of our contract. :mad:
So what action was taken in these cases? I’m assuming there was something done to motivate them to adhere to the terms of the contract.
Luckily, all the contracted doctors fell under the umbrella of one large national vision care chain. It was the chain that had signed the contract with us. When we pointed out how often their doctors were violating it, their management went around and dropped verbal grenades down the appropriate chimneys.
I absolutely disagree.
He charged $120 for the contact lens exam/fitting and $80 for a regular exam. The latter rate actually exceeds by $5 what I had been paying for exams from my former opthamalogist. (I can’t compare the former because I didn’t wear glasses.) I was willing to pay a slightly higher price simply because his location was more convenient to the place I bought my glasses (LC). Had he been significantly more I would have simply stayed with my former opthamalogist.
LC cheerfully filled my prescription from other doctors for years before I switched to the doctor next door. I daresay the Opthamalogist would like to keep me as a patient even though I don’t use LC any more.
In your analogy, I solicited advice from someone without paying them for that service. That is unethical. In my case, the opthamalogist provided a service and I paid the rate that HE set. I did nothing unethical. If I go elsewhere to buy my glasses because LC was charging more than 2x what someone else charged, then that’s my prerogative as a consumer.
I have not gone to LC in over two years, so whether or not LC continues to offer this service is of no consequence to me.
When I go to a hotel, I don’t use their mini bar because it’s over priced. That doesn’t mean I’m screwing the hotel on the room.
Boy, I didn’t know this was such a big problem. My optometrist specifically said that he didn’t want to sell me anything I didn’t need, when he first saw my vision stabilize, and gives me a copy of my prescription as a matter of course.
Guess I gotta hold onto this one…
My mother always warned me not to buy glasses from the same person giving the exam.
I never quite understood why.
Now I kind of get it.
I go to an ophthamologist, instead.
That’s bullshit. The pet store example is different because the advice is given as part of customer service. If you’re not a customer, then you are taking advantage of them. Eye exams aren’t free. I go to a professional, pay for the service they sell at the rates they post, then go to another business for other needs. If the shop wants to use one business to subsidize another, then they are welcome to, but I’m under no obligation to support them.
Do you also feel that fast forwarding through commercials isn’t ethical?
I’ve always had a good experience with Sears Optical. I figured when my daughter was about seven that she needed glasses, so I took her in for an exam.
The ophthamologist examined her eyes, sat back, and said very quietly, “You need to go see a pediatric opthamologist. I can’t treat this here.” It turned out my daughter had amblyopia, or lazy eye, but not the kind with a wandering eye. Her left eye was more far sighted than her right eye, and if it hadn’t been caught in time she could have lost the sight in her right eye.
So, two years of wearing a patch over her eye and now my daughter has lovely glasses and her vision is much improved.
I did have a problem with JC Penney Optical…Sears was in the process of changing doctors (alas, the lady who diagnosed my daughter left) and JC Penney took my insurance. I paid extra for Transition lenses, and was told they’d be ready in two weeks, not the normal one, because they were Transition.
I showed up two weeks later (they’d called the day before to say they were in) and lo and behold, not Transition lenses. The lady tried to tell me 1) She’d waited on me, and I hadn’t ordered them, then I whipped out the card for the gentleman who waited on me and shut her up on that one, and 2) I pointed at a sign that said Transition lenses took two weeks, not one, my glasses took two weeks to arrive, so ergo, they should have Transition lenses.
I had to go on vacation without my new glasses.
This is exactly why I go to the Optometry college on campus for my eye exams. Inexpensive appointments, great service, and a large selection of frames. Student discounts are awful nice too. You’l be there for a while as the students look at you then have a professor check over the exam. It is after all there to properly train the students, not quickly give you a prescription and herd you out. However it will be the correct prescription; the students graduation depends on these exams.
First time I was given a written prescription was there. My previous optometrist never bothered to give me one.
It took me slightly longer than most because I had the first case of pseudopapillodema (deposits on the optic nerve, looks like swelling) seen by that professor in nearly 5 years. He had the student identify what it was, where it was located, and the proper tests to go through to differentiate it from papillodema (swelling of the optic nerve, early indication of big brain problems).
Then what seemed like all available students paraded through to peer into my eyes with bright lights and big magnifying glasses. Bright light + dilated eyes = pain.
“Marge, if we don’t watch the commercials, it’s like we’re stealing television!”
– Homer Simpson
I had a much better experience when I recently had my eyes checked. I have vision coverage with my health insurance, and since I had recently moved I had gone to the BCBS web site to locate a local place that was part of the plan. There I found some places that only did exams, some that only made glasses, and a few that did both. One of these, Eyecare Center, was convenient, so I called and made an appointment, mentioning my insurance coverage. A few days before the appointment they called to let me know that they were no longer part of the service plan, and wanted me to know in case I wanted to cancel. I decided to get the exam with them anyway, figuring that I could always get the glasses someplace else.
When I showed up for the exam, I was told that since they had so recently dropped out of the plan they would give me a discount on the exam. I was pleasantly surprised, and even more so when after the exam they sad they would also give me a 30% discount on the cost of my glasses. I asked if I could check out the cost someplace else and get back to them, and they said that was no problem. They were even willing to put my new lenses in an old pair of frames I had. Things got a little busy for me, and it was two months before I managed to get back to them, old glasses in hand, having determined that their price was still my best deal. They still gave me the promised discount, and I have a copy of my prescription in case I ever need another pair made.