The Invisible Customer. Episode 2: Invisible Customer vs The Blind Optician

BASED ON A TRUE STORY (unfortunately)!

CAST:
Itsnotpossible.nl reader Paul....................The invisible Customer
Pearle Optician............................................The Blind Optician
Pearle Optician staff....................................The Other Blind Dude

LOCATION: Pearle Opticians

THE PLOT

I arrive for my contact lens appointment just as one of the staff is unlocking
the door. In perfect Dutch I say that I have an appointment at 10 o'clock - in
other words right now - and he says to go and take a seat upstairs.

I wait as staff go up and down the stairs past me, some say good
morning. I smile pleasantly back and return the greeting.

The contact lens guy is nowhere to be seen. I wait. I read. I read the same three weeks old Elsevier
article again (or was it HP De Tijd, I was so bored I can't recall).
Now it is 10:15. Just as I am about to go downstairs to ask one
of the other staff what the problem is, the contact lens guy comes down from
the next floor up.
He ignores me even though I am sitting outside his room,
even though there is no-one else in sight and the fact that I look up at him,
smiling a greeting. He continues to ignore me.

At 10:20, just as I am about to stand up and approach the contact lens guy, who
by this time has a phone to his ear, he asks me if I am here for contact
lenses. Stopping myself from giving a sarcastic reply I tell him about the
appointment.

"It's not possible!"

He doesn't have any appointments for 10 o'clock. But he says he will see me as
soon as his computer is fixed - hence the phone to his ear in a queue waiting
for service from his IT help desk at head office.

Another 10 minutes later and I get up and say "I'll make another appointment. I
have to get back to work now. I've already waited half an hour". He protests,
but I tell him that fitting the lenses will take time too and that I can't
wait. I had told my colleagues I would be back by now.

So, Pearle Opticians. Thanks for the three week old copy of the magazine to
read. Thanks for not offering me some bad coffee. Thanks for the use of your
chair for half an hour. Thanks for wasting my time.

Now why couldn't the staff confirm my appointment when I walked in the door.
They could have said that there was nothing in the appointment book for me then
and saved me the wait.

They could have been customer-friendly and apologised for what was "probably our
mistake" and made another appointment for me or said that if I wouldn't mind
waiting they would see me anyway.

But no, this is Dutch customer service and the customer is the one who has to
serve. Perhaps I got the day wrong. Perhaps they did. But for the cost of
smiling, being nice, and a cup of coffee, they could have kept a customer. They
weren't busy. I was.

My contact lenses will come from another optician. I just hope they are not
short-sighted too.

Comments

[Bubbles]

Next time, buy your contact lenses online, they are at least 50% cheaper than at the optician -try: http://www.toplenzen.nl/. Both my boyfriend & I do. It's cheaper & faster & so much better than going to an Optician. Just keep the case so you have the brand & all the details of the lens type to find online. They have everything imaginable and the delivery box is thin enough to post. They are based out of Amstelveen so if you want to book an eye exam you can make an appointment for 16 EUR.

[Angela]

I've had some experience with an optician too; if you get your lenses at Specsavers thigs are not always as easy either. Main problem opening hours versus service. They open at exactly nine o'clock and close at six (sometimes earlier) If you work from nine to six as I do it's almost impossible to get your lenses during the week. In the early days you could order your prescription online and they would call you when the order arrived and you could go and pick them up. This is no longer possible. So instead of making it easy on a custumer you now have to go there twice. When I asked why this has changed or if there was a solution to my problem the answer was that I could order them and have them sent to my house but only if I would order a six month prescription that I would need to pay in advance. You would think that after having been their client for over five years they would be a bit more service orientated....
Guess not....

[Wook]

I was treated like shiat too in a Pearl optician franchise. My advise: go to a privately owned one (or one giving that impression). More expensive, but much better service.

[Tinanit]

Hi! Visit: