Costco Lenses – Do not recommend buying (Part 1)

UPDATE: Costco resolved the problem. See http://www.decheung.com/2009/08/costco-does-right-follow-up.html

I bought frames for glasses online, and decided to try getting lenses from Costco. Generally I’ve had very positive experiences with things Costco, but at this point, I would not recommend buying lenses.

Here’s what I got when I picked up the glasses today at the Costco in Mountain View:

When I dropped off the $171 frames, I paid $132.97 for the lenses. I was pleasantly surprised at the price – but I was rather surprised when I picked up the glasses and instantly noticed these damages on the perfectly new frames. The large chip is especially noticable!

I complained to the Optical Manager. And then when things went down hill. All paraphrased:

Manager: Costco’s policy is that we’re not responsible for damages to frames that you bring in.

Me: No one ever told me that.

Manager: Yes they did.

Me: No they didn’t. If I did, would I be this surprised?

Manager: <Shows me a paper saying that Costco’s policy is to not be responsible – with a marked area at the bottom for “Customer’s Acknowledgement”>

Me: I never signed that. I was never informed of this policy.

Manager: Let me look.

Manager: <spend the next 3 minutes looking. Customer next to me tells me that she usually buys frames from Costco, and gets lenses elsewhere because they tend to cut corners and make mistakes>

Manager: Yours isn’t back from audit yet. (???)

Me: I’d like you to replace this frame.

Manager: We can’t. We don’t carry it.

Me: Ok, I’d like you to pay me for this frame. That’s $171.

Manager: I can’t do that. Let me give you a 10% service credit.

Me: Uh, 10% of $133 is $13. Are you kidding? That’s not even close.

Manager: I’ll give you a refund on the lenses.

Me: Ok now we’re getting somewhere.

Manager: <takes out screw drivers>

Me: Wait a minute. I expected you to give me a refund and for me to keep the lenses.

Manager: I can’t do that. Costco’s policy is that we’re not responsible for damage.

Me: Ok, try putting yourself in my shoes. I drop off these frames. They’re perfectly new. You put a big scratch in them. You don’t tell me your policy. You don’t even have me sign it like you’re supposed to. And now you’re telling me you’re not responsible? How is this fair? You really can’t order them to a supplier?

Manager: <spends 2 minutes looking through the computer to see if they carry it. Nope.>

Me: I would like a credit of $171.

<Award silence as I count 20 mississippi>

Manager: I’ll meet you half way. I’ll refund half your money.

Me: <I’ve been at costco for over 30 minutes now and need to get back to work for a meeting>. Fine.

Manager refunds $66.50

Frankly I’m not sure if I got “justice” or not. And to the manager’s credit, she didn’t accuse me of bringing in chipped frames to begin with. The fact that there’s this giant chip on my new frames irks me. What would you have done?

I would’ve been content to let this drop… until I got home tonight and under some bright lights looked more closely. This is what I found:

Apparently they didn’t manufacture left lens correctly. I’ve had a lot of glasses in my lifetime, and I’ve never seen so much lens overflow the frame on the outside – especially since the right side was done correctly and I have nearly the same prescription in both eyes.

And I think that it is because the lens wasn’t manufactured correctly that the screw won’t join the two parts together anymore. It’s only a matter before the screw falls out and the lens falls out. Won’t that be a fun while driving!

It’s clear that someone was pretty frustrated with this before me, since they left a pretty big scratch while trying to screw it in.

So it appears that I will be returning to Costco to kvetch about this issue tomorrow. I don’t understand how someone could say their job was complete, when they couldn’t even screw the frames back together.

This is incredibly disappointing.