I recently had an eye exam as it had been two years since my last screening and it seemed like my current prescription might not be correct any longer - too much time spent staring at a computer.
As I suspected, my eyes have changed over the past two years although much to my surprise, they have gotten better - not worse! While this would normally please me, it has actually caused me to have a bad customer experience that I never would have anticipated.
You see, my wife and I have vision benefits as part of our health plan. This vision coverage entails the typical benefits, such as an annual screening for free, annual lens replacement, and a "free" new frame every other year (albeit "free" only up to a rather low price point.)
I like my existing eyeglass frames, so I simply want to get a set of new lens at my updated prescription. When I returned to my eye doctor to drop off my frame so they could create the new lenses and fit them into the frame I figured they'd be able to crank them out in a couple of hours or at most need to keep them for a day. However, I was informed that for my new lenses to be covered by my vision plan they were required to send them in to an approved lab to do the work, which would take 2 - 3 weeks.
At this point I asked, "Well, how am I supposed to go 2 - 3 weeks without my glasses? These are my only pair..." I was then told if I needed the lenses done right away they could be created onsite, but only for "simple" lenses with no special treatments - and I would have to pay for them out of pocket.
Were they serious? Am I the only person that sees the absurdity of this situation? (pun intended)
So, I am now left checking if any 1-hour vision care centers are in my vision plan network... If not, I have to decide whether I want to pay out-of-pocket or be blind for 2 - 3 weeks. Not quite what I expected from a vision plan.
The point here is not only is my vision plan provider, VSP, not providing a quality customer experience to me, it is also costing itself additional money - should I chose to go with a whole new pair of eyeglasses rather than send in my current frames. A recommendation would be for VSP to have a different method to handle situations such as mine; maybe in this case having my lenses done at my doctor's office so I'm only without my glasses for a day or that my frames would be over-nighted to the lab, completed within a day, and then over-nighted back to me so I'm only without my glasses a maximum of 3 days. Either would be a more understandable and acceptable experience in this case.
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