Friday, January 08, 2010
A Tale of Two Countries
Back in October, as I struggled to come up with a last-minute Halloween get-up for a party we were invited to, I happened upon the thick, black, Carlo Ponti, Aristotle Onassis style glasses I inexplicably bought in Vancouver, BC, back in 2005. When I put them on, I was astonished to find I could see WAY better with them than I can with my current pair. As fate (and too much tequila) would have it, I somehow managed to break the plastic frame in the course of the evening's festivities. (Don't ask; it was ugly.)
Fast forward several weeks. I carefully extracted the lenses -- expensive progressives that turn dark in the sun -- and took them with me to California where I figured I could find a new frame for them... and see happily ever after. At Lenscrafters, where I expected a large selection and lower prices, the clerk claimed it was impossible to match old lenses to new frames. Her advice: I'd have to start from scratch if I wanted new glasses. Then she looked me up and down and asked, "Doesn't your insurance cover new glasses?" [Huh?????]
Thinking perhaps a big optical chain just isn't set up to handle special requests or do custom work, we went to a nearby optical boutique, where we expected higher prices, but a better selection of fashion frames. [Woo-hoo!!] After explaining my dilemma to the clerk, she brought out "the man in the white coat" to help me. His helpful advice: forget it; no can do. No frame other than the original would fit them exactly and trying to modify the lenses would destroy them. In fact, he further explained that in California it's against the law! to re-frame lenses. One MUST have an eye exam and a brand new prescription in order to buy glasses... no matter how good you think your old prescription is. At this point, my new-found Mexican tranquilo self transformed into my old red-faced, expletive-spouting self and we stormed out into the Mall.
Fast forward another six weeks. I'm back home in San Miguel. I take the same set of lenses to a local optical place and tell my same sad story. The clerk takes my name, takes my lenses and tells me she'll see what she can do. A couple days later I get a call from her "man in the white coat" who tells me to stop by, he thinks he's found something that might work for me. I come by, try on the frames he suggested and like them. He explains that he'll have to shave a little bit off the sides of my old lenses to make them fit perfectly, but that he can have the thing done in five days. Total cost: $1,000 pesos (about $75usd).
I LOVE this place!
Fast forward several weeks. I carefully extracted the lenses -- expensive progressives that turn dark in the sun -- and took them with me to California where I figured I could find a new frame for them... and see happily ever after. At Lenscrafters, where I expected a large selection and lower prices, the clerk claimed it was impossible to match old lenses to new frames. Her advice: I'd have to start from scratch if I wanted new glasses. Then she looked me up and down and asked, "Doesn't your insurance cover new glasses?" [Huh?????]
Thinking perhaps a big optical chain just isn't set up to handle special requests or do custom work, we went to a nearby optical boutique, where we expected higher prices, but a better selection of fashion frames. [Woo-hoo!!] After explaining my dilemma to the clerk, she brought out "the man in the white coat" to help me. His helpful advice: forget it; no can do. No frame other than the original would fit them exactly and trying to modify the lenses would destroy them. In fact, he further explained that in California it's against the law! to re-frame lenses. One MUST have an eye exam and a brand new prescription in order to buy glasses... no matter how good you think your old prescription is. At this point, my new-found Mexican tranquilo self transformed into my old red-faced, expletive-spouting self and we stormed out into the Mall.
Fast forward another six weeks. I'm back home in San Miguel. I take the same set of lenses to a local optical place and tell my same sad story. The clerk takes my name, takes my lenses and tells me she'll see what she can do. A couple days later I get a call from her "man in the white coat" who tells me to stop by, he thinks he's found something that might work for me. I come by, try on the frames he suggested and like them. He explains that he'll have to shave a little bit off the sides of my old lenses to make them fit perfectly, but that he can have the thing done in five days. Total cost: $1,000 pesos (about $75usd).
I LOVE this place!
# posted by goots @ 8:15 AM 
