Saturday, January 24, 2015

My Experience with Specsavers North Sydney

Second not so good experience to post this year is to do with Specsavers North Sydney.

Last month I went to Specsavers to do eyechecks and bought a frame off them. I only ordered the frame, no lenses as my prescription is pretty high and it would cost a LOT to get my lenses here in Australia. I told my optometrist that and he agreed with me.

My optometrist was very friendly and nice, I had only compliments for him. Same thing goes to the girl who helped me chose my frame. She was friendly and very patient. She pretty much full acted as my personal shopper, getting some frames within my price range that have full rim and not too big (that's per my optometrist suggestion to hide the thickness of the lenses). She then used an iPad to take photos of me trying on those frames so I can see and compare them later on. I did take a lot of time choosing it, and even sent those photos to my sisters via whatsapp for their opinion. She stayed calm and patient, no annoyance whatsoever. Too bad I didn't catch her name to give her credit for it. So all good, and they said the frames would be ready in about 2 weeks. They told me someone will call me when they are ready to pick up.

I completely forgot about it until 2 days ago!! Nobody called me. So on Thursday, I went to the store after work to check on it. My mum is going back to Indo next week, so I need to give them to her before she goes. The girl checked on my order and was surprised how I still haven't got them yet until now - more than a month! She tried searching with no avail. I told her I need the frames by the end of the month, and she said she will search for them tonight but will also place an order tonight too, just in case. She said she'll call me.

Fri lunch time I went back to the store to check up on it. She didn't ring me back. Luckily, she was working when I came, so I didn't need to explain the whole thing again. And, she found it! Yayyyy!! (Though I'm still a bit cross on the part that she didn't keep her promise to give me a call). I asked for my prescription, but there's no PD on it. I need it to make the lenses! I asked for it from another girl (the girl earlier had a customer to attend to), and she said they don't normally do it unless the customer makes the lenses with them. I then said to her, I clearly said to the optometrist I'm going to send them overseas to make the lenses and he was okay with that. She then went on and did my PD while repeating to say they don't normally do this.

Well I understand what she's saying. However:
1. I did my eye test with them, they get paid for it from the government. So it's not free anyway?
2. I bought frames with them too. Their frame prices include standard lenses. So, what's the big deal? I could just order the standard lenses with them and then get the PD and I still pay the same price isn't it? If you think about it, I spared them the hassle.

This is not my first time using Specsavers, and have always been recommending them to everyone. I've bought frames off them before and got the full prescription just fine. I've heard about other spectacles shops refusing to give away prescriptions if you don't buy the frames off them, and up until last year, Specsavers have been a pleasure to deal with. However, this experience unfortunately was not as lovely.

Where is my rental agent?????????????????

I really didn't plan to have a bunch of complaints to be my very first post in 2015. However, I am itching to write, so mei ban fa lor....

Let's begin with my stupid real estate agent. Well as you might have already read long time ago about the stupidity of my agent, they are pretty stupid. Or maybe not stupid, just careless and doesn't do their job right. Tuesday last week, I sent an email to my agent, which by the way is already changed from the one I talked about in I had a bad day, telling him that my shower room handle is broken and if he could fix or send replacement, that would be great. Until Saturday I didn't get any response. So I sent another email to him on Sunday, asking for acknowledgement that he'd received the email. I received NOTHING until Wednesday.

So, that Wednesday I sent another email to the agent's general email address instead of my agent's work email address. I expressed my concern that nobody has responded to me and if that agent still works for them and manages my unit. No reply again. Thursday I was so pissed off at being ignored so I decided to give them a ring on my lunch break. After 2 rings, I was put straight to voicemail DAMN! I didn't leave a message that time, but later that afternoon I became so curious so I called them again. And again I was redirected to Voice Mail after 2 rings, I left a message then. Nobody called me back on Friday, and I rang them again and was put straight to Voice Mail after 5 rings. Strange how the number of rings differs eh?

Seriously I don't know what they are doing. Nobody in the office? No one's checking email? Are they still on holiday??? It's already at the end of January for god's sake :/ They also didn't send me a letter telling me their Xmas breaks last December :/ Even with a scatterbrain that my previous agent had, she still managed to send me Xmas breaks announcement letter for 2 years in a row without fail :/ I thought we would have someone better after her, but maybe not really :/

I really don't know how to contact them :/ I even googled Gainsworth Property to find any other contact details. I've tried the info@ email address and also the phone number from that site. Even if they're trying to avoid me, surely they should pick up their phone for potential clients right?

If you know other way to contact them, please let me know.