Maybe you should find a different optometrist. Mine (high end, sells $$$ glasses that I never buy from them) always puts printouts in the bag with samples when I leave.

Anonymous wrote:I went through this with my son. The doctor would deliver the prescription to the optical shop and I'd have to walk over there and request it while sidestepping the hard sell. After that, I just told the doctor straight out that I'd need a written prescription and I never dealt with the in-house shop again. They were quite overpriced compared to other options.

Doctors often own a stake of the in-house shop.

I went through this with my son. The doctor would deliver the prescription to the optical shop and I'd have to walk over there and request it while sidestepping the hard sell. After that, I just told the doctor straight out that I'd need a written prescription and I never dealt with the in-house shop again. They were quite overpriced compared to other options.

Anonymous wrote:NP: how do you politely decline ordering contacts through an office?

Why do you have to be polite when they’re the ones hard-selling.

“No thank you.”

And

“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?”

My eye doc hands it to me without asking. Then I get home and scan it inot a PDF for safe-keeping.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP: how do you politely decline ordering contacts through an office?

Should clarify, I am good at saying no, but their assumptions "how many months would you like to order" instead of asking if I want to in the first place are difficult to rebut.

Back when I used an optometrist practice that did this, I just said, "no thanks I don't want to order lenses right now."

I'm curious what your non polite response would be.

Anonymous wrote:NP: how do you politely decline ordering contacts through an office?

Should clarify, I am good at saying no, but their assumptions "how many months would you like to order" instead of asking if I want to in the first place are difficult to rebut.

NP: how do you politely decline ordering contacts through an office?

I have had no trouble getting my prescription at either Lens Crafters or Warby Parker.

Anonymous wrote:You are not the ahole, they are. I hate this, I now go to an office that routinely prints it for you at the end of the appt.
Request it while checking out, & don’t leave until you get it - or look to switch. Not all eye drs are like this.

+1, this is my #1 pet peeve about going to the eye doctor. It makes me lose all disrespect for them, especially when they then give me the hard sell on their in-house store. Sometimes I'm not even planning on ordering glasses anytime soon! I usually wear contacts and when my prescriptions changes, I sometimes make do with the old glasses as a back up for a while since I don't wear them that often. But I like to have my current prescriptions on file because that's a normal thing to want to make sure you have.

My #2 pet peeve is how they are always trying to upsell me on contact lenses even though my current lenses work great, or try to force me to buy twice as many as I need (according to the recommended use).

We are currently shopping for a new eye doctor for this reason specifically.

My family of 4 all wear glasses/lenses. We all see an Optometrist and always leave with 2 prescriptions each, one for glasses and one for contact lenses. Then I order the lenses from Costco (so much cheaper) and the glasses from a variety of different online places, also so much cheaper.

Colonial Opticians

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing you’re seeing an optometrist at a commercial eyeglass fitting and sales establishment. You should be seeing an opthalmologist. They are physicians.

I’ve worn glasses since I was a small child, and that’s a long time. I have never even heard of a physician not handing over a written script, let alone resisting providing one.

A good rule of thumb is that if a health care provider (or any service provider for that matter) resists your reasonable requests, they’re not the right one for you.

And no, you don’t need a signed script to order glasses, at least not online.

Uploading your prescription is the last part of ordering.

I have never uploaded one.

Wow, you need a new eye doc. My former one, current one, and my kids' doc all provide a paper prescription automatically, without a request.

There should be a law that they have to provide this in writing when you finish the exam.

I think the suggestion of not paying (or signing) until they give you a printout of the prescription is a good one.

I stopped using MyEyeDr many years ago because they always made me wait for the prescription. You are NTA. This is horrible practice and I'd absolutely get snippy with them.