Working for D&A. Don't be horrible customers! (Dolland & Aitchison)

Member Name: MercuryGirl

Product:	Dolland & Aitchison
Date:	11/06/08 (325 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good, friendly service. Honest and will provide accurate/ thorough advice.

Disadvantages: Pricey, but as an insider I know they're bringing their prices down a lot now.

I am writing this from the point of view of a customer and somebody who worked for Dolland and Aitchison.

I was curious to know after leaving the company, what people thought of the service, so I came onto this site. A little annoyed to hear that a lot of people think the Opticians are rude and I have read a few times that they blame it on the customer.

The branch I worked at (Victoria St, London) was never rude as far as I know. I certainly wasn't. Though, I got a lot of customers being rude to me, when in all fairness - it was their fault in the first place (which may be why I didn't have much patience haha)

Firstly, contact lenses by post.

I can't count the amount of times I had someone shouting at me because they hadn't recieved their lenses, and it turns out they were overdue for a checkup. I'm making this clear, NO opticians in Europe can legally give you lenses if you checkup is over 12 months. So don't try and hassle the staff. With most people, they'd accept it and have a checkup, but quite a few refused as if you're not on Contact Lenses By Post it's £40. Before Contact Lenses By Post stop sending you lenses they send you plenty of letters in advance to remind you to have a check to avoid problems. It is your responsibility to make sure they have your correct address so you recieve those letters aswell. Basically, if you don't recieve your lenses because you haven't had a check, it's your fault. No Opticians can be blamed for that.

Other things...

Staff are poorly trained? Not true. They provide excellent training and put you up in the Ramada hotel for three nights, full pay! Maybe some of them are just retarded.

Little things I noticed in these reviews...

Someone said it was ridiculous a staff member had reccomended a child's frame. Well if someone has a petite face it is the best option, it's not like you can tell it's a child's frame.

Someone also said D&A ruined their sight, and didn't check underneath their eyelids. Well, a routine test doesn't do that, which is exactly why they reffered you to the hospital.

I think it really depends what branch you go to, as I accept some people can be quite rude in general.

Things I advise...

A lot of people have said it's good service, but shop around for your glasses. I would highly reccomend getting your glasses from the same place you have your test and not chop and change as it can cause a lot of long winded problems for you. And unless you have a very small prescription with no astigmatism do not buy from the internet. The advantage of buying from the opticians is the guarantee and they'll be able to check if theres problems. I really advise people to not buy from the internet unless it's a spare pair or they hardly have a prescription.

Also, I don't know what it is like for the actual Optician themselves BUT I never worked on commision. Nobody did!! So it's not true, though a lot of these reviews have said so. I think you can get a bonus of about £15 if your company does well that month, but I never got that and would never push a sale for that obviously... So they are generally trying to pick whats right for you and not forcing you to buy.

Believe it or not, working in an opticians with any qualifications to do the job can be really stressful as you're held liable for so many things, so maybe that is why they're rude occasionally (though, it is not an excuse)...

I think a lot of customers did lie to me whilst I was there, trying to get money back or something free, claming they didn't tread or sit on their glasses when they were bent as if they had (trust me you can tell) so it is frustrating as you can't say to the customer they're lying but at the same time can't repair it for free, you might lose your job!

Generally D&A are great service, I was always on the ball with my customers and I know most of the staff I worked with were. I think anywhere you go though you'll get rude people and nice people so thats why these reviews are so mixed.

Also, a lot of benefits of working for them, though the pay is shit in all fairness.

Toodles.

Summary: Good service, a drag working there with all the people that can't admit they're wrong!