I hope someone from Lenscrafters actually reads this so they can find out what a bunch of inept amateurs their staff are.  “Leading company Luxottica Group is introducing its internationally renowned LensCrafters chain in Hong Kong and upgrading The Optical Shop and The Optical Centre outlets as LensCrafters boutiques …”

Luxottica?  It’s an Italian company.  They now own Oakley and Ray-Ban among other brands.  And apparently they spend about 2 cents on training staff in their bullshit boutiques.

Here’s the deal.  I got the new HKAA quarterly magazine and one of the discounts for members is 30% off on “regular price complete pair (frame and lenses)” at LensCrafters.  I’ve been thinking I want a new pair of glasses, had seen some Oakley frames that I like and of course I always like a healthy discount.

Today I went to their shop at Tai Yau Plaza in Wanchai.  I see they’ve got the Oakley frames I want.  I show the guy my HKAA card and ask, “I get 30% discount with this, right?”  And he says, “No, 20%.”

So right away the staff has no idea of the promotions but I figure that can be ironed out later.

Now I tell him that I saw on their web site that they are offering special lenses for people who need their glasses mostly for using computers and reading.  I can’t recall the name (“Superview”) but that should be enough for him, no?  No.

“Progressive lenses?”  “No, for reading and for computer.”  He still has no clue.  He pulls out some looseleaf binder with a bunch of laminated pages all in Chinese.  I don’t see anything there I recognize.

So, trying to remain patient, I say, “Hey, it’s right on your web site, do you have a computer in the shop?  I’ll show you.”  And they have a laptop PC running SAP.  But if you bring up a browser and try to access the net, it asks for a supervisor password to continue.  And none of the three people working in the shop knew the password.

At that point, they literally just gave up and walked off.  Seriously.  No attempt to pick up a phone and contact someone.  They just walked away.

So I pulled out my iPhone and thought I’d bring up the web site on my phone to show them.  Except that the web site is 100% Flash, with no non-Flash option.  Brilliance.  Not.

I left the shop.  Which I think is probably just as well as at that point, I didn’t trust that these mental midgets would be capable of properly discerning my prescription from my current glasses.

So let’s see.  The staff at LensCrafters Hong Kong “boutiques” don’t know their own products, don’t know their own promotions,  don’t know shit from shinola when it comes to customer service and have a useless web site.

The funny thing is … I should have just walked across the hall to the Optical 88 shop in the same mall.  But there’s this little thing with the 30% discount.  So I will go back to LensCrafters – a different shop in a different location and give them one more chance to get it right.

It’s rarely this hard when you’re dealing with independent shops and dealers.  It’s only these massive chains that don’t properly staff their stores, don’t properly train their staff and don’t seem to give a shit about their customers.

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