OpticsFast
Complaint 70262 Details

DO NOT USE OPTICSFAST UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOR SUNGLASS REPAIR! I should have read every one-star review about Opticsfast from the Resellerratings.com site before even considering using this so-called scam of a company. Opticsfast is just one or two people with a website deceiving consumers into thinking their business is legitimate! Do not trust them! I broke my $255 Persol left polarized lens and looked around online for a repair facility that could replace the lens with a genuine Persol polarized lens. Due to their search engine optimization, their website comes up first as a repair business for Persol. THEY ARE NOT!!! Here is what their website says:

"We want you to feel confident and rest assured that we have the expert experience to fix your Persol eyewear. Our experts have been repairing Persol glasses for many years. We have done lens replacements on Persol sunglasses and eyeglasses. The team has removed scratches from Persol optical frames as well as sunglasses. We have also done work with a lot of other brands of eyewear. If your brand is not on this list its not a problem. We can still fix any brand of eyewear. There is no job too big and no job too small. If a part must be ordered we have access to order the part from Persol or any other particular brand in question."

-Then again, when you click on ANY of their products, it says the EXACT SAME THING! Just take out Persol and click on RayBan, or MauiJim, etc. See what I am getting at? IT IS A SCAM! FRAUD ALERT!

So after reading reviews (most give good reports on Resellerratings.com, no less) I decided to go for it hoping that the one-star reviews were just a small percentage. So I fill out a work order online and submit my credit card information (HUGE MISTAKE) as to pay for shipping of your supposedly "fixed" sunglasses back to you after repair. I was quoted $15 for shipping them back to me. When they received them, they would then give me a quote on the price to fix.

Then I ever-so-carefully wrapped my beautiful Persol glasses in tissue paper, then even more tissue paper, wrapped them in bubble wrap, then in a big cardboard box with little white Styrofoam packed around them so they would not get damaged. Dropping this package from a plane wouldn't have hurt them. About a week later they send an email stating that my sunglasses have arrived and a quote to fix will be generated shortly. Fine. A few days after that, I get a quote that it will cost me exactly $99 to replace the lens. $99 huh? Okay, seems a little odd to have this exact number as a quote (I owned a brick-and-mortar shop with mail-order products shipped around the U.S.A and Canada with 100% customer satisfaction, and now I am already smelling a rat). So, curious now, I email them back and I quote:

"Is the replacement lens fabricated by OpticsFast or will it come from the Persol manufacturer?"

They reply, and I quote:

"Will be a Persol polarized lens."

OK, now I feel pretty good so I go ahead let them fix them. To complete the purchase, I must go back online to their website and finish this purchase, and have the option to click for shipping. There's a FREE SHIPPING button (but, wait, didn't I actually pay them $15 to ship them back to me?) That's a HUGE FRAUD ALARM going off in my brain. Then there's all these other options to have them shipped via overnight, 2-day, etc (remember that I already PAID for shipping, so they will keep your $15 and then charge you AGAIN to ship using another more expedited method).

The package arrives from UPS and I pick it up and can hear my poor Persol sunglasses just banging from one side of the box to the other! They just slipped them in a clear plastic bag and threw them in the box and let them just clank all around inside from NY all the way to CA. No soft packaging, NOTHING! Feeling quite worried, I opened them up and to my surprise, the frame is completely BENT! It's as it they were grabbed and twisted! Now here's the good part - The lens they replaced is NOT EVEN THE CORRECT LENS! It is not even a genuine Persol crystal polarized lens they said they would have installed! Here's the best part - IT IS PLASTIC! That's right, probably a $2 plastic lens from who-knows where is installed with a nice gap at the top because it is not the correct Persol lens. For $99 and $15 shipping (plus my shipping out there using the most protected method) I get my $255 Persol sunglasses back that are BENT with a WRONG PLASTIC LENS!

Now I go back on ResellerRatings and there are so many consumers that have had the same issue! Wrong part installed, not fixed, bent frames, etc. Who are these people? Now, since I travel quite extensively, I was going to pay a visit to Opticsfast in Brooklyn NY and walk into their store BUT YOU CAN'T. When you type in their address on the website a UPS STORE comes up! That's right! It's a mailbox where some character takes your sunglasses God-knows where to have fraudulent parts put in. THIS IS SCARY!

I emailed them back stating that my frame is bent and the replacement part is not a Persol lens but is a plastic lens that does not fit. I also called their 1-800 number and actually spoke to a very nice and efficient rep (Danielle) who said that her supervisor was not able to take my call at that moment. Fine, I was very nice and cordial about it. Funny how they replied to me with lightning-speed when I had an inquiry about the repair BEFORE purchase. We will see if they ever get back to me on this one. I am not holding my breath. There are many similar complaints on ResellerRatings and OpticsFast always seems to come back blaming the customer. You can read them all in horror and shock on how bad their customer service really is. Very bad on them. Very, very bad. The worst part is that these 1-star ratings are mixed with 4 and 5-star ratings! I have a hunch they fabricate those ratings using fictional consumers. It is easy to do!

Their reply is as follows:

"You accusations are disgusting because we did not mis-inform you in any way shape or form.

The item you sent in the lenses are discontinued, no way to order them."

***Note, actually Persol is still actively making this particular model WITH lenses. I have done my homework.

So, I called my Credit Union to dispute the charges, have now posted this long complaint on Reseller Ratings and other consumer websites (they will try to assume blame on me, just watch) and am in the process of filing a damage report with UPS, am writing to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and lastly, will post this and all pictures and emails to/from the company on my Blog, which happens to be a very popular blog among aviation professionals around the world. Pilots wear aviator sunglasses, right? Thousands of them...

All I want is my $99 refunded and I will send them back their $2 plastic lens. However, I feel it will not even remotely be this easy. Please, I beg any of you who read this DO NOT USE OPTICSFAST under any circumstances! They are crooks and should be investigated for fraud! This is coming from a professional who also had a store and would at the drop of a hat send a replacement part FREE OF CHARGE out to the customer if they were not completely satisfied with the product and/or service. Furthermore, I would call them personally and apologize for our error. Unfortunately, This company has a long history of not doing this, but actually threatening and harassing the customer. "