Location: Canada
Background: When I first started wearing glasses the optometrist would just give me a piece of paper that I could take to any shop to get my lenses made. Then they started refusing that paper and insisting I either leave my frames with them for two weeks, or that I buy new frames.
And now it seems like even asking for the script, or the measurements, is ‘against policy’.
I recently went in for an eye exam and some new glasses, and the optician said something I have never been told before.
I had asked if they could give me the prescription for my sunglass lenses since they don’t deal with the brand that I prefer, and he said that I would have to schedule another appointment at a shop that deals with that brand, because the prescription was not enough, and I would also need the measurements he took.
I asked if I could have those measurements and he said it was against policy.
Is he lying to try to get me to buy new frames from his shop? Or is there something to what he is saying?
Confession - When he walked away I took a picture of the measuring app he had used which seems to show all the measurements.
Would this be useful to another shop? I’m just trying to buy lenses without spending a fortune on yet another frame.
It all feels like a scam.
Generally speaking optometrists measure the core measurements of how your vision is and make the prescription.
However, to make glasses as well as the prescription they need the interpupillary distance (IPD); how far apart the pupils in the centre of the eyes are.
The IPD rarely changes much / at all in adults (so saving for certain conditions, once you know it you could keep using that value), and measuring it is not that hard if you have another person to do it (read how to do it properly on the Internet).
I don’t know the law in Canada around what they have to disclose. I believe Canada has privacy legislation that says that people have access to private information about them held by companies in at least some cases, so that might be something to look into, and then request all the information they hold on you if you ever need the information again.