Alfa Optical Ltd., 110 Pertosa Dr. Unit 6, Brampton, Ontario, L6X 5E9, 905-456-2733 – Tejinder (TJ) Cheema – Licenced Optician – alfaoptical@yahoo.ca

This is my first time ever being ripped off by an eye glass place, & I’ve been wearing glasses since I was in 2nd grade.

Obviously I didn’t start buying my own until I was 18 years old, but still, that’s a lot of years never to be treated this way.

Here’s my story…

I purchased 3 sets of glasses from Alfa Optical Ltd., 110 Pertosa Dr. Unit 6, Brampton, ON, L6X 5E9, 905-456-2733

• One pair for my son
• one pair of progressives aka bifocles, and
• one pair of prescription sunglasses (distance only)

Alfa Optical had this special, buy 1, get 3. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have gone for it, but I didn’t have the money even for this amount which was almost $1,000.

When I went in to look at frames which in the past has always been my biggest challenge because I stopped wearing contact lenses years ago, I remember saying to the owner TJ Cheema, that maybe I should just get reading glasses instead of the progressive glasses, but he advised me against it.

So, I picked out a new frame for my sunglasses, and a new frame for my progressives even though I really like my current frames.

As I eluded, I never know how any new frame will look until the lenses are in because I’m blind without my glasses.

Anyway, I put a deposit down, and we had to wait 2-3 weeks because of the holidays – it was December 2006.

Then in January I got a call and I managed to make it over there quickly. I’m a very busy person working almost all the time and of course raising my son and keeping up with the house, shopping, plus I was dealing with this rent to own scam so my plate was full.

I had just moved into this house November 15, 2006 and was still getting settled, & to boot, I didn’t know Brampton well at all.

Anyway, so after sitting for 20-30 minutes, I finally get the glasses from him because his place is ALWAYS busy even when his brother is there. While his brother brought them to me, it’s clear TJ is the main man in charge.

I put the glasses on, and right away I don’t like them. I couldn’t see clearly, and it was actually very scary for me. I’ve been wearing glasses for 34 years, other than one time with Lenscrafters, I’ve NEVER returned a pair of glasses before. Lenscrafters took my glasses back from me, so I NEVER thought this would be an issue anywhere else. In fact when purchasing them, I didn’t even think I was going to be returning them period.

While TJ was off doing whatever, I told his brother I didn’t like them. My right eye was especially blurry. There was no way I was driving home in this condition.

TJ eventually came out after me having to wait even longer, and said should we get the optometrist to look at it. I said I don’t see how that’s going to make a difference. They have an optometrist in the back. He’s the one who originally redid my prescription. You get a $50 discount off of your bill when you use their optometrist.

So TJ goes to bring the optometrist the glasses, I wait some more. I’m then told there is nothing wrong with the glasses, I HAVE to go home & try them out for a few days to get used to them, and this reaction is normal.

I’m sitting here going, no way this is normal, but I have never had progressives before, so I listen to him & pay the balance.

I take them home, I try them off and on for a few days and I phone up to say I still don’t like them. I don’t remember if it was him or his brother who says give it a few more days.

I did try again, but the right eye seemed cloudy to me.

Also, I had no idea that there are 3 different lenses in the frames, NOT 2.

Had I known this, I may have rethought the entire purchase. He told me that there’s one for reading, one for distance, & one for the computer.

I’m pretty positive around a week later I called & said forget it, I can’t handle them, I’m not wearing them.

Then I get into a really busy period with my work and the rent to own mess, & I forget about them for a couple of weeks, while wearing my regular glasses. I had to go out of town on business on March 5, 2007, and so the last thing on my mind were these glasses I wasn’t wearing. I was confident this would all be taken care of once I got into see them since there was no hint there would be a problem when I called twice already.

I called them before I left saying I was going out of town and would be back soon to come in. They knew 100% that I wasn’t happy with them.

I get back a week later, and a lot of us got sick at the seminar, so I was out of it for about a week, then I had to deal with catching up on work.

I called about 2-3 times after that saying I was sick, I’d try to make it in within a week, etc. Never ONCE did anyone say they weren’t going to take the glasses back. I was ALWAYS told that was fine, come in and we’ll see what we can do.

Had I known later on he was going to lie about all of this, I would have documented the exact dates I called and spoke to him and his brother, but unfortunately I didn’t. I’d say I spoke to him or his brother min. 4-6 times prior to actually making it in there.

Then some time at the end of March or the beginning of April I make it in.

I wait once again only to have problems.

I was willing to take a loss and have him redo the glasses and give me 2 pair, one for distance, one for reading.

I was willing to do it this way even though I was slightly nervous this optometrist didn’t know what he was doing and had screwed up the prescription right from the start. I had no idea if it was the progressive glasses, me just not being able to handle the progressive glasses, the optometrist, or even a combination of all three.

I knew to purchase reading glasses and sun glasses without all the extra features I need for my all wear glasses wouldn’t cost me $600, but like I said, I was willing to take a loss, or just have him refund me a portion of the money and me go somewhere else if need be. I was very willing to compromise this even though technically at this point the only thing working for me was the sunglasses.

While I was sitting there, my son pointed out this “NO REFUND” sign that I don’t remember seeing before.

The long and the short of it was, I told him to put the reading glasses in the frame where the progressives are now. Then I told him I wanted the distance glasses in my current frames because I felt comfortable that way. He started telling me to leave my glasses I was wearing with him. I laughed at him saying there’s no way I can give you my glasses, how am I going to see.

He said then I can’t do the distance glasses, and I said fine, give me that portion of the money back.

He started to say no he won’t do that, and he talked about how the glass manufacturer will say I had to wear the progressives for 2 weeks before they will take them back.

I said I’m sure there is a way to solve this problem. He said, “no there isn’t.”

I started raising my voice and said I was going to do a chargeback on my credit card. He said go right ahead.

Unfortunately when I tried to do that, the credit card company wouldn’t do it because the December payment had been 3 months earlier, and then they said I received the glasses, so it’s not like I didn’t get the merchandise.

I then tried to hire a negotiator who I thought would have better luck with him. The guy went to the store himself and that’s when I was now 100% certain that TJ was a scammer because he told the negotiator that I came in too late, and that I never told them there was a problem until recently. The minute a person lies, my desire to deal with this in a peaceful manner goes out the window.

The negotiator even told TJ I would take them to court and TJ said, “fine, let her do that, I’d rather pay tons of legal fees than give her her money back.”

So now I paid $600 for sunglasses because clearly I can’t wear the progressives, & they have been sitting on my coffee table ever since. I’m so blind without reading glasses, I have to lift up my glasses every time I want to read something.

I can’t afford to pay for new glasses somewhere else, & I feel this guy is a scammer.

People who are honest & ethical don’t lie, & certainly don’t say, let her take me to court, she’s not getting a penny back when he knew I couldn’t wear his merchandise.

While I’m really really not trying to be racist, this will be the last time I ever go to a East Indian or Pakistani eye glass place. I’m not saying others of the same nationality would do the same thing, but this guy should be stopped & if memory serves me, I was the ONLY white person I ever saw!

While I don’t believe every East Indian is a scammer, I was talking to someone a few months back who said they are.  Now of course I don’t believe what others tell me, I have to find out for myself, but I’ve been hearing some pretty nasty stories lately.

I have every right to say I don’t like the glasses. We aren’t talking a $20 shirt here, we are talking about my eyesight.

Afterwards I remembered that I had a situation many many moons ago where I had to go into the eye glass factory and sit and wait while they put the lenses into my frames. I remember it took 30-60 minutes for them to do this.

While I didn’t suggest this because I had forgotten about this, TJ from Alfa Optical, the so called expert in this industry didn’t suggest this either. It was clear to me he didn’t care at all whether I used these glasses or not, & I can’t be the only one who ever wants to keep their frames and just put new lenses in.

So end of my story,

Blind Michelle