Alfa Optical Ltd.
110 Pertosa Dr.
Unit 6
Brampton, ON
L6X 5E9
905-456-2733

In December 2006, I purchased 3 sets of glasses from Alfa Optical for $600.

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

I remember at the time when looking at new frames, I said to the owner TJ Cheema, that maybe I should just get reading 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 and I never know how any new frame will look until the lenses are in because I’m blind without my glasses, and I don’t wear contacts.

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

Then in January I got a call and I managed to make it over there quickly.

I was forced to sit there for a min. of 20-30 minutes waiting.

Finally I get the glasses from TJ’s brother even though it’s obvious  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 since 2nd grade.  I’m 45 years old now and other than one time with Lenscrafters, I’ve NEVER returned a pair of glasses before. At the time, Lenscrafters took my glasses back from me, so I NEVER thought this would be an issue.  In fact when purchasing them, I didn’t even think I was going to be returning these glasses.

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 is normal.

I’m sitting here thinking that no way is this 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, and had I known before I purchased them that there are 3, NOT 2 different types of lenses in them, I may have rethought the entire purchase.  He told me that there’s one for reading, one for distance, & one for the computer. I wasn’t told that in the beginning.

I’m pretty positive within a week of that time I called and said forget it, I can’t handle them, I’m not wearing them.

Then I got into a really busy period with my work and something I was dealing with, so I forget about them for a couple of weeks. I was still wearing my regular glasses.  I had to go out of town 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 went into see them.

I called them before I left saying I was going out of town and would be back & then 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 business seminar, so I was out of it for about a week, then I had to deal with catching up on my business.

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 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 glasses, me just not being able to handle the lenses, the optometrist, or even a combination of all three.

I knew that purchasing reading glasses and sun glasses which wouldn’t have any extras on it that I normally get for distance 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 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 TJ 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 knowing I already like these frames.

That’s when he started telling me to leave the frames with him.  I laughed at him saying there’s no way I can give you my glasses, how am I going to see. (not very bright for a guy who sells glasses for a living)

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. Then he started talking about how the glass manufacturer will say I have 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 give me my money back 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 willingness 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 $500 for sunglasses because that’s all I could wear.

After this all went down, I remembered a situation many many years ago where I had to go into the eye glass factory and sit and wait while they put the lenses into the frames I wore & I remember it took 30-60 minutes for them to do this.

While I didn’t suggest this because I had forgotten all about that, TJ, the so called expert didn’t suggest this either.  It was clear to me he didn’t care at all whether I used these glasses or not & even if I had given him my frames, who knows what condition the lenses would have been in when they were returned.  I can’t be the only person who wants to keep their original frames and just replace the lenses.

So TJ got his money and I feel he ripped me off. I’ve never had such a problem with any eye glass store before. I did my part in keeping in touch & I know now after how he lied & didn’t even try to settle the problem that he had no intentions of ever correcting the problem. I bet you even if I had come in 2 weeks after I had picked them up, he still would have played games.

A few months later I started having a problem with my distance vision and had to go back to a different optometrist.

This guy told me what TJ’s optometrist had written up didn’t match his findings.

While they weren’t far off this optometrist said my prescription went up, and TJ’s saying it went down.

Michelle