EDIT June302009:
I received an email from Jennifer a few weeks back. (I didn’t reply, wasn’t sure what to say) but since it is applicable I just wanted to mention a little bit about it in the comments.
EDIT Jan.12.2010:
I bought from them again a few months back, so you can go read that one as well…definitely better than my first experience, but the warping on the frames was still the same CLICK HERE for the post.
EDIT Jan.13.2009:
I’m being really lazy and not posting up the new update, and my FINALLY receiving my items. I had a somewhat disastrous time with them. They did TRY to make up for it, but I don’t believe it was all worth it in the end. One of my glasses was plastic, and so warped on the side, it didn’t sit properly on the face. When I took it in for adjustments, people refused to touch it because they knew if they did, it would break. I was recommended to go to the place I bought them from :T, or I was told several times to just return them. Which you can if you are not completely satisfied. I was just sick and tired of it all by this point and decided against it and suck it up.
Another friend of mine, who did order, did get his after a month or so as well. He does like his glasses, but his were metal frames, so he didn’t have much issue with the glasses themselves. Another friend of mine buys her contacts from them for some time now, and loves it. So as with everything there is a hit or a miss. If you are one of the lucky ones to have a consistently great experience with them, congrats. I think for now, I’m done with them.
Also I should mention cause I did delete that statement. I don’t delete comments, mainly cause I don’t believe in it. So I left ‘Jennifer’s’ alone. The thing with this one is that the IP that is logged for BOTH Roger AND Jennifer is of the same IP. Yes there are travelling IP’s and whatnot, but what are the Chances right? Anyway since I felt that it should be mentioned…I am skeptical of her comment cause of the IP value that is associated with it.
EDIT Nov.29.08:
So I emailed them back, the SA, and told them that I wanted these other pair of glasses. And put in another order for my brother. Except that was TWO WEEKS AGO!! I asked for confirmation TWICE, and never got a reply back. I tried calling the individual at their extension, and it just rings and rings.
So I don’t know if I will get my glasses, because I don’t know if he placed the order on his own. And I had to place the order with the SA because he said that he would provide a small compensation for the issue at hand. Except I’ve seen nothing, and heard NOTHING from the individual.
Not impressed :( Cause everyone else seems to be getting their glasses…and I’m jealous. And today is the last day of the month…and now…I won’t be getting those extra cheap glasses…Well that just means I will continue going to a store.
Some things seem to be GREAT at buying online. But I guess for me, glasses are the exception. Especially after a crazy-annoying experience such as this one…I doubt I will venture into it again anytime soon.
Not cool CC, Not cool.
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***WARNING: This is a rant. I’m upset with this company as of this moment, and need to vent, and thus I am placing this warning so that you can avoid reading this if you want. But if you do read it..thanks, and sorry! lol also excuse the grammatical errors and such. Too annoyed to fix them/care***
So I’m really upset right now…Here’s why…
Last Monday, the 3rd, I found about this website’s new promotion. Buy a complete set (frames and lens’) for $38 plus 10 dollar shipping. SWEET! Right?
Yes! I ordered a pair of Armani’s cause they were gorgeous, and so did my brother. Now they say overnight delivery blah blah, but I knew because of my lens’ it couldn’t be that fast anyway. Besides there was a lot of people ordering.
So whatever, we put in an order.
2 days later we receive an email stating it will take much longer, because of the amount of orders that they received. (I also forgot to mention, last Monday, they were giving 1000 pairs of glasses for free. You only had to pay the shipping fees. So because of that, things were way out of whack.) They stated in the email, that they should arrive before the 14th of November.
Fine, waiting I can deal with, seeing as I am a huge fan of online ordering.
So waited I did.
Except my brother got another email today. Which is why I’m pretty pissed.
It stated that the frames that were ordered, were now out of stock. And thus our orders were canceled.
Sorry What?!
There was a direct number to call, and they said that they would set up another pair to be shipped out to me at no extra cost. Meaning if I can find something. But what annoys me is that today is Wednesday. It took them 1 week and 2 days to realize that they didn’t have stock, and thus couldn’t complete my order?? That I find quite offensive. (I don’t understand how to explain why I feel offended, but I do!)
In any case, my brother only checked his email (he used his visa instead of mine to place the order,) just an hour ago, and thus I now have to sleep with this annoyance/anger until tomorrow morning when I can chew them out.
Though I really don’t want to. I’m just upset that they don’t have a more appropriate protocol in handling orders. I mean there are companies that update their stock pretty much live, so that they can eliminate the occurance of “out of stock” problems. And especially when such a deal going around…you cannot expect that people will be fully understanding. I mean I was understanding for the whole “taking longer than usual” business, but out of stock and waiting is not something I want to understand. Also if I were to put in another order, what’s to say that a week from now they won’t give me the same damned story? I mean seriously, Mama needs a new pair of frames!
What’s also frustrating is that I wanted to see how my first pair turned out, before I order another pair. Except the problem with that, is that the glasses are being picked up fast by others, especially when they are designers. There was a pair of black/green Gucci frames the other day, approximately a year old? And those were gone by the end of the day. I wanted them…but didn’t place an order cause I wanted to see how my first pair turned out!!!
So yes.
I’m really pissed right now. I hope that this will settle down tomorrow, cause I have this tendency to try tearing up when I am really angry (yeah…it sucks…I’m weird, what can you do?!). They were gorgeous…so long lovely Armani frames…
Anyway I’m going to see how things work out tomorrow. Depending on how things go, there will be more flaming, or perhaps praise for how they handled the situation.
I’ll post the update…let’s hope for the better…
They are Claimed to be Canada’s Largest Online Optical Store, according to their website…
in a nutshell... 
i am so sorry to read this! I know how you feel, I don’t like it when companies give freebies or give major discounts then they wouldn’t be able to handle the bulk of orders! they should have foreseen that in the first place. Tell us how it goes and goodluck!
Thanks for the warning. I was considering of ordering contacts from them.
you have a right to be upset. It should not take more than a week to process an order only to then cancel it on you through an email. I hope you called them and gave them a piece of your mind. I would be pissed off too. At least they’re offering the glasses to you free of charge, but then again, sometimes its not worth it for all the stress you have to endure.
Carmen
Thanks for reading! I can’t say much about their contacts, but definitely for their glasses if you don’t mind spending a bit more money, you should wait til after November…Maybe they will perform better?
But I would assume that if they can’t get things together with their glasses, it would be a mess with their contacts as well.
I absolutely agree it should not take more than a week to get your glasses out to you, and the product should not go out of stock while you are on the site.
we ran a promotion designed to introduce glasses to canadian customers online, but we had no idea the magnitude of growth or interest it would generate.
at times last monday there were more than 20 000 people in the store, at the same time all wanting the same products. This challenged our system and in some cases the same people were trying to buy the same product at the same time.
in a physical store this couldn’t have happened because you would see the person in front of you take the last item. in the web store, many people can have an item in their ” cart” but it only comes out of our inventory once someone purchases it. the numbers of purchases that were occurring happened so fast our system had a minor melt down.
We are taking steps, and working hard to ensure neither of these things ever happens again. We have been building our business with a hard working team for more than 9 years, the most important thing to us is to serve customers.
we are working hard to ensure all the glasses ordered during the promotion get out to you, if the pair you ordered went out of stock while you were on the site, we have offered a credit towards any other pair of glasses. we want to make you happy.
Let us get a pair of glasses out to you, and then by all means please send me an email and explain how we could have done a better job. We are doing everything we can to change the way the world buys glasses and contacts, and we want it to be a better and more efficient experience. You experienced a day of growing pains, this doesn’t happen often for us, in fact almost never and this was the first day we really dropped the ball.
We appreciate and value all your thoughts and even criticisms – they will make us better in the long run at serving you.
my sincere thanks for your patience and understanding, we are almost back to speed and ready to continue serving you and taking the way the world buys glasses and contacts to a new level.
warm regards,
Roger Hardy
president
clearlycontacts.ca
I will never – NEVER – purchase from Clearly Contacts again. My glasses (with expensive progressive) fell apart one afternoon. I packaged the glasses with a letter around the glasses in the case and around the package (just in case they were separted). I called a few days later received an email that my glasses had been returned. So, next I call and I am told that my glasses are not in the process of repair, that they are sending them for a credit because I did not call (wrong, I did call) and follow the correct procedure. It seems no one in the recieving department can READ or process a written request. Now my glasses are in the land of the lost. I received a very curt and rude response, in fact the girl did not realize that I could hear her laugh and mocking when she thought I was on hold. Customer Service is dead. I have managed a medical clinic with 16 physicians and 150 employees and never would I have allowed my staff to treat another with such disrespect. Sad to say the discounts are not worth the lack of courtesy. SHAME ON YOU CLEARLY CONTACTS AND SHAME ON THE YOUNG LADY WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS SO FUNNY! May KARMA be swift,,,,so be it!
Oh Patty, I’m sorry.
That is a horrible experience. I dont know if you want to try and rectify this, or eve try and make this situation aware to the company, but I have found that their twitter account (despite how impersonal this sounds) has been helpful, and has tried to make things right for people.
There should never be a situation where anyone, as the caller, should be mocked. That is poor insight on the workers themselves. Unfortunately that is a variable that is hard to control. I’ve experienced some really bad CS in stores recently, and has been quite a pain. Its to the extent I would rather avoid it all by shopping online with reliable companies, than to step in their actual stores.
Anyway, this is an unfortunate experience, and though I’m not responsible, sorry it happened to you :(
Wow. I think that is pretty great that the President of the company is this open and honest about what happend. He really sounds like he wants to make his customers happy.
I guess they didn’t know how many people would want to order on the same day and are trying to fix it.
A president of a major company like this who takes the time to reply to customer complaints personally gets my business! he obviouslt has his customers best interests in mind!
UPDATE!
Jennifer has recently emailed me about this comment.
So, yes she is a member of the CC company.
She was new to the game, and didn’t realize then, how this comment would have had such an effect…
she made the effort to mend that error.
So now I feel a tad bad about the comment I made in the post…
damn girl! haven’t come by in EVER. school issues :T
anyway just read this rant (doing some catching up on reading your posts!)
but I hope that it was a good settlement. I think that especially seeing as this company is quite large…i mean they have like 4 different sites branching out from the one main site!
I think that though the RH tried to let you know the issues that they have experienced, and though it was a nice gesture to write like this, that i wouldn’t have been happy with the reply as well.
And i have to mention that you should delete that jennfer girl! like what the heck, sounds as if shes a minion from the company who figures that doing a comment like this will get her extra brownie points with the big boss. tell her to **** it instead.
HA. wait…damn. lol guess you don’t want that there?? haha…
anyway missed coming here, but im pretty much done for now…
Rasilla,
If you want to add Facebook or email sharing buttons to your blog posts, there’s a plugin that does it for you: http://www.picturesurf.org/share-buttons
Hope you find it helpful!
Cheers,
Jerry
I didn’t have a good experience with them either. First, I received an order 24h after clicking “continue” hoping for a confirmation at the next step, like you would expect when you see step 3 as being confirmation at the top of your screen while at step 2. I always do so before puting an order in, to get familiar with the steps and make sure everything is fine. Not only that, I cancelled my order twice online right away, without ever receiving a notice from these crooks. So between the 2-3 days they require to answer an e-mail, if they answer at all, I got stuck in camp for work, away from any city. They finally sent me a sticker I could print to ship it back, but that was only good for 5 days and as I said, I was away and had explained that to them. Now they want to charge me a credit card interest rate on top of it. We’ll see how that goes from here, but it’s all pretty shabby to me.
You already busted Jennifer but I thought I would add this snippet that I copied off the bottom of a media release.
For Further Information:
Jennifer Harvey
Communications Manager
Clearly Contacts Ltd.
604-669-1555 ext. 322
It appears that she may be a bit more “related” to the company than she lets on.
LOL
Thanks for that Bobcat :)
I just wish that she could have acted a bit more…sensibly, seeing as it was a sensitive topic for me.
I HAVE HAD NOTHING BUT SATISFACTION WITH CLEARLY CONTACTS. THE GLASSES I RECEIVED WERE GREAT. THE PAIR THAT I DIDN’T LIKE WERE RECEIVED BACK WITH NO QUESTIONS. THEY SENT ANOTHER PAIR IMMEDIATELY AND EVEN RECOMMENDED I SEND THE PAIR I WAS KEEPING AND HAVE THE PROGRESSIVE LENSES CHANGED TO THE THINNER. THANKS BRIAN.
EACH REP. WAS VERY NICEAND DID THEIR JOB RESPONSIBLY. THE GLASSES I RECEIVED WERE GORGEOUS AND I AM A GLASSES FREAK.
I RECOMMEND THEM TO EVERYBODY. MY BEST FRIEND HAS ALSO BECOME ADDICTED. BEST REGARDS MARILYN SMITH
Thanks for your input, though I was tempted to delete it cause of the ALL CAPITAL LETTERS thing.
I just ordered a pair of glasses from the website after hearing about them from a friend. I wish I had read the reviews around the web first, apparently there are far more negative reviews than positive. Oh well. I ordered on Friday morning and had to pay for the 1-2 fast delivery. Meaning by store standards adding 3-5 days for assembly I should get them somewhere between Monday to Wednesday the week after this upcoming one.
I hope they come through, but I have my doubts. I’ve already paid by Master Card and I’d hate to have to fight to get my money back. Also that post involving Jennifer and the Pres made me laugh, I mean really? Even without the IP trace that’s a bit ridiculous, and unbelievable.
I’ll let you all know how the glasses come out, just for the input.
There do seem to be a lot of hit and misses.
I guess it really depends. I mean they ARE cheap…that I can attest to.
But is it worth having to go through a bit of trouble?
Dunno.
Anyway I just wanted to mention that if you have issues, try PG (I think that was her name) on their twitter account. She does her best to bridge the gap in complaints, and tries to sort out any issues you may have~
Worth a shot if you are having issues~
But do let me know :)
Caveat Emptor – ClearlyContacts.ca – CUSTOMER SERVICE HORROR FRAUD STORY – WARNING – BE CAREFUL WHEN ORDERING FROM CLEARLYCONTACT.ca
1. Unsecure website for online payments
2. Questionable & rude customer service practices
3. Calls to their toll free number resulted in lectures
I attempted to order a pair of glasses online. Could not complete the transaction. Had problems HTTP 404 server problems. Did not order anything.
Next day I received an email with a confirmation notice of transaction for a different order for different pair of glasses with different configuration. Called customer service posted on their website. Experienced a real customer service nightmare. Spoke to Yanni from ClearlyContacts in British Columbia. Turns out it was an order from another customer.
Instead of explanation or apology I received.
1. Lecture on how to use an online payment system
2. Accusations that my error caused the problem.
3. Then tried to up-sell me different glasses for $250 more. (I declined)
4. Called back later to ask for a manager (Jordan declined my request)
Recommendations. Consider their free offer as a Caveat Emptor – Buyer Be Ware! Free offer is not free. Major problems with their billing system. Customer service was hopeless. Would not recommend doing business with this Canadian firm.
I am filing complaints with CMA in Ontario and BC Ministry of Attorney General – Consumer Services Division for fraudulent business practices and violating the BC Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act.
AVOID ClearlyContacts.ca like the plague.
Hi, it’s Patty from Clearly Contacts. I’m very sorry to hear about the experience that you had. Can you provide your order number so I can look into what happened? I will definitely follow up on your behalf, and hope that we can make things right for you.
Regarding the free glasses giveaway, we have given away thousands of glasses throughout 2010. You can check out what people have been saying about their free glasses here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=316974901200&index=1
Patty here from Clearly Contacts (PG). Thanks for your comments and feedback. We’ve had our glasses offering for a couple of years now, so we’ve worked out a lot of the bugs that came with a new product line. (The original post/review was from Nov 2008.) Occasionally there can be delays or problems, but we’ve had many more positive comments from customers than negative ones. A lot of the improvements and changes have come from feedback that is suggested by our customers. We do our best with every single order that we receive and will definitely do whatever we can to resolve things if you do have issues!
Please feel free to check out our Facebook or Twitter page to see what others are saying: http://www.facebook.com/ClearlyContacts.ca or http://www.twitter.com/ClearlyContacts I’m available to help anytime on our Twitter account, as Rasilla mentioned.
@Zain – I hope your order went smoothly! Please let me know how it went.
@Marilyn – Thanks! I’ll pass your compliment along to Brian :)
Guys, what a disaster this company has caused. I ordered a set through the free promo in Nov 10. Got them no problems at all. The next thing you know I am getting demand letters from debt collectors for $145 for a pair of glasses that no-one in this house knows anything about. Without a word of a lie I have made 15 attempts at contact with this company to get hold of a tracking number for an order that was never delivered. No-body can seem to provide me with this. In fact, no-one can return my calls or emails. The debt collector says that I have to pay this amount regardless of whether I have received an order or not. They say it has taken me 4 months to attempt to resolve anything – untrue – with every attempt at contact over the past 4 months I have not been able to speak with anyone (except for the debt collector today). I was informed after the fact that my phone call was recorded and that my statement refusing to pay an account will be forwarded to the relevant people. This is not a legal practice anyway. It seems that all they want is my credit card details to take money – there is no order, no delivery only demands. I believe that they have me mixed up with someone else yet I can’t speak to them to resolve it. They are reporting to an Australian credit reporting agency on Monday. Please steer clear of this company – its just not worth the stress that it has put us under. With any luck, the CEO / Patty might contact me after this post – perhaps this is the only way to get in touch with them??
Kel try reaching them on twitter.
Others have had better luck there. They might not see this comment because the last issue was quite the while back.
I wish u all the best on trying to resolve this…definitely sucks.
I have had some bad luck with Clearly Contacts. Purchased some contacts from them they are useless. I tried to return them I was told if the box is unsealed they will not accept them. How could I tell if they did not work unless I opened the box. That is a perfect way to scam people out of their hard earned cash. If anyone wants to make sure that they do not get cheated by Clearly Contacts just dont order from them.
Sorry to hear that your experience didn’t go well either Judy.
I really wish that experiences didn’t have to vary to much from customer to customer.
I never ever buy such thing online, we get what we pay.
true. though I have paid dirt cheap for a lot of things that were quite awesome when I received them. unfortunately it doesn’t really apply properly to the frames on site
I ordered glasses… got some cheap deals for sure! but probably not something I would wear in public, just wasn’t a good fit on my face. Enh! will probably go back to buying from a local shop
as long as the arms have been adjusted to fit your face, yes, as backups to wear around the house it isn’t too bad. there are some really nice frames on the website, if you are fast enough to snag them that is~
CLEARLY CONTACTS SUCK! I’m far from a satified customer, they have slow and poor customer service, never ordering fr them again.
Be aware of the damage that their contacts are causng. In some cases – irreversible eye damage due to cheap and ‘wrong’ contacts. May be wise to keep all records for future legal claims as there will undoubtedly be a class action suit sooner or later. Pure stupidity to market critical medical aids and devices like walmart candy!
I know of some people who have used their contacts, only because it was the same as what they were getting from their consultations, and previous sellers for contacts. They haven’t had issues. However that isn’t to say that this would not happen, as you suggest. I do believe that in terms of contacts you do need to be more aware and informed when dealing with them.
Good point to bring up, thanks.
Clearly Contacts, Coastal contacts, or whatever other dozen names they use are scammers.
********** NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM ************
Ordered “free” glasses that after “recommended” lens “upgrades” and shipping cost almost $150. Cheaply made “designer” frame had to be professionally adjusted to make them fit. Something was still not right with the glasses as they hurt the eyes after just few minutes of wearing them. On website they advertise 365 days refund. Sounds great, does not it? OK, the glasses were sent back. CC issued store credit. Not good, requested the promised “hassle-free” refund. CC came up with a BS about missing nose pads and offered 50% refund. What a lie!?!?!?! First of all the glasses were sent in the original condition with all the … that came with them. And what is the value of the mysteriously disappeared nose pads on a $2-$7 frame (that is how much eyeglass shops pay for their “designer” frames). A dollar? 50 cents? But CC is trying to withhold over $70!!!! Common, CC, if you want to swindle a customer for that much money you’d better to come up with a better story. Maybe the glasses came dirty, worn out and broken? Or maybe there were no glasses at all in the returned box, just a pile of … something?
I am escalating the issue to whatever level it takes. CC executives (if there really care), BBB, chargeback, whatever it takes!
I ordered a pair of glasses with all the coatings including photo gray…I liked the glasses but they did not last. The add on scratch resistant coating has broken down and I can hardly see out of them. Life span of coating I would estimate to be about a year and a few months. You get what you pay for….weedabix
I didn’t get the extra coating, I think, so it’s good to hear a review on it from someone else. Thank you for sharing.