Optical in HH

[ajmcmahon47]

Hi guys , just let me know if I am asking to many questions of you Expert / Expats and I will crawl back into my hole.

TODAY'S QUESTION.
Can you guys recommend any Glasses / Optical stores in HH or is Cha-Am better? We'd like to get some made up whilst in town in a few weeks time. May help my golf!

Tony
BRISBANE AUSTRALIA

[barrys]

You'll probably find a few conflicting opinions on this topic.

However, I've always used the Top Charoen chain of stores since I came to Thailand almost 11 years ago.
I've found them to be reasonably priced, efficient and reliable.
Minor repairs after purchase have always been free on production of my customer card, irrespective of the date of purchase.

At present, they also have a promotion where you buy one set of glasses and get one set of frames free

[ajmcmahon47]

Thanks Barry , are they in HH or Cha-Am ?


Thanks again...
(I will buy you a lemonade when I meet you)

Tony

[barrys]

Hi Tony

They have a few outlets in Hua Hin and I'm sure there must be at least one in Cha-am.

The one I use in Hua Hin is close to the International Polyclinic.

Just checked with them - the "buy one get one free offer" is valid until the end of this month.

[lomuamart]

Agree with Barry about Top Charoen and the outlet I always use is on the corner of Naebkhahars Road and Chomsin. Grid C3 http://www.huahinafterdark.com/hua-hin-map.htm on the northwest corner.

[ajmcmahon47]

Excellent. Thanks

[easyas]

Agree with Barry about Top Charoen and the outlet I always use is on the corner of Naebkhahars Road and Chomsin. Grid C3 http://www.huahinafterdark.com/hua-hin-map.htm on the northwest corner.

Went to the Top Charoen store referred to above (at least I think I did, it's one block south of Chomsin Road, there's not one on the north west corner) based on his and other recommendations.
I had broken the frame of my glasses and wanted to put my existing quite recent prescription lenses into a new frame. Now admittedly my lenses are quite thick, being both progressives and transitions, but the assistant showed me several frames she said would be suitable. I chose one, we haggled a little over the price, and she said they would be ready for me at 4.00 pm. I went to collect them the next morning only to find my lenses had been fitted into a completely different frame to the one I had chosen and one which I particularly disliked the look of. "Technician say frame you chose (remember it was their recommendation!) no good - this only frame good - he had to cut lens to make fit". So not only were the frames cheap and nasty but my lenses had been mutilated! I asked why no one had rung me (they had my number) when the technician first knew there was a problem to ask me to come in again and choose again. Deathly silence! I then exploded! "I want my money and my lenses back". Even more deathly silence. There were 4 assistants and one by one they said "Moment please" and went to a different corner of the shop, studying their fingernails. Eventually I couldn't help myself and started POWER talking to the most senior of the girls. "Moment please, have to call factory" Why - who knows? To cut a very long and tedious story short after well over an hour hassling and haranguing I was able to leave with both my money and my lenses, although not my broken frames - "at factory".


Happy ending though. Went to Market Village and found there a top class Optician (Eyelab) where I was able to choose a perfectly respectable set of frames (incidentally priced a fair bit lower than Top Charoen) into which and on the spot my lenses were fitted!

[buksida]

TC are useless for anything but selling frames IMO, I had similar experiences here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=18680

[lomuamart]

Sorry to hear you had that experience, easyas. I was last there about a year ago in exactly the same situation as you and the lenses were fitted into new frames within an hour. They're still going strong.
I've also used them for minor repairs without even being charged.
I assume you were at the same shop. It sounds like it. I've maybe just caught them on good days.

[easyas]

Sorry to hear you had that experience, easyas. I was last there about a year ago in exactly the same situation as you and the lenses were fitted into new frames within an hour. They're still going strong.
I've also used them for minor repairs without even being charged.
I assume you were at the same shop. It sounds like it. I've maybe just caught them on good days.

I'm sure it was same shop - only one in the area - you were just one block adrift.
As for "same situation" - no "factory" for you? With all due respect your lenses must be a lot less of a hassle in terms of prescription than mine. What really p....d me off was the total lack of contact when the techo realised he had a problem, trying to offload cheap shoddy frames on to me, and the interminable arguments (or rather, mostly deathly silences) before very begrudgingly I did get my money back. I even had a second smaller argument about getting my own lenses back!

[hhfarang]

Happy ending though. Went to Market Village and found there a top class Optician (Eyelab) where I was able to choose a perfectly respectable set of frames (incidentally priced a fair bit lower than Top Charoen) into which and on the spot my lenses were fitted!

Good to know. I've always admired their selection of frames but assumed that from the name brands displayed in the windows and from the MV location that they would be the highest priced optical dispensary in town.

[T.I.G.R.]

Sorry to hear about your story easyas, but the reaction you got is not unheard of here. The technician probably screwed up somehow and if there is anything Thais are bad at it's accepting a little loss of face when necessary. That's why you got the "moment please" from everyone in the shop. The girls were certainly not going to rat him out.

"moment please", in my experience, is code for "oh shit, how am I going to get out of this????", and the best Thai response is to disappear, either figuratively or literally. I am delighted and surprised that you actually got your lenses back and your money in the same day! You must have a very intimidating presence....congrats on that at least.

To balance the story, I've used Top Charoen for the six years I've been here, twice for new glasses, several times for adjustments or repairs, and recently to get a two cheap sets of frames and one glass with a prescription and the other clear. Haven't ever had a problem with delivery or quality. All the stores trade merchandise with each other and I'm not sure the techs don't work in any or all of the stores as necessary......at any rate, the store I've used is in Cha Am on the main street near the light, on the left as you're headed north. They've always provided me with good service.

Also, for everyone's benefit my wife got new glass pieces using her old ones for the prescription and her old frames at one of the Central Towers in the basement......small shop not one of the name brands.....only 800 baht. She says Top Charoen will do it too but don't know the price.

What I would really like to know as an aside to this little story, is how Top Charoen and the other large retailers make a decent profit on what seems to be about one customer a day! Money laundering is the only thing I can come up with.

[easyas]

Sorry to hear about your story easyas, but the reaction you got is not unheard of here. The technician probably screwed up somehow and if there is anything Thais are bad at it's accepting a little loss of face when necessary. That's why you got the "moment please" from everyone in the shop. The girls were certainly not going to rat him out.

"moment please", in my experience, is code for "oh shit, how am I going to get out of this????", and the best Thai response is to disappear, either figuratively or literally. I am delighted and surprised that you actually got your lenses back and your money in the same day! You must have a very intimidating presence....congrats on that at least.

To balance the story, I've used Top Charoen for the six years I've been here, twice for new glasses, several times for adjustments or repairs, and recently to get a two cheap sets of frames and one glass with a prescription and the other clear. Haven't ever had a problem with delivery or quality. All the stores trade merchandise with each other and I'm not sure the techs don't work in any or all of the stores as necessary......at any rate, the store I've used is in Cha Am on the main street near the light, on the left as you're headed north. They've always provided me with good service.

Also, for everyone's benefit my wife got new glass pieces using her old ones for the prescription and her old frames at one of the Central Towers in the basement......small shop not one of the name brands.....only 800 baht. She says Top Charoen will do it too but don't know the price.

What I would really like to know as an aside to this little story, is how Top Charoen and the other large retailers make a decent profit on what seems to be about one customer a day! Money laundering is the only thing I can come up with.

Happy ending though. Went to Market Village and found there a top class Optician (Eyelab) where I was able to choose a perfectly respectable set of frames (incidentally priced a fair bit lower than Top Charoen) into which and on the spot my lenses were fitted!

Good to know. I've always admired their selection of frames but assumed that from the name brands displayed in the windows and from the MV location that they would be the highest priced optical dispensary in town.

"Money laundering" - perhaps so - they had to send out for money to pay me back!
"intimidating presence"? - put that down to I just watched "Donnie Brasco" - love Al Pacino!

[samman]

Hi. Try Time Optic near to the shopping mall in Hua Hin. They have a lab of their own unlike most others which are basically franchised shops. After sale service for repairs etc is excellent and I've never had to pay.

[hhfarang]

I had a couple of problems with Time Optical. The first was a coating they put on my lenses alligatored after a month or so, that is it looked like alligator skin or a spider web was over the lenses. They did send those back to a Bangkok lab (they were not able to do mine in the in house lab) and re-coated them, however the transition lenses I got from them darken at a different level leaving me with one lens much darker than the other when I am in the sun and they refused to do anything about that, so I haven't returned.