I was in looking for glasses and was told the office is closing this week. If you have a prescription on file you should get your copy now if you need it. I know there are mixed opinions out there but I have been going to him for the past 15 years and have no complaints at all. I’m sad to see that we are going back down to one Optometrist again because it makes appointments a pain to get plus it drives up the cost of the glasses whilst minimizing the selection. I have thought about buying my glasses online to get more selection. Has anyone had any luck with this or any horror stories?
But I thought our economy was on the rebound, booming in some ways? Guess not!
Try ClearlyContacts.ca… online site for ordering frames and contacts. I have heard so many positive comments about them.
Go and have a look… you give them your prescription, and there you go…cheap…cheap…cheap. They have offers to get free frames to try…you can also upload your pic and try glasses on to what looks good on you… 
hope you find what you need Walkalong…
p.s. I think Barlow put himself out of business
[quote=“My2cents”]
p.s. I think Barlow put himself out of business[/quote]
He is the reason I drove to Smithers to see Dr. Kreke until we got Omni Eye. I believe he is the reason why they are closing. Trent McNeice (optician) ran that business for many years and I never had a complaint with him.
As for ClearlyContacs.ca I have bought contacs from them on several occasions and have never had a problem. I have yet to try buying glasses from them but I am considering it. I only have to wonder how they will fit without trying them on first, prior to buying or if there is any guarantee if they don’t fit.
MANY in town refused to go to him to begin with after he bought the place from Dr. Kreke.
This town has only really ever had one optometrist until Omni opened up this year, so doesn’t really work with the “booming economy” rant.
I had a positive experience with Omni Eye. And it will be the place I go to get any eye work done, from now on.
I asked earlier in this thread about people having experiences with Clearly Contacts and other online eyewear retailers. I always supported Dr. Barlow’s store and looked at his frames first. Sometimes I bought there, sometimes I didn’t. One of our fellow HTMF readers gave me a free glasses code for Clearly Contacts and I thank that person very much. My prescription is still good (in reality and not on the prescription - two months out of date) so that wasn’t an issue. I have progressive lenses so I was not able to get “free glasses” because that is for single vision lenses. I ended up with a different promo code and a free shipping code and ended up with glasses for $200. I went to Clearly Contacts because when I went to Omni Eye the first glass frames I looked at were just under $300 and they are very simple frames like the ones I already had. I knew that my progressive lenses would be probably closer to $300 than not because I had checked the prices there when they first opened. The key factor for me on that day was when they said it would be $40 to confirm my prescription and if they didn’t confirm it they wouldn’t honour changing the glasses if the prescription didn’t seem right when I got them. I think buying from Clearly Contacts is easy as they guide you through the process as long as you have your prescription. However, this should never replace eye checkups from a qualified Opthamologist and when I need the services of one I will book an appointment at Omni - the eye exam and the purchasing of eye glasses are two entirely different issues to me. Dr. Barlow’s office was accomodating to me by printing out my family’s file and prescriptions for free before they closed. But, I didn’t see any closure ad in the paper and I didn’t receive mail notification that they were closing and I have to say that I think that is wrong because as a long term patient I feel I deserved that.
Barlow will be missed by very few.
His operation was completely inept.
My experiences with his establishment (MANY with my wife and I) have been poor- to be polite.
In all honesty I’m luke warm with the new outfit but time will tell.
Cheers
1
Personally, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Dr. Barlow and his staff.
I wish all of them the best.
Barlow diagnosed my friend’s cancer of the eye and saved her vision if not her life. She just went for a check because she was bored with her old frames and didn’t think anything had changed.
1 - I was always told by people ignorant of the situation that ‘oh that guy rips people off, he charges $25 for an appointment’.
2 - the same people now are saying ‘man, they rip people off - they’re still charging $25 for an appointment’.
3 - I don’t care for the $25 fee as it was something that was of little inconvenience to me, it was strange though - that I had picked frames that said “$166” on it and it had somehow ended up costing me $240 even after paying for the examination.
I did get a “Courtesy Adjustment” of $4.32 though. wahoo
Frames + lenses + taxes … sounds about right.
Yeah I had a brain fart, i’ll admit that.
I was just happy to see the $166 price tag.
I like my new “Guess” glasses
You’re complaining about 240.00? I spent close to 500.00 4 or 5 years ago on my glasses and I’ve only worn them twice and havent seen them in two years… Was well worth it though. Good times.
Heh, me too. Except I wear mine all of the time. My mom paid over 800 for hers. Invisible bi focals, and crizal photo grey… And that was at Walmart, which is always cheap for glasses.
Not really a complaint, I just found it weird that $166 went to $240 (and this was after I made payments) I double checked my invoice and it was like $270.
I <3 my new glasses. =)
There’s a reason it didn’t add up for me, I sometimes get excited and don’t add everything up properly. lol
You’re not getting it. The $166 price-tag was for the frames only! The cost of the lenses and the taxes were then added to make the total price. A pair of lenses for my reading glasses are $70 added to the price of whatever frames I selected.
Insert joke about not being able to read the fine print, 'cause he needed glasses 