Made my third trip to the eye glasses place to get my new glasses adjusted and confirm that the prescription is right and the measurements are right. I have a pretty significant stigmatism and the introduction of progressives has complicated the process of getting new lenses. Every pair I have had since progressives has required multiple trips to get the fit right, and one time the lenses had to be remade.
Today I got the manager/customer advocate take care of me. The first lesson learned is that for my prescription, experience matters. The customer advocate confirmed the measurements are correct and he did adjust the frame so that the glasses now feel better and sit better on my face.
I learned that my progressive prescription changed pretty significantly for my right eye, so that means I would definitely have a noticable difference and need more time to adjust. Most importantly, he told me that due to the change I need to hold what I am reading closer to force my eyes to read through the progressives. Holding a book where I had in the past put it at the mid-way point, which causes strain. Nobody told me this, I don’t know how I was supposed to know.
So, now I know I have to change what I do and I have to give my eyes/brain time to adjust. These simple but important pieces of information should have been given to me either at the first appointment or when I first picked up the glasses. My theory about this customer experience is that the experience of the people taking care of you matters. They probably don’t see my particular prescription often, and then 20 somethings doing the work simply don’t have the experience to handle my prescription.