Yes, I know, I know, I’ve whinged about this before. There’s a widely held stereotype that everything in Germany (except 12 or so percent of the labour force) works - and works efficiently. It’s not in the least bit true, well at least not in the case of my optician, or indeed any other optician that I could find*.
After managing to lose a set of keys and my glasses on my birthday (look, it could have happened to anyone, on any day, that it was me and that day is pure coincidence) I ordered a new pair the next day. Yes, I have to wear glasses, but my eyes are “perfectly faulty”, for wont of a better description – no astigmatisms or suchlike, they just are both equally shortsighted. I have a prescription from a check-up in February, I chose a frame in 10 minutes, said, “I want these please”, and agreed to “the most popular lenses”. I asked how long it would take and was told: “10 working days or so”. Obviously I left immediately and tried somewhere else. And somewhere else, and in the end accepted that my preconceptions about optometry have been somewhat skewed by watching UK television advertisements – the ones that say “your prescription glasses, in about an hour and a second, spare set, free”. Now, I’m sure that such temples of eyewear convenience exist in Germany; I however, was unable to find one. In the end, I returned to the original optician and bought the glasses I had chosen. That was June 4th. I have them as of yesterday. I think I’m going to stop watching British TV.
*If anyone says “But there are three on Königstrasse”, I’m just going to reply “Yes, but I couldn’t see”.
Added 5 hours later: What was that all about? Rants like that are what happens after I speak German intensely all day and keep getting asked why my eyes are so red? Is it hay fever or have you been wearing just contact lenses for two weeks and staring at the computer screen ’til 3:30 a.m.?
German Word For Today: “Kontaktlinsen” – need some of them too.
Song playing as this was published: Azure Ray “New Resolution”
Tsk, tsk. So even Indonesian opticians are more efficient. I had to wear prescription glasses for a year when I was about 15. And I had them done in half an hour, a hour, or some other insignificant amount of time.
The thing is, that day I checked my eyes, I must have been having a bad eye day or something, because when I checked them a year later, my vision was a perfect 20-20 again. So it’s either the glasses miraculously cured my shortsightedness — which I highly doubt considering I very rarely wore them, or I actually never had a vision impairment to begin with. I still wonder.
Good grief. Even in Karachi I get glasses in an hour and some, and lenses in about 4 hours at most. They’re probably cheaper here too, so if you want some, send me your prescription.
Same thing entered my mind when I first arrived here years ago. Even in my thirdworld hometown of Manila (Philippines, it is possible to get glasses within an hour and a half. I don’t know why it takes so long here in Germany.
3:30 in the morning? Did you recently buy a new computer game? Or are you writing numerous letters to the editor of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten in order to complain about Swabian opticians?
Btw, I recently went to the ophthalmology clinic at the university medical centre where I work. After I was initially checked by several non-specialist physcians it took more than four weeks to discuss the findings with the attending/consultant in charge. Interestingly, when I recently had to carry around my folder, I saw that all my complaints concerning this matter where neatly filed.
Tassles, Sin, Melissa: Maybe I just looked in the wrong part of town, I was expecting someone from Hamburg or Frankfurt or Munich to say “But….”. However, in the end I bought the glasses from an optician which is part of a medium-sized chain, exactly the kind of place that would normallly make your glasses in an hour.
JCS: The Stuttgarter Zeitung (although it’s produced by exactly the same people as Nachrichten) is far more the kind of paper I would read - although when it comes to getting a paper delivered I take the Süddeutsche on Fridays and Saturdays. As for your complaints, at least they were neatly filed.
oh no. I thought it was just me. I was hoping someone would tell you where it could be done. I wonder if there’s a market for it or if its filed under “Other ways Germans like to suffer”.
Jen: I asked at one store and the assisstant told me that “we used to do it, but customers didn’t like it”. File it under “Other ways Germans like to suffer”.
Thankfully I have not had to deal with this for a long time - got my current pair in SE Asia several years ago. IIRC it took one day.
The general experience sounds familiar though… How many times have I told unhelpful, unfriendly, bureaucratic Fachgeschäftsverkaufskräften in Germany that “if that’s your attitude, I’ll go somewhere else, thank you very much” only to find that every other place I could find was just as bad.
Seems that in some “crafts” that would traditionally have been organised in guilds - e.g. bookshops, pharmacies, opticians (much less so in shops now commonly run by immigrants, e.g. tailors and shoe-repair/key-cutting places) - each shop offers the same mediocre service at the same price, so everyone just goes to the nearest one.
Admittedly, this has its advantages - it saves me the pain of shopping around, and reduces the risk for those setting up a business. But compared to what I can get in free markets, I know what I prefer!
I was once told that the ankle brace I needed for a sprained achilles tendon was out of stock, they could order me one, it would take about 10 days. Me: “But I have the problem NOW.” (and start thinking if I can order it on the internet with next day delivery. Them: “Oh, we only order once a week and we just did that two days ago. So by the time the next order day comes along and the item is delivered, it’s 10 days.” And then one of the other assistants had the bright idea of calling the other store and miracles of miracles, they had it in stock.
What kind of business only does they’re ordering once a week? Especially for an item a customer needs who’s in pain?? Hmmpfh.