Royo Eye and Laser Center

(Note, since I originally posted this review on January 27 I have found out that Jennifer Chan, see below, has either been fired or has quit. I might still be leery of their prescriptions for glasses and might think of double checking before you spend $ on glasses but she was the main impetus for my original but no longer one star review. I will still be going to Dr. Kwong from here on but Dr. Jacob is great if your insurance company sends you to him)…
I really wish I had read some of these reviews because even though this is the one place my insurance covers you DO get what you pay for and free (with insurance) isn’t ever really free.
Like the other reviews the wait was almost 45 minutes but at least they had a commercial for their business running on a loop playing LOUDLY on the TV the whole time (which sort of drowned out the screaming of the two little kids that were running around the waiting room… thankfully I had earplugs with me)…
I was there for an appointment with Dr. Jacob to do a cataract exam and he was nice and polite and informative (but said that even though my cataracts were deteriorating I wouldn’t be «eligible» for surgery for five years)…Fine so far… Then the wheels fell off the train…
Next up was the regular eye exam with the seriously surly young Asian woman Dr.(Dr. Chan) I just assumed that since it was almost noon she was angry and in a RUSH because it was almost lunch and she was hungry. Judging by the reviews below she is always like this…
She RUSHed through the exam and when I asked her about my left eye astigmatism she said that I no longer had it… I specifically asked a second time because I’ve had an astigmatism since I was 12… But she again said no…
Then I was shuffled off to the opticians lab where they put the high pressure squeeze on me to BUY GLASSES NOW even though I had NO desire to do so especially with the astronomical prices they were charging. Plus, looking at glasses with my eyes dilated in a BRIGHT room was something I really wasn’t interested in…
You can guess the rest… Over $ 200 wasted on glasses with the wrong prescription (NOT from Royo) which was obvious from the horrible headache I got from trying to «break them in» for an hour…
When I went to my «old» eye doctor (Dr. Helen Kwong on 9^th and J in Downtown Sacramento. She is nothing short of awesome. See my Unilocal review along with MANY other 5 star reviews) I took along the bogus prescription and the glasses from it and when I showed it to her she just shook her head. «This is just wrong» she said. «You have a significant astigmatism and you need prisms in both lenses (also omitted from the Royo prescription)…Dr. Kwong ALSO wrote me out a separate contact lens prescription (something NOT done by Royo) and then went «in back» and brought me a bunch of contact lens samples (15 pair)…When she went to charge me I actually told her I wanted to pay $ 10 MORE than she asked for because it was so low (yes, really, I tipped my Optometrist.)
End result, If you ONLY see Dr. Jacob cool, but do NOT get an eye exam and expect it to be close to right…

The doctors are booked so it’s hard to get appointments. My mom was referred to this office by her primary care physician. My mom doesn’t speak a lot of English so I came in to translate for her.
We waited about 10 minutes first for the first exam. A young doctor by the name of Jenny Chang did the first exam. She seemed nice at first, but soon got extremely frustrated with my mom because she couldn’t speak English well and couldn’t understand her. Doctor Chang asked a lot of questions, but spoke fast and didn’t give me enough time to translate and didn’t give my mom a lot of time to answer. She rushed through the exam, treating my mom like she was a fluent English speaker. Occasionally Doctor Chang would talk over me while I was trying to translate to my mom and she would push forward with the examination before we could answer her questions. Sometimes she would look to the side and make a face or shake her head. I was so upset to be treated like this and looked down on. We paid to get an exam – we aren’t asking for charity. When we were asked to wait for another part of the exam after the first initial one, the same Dr. Chang came in to speak to another patient sitting next to me. Her demeanor was the same, very rude and impatient. She rolled her eyes in my direction when they answered her questions.
When Doctor Jacob took us in for the second part of the exam, he was extremely nice and patient with us. He actually stopped in between sentences to let me translate for my mom. I would not go back to this place again unless I’m guaranteed I won’t get Dr. Chang.

My son and I had been patients for about 10 or more years. The staff wasn’t overly friendly and the waiting times were a bit long, but we still went back. However, a few days ago when I tried to make an appointment for myself, my partner and our twin girls I was told they could only make appointments for two family members at a time. I explained that we all needed to be seen — and I needed help with the girls — so I really wanted us to all have sequential appointments (so we didn’t have to take two different times off work). I spoke to a manager and she confirmed their policy and my explanation didn’t change her mind. So I am now looking for a new optometrist.

You will wait here forever. They are always an hour behind schedule at minimum. Oh, and they’ll lose your paperwork

My grandmother’s appointment was at 10:45, but she was seen at 11:15, AFTER ALL the other patients who had appointments scheduled at 11:00. What the???

The ladies in the front weren’t too warm or friendly but staff performing the tests and ushering clients to rooms were very nice.
I was seen by Dr. Wang, the optometrist, who was thorough and explained the procedures to me. He also answered any questions that I had about the series of test he was performing and told me in advance what I would be seeing. I left his care and was seen by Dr. Jacob, the ophthalmologist, who was also thorough with his explanations about what could be wrong with my eye. He also answered questions I had and genuinely I felt that both doctors cared about the issue I was facing with my eye.
I also went to see Vicky, the lady who works in the optical store next door. I didn’t have the same experience, as others (thankfully). She was soft spoken and assisted me in selecting glasses that were within my budget. No pressure to purchase and I left feeling satisfied with the services I received.
My only compliant would be the wait time to be seen. My appointment was at 2PM, I was late 15 mins but I didn’t expect the whole process to take 1 hour and 45 mins.
Overall, I’m satisfied by the services I received and I hope in the future I will receive the same quality care and service.

This «eye care» provider has NO consideration nor concern for patient’s overall well being! I had a third party vendor contact the Marysville Royo Eye Care office for my prescription this morning around 10am. The vendor’s call wasn’t returned until around 4:30 pm. The doctor refused to give the vender my prescription stating that it would only be valid for another two weeks and one box of contacts is a 6 month supply. The key word here is VALID! I have an appointment, with a different ophthalmologist, next week. I simply ran out of contacts while waiting for my upcoming appointment date. I had to drive to Marysville (which was very inconvenient by the way) and explained that I have terrible headaches when I wear my eye glasses. I was told that the Doctor was gone for the day and that I would have to wait until Monday. Now I will have to go 4 days with a splitting headache due this!!! Hell to the NO! Don’t waste your time going to this outfit. The Doctor doesn’t care about the patient’s time nor well being! Trust and believe they have lost my family of 6 as customers! Run, don’t walk to a different provider. I would give ZERO stars if at all possible!

I don’t write many bad reviews, but this will be a doozy. I’ve never experienced a worse experience from any business anywhere than I did with Royo Eye and Laser Center. On a Monday in Oct 2010, I had a 4:15 appt. on only three hrs sleep. I asked the tech if it would make a difference being sleep deprived. He said no.
After dilating my eyes and doing some tests, I’m ushered into the glasses showroom (which by the way is closed to the waiting room) where I’m to choose some frames and decide upon the lens type. Now, I don’t wear glasses full-​time — only for reading sometimes. I can’t see hardly a thing from the dilation and the pushy saleslady is trying to get me to make a decision while watching the clock because it’s 4:45 and the office closes at 5. So I ask her opinion and choose, then sign to have the order processed and pay my $ 280.
So I’m ushered back to the exam room and the tech does some more tests and says I’m ready to go. It’s right about 5 and they’re shutting down, pretty much waiting for me to leave. I go home and tell my wife about my day and she reminds me that I didn’t want to order frames because the last time I was not happy with the decision (dilated eyes). So I plan to cancel the order the following morning.
I call Royo at around 10 and the line is busy then at 11 — same thing. I’m a busy person with business appointments, so I call back at 12:15 and there’s a recording that they’re shut down for lunch. I have appointments through the afternoon so I look online for another location and end call the Marysville office where I let someone know I’ve been trying to call the Timberlake location to cancel an order, They tell me Timberlake is having phone probs, but she’ll send a message (I assume email) to have them call me back. By 3:00, I still haven’t heard a thing so I call the Timberlake office and tell them I need to cancel an order. They tell me I can’t do that! I ask why and they tell me because nobody cancels their orders. I ask about their cancellation policy (most eye centers have a 24 hour policy). She says they don’t have one.
The sales lady says she’ll have to check with her manager and call me back. Was I called? No. I ended up calling them on Wednesday and asking for the manager. Manager says Dr. Royo is reviewing the situation. I ask the manager about a cancellation policy and she says they don’t have one. I finally do get a callback on Fridayfrom the saleslady saying, «Dr, Royo says your glasses are ready for pickup». So much for addressing the cancellation policy. I dispute charges with Visa and file claim with my insurance carrier. Both come back saying I signed a document agreeing to terms.
Fast forward 11 months and I still haven’t picked up my glasses as my intent was to keep fighting this issue, but life happens and I had more important things to handle. I go into the office and ask to see this document that I signed. They show me the document — the processing order from when I couldn’t see because my eyes were dilated — and it says I can only cancel the order in the same business day. MY APPT ENDED AT 4:55, SO I HAD A FIVE MINUTE WINDOW TO CANCEL! WHY DIDN’T THEY TELL ME THIS? I would never sign an order if I’ known I couldn’t cancel.
I tried my best to cancel as early as possible and they would not work with me one bit! They weren’t even nice about it. If anything they were confrontational and rude.
So it gets worse. I finally decide I’m out $ 280 and I’m sick of blurry vision. I decide to pick up the glasses. They’re line-​less bifocals. Immediately I get headaches. I was told you have to get used to them. The headaches don’t stop so I do some tests on the upper portion of the lens vs normal vision and I saw better without the glasses — THE PRESCRIPTION WAS WRONG! I called the office about this and they say I had a 90 day warranty and I was now basically S-​O-​L.
This business is anything but ethical in their practice, IMO. They close off the glasses showroom and show you glasses when you’re vision is impaired, having you sign a document, never telling you what you’re signing other than its a processing order. They’re unapologetically rude and know nothing about decent customer service.
Run away from Royo and don’t get bamboozled like I did. Find an office where you can check glasses before you are dilated. BTW, last year I went to a different eye doctor and they said they didn’t even need to dilate, plus they explained everything I was signing, even though I could see.