Eyes on James

Dr. Toop’s out of touch by a wide margin. if i did NOT have excellent insurance i would NOT go there. actually the staff are excellent, Tim, Ramona, Lina & Amour are great and i’ve been under their care for decades, knowing that Toop’s about ready to retire i went and saw Dr. Tiffany Hollenbeck, OD as the provider and she was great. in the future i will use her as my go to dispensing optician. DIFFICULT LOCATION NO PARKING AND IF YOU DO PARK IN THE GARAGE YOU MUST EXIT IN TO THE STREET & RAIN TO GET TO THE OFFICE, NOT HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE AT ALL

I came in just for an adjustment of my glasses and they were quick to greet me and address what I needed help with. Even though I wasn’t a paying customer, they were eager to help and quickly adjusted me! I’ll be coming back to try it out. Prices did look a little steep, but as long as you have good insurance I think you will be fine.

I went to Eyes on James today to have a general eye exam. (I was having blurred vision for the last few weeks) I got an appointment from UW medical center hoping my grad student insurance from UW will cover most of the costs. It was my first time going to a doctor in US, and I asked the receptionist 3 or 4 times if they are gonna charge me and he kept saying that my insurance is covering everything and that I don’t have to pay anything! I knew this was gonna happen, but it;s really unfair. He didn’t even tell me how much they charge for an eye exam! and then I called them again and this time they said their eye exam is 322 $!!! the worst part is my insurance company is only covering 60 $ for eye exams… they were not helpful with financial stuff at all… And now I see here that it is almost the same for everyone who went there. I was just tricked because I thought the clinic is under UW medical center and it’s a dependable one… but it was not!

I actually have not used their services, but the star is for customer service.
I was going to, however, until I called and got a quote for a routine eye exam and contact fitting. After pushing the representative for a quote, I was told that the exam would cost $ 322. Contact fitting services would be extra, but how much they would not tell me. I am a student on the GAIP plan, and the $ 60 fee Lifewise covers obviously is not enough to defray a $ 300 bill.
It was much easier to get quotes with other eye clinics in the U-​District area. Also, the customer service was much friendlier elsewhere.

James Toop is routine visit for UW but it charges a lot for nothing. Last time I got my prescription in James Toop, they charged me around $ 300 and the contact didn’t feel good!!! I told the doctor, he checked again and said «It looks fine to me». The whole process took about 5 mins.
A friend of mine (another graduate student with GAIP PLAN) just went to James Toop lately for regular eye exam only and told me he got charged around $ 250 and the doctor said «you don’t have to have another eye exam for 4 or 5 years.» Hmm, shouldn’t we have regular eye exam every year? Or this is just to make my friend feel better about paying a lot, «you don’t have to pay each year, so bear with it this time».

Not sure why everyone else had a bad situation, I like it here.
Glasses seemed really expensive and they do not bill insurance for them but in the end, the same pairs I was looking at were more other places so perhaps not as spendy as I thought.
Other than that, it was really easy peasy for my exam, appointment made, went in, all okay.
Doctor is great, staff seem nice enough, and when I’ve called to get my Rx, they’ve faxed it immediately-​it no problem.

The prices at Eyes on James are outrageous and unexpected. A typical eye exam will cost about $ 100 – 150, and be covered by my health insurance. Eyes on James wouldn’t accept my insurance, leaving me to deal with it on my own, and I had to pay an examination bill of more than $ 300.
$ 300 is not a usual or customary charge, and the exam performed was not more thorough than any other less expensive examination I’ve had.

Dr. Toop has been my opthamologist for over 15 years and I have total faith in his competence. But Eyes on James leaves something to be desired: namely, better administrative organization.
I placed an order for hard contact lens, having seen Dr. Toop for a hard contact lens fitting ten months earlier (a prescription is good for only ten months). I was told at the time that it would take about a week.
I waited. And waited. Almost a month.
When I called to inquire about my hard contact lens order, Lena, one of the Asian woman working at the front desk, at first could not find my file. She asked me who had taken the order (she had). Then she told me that I would probably have to come in for a hard contact lens fitting (I told her I already had, which was a big surprise to her). She also said that they had contacted their Medical Records but had had no reply – four weeks ago!
Finally, she laughingly and bizarrely suggested – twice – that I was «fortunate» in that Dr. Toop had not charged for me the hard contact lens fitting, which is ridiculous, as my health insurance had covered it.
Realistically speaking, will I wear hard contact lens before the New Year 2013?
* * * * *
Over a month later, my contact lens were finally ready. I picked them up. There was no fitting.
Stupidly I first wore them to my yoga class. I could not figure out why my vision was still so bad, until I finally asked myself: «Could they have really mixed up the left and right? (Can «professionals” – affiliated with the University of Washington – actually be this careless? Or had the manufacturer not followed the prescription?»
It turned out that they had mislabeled the left and right lens.
I would avoid at all costs Lena, whose English is semi-​intelligible and does a slap-​dash job of ordering eyeglasses. I have had nothing but negative experiences with her.
At first I felt sorry for her with her being an Asian immigrant and a woman at that with poor English. But I was quickly disillusioned when I discovered that, having been born and raised in China, she was for all intents and purposes amoral and completely indifferent to those she considers having less power than she. «If you want these glasses, pay up, don’t waste my time. Go somewhere else.» and «If you don’t like the eyeglasses, I can do nothing for you» is so typical of people with her background.
In fact, only one or two of the women there have a very professional attitude. (If you can get Kathy, however, you’re lucky, as she is both gracious and professional).

Be VERY careful with Eyes on James if you are not fully covered by your insurance company. Standard eye exams tend to cost $ 60 – 100. I received a bill for $ 322 AFTER insurance. I was told before the appt that the fee would be a «standard» fee, but their «standard» is MUCH higher than any other eye doctor I have been to. As a graduate student, this is unaffordable.
They do not disclose their costs beforehand — you need to ask very specifically about all of the extra charges (there may be several).
I am telling my friends (also graduate students) to be very wary of this place. There are much cheaper/​better options if you have limited eye exam insurance.

Frustrating experiences. I’ve been several times, and haven’t walked away 100% happy any of the visits. My first visit I arrived on time, and I waited nearly an hour to be seen. I was given a prescription for a contact lens I hadn’t used before, and was sent on my way.
The brand ended up causing huge problems with my eyes. I was sent back and forth between specialists. Despite requesting an old brand I know works, it was suggested to me that I buy contact lenses which are disposed of daily… the price was never mentioned to me, and when I went to fill the prescription, I found out that «dailies» are VERY expensive and NOT in my budget. Several months, many bills, and a lot of pain later, I was able to obtain a prescription for a brand I had previous.
I called back again several months later to schedule my yearly routine check up. They said the appointment at which I changed brands was considered a «contact lens fitting» appointment, and thus, my insurance wouldn’t cover my upcoming yearly check up because they were within 12 months of each other. They also said they didn’t have my updated prescription on hand, and tried to hand me the prescription for the brand I was allergic to! After some fighting, they admitted to having my new prescription from my previous optometrist.
Miscommunications all around, and a lot of time wasted. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

The doctor was great.

Wide selection of frames, great service from the moment you walk in until you walk out and sometimes you’ll even get a call to see how your contacts are working out for you. Very pleasant to deal with.
Also, if you’ve ever had your eyes examined you’ll remember that jetstream blast of air blowing into your eyeball to test for glaucoma… well Eyes On James takes the anxiety out of that exam. They have a machine that no longer requires you to sit anxiously on edge while waiting for that blast of air.