Dover Vision Centre Ltd

Important note: I didn’t see Dover Vision Centre anywhere on the outside of the building. Everything said Delaware Eye Institute. The phone # and address listed are for the place I went.
This is one of those times when I wish there were more than five stars to choose between, because I’m giving them 3 stars, but I also ended up giving Halpern 3 stars after they finally, belatedly tried to make right their billing error. I would never go back to Halpern, but I would go back to this place, so maybe call Halpern 2.5 stars and DVC 3.4 stars?
Anyway, this is where I went for an eye exam and new glasses. The background for why, after going to Halpern for the better part of 30 years, I decided to find a new spot can be found in my Halpern review. I informally polled my local four eyed friends on Facebook and this place came recommended by several of them, so I decided to give it a try.
I work nights, so I usually try to get the earliest or latest appointment possible. I imagine it’s similar for day shift people who don’t want to miss any more work than necessary, but apparently the way this place is scheduled is to start at midmorning «in case the doctor is late» and fill up the day from there. So I got the earliest appointment I could, and the doc walked in the front door about 10 minutes after I was scheduled.
But the exam went off without a hitch, and he handed me a copy of my prescription. I’d already had time to browse frames, plus my FB polling had revealed that I should probably try buying glasses online. Online was going to take a few weeks and brick and mortar was going to take a few days, so I decided to do both. Once I objected to the fact that the cheapest rimless glasses I could find were almost $ 300, a pair for only about $ 100 made an appearance from under the cabinets where the non-​employees would not/​could not think to look. They looked pretty much like the $ 300 pair for about ¹⁄₃ the price, but if I hadn’t asked…
So that was annoying but probably makes them tons of extra money. On the positive side, the attempts to upsell me into various coatings and such were cursory, and non existent in the exam room. At Halpern, the hard sell starts as soon as you walk in the door and never quits, so DVC was a relief in that regard.
This is the first time I’m ordering glasses online, so maybe this is typical, but when I asked what my pupillary distance was, I was told that it was their policy not to give that information out. If I hadn’t already had it, I would have probably raised some hell, since it’s information about *me*, but it ended up just being an annoyance. My glasses from DVC were $ 226 with no extras (except a cheap case, a cleaning cloth, and some cleaning fluid that apparently come free with every pair) arrived a few days later and were fine. My online glasses included free UV coating and anti-​scratch coating along with a case and cloth, and were $ 36 including shipping. They haven’t arrived yet (they take a few weeks) but if I don’t update this review to say otherwise, you may assume that they are just as good as my over $ 200 pair.
The guy I dealt with on the phone and out front in the retail area was super friendly and helpful. The doc seemed a little cranky and brusque. When I went back to pick up my glasses, there was another doc whining about office politics on the phone around the corner with the door open, so I know way more about that than I needed to.
tldr; the bad: weird scheduling, late doctor, ask for cheaper frames and/​or order online
the good: glasses in a few days, minimal upsell pressure on the retail side and none in the exam room
would recommend 100x more than Halpern despite the identical stars, will probably go back because I’m probably too lazy to do a tour of all the local eye doctors and overall this place was fine