Joanne Yee, OD FAAO

Visit on 12/​30/​2015:
My experience at Dr. Yee’s office was not with Dr. Yee herself but instead with her staff, Bonnie and Will. My boyfriend and I had come in looking to purchase our glasses and contacts with them since they were a in network provider under our insurance. *We had previously gone to Lenscrafter’s to schedule an appointment and was never told ahead of time that they were not an in network provider for our insurance and had to pay out of pocket for our exams*
Keep in mind, we had arrived the day before New Year’s Eve a HALF HOUR before closing, rushing to use up our allowances for the year.
We were initially greeted by Bonnie, who took great care of us and provided us with excellent service even though we came in last minute. She never once rushed us and reassured us that it was okay and to take our time looking for our glasses.
Will worked with us to see how much our insurance would cover. Will informed me and educated me so much about our insurance. Will took the extra time to look over our insurance policies to see where and how we can save the most money. I am so use to having someone trying to sell me the «best» product but in reality it’s just the most expensive product that I apparently «need». Will advised us on what would be best with our insurance and with our prescriptions. Keep in mind, he was assisting us well after closing at this point. Never once did he rush us out or seem agitated like most people would being kept late after work. Will even let me know that I was eligible for a year’s worth supply of contacts due to my prescription. MIND BLOWN! Nobody from Lenscrafter’s has EVER told me that I was eligible for that even though my prescription has been pretty constant the last couple of years and patient with them all these years.
Bonnie and Will were beyond exceptional at this practice and I really wished I had found them sooner so that I wouldn’t have had to hassle with Lenscrafter’s and just gone straight to them. They might not be the doctor’s themselves, but their service has definitely won me over to be a new patient with Dr. Yee.
They are conveniently located close to our offices in Downtown San Francisco, so we will definitely be back in the near future for all our eye exams and we will definitely be recommending all our fellow coworkers to this location.
Thank you so much Bonnie and Will for all your help and great service! Thanks for letting us stay so late after closing to help us with our needs! You guys are awesome!

I’ve been a patient at Dr. Yee’s office for over 15 years. I’m a working executive and mother of 3 children. I’ve had good experience with Dr. Yee’s office and admittedly I only need to go once a year so my exposure has been pretty limited. Their eyeglass selection is limited and pretty low end, so I just get my contacts through their office and go to a better boutique for glasses. I took my 8 year old daughter in for an exam last year and this year decided to take her to the cal berkeley clinic because Dr. Yee’s office really doesn’t seem to handle children well. I found that the prescription Dr. Yee’s office had recommended was too high. My daughter had complained that the glasses don’t really help her see better and the berkeley clinic confirmed it. In addition to quality decline, in the last two years, I’ve noticed a huge decline in the way the office is run and customer service. The last straw was when I had to reschedule my eye exam (with 48hr notice) and they couldn’t get me in for another 2 weeks, but refused to sell me a pair of contacts to get me through to the exam date. It’s the holidays, I work 50 hours/​week and have 3 kids in elementary school! Are you kidding me?! Dr. Yee’s office needs to stop lecturing good clients of 15 years and in this age of curated everything from healthcare to food shopping, they are truly missing the message when it comes to flexibility in meeting your client’s needs. Pretty unbelievable. Good luck Dr. Yee! And good riddance.

I’ve been going here for my exams and glasses for 15 years. I never have a problem getting an appointment, Dr. Yee us very nice, experienced and does a great job explaining the procedures. The selection of frames is immense and the staff do a good job dealing with the insurance companies. I highly recommend Dr. Yee.

I just got out of my first appointment with Dr. Yee and she’s great! Very friendly, and took the time to address all of my needs. For once I can see equally well in both of my eyes, which took years of many other optometrists and prescriptions before achieving.
They have a killer collection of very fashionable frames, too. Great brands and looks. The gentleman who helped me pick out my frames was extremely knowledgeable about how best to divvy up the costs for maximum insurance coverage and which lenses I should go with based on my Rx.
Not as important, but other positives are that they’re really easily accessible from BART, Ferry, Muni, etc. and are in a mixed use building that has a nice food court.

Just checking in to confirm my continued satisfaction with excellent service. Again, Joanne and her team (esp. Will and Donna) worked to find me the most up to date and practical solutions to my eyecare needs. I realized something needed to change, but I didn’t know what. I spend so much time in front of computers now (all day and most of the evening). I thought my vision had changed and I needed a new prescription. After asking some questions and testing a few things, it was clear my far vision and current prescription were still right on. But as I spent so much time in front of the computer, some adjustments for exactly that distance really improved my vision. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on new glasses which by the way are perfect around the house and office — while my last glasses continue to be excellent for driving — especially night-​time driving -(I’m 52 so it makes a big difference at my age to have good night time driving vision). So they worked with me to come up with an affordable solution. Also, I only wanted to have to wear one pair of glasses to work, but I’m soooo picky about my far vision even just for a few blocks from bus to office. Creative solution: An affordable clip on for my «computer glasses» that enhances far distance. With transitions (tinting for sunglasses) I now can choose which pair I want to walk out of the house with. I literally can wear either pair. I refuse to carry 2 pairs of glasses around with me and change constantly. Perfect solution, in addition to an improvement in my contact lense prescription. You can’t find a better, more creative team for your vision needs.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Yee for more years than I can count. She is a great caring doctor and has been taking great care of my sight needs and always provides/​reminds me of healthy eye care do’s and don’ts. I dread the day she decides to retire.
The office staff is super nice and friendly. I remember the days when they’d even offer to help feed the meter for my car in case the time ran over (except lately not sure what’s going on with construction; many metered spaces are marked unavailable). The office is small and doesn’t offer as many frame options as other larger offices, but the care and professionalism more than make up for it. And Will’s the man for all your frame care needs, frame technician extraordinaire.
Not sure what some of the negative reviews are all about, but I’m a happy camper here for over 30 years.

I’ve been going to Dr. Yee’s office for years, but the past two years my insurance changed and I had to go to Lenscrafters. My new job has VSP and I went back to Dr. Yee office Wednesday last week. Everyone was friendly and answered all my questions about my insurance unlike Lenscrafters where I was herded like a sheep. The optometrist, Dr. Hua was awesome. My eyes have been really dry and tired the past year all the time so instead of the general «don’t wear contacts that long» or «try using eye drops»… she actually looked into my problem and it turns out that my prescription the past two years was too strong. She switched me to a weaker prescription to test out and after a week my eyes are much better!
It is a little more expensive than ordering contacts or frames from online places, but the price seems average compared to other optometrist offices. The good news is if you have VSP, they take care of everything so you don’t have to fill out the paper work. I’d definitely recommend them, especially Dr. Hua.

This was my second time at Dr. Yee’s office and am happy with both experiences. My first visit was last year. My previous optometrist had given me too strong of a prescription and did not listen when I protested about it. Dr. Yee confirmed this was the case after she did my exam without me even explaining what had happened. She was very honest and I appreciated that. People complaining about the eye scan vs dilution-​honestly, I’m happy paying $ 39 to make sure my eyes are healthy.
I went back today and it was another great experience. Standard appointment and friendly staff. My optometrist explained the results of my eye scan and other tests I did in detail. They gave their opinion on the new frames I liked and Will worked with me to change out all my frames to use up my spending account before I move jobs. He was very patient and accommodating.
The only thing I would say is it’s definitely pricey here but you can always get your prescription and buy frames elsewhere if you want. I’d recommend Dr. Yee’s office!

The Dr. is great, but the store isn’t that great.
The craftsmanship is not great in terms of handling a brand new frame and fitting in the lens. My brand-​new frame got a little scratches on it and the lens is slightly off.

I didn’t have a great experience. not going back there. Optician was just ok — staff was not that friendly or helpful… Optician didnt’ help me much at all on selecting frames and didn’t explain the charges well, said my lenses are going to be really thick so get the smaller size only — then when I went to another eye glass place, they said I can choose any size frames and lenses will be fine — so this place didn’t really give me the correct info. Only had limited number of frames… place is kind of dark too not many windows if any —
Then they charged me MORE at the reception said contact fitting is additional $ 69 so i did it, then receptionist insisted that I pay $ 99 ?! why would they change the price on me? I was so over it, just paid and walked out…
Go somewhere else! really not worth it. i went to Eye Carumba Optometry in Embarcadero center! was the BEST service ever. Friendly staff and lots of more frames… bright place.

Been a regular for several years. The service has been ok, although there has been plenty of turnover on the Dr. roster and every time, I see a different Dr. Last time I made an appointment though, I got a call from them less than 2 hrs before the appointment time on the same day! Essentially they cancelled on me. Do I get to charge them the within 24hr cancellation fee?

Five years + with this group and despite several doc changes, eye exame service always great. Will is the man on the frames/​glasses, saved me with several mangled frame adjustments.

The staff is very pleasant and helpful. Will there is the best! He hooked me up with a great price/​discount that he didn’t have to offer but did based on me being a former customer. These guys know how to treat people and have earned my commitment as well.

I have been going to Dr Yee office for the last 2 years, although I have not seen Dr Yee, the optometrist she has in her staff are very friendly, and explains things well, including options for the dilation of eyes and scan, and differences in contact lenses. I am very happy with the new contact lenses that was recommended to me which I tried first and then bought. The front office staff is also very good, she was able to get my VSP to cover contact lenses in year 2012 year even though i didn’t pick up the contact lens order until March 2013 (i had my appt in Dec 2012). They are detail oriented, and provide good customer service. I can’t understand why there are some 1 star reviews for this doctor office.

Came here and saw Dr. Tsao who was friendly and took her time with my eye examination. Friendly desk staff that followed up in a timely manner.
Great experience, would recommend!

After going to two other 5 star Unilocal-​reviewed optometrists, I found myself back in Joanne Yee’s office. I have very bad eyes (–8 before Lasik and now an unstable cornea), which can make the exams somewhat taxing, both for me and the optometrist.
So after a mediocre experience last time, I decided to cast a wider net. I needed a) get reliable glasses given that I’m at the computer 10+ hours a day and b) some options if I didn’t want to wear glasses.
The other offices, while OK, did not really address my problems. Due to very flat cornea from the Lasik procedure, I couldn’t wear contacts, although we fitted several. And I was just not happy with the last prescription. In fact, I went back to the glasses I got from Joanne Yee’s office over a year ago.
There are several reasons I’m bumping this rating back to 5 stars.
The optometrist provided a solid exam, despite my asking to repeatedly switch between lenses (i.e. «is one or two better? one or two?»). I also took her up on the recommendation to have a pair of distance glasses as well as computer glasses (I’m re-​using the frame which I got from this office earlier, possibly my favorite). And when I mentioned that there was no hope for me for contacts, she told me about these hard lenses that they offer which are much bigger and cover more than the cornea/​pupil. These supposedly would provide the best correction and address the corneal distortion. I’m not planning to do this yet (I’m less active now with two children), but it was reassuring to know that I have this option.
I think my last experience was simply the result of optometrists, too, being human. My previous optometrist was clearly having a bad day, possibly a bad week or more. It was late on a Friday, my eyes were tired, she seemed tired, the stars were simply not aligned.
As far as one reviewer talking about «the drops», I had a similar experience. I was told «this is not a dilation», but the drops felt astringent like dilation drops. However, I checked in the mirror afterwards and my pupils were not dilated and I had none of the effects. So I suspect the reviewer assumed she was dilated when she was not.
Anyway, hopefully my eyes will be stable for a while, but I think at least now I’ve settled on an optometrist.

I went back to see Dr. Portugal, but she is gone, so I went to yet another doctor in her office. She tried to convince me to switch to another brand of contacts because my current contacts were being discontinued — yes, the same brand that was I was told was being discontinued back in my 2009 review and is still being sold — I told her that I would worry about it once they were actually discontinued. What the heck???
I guess I will have to find a new doctor. The folks working in the office (not the opticians) are fantastic, though…

LOVE Dr. Yee’s office and their staff :)
I don’t know why they got random bad reviews because I had multiple great experiences with this office.
The front desk girl Emily was suppper nice and got me an appointment that fit my schedule no problem.
Then when I came in, I was greeted by Tiffanie (the doctors assistant) with a non superficial attitude and explained all the different exams that I had to go through before the actual exam.
Honestly, I really liked the peripheral vision test, I got an A++ on it haha
I felt like all the exams were very thorough and they didn’t force me to buy contact lenses from them which is awesome. I hate when Dr’s do that.
I ended up getting my glasses there and the selection was great, they didn’t rush me (I’m SO indecisive when it comes to picking frames it’s terrible). When it came to the last 2, they waited while I went back and forth taking one off, putting the other on, then taking that one off and putting the other back on 0:)
And then once I found the winner, they were still patient while I asked them if it came in a different color.
I think I spent a little over an hour and a half without being rushed. LOVE IT!
Last but not least, when I went to get my contact lens prescription filled at costco I realized I forgot the paperwork at home so I called them and they FAXED one to costco for me within 15 minutes!
Ok that’s all for today, thanks again Dr. Yee’s office :) ya’ll are awesome!

My experience in this office was not good. First of all, I called on the day of my appointment to ask if the doctor could possibly see me a little bit earlier. They were like, «What appointment?» Someone forgot to pencil me in.
Once rescheduled, I did not enjoy my visit. I was 5 minutes late, and the receptionist was already calling (nagging) my cell to see if I was still coming. I was like, geez! Seriously? The doctor rushed through the appointment. In comparison to other optometrists, I felt she lacked the depth that other doctors provide. She did not tell me if my prescription changed. She rushed through the part of the exam that determines your prescription for glasses. Things in her office seemed outdated. I thought the selection of glasses was pretty bad.
For the dilation, she gave me the options to 1) get an eye scan for $ 30 or 2) get the eye drops. She said some people don’t like the drops so they choose the scan. I’m thinking, who uses the eye drops anymore anyway? Supposedly my insurance wouldn’t cover the scan, yet my former optometrist didn’t charge me for it so WTF? I hate the eye drops, so I opted for the scan. She said the scan was $ 39. What the hell, she told me originally that it was $ 30. I still said fine, give me the scan. Then she proceeds to pull out the eye drops. I said, «Why are you giving me eye drops?» I don’t remember the reason. I realized I would be getting eye drops no matter what! So what the hell did she mean when she said that some people prefer to skip the eye drops?!
I don’t like this office. I’m never going back. It was my worst experience at an optometrist. There are communication issues on all levels.

Alot of optometry offices around this area close by 5. Luckily, Dr Yee’s office is located across the street from my office AND is open till 6pm.
The frames I’ve owned for over 4 years snapped Harry Potter style RIGHT down the middle last week and I frantically rushed to Lens Crafters and Site for Sore Eyes only to find out they don’t accept VSP. (reason being they are bigger chains and VSP providers are usually those specialty Dr.‘s)
I came here on Thursday and described what I was looking for. Will picked out several frames for me to try and gave honest opinions on which looked best. I was afraid they would take longer to order because of the Memorial Day weekend BUT Will expedited my order and they came in on Wednesday! (today)
The best part… my insurance covered ALOT of it. (Thank baby Jesus!)
Very friendly and helpful staff, nice selection of designer frames, quick and convenient.