Eye Associates Northwest PC

Most of their doctors are fantastic. However their scheduling practices are terrible. Their phone support is understaffed and you can’t get through more often than not. If your late by even a few minutes they will cancel your appointment! Hello, this is Seattle and your patients have no control over traffic. They schedule too many patients close together (I’m guessing because they want to make as much as possible) however when someone drives 1 hr to your office and is late by a few minutes you have effectively wasted your customers time. I would still recommend them however you must be patient when dealing with their office staffs incompetence.

I’ve been going to Eye Associates since before they moved to their current location. Twice I have had to fight with them over billing my exams to my medical insurance rather than my VSP insurance which under the plan I only pay a $ 10 Co-​pay. When you call them on it the billing lady gets nasty over the phone and claims she’s going to discuss it with the doctor but doesn’t do a thing to reverse it. A while later I’m getting a bill in the mail again. I see where others have complained about the exact same thing and supposedly they send you to the bill collection when you don’t pay. I’ve been going there for 4 — 5 years maybe more. I’m out of there after my last experience — never going there again. And, they make you wait up to an hour past your appointment time — it’s so inconsiderate. People have plans and a schedule — every time I have gone there it’s been the same. Be fair warned. These people are not right.

Eye Associates NW is the best. I have been a patient for about 12 years going to Dr. Brant Carroll and could not be more satisfied with him as a provider. His staff is amazing and professional giving the highest quality of service. I have referred quite a few friends to his practice and four of them are now current patients. I feel very confident in recommending Dr. Carroll specifically. If you want quality care from a Dr. you will be very happy to be a patient at his practice.

I’ve been a patient at Eye Associates Northwest for over 20 years and switched locations when my doctor retired. I like the Ballard location – free parking, office on second floor (from outside parking lot) and so far, wait times have been shorter than the office on Pill Hill. Staff is helpful. Dr. Carroll is friendly and explains everything.

I have been here twice after moving to Seattle several years ago. Both experiences have been bad but the second was ridiculous. I showed up early but was required to wait an hour for my appointment. The appointment itself was fine, however afterwards I had to wait an additional half hour to place an order for my contacts. Fortunately they claimed they had the contacts I needed in stock. Unfortunately they rang me up for the wrong amount. When I pointed out the mistake the lady at the contact desk fumbled around attempting to figure out how to run a return and then re-​charge. She failed and asked me to write down my credit card number on a slip of receipt paper, assuring me that it would be shredded after they were able to bill the correct amount. I have no idea if this was every disposed of properly. I was stuck at this location for about 3 hours for an appointment that should have been over within an hour; but had finally escaped with 2 boxes of what I thought was my new contact lens prescription.
6 months down the line I discover that they have given me two different Rxs. One box was a +3.5 and the other a +3.25. I discovered I had been using the +3.5 for the last 6 months and called to make sure which Rx was correct. Turns out I should have been using the +3.25. The optometrist told me that I should try the +3.25 for two days and if my eyes didnt «adjust» I could call back and she could work with the Dr. to come up with a «game plan.» Now my eyesight is permanently damaged and after playing phone tag with the optometrist for several days they are accusing me of purchasing the incorrect Rx at a different location as it does not «match what they have on record.» I am extremely disappointed and furious that this company refuses to take eye health seriously and that they could be so careless. I also have to put up with this decline in my eyesight until I am able to see a new Dr when my insurance renews in June — 5 months from now. Thanks Eye Associates NW!
DO NOT GO TO THIS LOCATION.

I had an outstanding experience here. I was able to get an appointment on pretty short notice. (My appointment wasn’t related to glasses, so I can’t comment on that portion of the office.) Everything from check-​in to my time with the assistant to the exam with Dr. Carroll was very smooth. I felt very well taken care of.
Being fairly new to the area, there’s always a bit of hesitation when visiting a new doctor. My physician recommended Dr. Carroll, and I’m glad he did. Recommend this office highly.

Eye Associates NW provided excellent care for me for my recent cataract surgery. This was my first time going through this and I was quite anxious about it. The staff were understanding and caring. They explained everything to me, were reassuring, and made sure I was comfortable and as relaxed as possible. The procedure itself went smoothly with no discomfort to me. Dr. Carroll, Zach, John, and everyone else was great and I really appreciated them helping me through this. And I can see clearly again!

Not a very good value in my opinion. I had an existing contact lens prescription from Eye Associates NW that had expired. I called to renew the prescription and was quoted $ 300-​$ 400 for an eye exam plus an additional $ 100+ for a contact lens fitting. Too high for my budget (I don’t have insurance coverage) so I called two other places. Both quoted prices under $ 200 total for exam, contact fitting, and prescriptions for both glasses and contacts. I ended up paying $ 169 for everything and am very happy with my new lenses and the saved money in my pocket.

I can’t recommend Dr. Carroll highly enough — he’s excellent!!! I’m very impressed with the care I’ve received in his office. He’s very thorough in his exam and really takes the time to answer all my questions, gives great advice, and seems genuinely very caring. The office staff have been very friendly and helpful in every way.

I went in for two things — 1) I needed an exam by an opthamologist (MD) and 2) I needed my corrective lens prescription checked.
The opthalmologist I saw for the eye exam, Dr. Zollman, was great, no problems there.
I wasn’t so pleased with the guy who did the check of my prescription. He was a little snippy, but I could get past that. What I really didn’t was that he wouldn’t measure my PD (distance between pupils) which is what you need to buy glasses on-​line. Hey, I know you want me to buy glasses from your optician, but I’m paying you for the exam, so don’t be a jerk. Spend an extra minute to measure that and put it on the prescription, so I can buy the glasses wherever I want. Don’t give me a story about how you can’t measure it because then you would be liable if the glasses I order come out wrong. Really? I smell bullshit.
Finally, the office staff were incompetent. There were supposed to be two prescriptions, one for progressive lenses and one for non-​progressive lenses. They are exactly the same, except the one for progressive lenses has an «ADD» number on it. The doctor told me the people at the front desk would print it out for me on the way out. But nope, they didn’t have the one with the ADD number on it. I waited and waited, but they said the doctor was in with another patient and they couldn’t get it. Finally they said they’d email it to me. Which meant I had to go through a bunch of song and dance to sign up for their «secure email». Yeah, I know, HIPPA and all, but come on, it’s a glasses prescription, not an HIV diagnosis.
The whole thing took almost two hours. I expected it all to be done in an hour at most.
In summary, I see no reason to go back. There are better options available.

tl;dr: Dr and tech were good, eye exam seemed thorough, hidden cost of $ 25 to obtain pupil distance which is used to buy glasses online. For those of us with weak prescriptions especially, PD is possible to work out on your own. Google for instructions, such as
Having changed coasts this was my first eye exam at Eye Associates NW using my VSP insurance, for which I was charged $ 10 up front — no complaints there.
I have a weak prescription with no complicating conditions so my eye exam was a simple affair. The tech was friendly and thorough. and Dr Lam was charming and competent, and I am happy with my experience on that front.
However, after asking both the tech and the Dr about obtaining my pupillary distance I was told that I needed to follow up with the optometrist. When I checked in with her I was informed that under a new policy I would be charged $ 25 for the service. I have never been charged previously and honestly, if I had known that asking for something so simple would incur a hidden cost I would have called around and found another practice entirely. I was also unimpressed by the optometrists attitude, though I realise that they’re just trying to squeeze a little profit out of their struggling business model.
Just fyi, I called my East Coast Drs office to get my PD pulled from my notes. My doctor confirmed that pd is easy to figure out yourself and that absolute precision is less crucial for weaker prescriptions. If you’re not comfortable doing that but would still like to order glasses online I’d suggest calling around and ensuring that a pupil distance measurement will be included as part of your eye exam.

Stay far away from this place! Even more so if you have VSP, don’t believe the hype of them being identified as a Premier vendor. They refuse to honor the benefits and try to charge you out of pocket for your eye exam versus leveraging your benefits and push it off on VSP that it’s their policy. VSP isn’t much better in following up but that’s for another day.
These clowns sent me to collections for benefits they refused to leverage. I will never do business with such an unethical organization. At least VSP is sending me the check to pay the collections off. Their billing person Leah agreed to process the payment correctly and then failed to do so and it went to collections. How on earth is this even legal and why is it the patients are the only ones affected. Thank goodness VSP saw through it and called her out on their conversation. I hope people pay attention to the 30+ 3 star ratings. Even that is too high for the shenanigans this crap hole is pulling

Extremely slow. I went in for my first appointment and after being in the office for over 45 minutes, they still hadn’t called me up. I had to leave to go back to work before I could even be seen. I will never schedule an appointment here again.

The office was clean and orderly but the service was complete chaos. I have been wearing glasses for over 10 years and finally decided to switch to contacts. I have an astigmatism and had made this appointment specifically to look into getting contacts. I was scheduled to meet Dr. Lam for the appointment. When she entered the room she was pleasant and professional but the exam was rushed and she seemed more interested in getting to the next patient than in giving a thorough and patient centered exam. It seems this organization is more focused on quantity then quality. She did not explain the benefits or any of the limitations contacts may pose for me nor the way my prescription may affect the quality of vision given this switch.
I believe that patients should be empowered and that the doctor patient relationship is just that a cooperative endeavor. I felt here that I was in the mist of a expert who could care less about empowering me or working with my concerns. Front end staff could not find me in their computer system and I had to inform them of my insurance before they would charge me the full amount.
In sum this is not someplace I would go back to nor recommend to friends as the service, commitment to patient care, and overall personality of the place is more focused on quantity over quality.

Worst service I have received from an Optometrist! Dr. Anita Lam was over 45 minutes late to my appointment. As a result the appointment felt rushed and the prescription provided for my eyes was wrong as my contacts are still out of focus. When I called to discuss the issue with my prescription they are now telling me I have to schedule a new appointment that insurance will not cover. The main reason I chose Eye Associates NW is because it was in-​network for my insurance. I would not recommend going here, ever! While the facilities are nice, I got the feeling of a used car sales lot type of vibe.
Full Story: I scheduled my appointment at 8am in morning so I would be the first patient and get to work by 10am. The day of my appointment I arrived and checked in and was told to have a seat and the Dr. would be with me shortly. Over 30 minutes later, the optometrist came in the front door coughing and hacking and telling the staff to get her coffee. She was obviously late and the receptionist had not bothered to tell me this.
A few minutes later I went to the receptionist to ask how much longer it would be and they said «just a few minutes you are next.» I waited another 15 minutes and at this point it had been over 50 minutes until they finally called my name.
The optometrist was Dr. Anita Lam. She was nice and pleasant, but obviously sick and running late that day, coughing constantly while we were in the exam room together. The eye exam felt rushed and when I told her the contact prescription in my right eye was still blurry, she told me the final prescription would be fine.
At 9:30 am, my exam was finally completed and they directed me to the reception area. There they told me to wait in line to see an Optician. When I asked how long that would take they told me there were several patients ahead of me and that I should wait there, but would not tell me a time estimate.
The whole process felt very disorganized, ended up being a waste of my time and money, and now I still have to go back or to a new Optometrist in order to get my prescription fixed. I am very disappointed with Eye Associates NW, Ballard, and Dr. Anita Lam.

Great staff and facility. Dr Lam is great! Appointments are now more efficient — used to have to wait ages for machines to be free for tests and to see the doctor. They seem to have tightened up operations. Booking appointments is still sketchy — somehow for my last appointment, they had me down with a different doctor.

This was my first pair of prescription glasses… And what a nightmare it turned into! The doctor was fine, but ordering my glasses there is the worst experience ever! They are all about taking your money! When I received my glasses they gave me horrible headaches, I couldn’t wear them. I called and asked for a refund because I was not happy with the glasses and paid a lot of $$ for them! Of course there is a NO refund policy and I was told that they could «probably» do something about the lens. Probably… What is it, yes or no? Awful customer service, awful first experience, over priced frames and will never recommend this place to anyone! Wasted pair of expensive glasses that I can’t even wear.

I went for a routine annual exam. Check in went well. I was called approximately at the scheduled time. I felt I had a thorough exam. I was surprised to not be asked about my current meds (since I was asked to bring the list) as there were changes.

Dr. Brant Carroll mostly seemed like he genuinely cared for me as a patient, however the bookkeeping staff was a different matter.
To make a long story short, they refused to bill the correct insurance company, and I know why;
They make more billing it as a medical issue rather than billing it properly as an annual vision wellness exam.
It took several months for them to fix the issue, and even after writing a letter, I had to call them yet again.
I don’t know how they expect to retain customers with horrendously poor service, but apparently they don’t care.
Adiós.

Meh!
The dr’s are great!
The staff & office workers are ridiculous!
I asked for a copy of my prescription via leaving a voice mail, because no one picks up the phone in there office.
They said I can only get that via fax or pick up a copy if it! We are in the digital age HIPA laws was the excuse?
So they have very poor service because the call back was 2 days later thank goodness I wasn’t at a place ordering my contacts say like Costco or America’s Best I would have been left out in the cold, he didn’t even apologize!
Find any other place to get your glasses or contacts from don’t go here you’ll be left wanting way more — they are all about the mighty $$ it’s like calling a mega bank no class or service!
I appreciate the follow up, but I didn’t call on ²⁄₅!
«A successful manager doesn’t make excuses»