Vision Care Center PAMF
1085 W El Camino Real,
Sunnyvale, CA

AVOID THIS PLACE. It's easily one of the incompetent & worst managed optometry in town. Horrible experience. I went in at my scheduled reporting time which was 20 mins ahead of my actual appointment. After waiting almost 50 mins, when it was our turn, the front desk "discovered" our paperwork was not ready. If you ask me to show up 20 mins before appointment, why don't you use that waiting time for paperworks? I let that slide, and as I was filling up the forms, they mentioned something about not all codes not being covered and could run my out-of-pocket expenses up to $600. Now I am well aware how insurance works, but that $600 figure sounded fishy - so I said I'll quickly check coverage with my insurance. She said she will be back shortly. I was on the phone for no more than 3 minutes (yes, I timed it) when she comes back and says the doctor canceled my appointment because I was holding them up. It's okay when they make me wait close to an hour, but god forbid if I make a 3 min phone call. I promptly disconnected the call with my insurance so as to not miss the appointment as I had already taken time off work for this, but she said the doctor already canceled in the system and they cannot see me today. Zero empathy, a complete disregard for my time. Noped out of there as soon as I could. Later, I followed up with my insurance and separately with the office and found the particular medical code in question was only $60. Wondering why she said it could run "up to $600", I came here to read the reviews, and confirmed my suspicions when I noticed how another reviewer has described how they were fraudulently billed and given the run-around to contest it and get it fixed. So I am left wondering if it was just incompetence or pure malice. Glad I dodged a bullet. And hope you do too - whoever is reading this.

Parking: there is underground parking shared with the apartment complex. There is signage, but it's not prominent. This office is organized for efficiency. There are two lanes: one for simple check-in, and another for longer interactions with staff. I was called about 10 minutes after my appointment time for a series of eye measurements in a dedicated room, then reseated in the lobby. A few minutes later I was led into an exam room for more vision checks, given dilation drops, then given a somewhat dated DVD to watch on cataract surgery options while the drops took effect. Finally I was led back to the exam room where I finally met with the doctor who performed an eye exam, and then gave very thorough explanation of the options available, their costs, and the pluses and minuses. I was given a copy of the notes the doctor took of our conversation.

Extremely disappointed. My doctor sent a referral and told me the clinic would contact me, but I never heard a word. I took the initiative to call multiple times, but no one ever picks up. I also submitted a request through their online system, and still, zero response. It is unacceptable for a medical facility to be this unreachable, especially when dealing with a doctor's referral. Like many other reviews here mentioned, the communication at this location is non-existent. I will be looking for another clinic that actually cares about their patients.

Had an appointment at 11, reached at 10:45 as asked It's 12:30 now and no one in to see me yet. Just people peeping thru the door and saying the doctor will be in, in a few mins. They really need to be respectful of people's times. Why call someone in at 10:45 if the doctor is not there. After 2 hours of waiting, was told what my PCP told me a month back. And now have to wait God-knows how long more, to get an appointment for the procedure. Just ridiculous.

Each time I've come here, I have felt like an inconvenience. While their refraction appointments are affordable relative to other optometrists in the area, my experience has been that you get what you pay for. After I expressed some concern with my prescription at my the end of my appointment, I was simply told "that is what you preferred during the test." The optometrist knew that this was my first refraction, but made no offer to double-check anything. I went to get a second opinion and, shocker, my correct prescription ended up being different. As a word of caution--this feeling of rushed appointments/being an inconvenience has been something I've experienced across PAMF in the past few years, from dermatology to optometry. Because of this, I generally recommend steering clear of PAMF when possible.

The doctors and the nurse staff have been very kind and helpful. I hate giving a two star but the front desk ladies are horrible. They're sarcastic, immature and rude. I've never experienced such unprofessional front desk people anywhere!!