Location: Canada

Background: When I first started wearing glasses the optometrist would just give me a piece of paper that I could take to any shop to get my lenses made. Then they started refusing that paper and insisting I either leave my frames with them for two weeks, or that I buy new frames.

And now it seems like even asking for the script, or the measurements, is ‘against policy’.

I recently went in for an eye exam and some new glasses, and the optician said something I have never been told before.

I had asked if they could give me the prescription for my sunglass lenses since they don’t deal with the brand that I prefer, and he said that I would have to schedule another appointment at a shop that deals with that brand, because the prescription was not enough, and I would also need the measurements he took.

I asked if I could have those measurements and he said it was against policy.

Is he lying to try to get me to buy new frames from his shop? Or is there something to what he is saying?

Confession - When he walked away I took a picture of the measuring app he had used which seems to show all the measurements.

Would this be useful to another shop? I’m just trying to buy lenses without spending a fortune on yet another frame.

It all feels like a scam.

    • intensely_human
      411·
      3 months ago

      If a monopoly is enforced by the government, ie so that nobody can enter the market without government approval, which is influenced by the monopoly, then it’s not a free market.

      A free market is one in which economic interaction requires consent. If there’s a non-optional good that can only be obtained from one party, then consent doesn’t exist and you’ve no longer got a free market.

      And hence aren’t under capitalism. The things that people hate most about capitalism are the times when it breaks down into a centrally-controlled market. ie when it stops being capitalism.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
        52·
        3 months ago

        If a monopoly is enforced by the government

        Planned economies are shit, yes.

        The things that people hate most about capitalism are the times when it breaks down into a centrally-controlled market. ie when it stops being capitalism.

        Rofl “capitalism stops being capitalism as soon as its flaws show”

        A free market is one in which only the actual price and quality of tje product matter. When a capitalist company, which has loads of capital, decides to “compete” in a “free market” (by your definition), it’s not even a competition, because the huge company with shitloads of capital can skew the actual price. McD could literally pay people to get hamburgers from them so long as to shut down a single competitor. That’s not a free market. So ironically only well regulated markets are “free”.

        Market socialism. Proper regulation. Actual competition.