State’s Evidence
Another eye-opening investigation into the cheap eyeglass chain Stanton Optical. Turns out Texas isn’t the only place they are getting in trouble. We show you the STATE’S EVIDENCE.
Lawyers for Stanton Optical are going to court in Florida in a couple weeks because they’re mad at me, claiming my latest video contains “multiple disparaging, false and defamatory statements.” Well, if you didn’t like that one, you’re probably not going to like this one either.
“We’re a team. There is no I in eyecare.”
But there is an I in investigations. Actually three. And a cute penguin can’t erase Stanton Optical’s increasingly ugly reputation.
“I didn’t pay to a see a machine. I could have Chat GPT’d my prescription if I wanted to.”
Stanton Optical doctors continue to be accused of breaking state laws that require eye exams to be done by a doctor.
“I told them I was going to bring the cops there and have them all arrested.”
We almost got arrested trying to investigate.
“You guys are hereby banned and trespassing at our hotel. You are not allowed to be on our property at all. If you are, police will be called.”
“But what started as an investigation of the way Stanton was treating its own franchises has now grown into a nationwide examination.”
“I want the agency to get closed down if they’re going to continue to have these unethical practices, to be honest.”
Stanton Optical, also known as Now Optics, advertises low cost eyecare retailer. Just ask the penguin.
“At Stanton Optical, we offer a comprehensive eye exam. That means we don’t skip any testing in order to give you the best exam possible.”
But if you actually expect to see a doctor, well, you may be disappointed.
“Uh, we don’t have an in-person doctor.”
That’s where optometrist Anthony Nguyen used to work. He’s been busted by the State of Texas twice.
Nguyen has been sanctioned twice and fined 4,000 dollars.
He’s the doctor that was allegedly writing up to 4,000 prescriptions in a single week.
“I’ve tried to talk to him. I’m impressed. At that pace he can write 100 prescriptions in an hour.”
Dr. David Mei has also been sanctioned, and there’s new punishments.
Dr Jason Mann was sanctioned 3 times on separate complaints for insufficient care of patients at one of Stanton’s “My Eyelab” franchises in Arlington, Texas.
Mann works for the Physicians Eyecare Group… lives in Boca Raton, Florida.
It’s the same old story. The Texas Optometry Board found he didn’t personally see his patients and didn’t meet Texas requirements for standard of care. A 2,000 dollar fine for each sanction.
We’ve tried to reach Dr. Mann to ask if he’s writing those prescriptions from his 2-million-dollar home on Florida’s east coast.
Dr. Tristan Begotka of Wisconsin is another out of state doctor working for a Texas eye place.
Begotka was sanctioned and fined 750 dollars for signing a prescription without doing a patient examination. See a trend here?
“These sanctions stem from complaints filed four years ago. Four years. But the optometry board only can punish individual doctors and only when someone complaints.”
The Texas Attorney Generals’ office has had more than 50 complaints about Stanton Optical but has taken no action.
But the problems aren’t just in Texas. We looked at the five other states with the most Stanton locations.
Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, and Florida. The corporate headquarters is there.
“I thought that there would be a remote doctor at some point.”
That’s where Teresa Barnett is from.
She complained to the Florida Attorney General’s office.
“The prescription you gave me has a doctor’s signature on it and I never saw a doctor, you’re billing my insurance for seeing a doctor, but I didn’t see one.”
The Florida Attorney General has 8 complaints about Stanton in their files.
Bad prescription, got another patient’s prescription, over charged, can’t get a refund.
“So did the State of Florida ever contact you about your complaint?”
“They did respond and they said that they’re not the entity to complain to about it.”
That government agency would be the Florida Board of Optometry, part of the state’s health department.
“The Florida Health Department got our request on April 10th and turned over nothing. Now they are playing games, telling us we are media and have to talk to their media folks. No, we don’t. they are public records.”
In Georgia, Attorney General Chris Carr has an open investigation into the practices of Stanton Optical.
This is the state’s second investigation. The first one was started after the spokesman of the Georgia Optometric Association complained. It’s juicy.
“I was in the parking lot, and the manager came out and said that they were going to call the police.”
Dan Curran complained in 2019.
Said the manager tried to force him to delete pictures he took during his appointment.
Look at this one. It showed dirty bottles of eye drops where patients took out their contacts.
“I took my lenses out and saw that there was blood on the tray.”
“Dan says he never saw a doctor either. And then was denied his prescription because he refused to delete his pictures.”
Georgia dropped that investigation in 2020 after Stanton’s corporate office claimed Stanton wasn’t responsible.
“Neither Stanton Optical stores nor My Eyelab stores perform eye exams in Georgia. Eye examinations are exclusively performed by Georgia Physicians Eyecare Group.”
“That’s Stanton’s loophole. They use a third-party medical provider and then can say it’s them. Not us.”
“If I could just share that over the years we have received many inquiries from patients about Stanton.”
But what’s the Georgia Optometric Association doing about Stanton’s quality of care? We couldn’t get an interview.
This eye doctor said the state should quote drive the charlatans out of business. That was six years ago.
“Here at Stanton Optical, we follow all state and CDC guidelines.”
In California, we found 21 citations and fines close to 60-thousand dollars.
Some licenses cancelled.
And last year, the legislative sunset review board said ongoing investigation of Stanton allowed the company to have “undue influence over the practice of optometry”
A class action lawsuit was just filed over the company’s alleged telemarketing practices.
“Pennsylvania wouldn’t tell us nada… nothing. Got this letter.”
“Records of an agency relating to non-criminal investigations are exempt from disclosure.”
“Sounds like there’s been investigations there too. And in the world of social media, customers have found a way of getting back at Stanton.”
Check out “Stanton Optical SUCKS.” SUCKS is short for Seriously Unhappy Customers Keeping Score.
“I will never go back. The worst place I’ve ever been.”
“My hubby had an eye exam. Turned out they missed diabetic retinopathy. I had an eye exam that day and they missed cataracts. This company is a joke.”
One user says Stanton uses third world country fake optometrists, a refractionist from Nicaragua joined the conversation.
She claims, “We are just trained to perform the exam in a limited time no matter what… basic eye health knowledge and the prescription in most of the cases are completely wrong.”
When we followed a customer through a Houston Stanton store the woman giving the exam was from Nicaragua. Wonder if she is the snitch.
“I was trying to do the more convenient, easy thing, you know, definitely takes my insurance and it just didn’t work out. It really sucked as an experience.”
“For anyone out there, definitely just leave at the first red flag because the entire experience of start to finish was horrendous.”
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