... and majorly ticked me off.

As a rule, I'm patient and polite with reps. They're on the road a lot, they help us out behind the scenes, etc.

However, recently one of the practices I cover decided to bring in a new screwless frame frame, and the rep made an appointment to come by for product training. Fair enough, we do need to know how to dismantle those frames for servicing etc.

So he comes by and we gather around to see how the screwless temple's hinge mechanism unlocks. For which he asks to see our dispensing toolkit.

Upon not finding what he looks for, he asks us for... A tool resembling a dentist's curette. Yes, look it up, I kid you not.

When told we do not have such a tool, he outright goes, "What kind of dispensary is this, your toolkit is incomplete!"

Fine. And what do you know, he doesn't have one in his big bag of rep stuff either.

He then improvises with a pin we use when changing screws on spring hinges (a basic push pin for notice boards, we find it works well for this as well). The screwless hinge turns out to be something like one of Mykita's many mystifying mechanisms (which while I admire their quality, I've never been able to memorize how to handle their various screwless assemblies).

After reassembly, the frame from the shop's own stock noticeably has one temple slightly looser than the other. Definitely not equally tight on both sides as it was before the product demo, and definitely something we get customers complaining about from time to time, regardless of brand.

When we pointed it out to him, guess what's the reply?

"It's considered within tolerance, and not my fault your tools are incomplete."

At which point I tell him, thanks for the demo, and while I can't speak for the other staff, I'm not recommending his frames. He hurriedly excuses himself, and the rest of the staff had a good laugh over how they finally see me having a firm word with a rep instead of a patient (why they find such things amusing, I have no idea).

Management does not fault me on this one, and if a patient likes such a frame, I'll do the fitting, sure. But it'll be a cold day in Hell before I'm going to voluntarily handle product from such a rep.

Back when Silhouette was pushing frames on us, they were happy to loan us the relevant pliers for a bit, as have other reps from brands that needed tools not commonly found in local optical dispensing. Or at least, when making appointments, they'd ask in advance if we had such tools available and let us know what worked otherwise.

So. Am I a dinosaur in how I deal with reps, or is this considered acceptable conduct for a frame rep these days?

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