Hallo. So, my eyeballs have been hurting me and I think it's time I up the Rx on my Brille. Can anyone recommend a good Englisch-Speaking eye doctor here?

Do the Swiss make the distinction between Optometrist and Opthamologist (sp)? I just want to get me some new glasses. I'm not looking for surgery or anything.

Has anyone had a decent experience with the eye doctors here? I had a dentist experience a couple of months ago that was very good.

And lastly-- my Krankenkasse doesn't include eyeballs (not sure if all Krankenkasse excludes them, but anyway)--> what sort of moolah am I looking at here for exam, Rx, new glasses?

Thanks much,

Jilly

Ciao!

I've been going to Burri Optik on Uraniastrasse for the last six years and found the service delightful. They've recently gone very upmarket - see the store at http://www.burri-optik.ch/ - but the advice and range is great.

The only negative - and this applies to CH as a whole - is the price. Seems glasses and contacts are a massive cash cow here, and you'll be hard pressed to find great service and low prices. There ARE budget options, I just havn't had much joy with them.

The pleasant element in upmarket places is they remember your name, treat you nicely.

Hope this is useful

Hey, thanks!

How soon are you usually able to get an appt?
And they sprechen gut english...?

And, seriously, what sort of moolah are we talking about, just for an appt?

Thanks again!

appt?
appointment? Appartment?

If you're talking of opticians, they will often speak better English than you. I suggest you pick ONE language and use it, not this half-and-half text-speak you want to use.

With full private coverage, you have cover for glasses etc. There are modules you can add to other policies to no doubt cover those "risks" too

Boom Boom. If you fancy following up on the Burri lead, simply call them and ask for general prices. I've always spoken German there but I know they do speak English. As ever, if the person you're talking to can not, there's usually someone there who can. Ask for Roger, the boss, he speaks Engrish. I have simply no idea how much a test costs, I guess it depends if you're buying frames, lenses etc from them. I'd imagine the test is 'included' when making further purchases.

You should note that the Health Insurance you hold will make a provision for eyewear, sometimes even sunglasses if you need prescription lenses. I've always been too lazy to follow-up, but I understand there's around 200CHF 'cash-back' to be gained, hence the high prices in CH. This, I gather, is available every two years, ie, no unnecessary fashion statements!

Also, do something uncommon: shop around. Most places sell fancy frames and offer good coffee, but by spending an hour shopping around you may save yourself a hundred bucks or so. There's fierce customer loyalty in Switzerland. Funny, seeing as everyone's so money obsessed!

(Or take a flight to Istanbul, select the same frames there, get the lenses and sunglasses fixed up in 4 hours and have a nice weekend daytripping. It's about the same cost for a weekend there as for only the frames here! )

If you go, make sure you ask for a copy of the bill, as you'll need to send that into the Insurance company.

That's appointment, silly Billy....
.
Don't you worry. I speak English jes' fine... But I will always try and speak Deutsch when possible, and right now the Deutsch I speak is ramping upwards (ever so slowly, but upwards nonetheless). Remnant of growing up in Texas listening to friends, relatives, and other countrymen kvetching about bilingual education in public schools, I 'spose. "If they gonna live here, they best be speakin' our'n language, ya'hear?"

Of course, these are the same countrymen that go to Pa-ree and wanna eat at a Burger King and wonder why the French don't speak beter English themselves... Go figure.

Thanks for the good advice.

Perhaps I'll even get smarter once I can see better!

(Highly doubtful...)

Cheers,
Jilly

Familiar with Ma Ferguson then? "If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"

Max--

Alll very good info! Yeah... I'm growing slowly used to things costing about a gazillion times more here...

That's interesting that you point out the customer loyalty angle-- I think I see that.

On a certain level, I don't mind paying more for xyz here-- I have yet to have a single dissatisfactory consumer exchange (quality, service, etc...). Price is another issue.

I was out with a couple of Swiss last night and we were trying to figure out the German word for frugal. They scratched their head for a bit, a little perplexed at the idea of frugality in the first off (we settled on "sparsam", which, I pointed out, rhymes with "seltsam." They did not argue ...)

And thanks for the heads up on the Krankenkasse.... I will look further into it on this end...

Cheers,
Jilly

it's Gay Pa-ree

I have flights booked to Istanbul in two weeks for lasek treatment (not me). I might consider telling you how it goes

You laugh RE the King's English, but it's altogether true!

Yeep!

Laser-schmazer...

THAT's a whole 'nother ball of worms... My husband is in the process of getting a corrrection on a botched US performed laser job... We've seen a couple of doctors here and it looks like he's going to the UK. His is a pretty specific problem that only a handful of drs. are addressing (US doc didnt take into account that his pupils were extra-dialate-ey so at night they expand past the edge of the laser treatment...)

Have fun in Istanbul...

Good luck with it! I had it done twelve months ago in the UK, it's fantastic. I'd recommend it to anybody.....

Hi Jilly,

Please note our guideline / policy on not peppering your posts with German words. I've adjusted the subject line accordingly.

We also discussed some similiar issues recently on a the driver's licence conversion thread, you may find that helpful too.

Or as you probably discovered already there are millions of optometrists in Zurich, and they probably all speak English, so it's very easy to simply walk by one and get all the information you need.

Lasek treatment: about it, the ins, outs and the seeing-eye wife...

Yes, she said .... no pain, feels weird, WOW I CAN SEE...!

For €1090 (noth eyes) and a weekend in Istanbul, I recommend it. From -2.75/-3.25 to 20/20 vision in 15 minutes

The best birthday present I've ever had!

edit: Lasek.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasek

update on LASEK after one week - drops no longer being taken, no complaints of tired eyes anymore and still perfect vision.

She's fixed!

Hi,
My wife has broken her glasses and I also wanna gift her a new hassle free vision. Can anyone please help me decide whether vision correction operations are safe or not...
Thanx,
Akki

Almost one year later..... how is she doing? Still doing fine?