Lawrence Y Chin, OD

I have been seeing dr. Chin snd Dr Le for many years. They are all very knowledgeable and friendly!
Also Allen who picks all of my glasses and our entire family is just amazing!!!
I recommended Allen to many of my friends and they all became a fan!
Highly recommend for your eye check snd to purchase your glasses!

Quick, thorough, efficient, friendly! Seemed to be knowledgeable. Appreciate that they were transparent with fees upfront.

We had an eye exam for my kid and after we've checked some frames but all of them were priced much lower than my insurance allowance. We mentioned that we'll check other optometrists and will come back after in case we'll want to order something from them.
Week later they called me and said that the glasses are ready. And I never ordered it. They used my $300 allowance for $138 frame.
I called VSP, they started investigation and after closed the case because optometrist confirm that I ordered it. They don't have my signature anywhere, but they are saying that signature is not needed because it's all covered.

This really was a phenomenal eye doctor's office--my wife and I used Dr Le for 5 years before we moved out of town. The office has top notch testing before the actual exam. I always felt like Dr. Le's exams were very comprehensive and he's a really nice person as well. I don't know how their pricing compares to other places because my insurance covered most of it, but it seemed fair. I'm sad that I had to leave this great practice!

I came to Palo Alto Vision Optometry to buy a pair of prescription sunglasses and had a pretty poor experience. The first person who helped me knew almost nothing about glasses and was extremely slow and absent-minded. He forgot to take critical measurements necessary to make my lenses (which I only found out a day later when the shop called me and told me they would need me to come back in).

The shop also tacked on additional fees that they hadn't told me about when I initially ordered the glasses.

Lastly, when I came in to pick up and pay for the glasses, they said they'd email me a receipt, but the receipt said nothing about what I had purchased so I had to call back to get an actual receipt so that my insurance would reimburse me.

The people there are nice, but the service just isn't very professional.

This review is for Dr. Le, we've patients of Dr. Chin and with Dr. Chin retiring we saw Dr. Le a couple of times before the pandemic. Now with everything opening back up, I rescheduled an appointment with Dr. Le for my husband, my daughter, and myself 3 weeks prior to the appointment. Literally, the week of the appointment like 3 days away we are informed they don't take our insurance anymore and when I called to get some more information the front desk Raquel didn't seem too sure so I asked to speak to someone more informed with the insurance. Dr. Le or Michael comes on the phone with straight-up attitude saying "what's the problem" and said they stopped taking our insurance and his tone was not so pleasant. I can't believe he yelled at me with frustration saying they stopped taking our insurance 5 years ago and we haven't back since. Whether or not you take our insurance it would have been nice if they were friendlier and informed us of the change either way we would have stayed and paid out of pocket but they don't seem focused on retaining their existing patients or maybe he was having a bad day. He might be a good eye doctor but Dr. Chin was always very pleasant and never rude to his patients. Honestly, I called to get a better understanding but instead ended up canceling our appointment and Michael with a tone said "Cancelled!" Unbelievable customer service.

I've been coming to this practice for the past five years or so, and always have a great experience. A warning for anyone considering booking an appointment with Dr. Chin though - he has now entered semi-retirement and is no longer accepting new patients. But don't worry, Dr. Le is the other optometrist at this practice and is just as capable!

The whole staff here is very professional and always has been very helpful. They keep up with the latest technology, including having a machine that takes a photo of your eye for the doctor to review - something I had never seen before coming here. In terms of the actual exam, Dr Chin always does a thorough job and I have no complaints there. I wear contacts and have never bought glasses here, so I can't speak to that aspect. All in all, I've been very happy with my annual exams here and will be sad when Dr. Chin fully retires in 2023 (yes, he was that specific!).

All of the staff are extremely respectful and were very conscious to keep things sanitized, which was very important to me especially during the COVID pandemic. Dr. Le is comprehensive in his exam, and has a welcoming personality, which puts those who are anxious about eye exams at ease!

The staff member who helped me pick out a frame is knowledgeable about the entire selection of frames within the store and took great care to help me find a frame that matched my face shape, while also taking into consideration my personal preferences for frames, the overall weight of the glasses (including the lenses), and the overall feel of the glasses when I wore them.

I've been going to Dr. Chin for eye exams, glasses and contacts since 1983 when he had a small practice within the old Alec department store where the Menlo Park Safeway is now. He is a consummate professional, yet has a relaxed manner, makes time to chat with his patients, and always greets me as an old friend. I met his daughter
Suzy when she was a teen working with her dad back in his Hamilton Ave office. Tamara, Michael, Dr. Le and staff are all friendly, knowledgeable and always helpful. The office has the latest equipment, and Dr. Chin is on top of research developments in the field - and explains things clearly so that choices are never confusing. Even after we lost our VSP insurance, I can't imagine going anywhere else. Thank you, Dr. Chin - it's been an honor to have been your patient for (gulp) 35+ years!

I didn't know that you could have fun buying a pair of glasses, but Dr. Chin's office made it a great experience. He's really fun, brings up cool things to talk about (we talked about sports and LA), and really helps you when he's sizing up your prescription. He's very warm, knowledgeable, and actually makes it a pretty fun afternoon.

The whole crew at the office is very patient, even while I set aside six different frames to try and decide between, which took forever. Then again, after I took FOREVER to feel comfortable with the adjustments that they made when my frames were ready a week later.

Dr. Chin's office takes VSP insurance and handles all that for you. They can also do prescription sunglasses and computer glasses. They make the process simple and you end up with a great pair of glasses that help you see! (isn't that the end goal?)