WARNING: Surgitel - STAY AWAY!

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Here is my experience with Surgitel that I wanted to share with you. It was a pretty horrible experience and I wanted to let others know of the complete lack of customer service that comes right from the top of the company.

Firstly, I am a resident dentist in Las Vegas. I was interested in some high power loupes, and contacted the company, who got me in touch with the local rep.

After emailing and leaving voicemails for the local rep, I had not received a response. After 3 weeks, I called back Surgitel to complain, and only then did I get a call back from the rep.

I told the rep I wanted to see the 3.5, 4.5 and 6 expanded field loupes, however, when he finally did meet me, he only had the 3.5 loupes. Basically a useless meeting.

We arranged to have another meeting, taking yet more time away from my clinic. The morning of the appointment, I called and left him a voicemail to confirm. The meeting was set for noon, at 11:50am, he called to cancel saying he did not remember to get the higher power loupes.

At this point, I contacted Surgitel again and complained to the regional sales manager. This was a month later from my original request to demo the loupes, and I still was not able to get anyone to bring me some demos.

The explanation I received : The local rep was being fired or leaving the company, and as such, didn't care to make any sales or call back clients. Too bad for me it seems. The regional sales manager said there was no one to replace him and no one who would come in the forseeable future.

Wow -- incredible. So the advice I was given was to drop the $1600 dollars and try out a pair of loupes without seeing them or trying on any frames. Wonderful.

I emailed back Surgitel and had my complaint forwarded directly to the president of the company. (I kept all email correspondances from Surgitel so I have dates/names of everyone I spoke with). Still, I was told too bad, no one will be coming to Las Vegas.


I can't believe what horrible communication (or lack of), and unprofessionalism from a company, before a sale was even made! Imagine what would happen if I made a purchase and needed an adjustment? No sales rep, no customer service, right from the president of the company, to the sales manager to the reps.

What a crap experience. Buyer beware! I know many people have had good experiences with them, but this was a major red flag!
This company doesn't give a crap about anyone.

I dealt with Heine, Orascoptic and Designs for Vision, all had great customer service.

Originally Posted by mikeypas

Here is my experience with Surgitel that I wanted to share with you. It was a pretty horrible experience and I wanted to let others know of the complete lack of customer service that comes right from the top of the company.

Firstly, I am a resident dentist in Las Vegas. I was interested in some high power loupes, and contacted the company, who got me in touch with the local rep.

After emailing and leaving voicemails for the local rep, I had not received a response. After 3 weeks, I called back Surgitel to complain, and only then did I get a call back from the rep.

I told the rep I wanted to see the 3.5, 4.5 and 6 expanded field loupes, however, when he finally did meet me, he only had the 3.5 loupes. Basically a useless meeting.

We arranged to have another meeting, taking yet more time away from my clinic. The morning of the appointment, I called and left him a voicemail to confirm. The meeting was set for noon, at 11:50am, he called to cancel saying he did not remember to get the higher power loupes.

At this point, I contacted Surgitel again and complained to the regional sales manager. This was a month later from my original request to demo the loupes, and I still was not able to get anyone to bring me some demos.

The explanation I received : The local rep was being fired or leaving the company, and as such, didn't care to make any sales or call back clients. Too bad for me it seems. The regional sales manager said there was no one to replace him and no one who would come in the forseeable future.

Wow -- incredible. So the advice I was given was to drop the $1600 dollars and try out a pair of loupes without seeing them or trying on any frames. Wonderful.

I emailed back Surgitel and had my complaint forwarded directly to the president of the company. (I kept all email correspondances from Surgitel so I have dates/names of everyone I spoke with). Still, I was told too bad, no one will be coming to Las Vegas.


I can't believe what horrible communication (or lack of), and unprofessionalism from a company, before a sale was even made! Imagine what would happen if I made a purchase and needed an adjustment? No sales rep, no customer service, right from the president of the company, to the sales manager to the reps.

What a crap experience. Buyer beware! I know many people have had good experiences with them, but this was a major red flag!
This company doesn't give a crap about anyone.

I dealt with Heine, Orascoptic and Designs for Vision, all had great customer service.

My experience dealing with DFV and Orascoptic suggests that your experience is almost solely based on the quality (or lack thereof) of the regional rep. If you get a lemon, you basically won't have a good experience. I guess I'm lucky being at the dental school because they'll only send their better reps out here knowing that almost everyone here is going to buy 1-2 loupes during their 4 years at dental school.

Surgitel "may" have better reps in other parts of the country.

@cybermech -- absolutely right! i guess my major disappointment was once I informed the national sales manager and president of the company, they still chose not to do anything. its like they said "we already have enough customers - who cares about you". I find that lack of professionalism appalling. Im sure there are many good reps out there, but what happens if your good rep decides to quit, maybe you too will find yourself without a rep dealing with a company that chooses not to serve you anymore.. Again, just my experience being shared with those interested in hearing it

My co-worker bought a 6.0 loupe from them. They came in initially to show him the different loupes and he paid the same day. They said they'd deliver it in 3 weeks...he had to email them after 3 weeks to ask them where his loupes were. I guess they forgot about him because they said they'd ship it "right away".

It's amazing how bad dental companies are with customer service seeing how customer based the industry is.

Just thought I'd add an addendum to this.

Ordered loupes as a big group from Surgitel back in November. They sent out the wrong frames. It is now May and they just shipped out the "new" frames. It's still not what we ordered. And worse, they wanted to charge $50 to switch the frames out. We've been treated like a nuisance. They couldn't care less.

At our school it took many people roughly 2 months to finally get working loupes from them. I personally would never purchase anything from them after meeting their local rep who came off as a bit of an ass.
I got in touch with heine, they had a local rep come out and buy us lunch and beers. I ordered a pair of 2.5x and got them in 3 business days. I don't think I'll ever order from another company other than heine ever again.

I dealt with Heine, Orascoptic and Designs for Vision, all had great customer service.

Did you own a pair of Heine, or have you just dealt with a rep?

I ask because I am leaning towards a pair of their 2.5s.
I skipped right surgitel because if their loupes are even half as bad as their demos were as far as color aberrations, I dont want them at any price.

I have 2 pairs of Surgitel loupes and I have not had any issues with customer service. In fact, I have found them to be quite accommodating. There isn't a company out there that pleases 100% of the people 100% of the time.

Why the 6.0 lenses? I can't imagine what you would need these for, or how long they would be.

Hello Fido. long time no talk. I'll send you an email (after finals).

-texags dental buddy.

as far as how big the 6.0 lenses would be, Surgitel is known for making its high mag lenses shorter than the competition.

Noted, should I look into buying loupes in first year for pre lab (waxing) or are loupes normally bought in 3/4 year

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk

You don't need loupe for waxing but it takes a while to get used to

I actually got frustrated with a couple of the companies while trying to order my loupes. After extensive research and a somewhat spontaneous decision I decided to create my own loupe company. Spent the past several months in development and we just launched.

For as much as these companies are making off 1 pair of loupes you would expect them to treat each customer professionally and try to earn their business.

*If you want to know my company you can personal message me but I don't want to spam SDN with links*

Philippines,

Do your loupes use ground lenses, or molded lenses?