I am only commenting on a pair of eyeglass lenses I had made at Council - I did not purchase the frames there or get an eye exam there.
I ventured to Council Opticians while trying to find a place that would put prescription lenses in a pair of frames that I already had bought somewhere else; unlike many other opticians in the area (some who incorrectly told me that I was not in possession of optical quality frames) they were more than willing to accommodate me. The level of service was impressive - I simply walked in and told the people at the front desk that I wanted to see if somebody there could make a pair of lenses for frames that I had already bought and all I had to do was fill out a form asking for my name and contact information and I was speaking one on one with an optician in about 10 minutes. I was very impressed that he was able to draw up a template with only the demo lenses in the frames that I had on me; the well-known large eyeglasses stores don't do this, they have a limited number of already drawn templates that they work with (although last time I was in one of those stores they seemed to suggest that this has changed some). I was surprised that they were going to make lenses for these frames - they were 100% rimless and I have bad vision with bad astigmatism: cylinder of -4.00 in one eye, sphere of -5.75; many opticians won't make these types of eyeglasses for me due to issues with the thickness of the lens. However, Council was able to make a pair of lenses for me that were actually thinner than the glasses I was wearing at the time with the same prescription, which were actually half-rimless. I have one eye that requires a slightly thicker lens than the other which is supposed to be more noticeable with 100% rimless frames (the reason why many eyeglasses stores say they can't make them, due to cosmetic reasons) but you would never know with the lenses that Council made for me. The cost was $270 even, reflecting an extra $100 for Crizal anti-glare/anti-reflective coating. If you don't know about this technology, Crizal specifically, look it up; I have had other ant-glare/anti-reflective coatings and this is by far the best. $270 may seem like a lot of money, but I would think that anybody with an Rx as strong as mine who has been wearing glasses for most of their life who isn't a candidate for Lasik or who isn't interested in it (I fall into the latter category) and wants a pair of lenses that are lightweight and have no glare would think that this is a normal price.
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