Outside Counsel

As you might expect the Peace Corps requires that CLA submit a fairly substantial sheaf of forms pertaining to her overall heath. Her regular doc, and her dentist have to fill stuff out, and so does her optometrist.  Because she is out of town we have been running around getting this done, and today I went to Lenscrafters to bring them the forms. Apparently they told A. that they wouldn't do it by fax or by email--I had to go all 19th Century style and ride out on horseback. When I got there they told me it would be about an hour, so I left them my cell number and did a couple of errands. When they called me back I found I was speaking to the store supervisor who earnestly explained to me that they could not fill out the form because if a third party used the magical information on it-- essentially the resolution of her prescription and the measurements for the frames she wears-- then they would be personally and individually liable if there were any defect.

(This particular Lenscrafters is, by the way, a font of misinformation. They are the same characters that told EGA that she might have ocular cancer, which she emphatically did not.) I am dumfounded by the way that these guys operate. The supervisor said that she would call Lenscrafters' legal department, and that is where the matter now rests. Of course she is completely wrong-- the mere assertion that a recitation of medical data might result in the imposition of liability is idiotic, but there was nothing I was going to say that was going to clarify the question for this lady. She heard something, or more likely misheard something somewhere, and now it'll be two trips to the gigantic Mall of Doom instead of just one, all to accomplish something so utterly routine that it should require no more than the click of a mouse.