I wish there were a way to express to CIBA Vision how mistreated we all felt, but they seem to have the market cornered on this type of product. Thanks, Jessica, now we know what we can expect. After my somewhat bitter post on March 3 about CIBA Vision and their silence regarding a shortage of numerous products including Clear Care, AOsept, and others — a story finally emerged.
My post generated quite a wide range of comments from all over the US and even into Canada. Our traffic has nearly tripled since I posted information about this disaster. A great group of people, these are. Some even revisted to post additional information knowing that this was the only place that I know of for answers.
CIBA Vision, what were you thinking? This is, unfortunately, probably not going to damage your reputation enough to financially affect you — but I kind of wish it would. Why torture your loyal consumers, which is what has happened. It frustrates, disappoints, and angers me all at once. Well said. Ciba Vision has proven to be only a manufacturing outfit. If they even have PR staff, they should all be fired. Here is the poorly written letter that I received:. Thank you for your e-mail.
We would like to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced in locating your lens care system. We are currently experiencing delays in the production of our lens care systems including; both AOSEPT and Clear Care due to a manufacturing upgrade being undertaken at our manufacturing site. We are working diligently to return to full production as quickly as possible; however, at this time we do not have an anticipated date as to when the upgrade will be completed.
Our current estimate is for availability within the first of April Until then, we would recommend contacting your eye care professional for their recommendation of the best solution for your lenses in the interim.
To this day, there is nothing and it is March I purchased some bottles from e-bay but will find an alternative solution. Thanks for the update though! This is the only place I can get an update!
Opening a regular bottle of hydrogen peroxide will let in air, which will change the pH over time. But, in a pinch.. April 2nd and still no Clear Care solutions in any stores in Oregon! The staff at the stores were not able to explain why it was out of stock.
Hours later and a google seach…. My optometrist had no idea what was going on when I asked a month or so ago, and was also unable to find any information about the disappearance.
I thought it odd that both the saline and disinfectant solutions I was using Aosept ClearCare and Ciba Vision Softwear Saline that I thought were from different companies were both totally off the shelves, while everything else was still there. Not telling anyone until way afterwards is indeed some pretty bad PR.
Enough product out there?? This blog and the 70 plus comments it generated from all over the country and Canada as well indicates that consumers were clearly experiencing a shortage. Any company with such ignorance does not deserve customer loyalty. I am furious that they didnt prepare for this shortage— especially with this fungus thing thats breaking out among the RENU users…. I have been using AOSept for years.
It works exactly the same way as AOSept and is just as good. EasySept is manufactured in Italy and distributed from the UK. I live in Israel and its relatively easy to find here. I Hope you guys in the states can get a hold of it too. Really interesting posts.
I went today to find some Clear Care b. Wrong—they have a large empty section where it was and some recall stickers there. Now, I understand. At first I thought it was my lenses, so I changed them out. Then, when it continued, I thought, maybe I need to change out the neutralizing cup. Same result. They asked me to send the neutralizing cup and unused solution so that they could test it for a possible Q.
They sent me a prepaid mailer and 3 free starter kits and coupons hurray! I was thrilled because I, too, am hooked on this product. However, unlike you, I had a very positive customer service experience, and was very pleased with the service. BTW, I did not get any info. Thanks for the info. Several times I had the same experience.
I put my lenses in and experienced some slight buring, just like when the neutralizing cup need to be replace. But the cup was fairly new?? I just flushed the lenses a little more with saline and things were OK. Apparently, the discomfort may have been from a CIBA quality control issue.
I just tried to find Clear Care at Target. There was no longer any shelf space reserved for it unlike two weeks ago. I called my eye doctor and was told that it should be available May 1. I wondered how long retailers would allow their shelves to remain empty.
This is indeed a case study in bad public relations. I first noticed the absence of AOSept from store shelves in mid-February. When I called the toll-free number on my old bottle, I reached a company employee who told me that the packaging was being revamped and that the product would be back in stores in March. In the meantime, as others here have observed, Ciba has acted very strangely. The failure to reach out to customers to explain the shortage of product reveals a lack of understanding of brand loyalty.
It also makes it seem as though the company had committed some kind of fraud or criminal act that had to be covered up. The suggestion from Ciba reps to use another product in the meantime was just stupid. We always appreciate hearing from our consumers' with their concerns and comments.
I live in a suburb just outside Chicago and still no Clear Care. I thank you for your blog because otherwise I would have no idea what was going on. I can not use other solutions because I do get a form of pink eye from using the ReNu product that Walgreens just pulled from their shelves. Most of them have pulled the labelling from the shelves. A coworker of mine was unable to find any Clear Care anywhere after searching twice as many locations.
No one had any idea what was going on, and any information we did have was not well-disseminated and fairly unconfirmed. Other products irritate my eyes to one degree or another. I really wish your PR department had handled things differently, because I like the products, but oh man, what made someone think radio silence was a good idea? It takes days to get from the distribution centers to the store shelves. We are continually shipping to these centers. The prompt response is nice.
Hopefully it is not a case of too-little-too-late, though. I would really like to stop using the stop-gap brand soon, as it has been causing more eye irritation as of late. CIBA Vision knew in early February that it had serious production problems with its lens care products and that there would be a shortage on store shelves. It deliberately said nothing to customers and eye care professionals, and even now it continues to stonewall and lie. See this article that appeared in The Montreal Gazette on Feb.
Officials of the eye-care unit of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG admitted yesterday the move will see some retail shelves go bare. The shortage is already being felt in Montreal. As a result, users of those products are being urged by the Centre for Contact Lens Research to check with their eye practitioners well in advance before selecting alternatives.
Jones stressed in a phone interview from Waterloo, Ont. Catherine St. The problem arose in November when CIBA Vision Sterile Manufacturing in Mississauga issued a recall of its eye drops after a review of the production plant showed possible contamination by bacteria that could lead to eye infection. I too went to lots of stores to find my Aquify.
A few years ago they quit make my other solution -Quick Care. After much searching I found Aquify which is great stuff. Now it is off the market untl who knows when. If not for the blog I would have been totally in the dark.
I agree that the company should have done bettter PR and warned all of us faithful users that there would be no supply for months. I do hope that they or someone else produces the same or similar product SOON.
A suggestion is to try cvs. Now that Ciba realizes how many loyal users of Clear Care are out there, the geniuses will probably double the price. Good luck all. I have been to every store in this county and the shelves are bare. Now my eye doctor has none on hand. What to do. I have even contacted my son in Utah and my daughter in San Diego. To no avail. I placed an order today with CVs for Aosept which I normally do not use , hopefully it will be in stock.
First week in April was not true. They were told that the retailers would be stocked first. When will that be?? Thanks for this webpage. I had all but given up on the Ciba Vision products. They had just simply dissapeared from my store shelves.
Asking the store led to no answers, so they were obviously just as in the dark as us consumers. Do they think people would just blindly sit around and wait for products to return when we had NO idea whether they were even coming BACK??? John W. This morning the cards were all gone, so either everyone is complaining or Wal-Mart has given up hope too. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this site!!!
I noticed there was no Aosept to be found in any store near my home in Oregon about a month ago. I thought it was weird and wondered if the product had been discontinued.
I left the next day for a trip to Arizona and found it in full stock in the stores there, so I bought some and forgot all about it. Last night I went to the store because my Arizona supply had run out and again could not find any. I checked 5 stores, asked around, and nothing. No one could tell me why this product had seemingly disappeared.
Thank god I googled and found this site. Now I know I had not gone mad and have confirmation that the Aosept people are a bunch of tools. Too bad I love their product and will be stocking up once it is back on the shelves.
I know a Novartis insider and tried to get some through their company store. The goal was to provide its users easily accessible, up to date information regarding contact lenses and contact lens solutions. The site allows for simple, as well as detailed search on ANY contact lens parameter. Our database contains over contact lens products and is supported by over 50 contact lens companies. Our search engine can locate a lens based on over 30 different search parameters.
Soft Lens Database lenses. Soft Lens Simple Search Use the dropdowns below to locate your desired product. View Product. Soft Lens Advanced Search.
Gas Permeable Simple Search Use the dropdowns below to locate your desired product. Gas Permeable Advanced Search. Hybrid Lens Simple Search Use the dropdowns below to locate your desired product. Hybrid Lens Advanced Search. Button Material Simple Search Use the dropdowns below to locate your desired product. I've been wearing contacts for over 15 years and Miraflow is the best daily cleaner I have ever used. I have tried many other brands including CVS and no other brand has ever been able to keep my lenses comfortable and fresh feeling all day like Miraflow.
Man this sucks, now I have to try and find another daily cleaner that works as well. If you do start a petition I'll sign for sure. If someone here doesn't start a petition, I will! I cannot use anything but SoftWear. I'm in the same situation as all of you are. I've used softwear saline for the 14 years I have been wearing contact lenses. Aosept was the only thing I could use without irritating my eyes.
Then when clear care came out, I switched to that. Then when they came out with the 02 and air optix contacts, my eyes and contacts were the best they had been. I can't use the clear care without saline, and I can't find any other brand of saline that doesn't sting my eyes or make my contacts irritated. I just bought canned blairex saline, used it once it was fine, but the second time my contacts were foggy.
I'm so frustrated. I can use aquify but it still ends up making my contacts sticky. I can't believe they would discontinue the saline. It seems that the contact lens industry is trying to shift everyone to more profitable daily disposable lenses.
Gradually every brand has moved away from cleaning systems that work for more than a few days of wear. There used to be several brands of heavy cleaners. I guess I'll try the CVS one by buying it online. Nothing kept my lenses as comfortable and I've been using it for nearly 20 years. Problem is, each bottle would last me so long that I didn't realize it went off the market.
I am in the same situation with SoftWear saline; can not find another product that does not burn my eyes. Thank you for these amazing products!! Yesterday I used Hylo for the first time, it was a sample my ophthalmologist had given me, I cannot believe the results after only 24 hours, my eyes feel better than they have in a very long time, thankyou.
Again sincerely Thank you. The best was to also use Calmo Eye Spray sprayed onto the closed eyes to treat the dryness and itching. These are the best dry eye products available. I am happy to provide my review on these best medicines available to treat severe dry eye. They give exceptional comfort without the prolonged blurring encountered with other gel products.
Given the wide range of ocular lubricants it is useful to have a product that performs better than the rest. I used Hylo to relieve the dryness. It is amazing that the product stay sterile for 6 months after its first use. We recently went to a cornea specialist who insisted that my mom only use Hylo Gel and she would feel much better. He was he right! The pain and headaches are greatly alleviated and the pump is much easier to use and a lot more sterile than the other drops we used to use.
Hylo Gel has made a remarkable difference in my mothers overall health and well being.
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