Honestly, it sounds like John was a problem and needed to be fired a long time ago, before he created this unmaintainable mess.

I’ve worn progressive lenses for nearly 10 years now. I did get one pair on the cheap, and they were truly awful, unusable. That’s when I figured out that going cheap with progressive lenses isn’t worth it. That may be what has happened to you. Even with good lenses, it takes me a few days, maybe a week to get used to them when I get a new pair. Stairs are… difficult though, especially going down. I live in a busy European city, so I use public transport a lot, and that means lots of stairs. I can no longer run up and down them like I used to.