Aren't contacts supposed to help you see BETTER?? Did I get a crappy exam, or what?

I got a contact lens exam at Walmart - trying to save a few bucks. I have been using OTC readers for several years, which work fine, but knew I needed an eye exam, and also wanted to try contacts. I was given 3 different pairs of contacts - multi-focal - to try, as well as an Rx for gles. With every single pair of the contacts my vision, both near and far, was very distorted; in fact, I could see BETTER without anything on my eyes than with any of the contacts! I got a refund for the contacts part of the exam - and I never filled the eyegl rx because the OTC readers I got work just fine. If I was given the correct lenses, in the correct strength or prescrpition, shouldn't the contact lenses have helped me to see? Would it have been this distorted, even after I tried wearing each pair for at least a week to "adjust"? I hate wearing gles for reading/computers, and I'm still interested in contacts but I don't want to go through this again. Any insight would be very appreciated!