Okay, I’ve gotta rave. Buying glasses online is completely awesome and I’m kicking myself for how long I’ve waited to buy glasses (because of cost).
Before buying, I got an eye exam locally of course, and they told me to go to Lenscrafters (where my doctor is connected to) for pupillary distance. They did this for free, no fuss.
I bought a couple of pairs from Zenni Optical for under $50 shipped. My expectations were pretty low since I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I am not a very good judge of how things will look on me, so I figured I’d just get a couple of pairs for backup if nothing else. I just took the numbers off my existing frames and bought a couple of frames that seemed close.
I clickety-click away at the website for a little while, weighing options. What’s this? You can pick different tints? I’ve never had prescription sunglasses before, but hell, I might as well try, so (on a lark) I got some 80% blue tinted glasses and a regular pair. The sunglasses were the more expensive of the two; the regular pair was under $20, even with the extra $5 for “extra strength prescription”.
I got 'em today and they’re great! I plan to use both of them regularly, and they were incredibly inexpensive. For the record, LensCrafters quoted me at over $400 for a single pair (with the cheapest non-horrifyingly-ugly frames I could find, and I’m not picky). They took about two weeks to arrive but I am entirely satisfied.
Any experiences to share? Any reasons why you won’t buy online?
I really wanted to buy my last pair of glasses online, because that seems to be the only place to get truly round gold frames with wire bows. My eye doctor advised against it, though, since I wear progressive bifocals, and the lenses need to be fitted too precisely to be done online. If it weren’t for that, I’d buy them online. The savings are incredible! Even at Wal-Mart, using a frame I already owned, my spectacles and a pair of just-distance sunglasses cost over $300, and I don’t even like them.
It’s a neat concept, but I really need to see how frames look on my face before I decide (not that that’s easy in a store where I can’t see since, duh, my old glasses aren’t on!). I have small, deep-set eastern European eyes and frames are a careful balancing act; too small and they make my eyes look tiny (since they’re small), but too big and they make my eyes look tiny (too much blank space between the eyes and the frame).
I wouldn’t be confident that I was selecting the right size, and even then, I’ve found that two different frames that purport to be the same size will fit differently. I don’t buy shoes or pants online, for the same reasons.
I have a high enough prescription so that some styles are not a good idea for me as they are not sturdy enough to hold the required lenses. I have had some difficulty in the past getting frames to fit right. Between those two factors I feel a lot better about having a live human being with some experience in fitting glasses helping me in person. (And no, I don’t go to places like Lenscrafters, I go to an optometrist with his own office staff who have been working at this stuff for decades)
I was just wondering if online was possible. My continuous bifocals do not work well for the computer, I have to keep tilting my head back. But I didn’t want to pay another $200. They say they have $8 pairs. Hey, for that amount I don’t care if they have granny frames or oversize dated frames. I use the computer home alone.
Same reason I don’t buy clothes online–it’s a big enough pain in the ass trying stuff on in the store and only paying for and bringing home the stuff that actually fits and looks good on me right then, ain’t no way in hell I’m paying the price, paying shipping, and waiting several days to a few weeks only to find the damn stuff doesn’t fit or looks ridiculous.
I’ve bought some from Zenni Optical. I also bought some from goggle4u.com and eyeglass.com. They are cheap enough that I can buy a few different types and have extras laying around just in case. They came in handy when I broke a pair of glasses and didn’t have to rely on an old prescription.
Why don’t most people buy glasses online? Because there’s no way to tell if they look good with your face, fit correctly, are comfortable, etc. Unless you’re buying the same pair you already own, or just don’t care at all how they look, I don’t know why anyone *would *ever buy glasses online.
Piggybacking on everyone else saying “I like to know how they look on my face” and also my optometrist makes me sit down when I get my pair in and makes sure they actually fit my face correctly and will tweak the fit if necessary (if when I get the lenses in them the angle they fit on my face is off distorting my vision a bit). So I like the service. I usually try on 20+ pairs before I pick, I’m stuck with them 2 years after all. And once I did actually give them a pair of frames I wanted to use for sunglasses, so that may also be an option for others. Although what I did was give them an old pair and they ended up breaking the frame because they were weak but gave me a very similar frame for free to replace them.
That’s where I got my exam. I told them that I wanted to buy glasses online and they said they could do PD if I wanted, but there’s a machine right in the store and they’d do it for free. I even told the Lenscrafters salesperson that they sent me over and I was buying online, and they were fine with it.
I guess I understand, but still… there’s just such a huge discrepancy in price. I can see the store experience for the first pair, but after that, fit shouldn’t be an issue – the measurements are right on the glasses.
I don’t generally buy clothes online either, but there’s not nearly the same discrepancy in price. Just for the sake of example, my glasses were less than 5% of the cost as I was quoted at the store. Would all of you guys who don’t buy glasses online really pass up buying clothes at 95% off, just because they might not fit perfectly? At that rate, you can buy multiple sizes and styles and try them on, pick one, and still save money… and have backup pairs, or pairs to give to a charity.
Buying glasses in person is excruciating for me - it takes me literally at least an hour to find a frame I like, even though they are almost always (except for one of the last two pairs I bought) some variation on the rectangular-ish, thin frames, probably some variation on rimless or semi-rimless.
Would I pass up clothes that were 95% off just because they might look like total ass and I’d be stuck with 'em? If I had to wear 'em every waking moment of my life I believe I would. Especially if they were right there on my face where people who interact with me are mostly looking and I had to look at the godawful things every time I combed my hair or brushed my teeth or washed my hands. I’m not a particularly vain woman, but I’m quite willing to pay an extra couple hundred bucks every 4-5 years to get something that didn’t make me look even doofier than I already do.
Considering my glasses sit on my face from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep (and, on the odd occasion or two, also sit on my face while I’m asleep), I want them to be utterly perfect in every way. It usually takes me an hour or two to decide on frames that look good and feel right, and even then, I’ll usually have the optician set them aside for a day so that I can sleep on it before making my final decision.
I’ve never had a problem talking down an optician when it comes to price - sure, I’ll never get a pair for $25, but the last time I bought glasses I bargained the cost down to three pairs for $300, including one with Transitions lenses. That’s a bargain for something I’ve worn every single day for the past three years.
I’ve never really thought about it since I have an extremely difficult prescription that will only work in certain frames and only one lady in town can ever get it right but I might do it to buy a second pair of the exact same glasses.
Personally, I just told my eye doctor, “I’m going to buy online. Can you give me the pupil distance or whatever I need?” and he said, “Absolutely! You’re going to save a TON of money, seriously.”
Now, all of you saying you would be afraid they wouldn’t fit right. . . why not just use your old glasses as a frame of reference. I lost my stupid ass $700 or whatever Versace glasses, so I just looked at a picture of me in them, went on Zenni and found the same shape. Then, I looked at the height of the glasses and compared them to what the Versace ones looked like on my face. Done and done.
They fit fine. And for $10, who cares if the fit is a tiny bit off? Spare glasses I wont punch myself for if I lose.
