Buying glasses online: Why doesn't everybody do this?!

In My Humble Opinion
41

Of course not - but the question was “Buying glasses online: Why doesn’t everybody do this?” and there’s my particular answer. :slight_smile:

Correct. I would love to be able to get by with only minor corrections, or perhaps by reading glasses from Walgreen’s. Unfortunately, that is not my situation.

It could also apply to professional drivers/truckers and several other professions and/or hobbies where precise vision is crucial. Which would be a good reason to opt for buying glasses somewhere other than on line.

42

Main concern about buying glasses online is what happens if the lens isn’t exactly right? How is that going to be adjusted? As it works today for me, I just go back to my optometrist for some change in the prescription and try again. In other words, it’s less hassle if something doesn’t go right. I tend to not buy anything online unless it’s relatively cheap or it’s minimum hassle for an exchange or refund.

43

This thread is certainly timely for me.

I purchased gawd-awful expensive Prada frames the last time…exactly 15 months ago. How do I know this, you ask? Because the hinge broke on these lovely $300 frames (not including lenses) day before yesterday.

Can it be repaired, I ask. Of course not, ma’am, you have to buy a pair of new temples for $150 which may have to be sent from Italy. Warranty? Oh, heavens, no, ma’am. The warranty is only for 12 months.

I’ve been wearing glasses for over 44 years. I don’t recall ever breaking a frame with the exception of the nosepiece. Now I have fancy schmancy frames for the same amount that could have fed a family of four for a month and they’re worthless.

I, too, have a severe Rx with bifocals (legally blind uncorrected), but I am seriously considering trying this myself. think that it would behoove me to understand the measurements given before I order so I’ll be doing some research first but damn, I could have 20 pair for what this one cost.

44

For a third class medical don’t you only need 20/40 corrected?
(even with glasses I have trouble with the 20/20 line)

Brian
PP-ASEL

45

I’ve been hearing a lot about getting glasses online recently, and I’d be happy to give it a try if I didn’t have a freakishly complicated prescription (extremely nearsighted, astigmatism in one eye, ground-in prism in both lenses). I’m one of the people excluded in the fine print of the Lenscrafters “about an hour” offer, it takes them a day or two to get my glasses done. I don’t trust some cheap online place to get it right.

46

Thanks for the reminder; I’ve been browsing Zenni for a while.

I bought my last glasses at Costco; they measured the distance & wrote it on the receipt. Pretty good glasses–except that one of the plastic pads fell off. The glasses stay on but are a bit crooked. Need to get back to the store & see if they’ll fix them. But they’ll probably have to send them away…

I’ve got a pretty simple prescription & would love an extra pair or two. Maybe in some interesting colors?

47

Yes, that is true. Still, the preference is to have the best correction possible. As I’m past 40 they also now test my near vision. That means next time I go in for a flight physical I’d better have bifocals.

48

Veteran optician weighing in… I’ve done the retail thing (Pearle Vision Center, WalMart Vision Center), and I currently work in a privately-owned ophthalmology based practice.

I’m VERY picky about my own glasses. Eyewear is my business, and mine had better look perfect on me. As I get an awesome discount, I have several pairs, all of them “name brand”, but no Prada or Versace for me (even discounted, I just can’t bring myself to pay for them). My current 3-pair rotation includes one Vogue and 2 DKNY. New Vogue has been ordered, and will create a 4-pair rotation, even though they will be worn rarely due to their, um… unique color.

For the most part, unless your prescription is as complicated as many have indicated above, buying glasses online should not be too much of a problem. ANSI provides us with standards that must be met, and all opticians have the same “rules” to follow.

As far as fit goes, you really can’t go by your current pair and expect a frame of the same size to fit exactly the same way. My glasses range from a 48 to 54 eyesize, and every single one of them is a perfect fit, ON ME. One major concern with fit is the bridge on zyl (plastic) frames. If it doesn’t fit your nose, I can’t make it. However, frames with adjustable nosepads can be tweaked by any optician. We have groovy tools (literally, a plier with a groove!).

I am NEVER offended when a patient tells me they want to take their Rx to Walmart or wherever. My budget is limited too, and I don’t begrudge anyone their savings. And yes, I will gladly pop your eyewear onto the lensometer and double-check the prescription for accuracy. And I adjust eyewear purchased elsewhere almost as often as I adjust eyewear bought from my office.

Bifocal wearers, of course, will have more trouble buying online because of seg-heights and optical centering on progressives. But any optician can give you your PD. In fact, just today, a former employee called to ask her husband’s PD so he could order a pair online!

My only advice would be to check “patient satisfaction” policies, and the retailer’s policy on doctors’ rx changes.

Yes, own several pairs, so you can change them with your mood! How many people own 20 pairs of shoes? Nobody looks at your feet! Own more specs, because people almost HAVE to look at your face.

49

If they can’t fix them on the spot, check your local phone directory under opticians. You will likely find several that also advertise repair. They will probably replace the missing pad while you wait and they may not even charge for the repair, as was the case when I had a missing nose pad replaced a few months ago.

50

I’ve seen pad replacement kits at CVS right next to all the cheapo reading glasses. I don’t know how well they work.

51

Personally, I’d rather sink money into one really, really good pair that optimizes my correction and yet are durable enough to hold up without breaking than to get multiple pairs. But then, my prescription is complicated so getting one pair that’s really fine is more difficult for me than for many others.

As it happens, back when I had money I did buy a spare pair. The prescriptions aren’t quite identical, but close enough that the old pair can act as a backup and corrects enough for me to be legal to drive (or fly, for that matter)

The last time I got new lenses it wasn’t because I needed a new correction but because, after years of use, the lenses had become scratched and started to cloud (the doc said that in his device they looked like they’d been sandblasted - I’m guessing open cockpit flying might have produced some unusual wear on them).

The sad thing is that I haven’t had an eye exam in over two years because I’m poor. And I know that at some point I will really need to move to bifocals but I haven’t a clue how I’m going to pay for them, as bifocals for me are going to cost even more than my single lenses. I live in dread of breaking my glasses because I can’t see anyway to replace a pair at this point. Fortunately, I haven’t even actually broken a lens, and the frame damage I’ve experienced over the years has been repairable so far. I do like my titanium frames, they seem to hold up very well.

52

In my post, I talked about going to a guy who has an eyeglass repair shop and he only charged $26 to repair the glasses after one of the spring hinges broke.

I don’t know if a place like that would be able to fix prada glasses, but it would be worth trying and far cheaper than spending the $150.

53

For what it’s worth, on my glasses, the measurements were mostly there on the glasses themselves (I did a little Googling about glasses sizing, too). Anything I wasn’t sure of I just measured with a ruler. My new glasses fit perfectly well – to the point if fitting in the exact same groove in the side of my face. On top of that, they’re lighter and don’t have to feel as “tight” to fit because the arms are a bit flexible and cling in to the side of my head. Even if I had to replace them in a year, I wouldn’t care. Frankly, for $18 a pair, I could get a whole bunch of different frames with different styles.

I get the FAA thing, and I get that you have a complicated prescription, but I don’t get this part. Even though I got an extra pair, I still ended up paying much, much less than I would have before. How can you not afford to pay less than you’re paying now, but get extra stuff you might or might not use?

That’s fair. However, to me, the way I’ve treated glasses – going for something of optimum durability – was largely due to their cost.

If I had to get clothes tailored for me and spend 20 times what I was paying now for each piece of clothes, I’d be picking clothes based on durability and neutrality too – just the way I pick glasses now. However, I don’t. For me, it’s worth it to save a lot of money and have clothes that fit standard sizes. If all clothes were 95% off online, I’d buy them all online, too, sight unseen (especially if they were like glasses, where it’s based on specific measurements, not vanity sizing). I think the way a lot of people have come to treat their glasses is due to their cost, not due to their preference. That’s why I am surprised that so many people who don’t have really complicated needs in glasses don’t shop online. I think it’s largely due to what we’re used to doing.

For me, it’s a revelation in that I can, firstly, save a lot of money; secondly, I can afford backup pairs with my current prescription for the first time ever; and thirdly, I can buy interesting or unconventional-looking glasses (like my blue-tinted sunglasses, which I now lurve) because I’m not making such a huge financial commitment. Wouldn’t it be cool to have – for less than what you’re paying now – lots of different choices of glasses? Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a pair that exactly matches your job interview suit, or whatever? I think it’s pretty cool.

54

Because if I need a new pair of glasses it’s because I can not function without glasses, period. It would be a necessary expense, like food or heating in the winter. However, I am experiencing some severe poverty right now. An additional $18 spent that I didn’t absolutely need to spend is $18 I can’t spend on something else that is necessary - such as food. $18 is enough for me to feed my husband and I for 3-4 days. As many months I’m not earning enough to cover my expenses (thank Og we still have some savings left) I really can’t afford to give money away. I don’t spend a lot of money on glasses because I enjoy spending the money, it’s because that’s how much it costs to get glasses that work for me. Over the years I have put some effort into finding lower cost alternatives, but there aren’t many for me. What money I save on glasses, though, would not go to another pair of glasses, it would go to some other essential right now. Yes, my budget is that tight right now.

Well, you must understand - my choice of frames is dictated first and foremost by are the frames able to hold the lenses I need? There are many styles of frames that would look good on me but I can’t use simply because they can not accommodate my lenses (usually for reasons of weight - yes, despite my use of thin lens technology my lenses are still 1/4 inch thick - but also sometimes because of shape). This applies regardless of cost. Second… I tend to stick to rather basic choices in clothes. For example, I will happily go years with no more than 5 pairs of shoes (sneakers, winter boots, 2 for office, sandals) and odds are they’ll all be black or some very conservative color. Likewise, my clothing choices for work tend to be rather restricted because I am colorblind and thus do not want to risk fashion faux pas as, I assure you, there are color combinations I find soothing those with normal color vision would compare to finger nails on a black board. In fact, after I was married I let my husband dress me and the fashion mistakes became much less common. Thus, for things like glasses, shoes, and purses I try to find items that would fit with many items in my wardrobe rather than designing stand-alone outfits.

But hey, if I could get glasses for $20/pair I might well buy purple sunglasses and royal blue reading glasses and khaki camo for hiking in the woods and what not - but I suspect even then I’d buy far fewer pairs than you would. It’s just not how I operate. I don’t view my glasses as a fashion accessory, they’re more a detachable part of my body. I put them on in the morning and leave them on. The notion of wearing a different pair every day would be, I guess, like someone dying their hair a different color every morning. You could do it, but it’s not the usual way of things.

55

My question is, how are they able to offer 95% off without some sacrifice to quality? I find it hard to believe that the optometrist is marking glasses up that much.

56

The glasses come directly from the factory in China. They also don’t have any particular brand name stamped on them.

I figure that what probably happens is that when you get those same glasses (stamped with a pretty logo) at the optometrist, they’ve been touched by the factory, countless shippers, countless distributors, more shippers, and your optometrist.

So, of course there is a markup. You have to pay for all those hands that touched them somehow.

57

I’d guess a fairly large part of that savings is the cost of having a physical retail space and providing service. A place like that just needs a warehouse, a lab, and a room within one of those spaces that can function as an office. They don’t need a store with display racks and counters and cash registers and mirrors and chairs to sit in while you wait and those machines that measure pupillary distance and little pliers to adjust the nose pieces and staff who are trained to help you pick out your frames, intelligently discuss your lens options, ring you up, and adjust your glasses so they fit just right. None of that stuff is cheap, especially the ongoing costs like rent and payroll.

58

As others have said, a lot of the cost of US-made glasses is all the hands that touch them. For example, to get the lenses cut to fit the frames you’ve chosen, you can either have an optometrist do the job for 25 bucks an hour, or someone in China do it for 3 an hour.

I’m actually planning on using Zenni for a new pair of driving glasses. I don’t much care what those look like, I never have 'em on for more than an hour or so at a time so comfort issues aren’t as huge a deal, and I’ve already used my annual eyewear benefit for the progressives I use all the time except when driving (where precise fit / comfort / appearance are more of an issue).

I may also use them for a pair of progressives to have as spares, just to see how that works.

59

From “About Us”

I’m thinking of giving this a try, I need new glasses and my last pair-6 years old- cost $250 not including the exam.

60

I’ve used Zenni Optical a few times now, and I’ve been pretty satisfied with my orders. I currently have five pairs of glasses, one of which is a dark (80% gray) sunglass, and I’m pretty satisfied with all of them except one-- I messed up on the measurements when ordering that pair, and they’re just a teensy bit loose for my comfort. We got spare glasses for Acid Lamp from Zenni, and they’re comparable in fit and looks to his $400 LensCrafters glasses that he had to get made last-minute a few months back. We have drastically different prescriptions-- I’m very nearsighted and can’t see crap without my glasses, whereas he’s got astigmatism-- but they both had similar levels of quality. I got acrylic/plastic frames, and he’s got metal frames. They both work well for us, and I can now afford to have glasses in wacky color combinations-- my most serious pair is a cream colored pair with a very light gray tint to the lens, and my silliest pairs are pink/green and black/yellow (think watermelon and bumblebee and you’ll be close).

It isn’t for everyone, but it works out for some of us.