Received my glasses from EBD and I’m not thrilled. They seem very flimsy. That could be because of my selection of frames. Had I seen them in person I never would have chosen them - hadn’t realized they were so thin as to be practically filaments.
Also, what’s “normal” for transitions? These lenses are supposed to go dark in sunlight and clear indoors. They do, but it’s very, very slow to happen. And when fully dark in sunlight, they’re not nearly dark enough. Like the weakest sunglasses ever. Is that typical?
The standard Transitions only go somewhat dark and don’t darken as far in warmer weather.
The XTRActive will darken to full sunglass levels but are still sensitive to temperatures.
I was an optician for 15 years. I was frequently the one people brought their online glasses to because they didn’t work right. The online places sell incredibly poor quality crap. And I get sick of people claiming that eyeglasses have a huge markup.I worked much of my career in a shop that had a reputation for being expensive, but the markup on frames and lenses was considerably less than the markup on clothing when I worked regular retail. If they had the huge markup people claim I would have retired a wealthy man ten years ago.
As far as Transitions - yes, that is typica. They take much longer to lighten than they do to darken. They also don’t get as dark as most people would like. Our Transitions marketing material (not pamphlets for consumers but info for opticians) stressed that they are not sunglasses and are not to be positioned as sunglasses. We always found that if we made sure people didn’t have unrealistic expectations that those who chose them would be happier. It was far better to talk someone out of it than to talk them into it and have them unhappy.
Same thing with anti-reflective coatings. Make sure people understand the disadvantages as well as the advantages before they spent extra. We’d always show people how fingerprints show more and that they still have some greenish or bluish reflections in the periphery.
How would the markup on frames make you a wealthy man, unless you made the frames yourself? Were you working for Luxottica, or ordering frames from their many subsidiaries? If so, then those frames were most likely vastly overpriced.
I recently got a pair of glasses from EyeBuyDirect. So far I’m very happy with them. They cost less than a quarter of what my last glasses cost, and seem to be of comparable quality. I have no inside information about eyewear pricing, but I don’t understand how to explain that price difference if there isn’t a big markup somewhere.
Sure, if you say so. All I know if that last time I got my eyes checked for new glasses, the frames at the optometrist’s started at around $350. Maybe it takes a couple hundred dollars to turn 15g of metal into eyeglass frames but if someone else has noodled out how to do it for 25% of that price, I’m going to check them out.
Optometrist’s dispensaries tend to have higher markups than independent optical shops, in large part because there’s not much effort put into enforcing the federal eyeglass rule. That’s the law that says your eye doctor has to hand you a copy of your prescription after your exam, even if you don’t ask for it (only exception is if you haven’t paid for the exam they can make you wait until it is paid IF they normally require payment at time of service from all patients).
And no one has “noodled out how to do it for 25% of that price”. The crap that online places sell is poor quality metal and poor construction and would have a manufacturing cost far less than what brick and mortar stores sell.
But that’s not all. They also cut costs by not having any opticians to do the measuring and fitting. That means no one can checking things like facial wrap, tilt, vertex (the distance between the lens and the eye), vertical optical center placement - things that can’t be done online because they can only be measured by putting the frame to be used on the patient.
I’ve gotten over 20 pairs of glasses in the United States over the last 30 years. The maximum length of the “fitting” process has been under 5 minutes. And focused entirely on making sure they aren’t crooked on my face and not slipping off my nose.
Vast majority of these have been at the Luxottica owned chains. I’ve bought two frames from other sources recently (in the last five years). Neither fell apart or deteriorated in any way that was visible to me.
In Japan, where almost everything except healthcare and education is a lot less expensive than in the US, eyeglasses are 15-25% of the price in the US.
No doubt you will try to convince me that the industry in Japan is dishing out crap, but I’m not going to believe it. The Japanese seem to be obsessed with quality, especially in anything related to health and wellness. I doubt they allow opticians to dispense second hand frames and lenses imported from Mozambique with a “Meh! Close enough.”
Totally agree. I doubt that the sales people who actually “help” selecting the frame and write up the orders are actually opticians. In the many decades I spent thousands of dollars on eyeglasses, they have never done anything more than offer fashion advice, measure the PD (that they are supposed to anyways) and try to upsell lenses, tints etc.
And how come the Anti reflective coating costs about a tenth online than in a store?
The ones who take my order and help me with the fitting at Pearle Vision are definitely “dispensing opticians” according to their badges. But so was the guy at Warby Parker.
Attempted to order from Eye Buy Direct again, but now they’re insisting I create an account. F*&% 'em, not doing that. I refuse to get yet another login and password just to conduct a basic goddam transaction. I really hate this trend. If your business doesn’t have a “purchase as guest” option, or I’m gone.
So… do we know of any online glasses outfits that is willing to conduct a simple transaction without demanding my7 personal information and issuing me an account?
Aw, shit, I posted earlier but I guess it got lost in the ether. Anyway, I just got 2 pairs from Zenni, to add another voice to that chorus. Something like 80 bucks total for both, with the blue reducer add-on, and they arrived in a couple weeks via their cheapest shipping option.
Having an account on their site is a big convenience, since you can store your Rx for future reference, plus upload a selfie to “try on” the frames and see how they look on your actual face.