Do you have a complicated prescription? I use glasses just for reading and only need 1.5 magnification. I get mine through Amazon from Hong Kong at £3.50 ($5) a pair. As they are constantly in and out of my shirt pocket, get dropped, lost, sat on and chewed, I expect to use around two pairs a year. Loose screws do not seem to be a problem - mainly broken legs and scratched lenses.
Yes. 
Otherwise I’d have bought ten pair from Amazon and have one in every room of the house, instead of asking for help here. 
I have successfully fixed glasses like this using Lock-tite or super glue. The secret is getting the glue where the hinge does not move. You only want the glue the only threaded part of the hinge, not the whole thing.
| f1 |
|---|
| arm |
|---|
| f2 |
|---|
In the above example, the frame part of the hinge is labeled f1 and f2. The arm is labeled arm. The only threads for the entire hinge are in f2. That is also the only place that a thread locker should be placed. A tiny drop of super glue on a needle is all that is needed. Another method some may try that won’t work is to distort a thread or two so the screw locks into the threads. I tried this and all it did was strip the threads in the frame.
I’ve rented that sort of gear at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii. It’s great even though they didn’t have anything quite as strong as my prescription. I’ve seen eyeglass shops there advertise making them too.
You don’t have to buy from them, you know. if you’re not satisfied, go elsewhere. Even online, nowadays.
Ask for a copy of your prescription. By law, they have to give it to you. You can always give an excuse like “I’m trying to keep copies of all my medical records at home” or “I’m going on vacation overseas, and want to carry a copy with me in case I break them”. But if they ask, I prefer to just tell them flat-out that I’m not satisfied with their service. They won’t get better until they hear that from customers (or ex-customers). And I’m old enough & crotchety enough to say that, on behalf of their more shy or tactful customers.
Regarding the hinge screw (it’s a bolt, actually), I once had one like that – I had them tighten it when I was in for an exam, and as she did so, mentioned that I had to tighten it myself every week or so. At that point, the tech said “oh, you do?” and took the screw out completely and looked at it under a magnifier. Then she said it was worn, and would never stay tight. She threw it away, and replaced it with a new one, that stayed tight for months. So have you tried replacing it?
(She also mentioned that the threads inside the hinge could get worn too, and then even a new one wouldn’t stay tight. At that point, it’s replace-the-frames time.)
Depends on your insurance, if you have any. I figured I’d save money with my last pair by going to Lenscrafters. Turns out my insurance only covers opticians fully, and the allowance I’d get for going outside made Lenscrafters significantly more expensive.
I had the screw problem also, and after they fell apart in the middle of Alaska carry a repair kit everywhere. Hasn’t been a problem for the last four or five pairs, though.
By law you don’t even have to ask. They’re just supposed to hand it to you the same as a medical doctor does with a prescription for medicine.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=1&SID=797d7708fd092b6eed36927a1f783a4f&ty=HTML&h=L&r=PART&n=pt16.1.456
Lenscrafters is owned by Luxottica, buying from them is never less expensive, even if insurance covers stuff from there.
Online is where it’s at. You have to know what dimensions you need in your frames (temple, lens height/width, total width, bridge), but once you have that worked out, places like Zenni can’t be beat. Insurance doesn’t matter (unless you’ve got some amazing plan that pays 100%) When I had single-vision lenses, metal frames + lenses complete never ran me over $30. And I’ve gotten two pair of progressives from them now, each right around $100. My optometrist, while he makes money on the frames/lenses he sells, told me that’s below even just his cost for any frame/progressive combo he can produce - never mind what he can sell them for.
My lens prescription is emailed to me in .pdf before I leave the office.
I don’t think online would work for me. Being off in the slightest, no matter how small a degree, makes it impossible to see through the glasses. It’s not uncommon for me to have to return glasses to a shop several times, and that’s happened everywhere I’ve ever lived and in multiple shops, so it’s not just a single provider that’s screwing it up. Some shops say they’ve seen other people like that, others start acting like I’m some sort of crank.