I’ve never had a problem going into any optical place and asking for an adjustment. The only time I was charged was when I needed a broken screw replaced and my glasses reassembled, and even then it was reasonable. If it’s minor stuff places will do it for free.
Lenscrafters is all about the “upsell”. I bought one pair from them - never again.
The hard part about on-line glasses is the pupillary distance. I have a recent prescription, but it lacks that information.
Woops, yeah I was going for optician there. My eye doctor is an ophthalmologist, so the mistake didn’t leap out at me.
(And yes, for the record, I keep getting ZZ Top in my head when I read my own thread title.)
Some eye doctors purposely won’t put it on the scrip because they know you’ll go to Zenni or wherever instead of buying the glasses from them.
I think Zenni has the at-home directions for measuring the distance, but I dunno…I’d be afraid of making the wrong measurements. I’d feel better having a professional do it.
Yeah, I went to Eyemasters for my last pair, and they tested me and gave me a script. Then I went to the front, and they measured my distance with a different device, getting the number which the fitter noted on a chart and didn’t let me see.
The PD isn’t part of the prescription. It’s done separately by the optician or technician, like **Gaffa **described. If you ask, they tell it to you.
It’s not that hard to measure it yourself or with the help of a friend. The tricky part is that often the eyes aren’t the same distance from the nose. My sister has one eye 5 mm further from the center of her nose than her other eye. (Believe it or not, she doesn’t look abnormal.)
Bumping, because this thread was linked from another thread.
I just got some new glasses from Clearly Contacts. The 'merkins can probably ignore this, but the the great part of CC is that they are Canadian and approved for insurance purposes. I just got 3 pairs from them for $150, which is less than one pair if you went into a brick-and-mortar store around here. I’m super happy with my glasses. I had to measure my pupillary distance but they help you out with that.
Thank you for sharing your purchase experiences here. Yesterday I received my eyeglasses from Zenni Optical which worked very well. I got the stylish $9.95 frames and free 1.57 lenses which were priced at about $200 at local optical shop! From now on, I guess I will only purchase the glasses from Zenni. Aha~~~
Since I’m fortunate to only need reading glasses, and go through the damn things like I do ballpoint pens or Bic lighters {my glasses and shades get sat on, stepped on, left someplace, or dropped from heights at an astounding rate}, I buy the ones that cost $1.25 at the nearest Dollar Mart – once every couple of months or so I check the racks for styles I like in 175-mag power, and get three or four pairs each of readers and shades. They do the job.
I’m thinking about getting a new eye exam, my current glasses are all scratched up and I pretty much stopped wearing them because the frame got jiggly, and my prescription has gotten a little more severe and they weren’t helping much… mostly I’m lazy and broke. I don’t require them for anything, although they do help with eye strain and make me look cuter.
Anyway, I really like the frame options at zenni (particularly this pair). But I’m aware that I have wider, uh, ears than normal (based on my large hat size and how off-the-rack sunglasses are usually too tight on me). How do you measure stuff like this? Do they customize their frames to that degree? I don’t want to order a couple pairs of supercute glasses, only to find they’re too tight to be comfortable.
Also, I have a lot of native glare in my eyesight, noticeably when looking at taillights and fluorescent lighting. Would I have to get a special type of lens to counteract this?
Uncorrected, my near vision is still fine. When wearing contacts for myopia, I need reading glasses; the optometrist told me what strength to buy & said cheap ones were just fine.
But I mostly just wear glasses now & take them off for reading or PC work. Got some at Costco & they wrote that “measurement” on the receipt, so I could have ordered more online. It’s an interesting concept. (My prescription is pretty simple.) Didn’t love the glasses from Costco but the optometrist outside the store was extremely thorough; I’m of the age to have some concerns. So I see her every year; insurance pays most of the fee.
Now, I get my glasses at Smith Opticians in my town. More expensive than online but cheaper than just about anywhere else. The frame selection is amazing–from true vintage through the latest high style. You can spend hours trying on frames; the guys give opinions on your choices. Most orders take 2 days & they adjust every pair with great care.
Ordering online sounds great but check around to see if there’s an independent optician in your city.
They don’t customize the frames, but they list the measurements on the left of the page. Measure a pair of glasses you already have that fit correctly, and get one that matches that (or is close enough.) I think it’s the frame width & temple length you’d have to be aware of. (130mm & 139mm, respectively, for the frame pictured.)
You can also do a search for larger sized frames to see what other options you’d have, on the main page of the site.
Thank you! Frame width would be the distance from the very left to the very right of the front of the frame, right? And Temple length is the length of the earpieces from front to back?
Zenny Optical asks for the following frame parameters:
Bridge
Lens Width
Frame Width
Temple Length
Lens Height
Frame Weight
Well, so I have a pair of glasses. Now how do I find out what are these parameters for them in order to obtain a similar one?
why can’t I find “power” parameter in Zenny Optical order form? My prescription has parameters “sphere”, “power”, “cylinder” and “axis” (although the “sphere” is not filled in). But on Zenny form I see “sphere”, “cylinder”, “axis” and “nvadd” and I don’t see any mention of “power”. How come?
If you click on any random pair of glasses on the site and look at the frame measurements they give, there is a little ? symbol you can click on that brings up a diagram of how they get their measurements. You’ll have to measure your own glasses the same way they do, and just search to see what’s available. I don’t think there is an option to search by actual size, just Small, Medium or Large, plus the PD number you enter will give approximate sizes as well. (Small looks to have the frame width around 115-125, whereas Large is around 135+.)