Glasses - what's your view?

Spectacularly expensive?

Popped into our one and only local optician yesterday. My varifocals need replacing and a script change. My previous optician in Sevenoaks retired and his replacement is not great. So went to the local village. As an example Tom Ford designer frames (much needed to complement my incredible good looks) were around £520 plus lenses.

Exactly the same frame on-line is £160. The lens can also be done on line at half the price.

Anyone tried getting spectacles on line? My eyes are not bad really so thin, lightweight lenses are what I want. The on-liners claim to offer full rfunds if not satisfied. Not sure I believe that.

A

We go to SS and agree, glasses can be, depending on what you require and the depth of your pocket, spectacularly expensive. We've never had to much of a problem with the shop in town and they're quite happy to get frames in from other branches if SWIMBO or I can't find anything to suite.
However, for us, the real game changer is fitting the frames. It has to be done correctly and often involve tiny adjustments over a several weeks; with glasses bought online SS would get very sniffy (quite rightly) about adjusting someone else's frames. As it is, we can nip into town for a swift bit of adjustment and if it's still not right, go back a couple of weeks later until they're comfortable or we keep on going back until they are.

I can't see that happening with specs bought online - Rob

That's a good point Rob. I think I am fairly easy with fitting though.

The last time ( I mean final,for multiple reasons) I went into Ss the assistant did the fitting by squinting at me and jabbing at the lenses with a magic marker.
None of the other franchises even bother with that anymore.
In the absence of a proper traditional local optIcian be tempted to give the online thing ago provided theres purchase protection in place
Check independent reviews and go for it Id say

While I would like to use my local optician they are too expensive. Last time I went there it was over £600 for a relatively cheap frame and bifocal lenses. Last time I went to SS instead and it was less than £300 for two pairs of bifocals. I have looked at buying online as I can do the adjustment myself but I am too disorganised to get it sorted.

I have used both specs4Less and Zennioptical and have good experiences with both. However, I have a weak prescription, and I only need fixed focus lenses for driving when the light is poor, and for reading. The rest of the time I don't wear specs at all. However, each of my eyes (I only have two ) is different, and SS have sometimes been a bit reluctant to give me a written prescription for both eyes. In my experience, the quality of the specs bought online has depended largely on the quality and accuracy of the prescription. On one occasion, I rejected the specs and I was refunded immediately, and replaced them when I had a more accurate written prescription from another optician. I'm not sure that I would trust the fitting of varifocals to an online provider though.

All food for thought. Thank you. The actual optician in Sevenoaks was, as far as I could tell, pretty good and I might go back for a new script or at least to compare with the eye test (NHS) in the village. The glasses that they made were unimpressive and twice had to be returned. I don't get on at all with bifocals - especially for computer stuff. I had them make some single distance glasses for piano playing - with exact measured distance to the sheet music and they even managed to make those incorrectly.

The fitting bit is so important.
I wore specs all through childhood. Specky four-eyes. At 16 I was diagnosed with keritaconus (sometime scalled conical corneas) and was told I would, one day, go blind. Specs don't help with keritaconus, so as that progressed I was offered contact lenses. What a revelation! I could SEE! For the first time in my life, at 22, I could see properly, it was wonderful.
Fast forward 15 years and my contact lenses kept falling off the increasingly conical and pointy and generally non-uniform corneas, so I had a cornea graft. Thank you to whoever didn't need it any more.
9 years later I had the other eye done, and 3 years ago I had that second eye done again, as ,by then, I was pretty much blind in that eye. Just light and darkness, no detail at all.
Throughout this I had specs as backup, but, whilst (very slightly) better than nothing, they were not great. I couldn't drive with them, for example.
The last pair that I had, from a reputable local optician, were very uncomfortable. I went back. They adjusted them. I went back. And again. They offered me my money back.
I also have lots of pairs of cheap ready-readers from Boyes's. £6 a pop, great. They are all comfortable, so I decided to see what the difference was.
Aha! The arms were a different length by a very noticeable margin, maybe 10mm. No wonder they didn't fit, no amount of twisting and turning and bending is going to make up for that.
I can't actually remember how it ended. It was all going on whilst I was planning this move. All I know is I have no idea where those specs are now and I don't wear any.
After that last graft, my sight in my left eye, which was practically zero before the op, is quite useful, even without my lens. Almost good enough to meet the driving threshold. I wish my right eye was as good.
I'm currently battling with the French health people to get some lenses prescribed here (the UK hospital has discharged me, whether I like it or not. Fair enough, I suppose, although I have, until this year, still been a UK tax payer). But, as in the UK, there are too many patients and not enough specialists.
I don't know how I could have negotiated that fitting process with an online retailer. Sometime I think it is best to pay for a proper service rather than try to rely on a "free" supply service.

So, after 3 grafts from 3 different donors (thank you, thank you, thank you) I really am (non-specky) Four Eyes.
S

In the States, I bought $7 frames from Bon Marche and had prescription lenses fitted to them by an optician. Maybe opticians will do that here? Seems crazy to spend hundreds on frames.

Windows said:

In the States, I bought $7 frames from Bon Marche and had prescription lenses fitted to them by an optician. Maybe opticians will do that here? Seems crazy to spend hundreds on frames.

Click to expand...

The frames are important for comfort and vanity reasons. I am dealing with customers often.

Opticians here generally refuse or find an excuse not to fit lenses to frames they have not supplied. They also provide no guarantee. Some will do it but charge typically £40 plus VAT. I don't have any frames to hand that I like enough to have re-glazed.

It seems to me that lenses generally are manufactured using a programmed machine, that also does the polishing and coating. So the key thing is the prescription and sizing. In the vast majority of cases I suspect the optician just orders the lenses on line from the manufacturer to fit a frame number. If the guarantee on-line is similar, and credit card protection is in place, it seems worth a punt cutting out the high street middleman or woman.

As for frames - the on-line system allows you to provide measurements from a pair glasses known to fit. This includes lens diagonals, arm lengths, bridge width etc. You can have several frames sent first, next day, to check aesthetics. There are various deals such as second pair for peanuts.

I'll think it over, but I do not have any of the issues that Steve suffers from.

A

My wife has used online a couple of times with success. I have just got a new prescription and my Alexander McQueen frames are still perfect and I like them so I’ve sent off to Lensology for new lenses. Total cost with coating around £45. There is pupil distance for my single lenses which was easy with existing frames. Varifocals have more measurements to consider I think. But if you’re happy doing it yourself then online is certainly cheaper!

Sheesh, I had no idea it was so expensive. I'm on my second pair of glasses. The first live in the workshop, and I haven't needed new ones for 10 years or more. I work and drive without glasses, and do most of my woodwork without them. Sharpening saws or reading in the evening are the only times I need them really.

I just a bought new glasses two weeks ago from a chain store (Lenscrafters. They are everywhere over here.) My last pair was I think 5 years ago and they were badly scratched and had mismatched earpieces since the dog chewed off one of the originals.

$150 for the new frames I chose and $300 for the progressive lenses. One year guarantee of everything except being lost or stolen. If they get scratched they will replace them. No charge for fittings or adjusting.

Yes Mike, I can drive and do woodwork etc without them, but computer work and reading needs help. My current pair, wearing now, are 10 years old, but I'm aware of slight deterioration. I think decades of professional looking at screens has not helped. I find that teaching piano students really needs glasses now.

Wonder who else has prescription safety glasses? Just got a new pair from Specsavers, £90 I think they were. Sadly millimetres are pretty much impossible without them now.

Not prescription, but Voltx do a range of safety readers, up to +2.5 dioptres. Dark tinted too, if you want. They are very good quality.
S

I wear varifocals with three different areas in the lens and I have found that the disposition of the different focal areas is absolutely critical for me. The better lenses (Hoya, Canon) are vastly superior to the cheaper ranges.
Fitting by a local optician is then critical to place the different areas in the right place relative to my eye.
Not cheap, but each pair lasts about 3 years and I can see without difficulty, whereas the high street opticians were unable to provide anything that did the job.
Approx cost, about £600, of which about £150 is for the frames (I'm obviously not as good looking as Adrian!). Only one of the lenses is varifocal, the other lens is just a balance lens, which makes the price even more shocking.
Excessive profits for the optician? Undoubtedly, but I can read, drive, see into the distance without trouble so worth it for me.

My $7 frames were on sale. Standard price probably $60-$80 and entirely equivalent in quality & stylishness to the frames that cost $250 in opticians at that time. (This was all a few years ago). I don’t think mine were Fossil, but there would have been Fossil sunglasses sold in the same area. I wouldn’t suggest getting crappy, ugly frames to save a few quid, but if you see frames at retail that are of a style and quality that you like and fit well, it’s an easy way to save $100-$200. My optician didn’t blink about fitting lenses to existing frames and didn’t charge any extra. My lenses cost about $200 at that time.

Pricing of both lenses and frames is or was driven partly by the health benefits of the local population’s largest employers. Of course opticians were going to charge minimum of $200 for frames when the big employer had a yearly $200 allowance for frames in their healthcare benefits. I guess pricing in the UK is just driven by whatever the market will bear.