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Glasses Buying Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area
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This little debate caught my attention, so I went to Glasses Direct's site as I am looking for some prescription sunglasses...I figured £5 wasn't unreasonable to try 4 pairs of sunglasees at home....except you can't have sunglasses on the home trial, as I discovered. :rolleyes: I can't imagine anyone buying sunglasses at some of those prices without having tried them first unless they've seen them elsewhere, in which case you'd have to be recent with stock and very competitive on price... I fear Glasses Direct are missing a trick here...
Hello, David from Glasses Direct here again.
Another good point!
Two points in reply:
1) Any of our normal glasses can have tinted lenses put in and be made into sunglasses, not just the ones in the 'sunglasses' category
2) You're right our Designer Sunglasses aren't currently available for Home Trial. There are a few reasons for this, and we're debating internally what we should do. Comments like this may help us decide!
So bear with us whilst we work it all out. The Home Trials service is something no-one has done on the scale we're doing it, and we're not going to get everything right first time, but the more comments we get, the more quickly we'll know what we need to change.
Also remember that sunglasses can be bought without any risk as they can be returned under our 14 day no quibble returns policy, but this is a bit more expensive up front.
p.s. Good luck for the wedding bigzippy :~)“Official Company Representative
I am the official company representative of Glasses Direct. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"0 -
Thanks David/dvc.
You say that the sunglasses are risk free as you can return them, but I'm guessing that's not the case if you get prescription lenses in them first...? I@m also guessing that you'd have to pay postage both ways too..?
(Thanks for the wedding wishes
I actually want to make sure I have prescription sunglasses for the honeymoon! :shhh:) "I am indelibly stained by hope and longing" - Nuts in May0 -
As the article only lists 2 suppliers one of whom stopped taking NHS GOS3 vouchers a while ago I thought I'd provide the list I just searched out of the net.
The following websites currently appear to say that they accept vouchers today 1/July/09, although some have not updated that particular detail in a while:
budgetspex.com
glassesandsunglasses.co.uk
manchesteroptical.com
specs4cheap.co.uk
specsuperstore.com
spectacles.gb.com
spexstudio.co.uk
squarezebras.com
thespecsplace.com
wantglasses.co.uk
posheyes.co.uk might but their site seemed confused.
In all cases you need a GOS3 properly completed by your optician including their signature. For some you complete both customer parts of the form and send it off in parallel with your order. Some of these will wait for the form before sending your glasses, while others will charge the full price and then refund you when they get the form. For others you complete the form only when you are happy with the glasses and send it off then; these take full payment and then refund you the voucher value.
It is worth adding that in theory you are entitled to claim the rebate yourself from your PCT using an HC5(O) form by providing a receipt for the supply of glasses. Its not clear how easy or effective this is! In theory this would let you buy from anywhere, but doubtless the NHS work to prevent this.
I could add that one supplier said Bolton PCT refused to process their claims and GlassesDirect had given them up because of the difficulty in getting them honoured.0 -
i recently purchased online a pair of varifocal glasses costing £190 with Carl Zeiss lenses from perfect glasses. On receiving these after 8 weeks of constant phone calls and being assured how satisfied i would be they arrived.
The frames appear to be the cheapest possible, not matching what i ordered and the workmanship on the rimless lenses is diabolical. ... and in the delivery day the reign fell off.
my advice from dealing with this company who i am now trying to get either a new pair of glasses from or a refund is do not.
perfectglasses = dissapointment (cant put in the link i'm a new user
next time i will try glasses direct at least David Carruthers we can contact here, ... David could you repair them for me, and make them good again.0 -
Just bought a pair of tinted sunglasses from Goggles4u. I have a strong prescription (-8 sphere) and very astigmatic (-2.25) and some online suppliers would not accommodate this. I also wanted moderately thin lenses (1.61 or better) to keep the weight bearable.
Before I could order I also had to phone the supplier of my last glasses to get the pupillary distance. The optician who did my sight test couldn't answer this question as they often only measure this when you order some specs and I took the prescription elsewhere.
Goggles4u provided good customer support, answering my question about deliver times quickly. They turned my order around in 15 days and supplied a very acceptable pair of prescription sunglasses for £35 (£32 after cashback via Topcashback - also saved 1% (35p) by paying via a cashback credit card).
My only slight concern was that I ordered a "medium" tint to the glasses and initially they looked a little light. I think this is in part because I am used to darker tints when I've worn Piano (non-prescription) sunglasses with contact lenses. These were deliberately ordered as a medium tint so they could double as a spare pair as well as sunglasses.
In short, a massive saving on the high street chains or small opticians. As much as I like to support small local businesses, in this case hard financial reality means that online specs are the way forward for me. I spent £270 on my last pair of "normal" glasses (to be fair this was with ultra thin 1.71 lenses). And that was after shopping around! That's the last time I spend that much.0 -
In the mean time, if you do wish to combine the discounts then you can contact customer services who can do this for you.
dvc
Just to back up what has been said here; I have ordered two pairs of glasses from Glasses Direct, and the person I spoke to on the phone, was able to give me a 15% discount using a code I'd found on the web, as well as refunding the £5 I'd paid for the home trial.
Assuming that the glasses turn up and are good quality, I will have paid £96 for a pair of rimless glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses.....0 -
A warning to folk about this company http://www.solaspecs.com/
I ordered 2 pairs of specs from them on the 11th of June (they quote 7-14 days for delivery)
after 20 days and still not receiving the specs I tried calling them to find out where my specs where.
All that happens when you ring them is that you get diverted to another number where you either get an engaged tone or a dead line.
I paid via paypal so put in a claim for my money back on the 1st of July, I now have to wait until the 11th to see if they respond to paypals emails (which they haven't done yet) before they attempt to get my money back.
The site is still up and running so I presume other people are still ordering through it.
So beware don't order from this company.0 -
Select Specs are doing complete pairs of single vision glasses including lenses and coatings for £5 fully rimmed, or £8 semi-rimless (+ £3.50 p+p). While stocks last so have posted on the grabbit board.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=23170471#post23170471
They don't seem to get brilliant reviews though. I haven't used them myself.0 -
I like some of the frames from Select Specs and want to use them as sunglasses but I'm struggling to work out how to order them like that...? I tried emailing them but that got me nowhere..Anyone got any clues?
"I am indelibly stained by hope and longing" - Nuts in May0
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