Glasses Buying Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

Just a quick "experiance" of glassesdirect.co.uk

We ordered some Newton-Gunmetal glasses on the 21st Feb, purchased as casual reading glasses as an experiment.

I opted for their standard thickness lenses as, after all, their only for reading so wasn't overly bothered too much on paying the extra for thinner lenses.

Anyway we tried to do my PD but i have a lazy eye, corrected with the glasses, so it wasn't easy trying to measure distance effectively and so we phoned them. I have to say their customer service was awesome and although the operator didn't know how best to achieve an effective PD he went and asked the optician and came back with the advice of measuring each eye to the centre of the nose and adding together.

I have to admit confidence was high after that experiance and I looked forward to receipt of my new glasses.

Well they kinda took their time about it but we got them yesterday and i was completely disappointed.

The frames were high quality (or seemed so for the small amount of time i tried them) but being big didn't fit properly in the free hard case they give you. However glassesdirect.co.uk had squeezed them in anyway, amazing me how they hadn't damaged them.

However the very worse part was the thickness of the lenses, they were, quite frankly, appalling. Think jam jars here people.

I'm used to quite thick lenses due to pretty bad eyesight but these were nearly twice as thick as the standard lenses issued to me for many a year at my local specsavers.

They made the glasses extremely heavy and very very uncomfortable to wear so reluctantly i sent them back straight away for a refund.

I also contacted them via email and told them I was extremely unhappy about the quality of lense they use and that they were twice the thickness of specsavers. They apologised, assured me they'd refund on receipt of glasses and hoped my experiance would be better with them next time. So although i'll likely get my money back its highly unlikely I'll order from them again

Shame really as they have great prices but i guess the saying goes "you get what you pay for"

cacaolat wrote: »

a I would take a new eye test just to get the pd measured by a professional. Does anyone knows a place in London where they will just measure my pd ? I am prepared to pay something. How do opticians measure the pd, just with a manual ruler or with some expensive opticians equipment ?

I found out from the Essilor website that there is a machine called the Corneal Reflection Pupilometer (CRP) which is by far the most accurate method of measuring PD's.
As I have a rather high prescription I would like to have my pd measured with that.
Has any of you opticians got one of these machines ?

nedmundo ! you sound like, you know what you are talking about. How about measuring my pd ? I am prepared to pay for it.
I would usually be happy to pay some extra for a good personalised service, but my London optician is charging £ 195 for my choosen frames. The same frames are available online at £ 93 in UK or £ 75 abroad. Hi index lenses are extra and the price gap is similar.
thats why I want to order online.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Just a follow up on my report and experiance thus far with glassesdirect.co.uk. See link

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=9118919&postcount=261

After waiting 7 days for a refund i contacted them and would you guess it ??? They haven't received my glasses back so can't refund me. Of course its royal mails fault and the package has gone missing and they'd need proof of postage (even though i had to use their prepaid address label and they knew full well there would be no proof of postage).

I had a funny feeling this would happen even though i sent them exactly 1 hour after receipt (they simply were not suitable). I used a new jiffy bag, included the invoice (although did make a copy of all the needed customer numbers, invoice number etc) and used their self adhesive prepaid address label to send back.

Most of the reports you here about on forums on how good they are will be to claim back £5 on their next order. So don't read into everything thats posted on other forums about how good they are (wish i'd known this before ordering).

Simply very shoddy service, far lesser quality lenses than street opticians and frankly i feel conned and used now. Its also put me off using others on the internet although thats really unfair to them as they may be excellent on all counts.

I'll be contacting my credit card company to see what they say but i don't hold out a great deal of hope £20 lost on glasses that i now haven't got or could use if i had

Just trying to potentially warn others that its not all rosey in the glassesdirect.co.uk house.

nedmundo wrote: »

If you're ever in sunny Norfolk - I'll do it for free!

Thank you nedmundo
there should be more opticians like you in London. I will try to just get a new eyetest for that annoying Pd.
Or if I can get you advice one more time. Is it just as accurate to measure the pd from an old pair of glasses ? (They did cost a fortune at the time and have zeiss lenses)