Glasses Buying Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

gari189

Just ordered some glasses from optical4less based in Hong Kong. Three pairs of glasses for £80 is a stonkingly good price.

However the thought has suddenly just occurred - will I have to pay import taxes or duty as the value is over £18?

I'd be interested to know has anyone else ordered outside of the EU and had to pay import taxes?

Cheers

Patr100

gari189 wrote:

Just ordered some glasses from optical4less based in Hong Kong. Three pairs of glasses for £80 is a stonkingly good price.

However the thought has suddenly just occurred - will I have to pay import taxes or duty as the value is over £18?

I'd be interested to know has anyone else ordered outside of the EU and had to pay import taxes?

Cheers

No, not on the pairs I got from Goggles4u via Pakistan but then their value was only about £12.

plutoniumpilot

Hi,

I bought a pair of rimless glasses from: -www.glassescrafter.com- and I am extremely pleased with them. They took about 3 weeks to arrive as they come from Shanghai in China but it was worth the wait. It took longer for mine as the lenses had to be specially ordered for my specific prescription. The prescription is perfect and I look much cooler than in my boring specsavers pair:cool:

They offer some really nice frames from around £20 to £100. Many of the frames are designer including Gucci, D&G and Emporio Armarni to name a few. They give you free 1.61 index lenses as long as the frame price is over £26 otherwise it's an extra £8. There is also a charge for cylinder correction of £3.50(per lens) for cyl between +1 and -1. If you have cyl above +1 or -1 then it is an extra £6.50 (per lens). You get anti-reflective, UV and scratch resistant coatings free with the glasses you buy.

I believe they are a relatively new site and only accept payment through paypal however I am pleased with the service and the glasses I received from them.

SkintBint

Been reading this thread with interest as I am due to go for a Specsavers eye test this afternoon. This is after many many years of going to an independant optician (from when I was a small child). I need to cut the cost of these damn things!!

A question: I have an 'astigmatism' apparently this means I'm neither short or long sighted?? I only use the glasses for computer work and TV but this is a large part of my life at the moment lol. Can you get these glasses online safely do you think or could I have problems?

I see from this thread that you have to measure the distance between your pupils? lol

plutoniumpilot

SkintBint wrote:

Been reading this thread with interest as I am due to go for a Specsavers eye test this afternoon. This is after many many years of going to an independant optician (from when I was a small child). I need to cut the cost of these damn things!!

A question: I have an 'astigmatism' apparently this means I'm neither short or long sighted?? I only use the glasses for computer work and TV but this is a large part of my life at the moment lol. Can you get these glasses online safely do you think or could I have problems?

I see from this thread that you have to measure the distance between your pupils? lol

I believe astigmatism is where the lens is shaped more like a spoon than is round and it's pretty common. You can tell if you have astigatism by looking at your prescription and looking for cylinder and axis values written down.

It's probably best to ask the optometrist about your requirements for reading glasses. He/She must provide you with a copy of your prescription and you shouldn't feel pressurised into buying from that optician. Your Pd is not normally given to you unless you ask so- don't forget to ask;). Hope that helps!

gari189

Their website has dissappeared. If you have any glasses on order I would suggest contacting them to find out what is happening.
Cheers

geejaygee

https://www.optical4less.com appears to have disappeared from the Internet - does anyone know if it's trading under a new name?

christineperseus

My friend always buys his when he goes on holiday to Cyprus - he says he pays about 20% of the high street price here.
Never been there myself, but I have bought things from German websites and paid a lot less for things.

gari189

geejaygee wrote:

https://www.optical4less.com appears to have disappeared from the Internet - does anyone know if it's trading under a new name?

This only dissappeared in the last day or so. A couple of days ago the website was still working and you were still able to track orders that you had placed. Have emailed them and had no response. Not sure whether to start the process for claiming the money back from Paypal now or wait and see if they deliver....

dixdixon

I brought a pair of specs from "budgetspecs recently" throughily satisfied
£32.49 single vision polycarb.semi rim. simple I'm well happy!!