Glasses Buying Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

sandy2_2

Just bought 3 pairs of glasses from Zenni Optical, 2 pairs vairfocals for OH complete with magnetic sunshades and ordinary pair for me with clip on shades. £74 for all 3 including postage, took about 2 weeks. excellent value I think, although they are a bit slow with their emails

kelvo121

froggy27 wrote: »

Does anybody know the eyeexpert.co.uk? they have frames I really like but would like to know if anybody had good or bad glasses from them before ordering.... 25gbp is a good price but i want to make sure before spending it
thanks a lot as usual.

Having used several online websites for 2 years to purchase my prescription glasses and sunglasses I have a word of caution regarding www.eyeexperts.co.uk. Their customer service is non-existant! I will not be using this company again. Just because you are selling cheap prescription glasses is no excuse for poor service. When my glasses were delivered (I think)I was not at home and I had gone away for a few days and so they had been sent back to eyeexperts. I have repeadly asked them to resend them to me and only ever received one curt reply that they will check with their postal service to see if they can re-send them. There is no telephone number so you have to rely entirely on the e-mail (why? what do they have to hide?) It seems that I will have to ask for a re-fund and I will keep you posted on the results. Mail order companies are judged on their service as well as their prices and with the competition growing by the week it's the companies that offer great customer service that will flourish. Websites like this one are invaluable for deciding where to spend your money!

Stompa

I've just had a pair of prescription sunglasses arrive from www.selectspecs.com The first time I've tried ordering specs online, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with what I've got for £19.75 (inc delivery from Hong Kong). They were also fairly speedy, 11 days from ordering to delivery.

1carminestocky

I used Glasses Direct's 'try a frame at home' deal. OK, it costs £3.75 (which includes return postage) but, interestingly, gives you a 10% discount on a future purchase, so any specs over £37.50 you order subsequently means the service is actually free! Buy a designer pair at £120 and they have paid you £8.25 to try the frames! Just a thought...

Bizzie_Lizzie

Does anyone have recent experience of www.see4less.co.uk? I'm beginning to worry if they are still trading. I ordered glasses from them on 9 July, but have had no reply to three emails to them last week asking whether there is any problem with my order, which is shown as "processing" in my account. When I've tried to ring, I get a meessage which tells me I've reached voicemail, but that voicemail is full so I can't leave a message.

Many thanks.

recharred

Has anyone here ever used SmartBuyGlasses.co.uk?

They seem to be the only site with the Police frames that I'm after (and a third of the price of D&A!)

nforne

I have a fairly straightforward prescription and wear glasses for distance. I went round Boots trying on frames and finally settled on a pair of Calvin Kleins and noted the model and colour numbers. Then I checked the links to web suppliers on MSE but not all of them stock CK and those that did didn't have the frames I was after. So I googled the frame number and found a company that had them called specsdot.com.

Measuring pupillary distance (PD) was interesting! I did it with a mirror and a drywipe pen, tried it a few times and got the same result (65) each time. Then to be extra-sure, I asked a friend to mark a dot on my glasses and this time got 66. Near enough.

I sent specsdot.com an email to ask about lens options and someone called Colin replied pretty quickly, and also let me know that there were two sizes, 50 and 52. He said that there was an eight week wait for the 52s in the colour I wanted but that 50s were available. This threw me a bit - I had no idea which size I wanted - so I went back to Boots. The ones they had on display were 52s so I tried on some other styles that were a size 50 to get an idea of sizing, and decided that the 50s would be fine.

So at just after 5 o'clock on Tuesday I placed an order through the website for the CK size 50 frames and grey photochromic lenses (the ones that react to light). On Thursday I was a bit stunned to get an email saying they'd been despatched and on Saturday morning they arrived, very well packed and complete with hard CK case and one of the strangest lens cleaners I've ever seen. I just need to have the pads tweaked slightly to fit my nose but I was fully expecting this.

I've got to say I'm impressed on all counts. The customer service was excellent, the glasses were exactly as ordered and the speed with which they arrived was incredible (having said that, I knew that stock levels were good before I placed the order so it might be an idea to ask out how long it'll take to source your frames). And I haven't mentioned the cost. £113.95 all in, including the fancy lenses and delivery. In Boots the frames alone are £120, then you need to add lenses and coatings. To get the same spec from Boots would have cost me £250! Boots do run promotions and I could have got a second Boots-branded pair for free, which may be of use for some people, but I always keep an old just in case.

This was my first experience in ordering glasses online and I'm really glad that I did. I have no connection with specsdot.com other than being a very happy customer (I'm actually a local government employee - sorry!)

nedmundo

If everybody did that, there would be no Boots or other practices to go and try specs on! What would you do then?

nforne

nedmundo wrote: »

If everybody did that, there would be no Boots or other practices to go and try specs on! What would you do then?

Compared to buying electrical goods online, buying glasses requires a little more risk. You have to make sure your prescription is spot on, and may even measure your own PD if it isn't on your prescription. If there's a mistake and it's your fault you have no comeback. For this reason alone the high street won't lose too much custom to the internet. Add to that the masses of people who are prepared to pay a premium for convenience and I don't think the high street opticians will be going bust for some time yet.

But to play along with your hypothetical question, online retailers are usually happy to post glasses for you to try on (for a small deposit) so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

nedmundo

Good reply.