Titanium Frame glasses

Poppy9

How long should these last? My OH bought two pairs from Tesco's a couple of years ago. He was advised to go for Titanium because of his job as they were unbreakable. He only wears his glasses if his contact lenses are irritating his eyes etc. He was cleaning the home pair last night and the frames snapped clean on the side of the nose bridge. Is it worth going back to Tesco?

Thanks

niadoz

There is usually 12 months guarantee on the frames and 24 months on titanium alloy(flexi) frames. Titanium can't be soldered. They may have to send the frames back to see wether it's manufactures fault or not.

PeteMc

One of the arms on my titanium specs snapped after 25 months (whilst cleaning them gently as well). £60 to replace, thankfully they still sell that style!

Romanysaver

Regarding Titanium frames, it depends on what you pay for them. Last year I bought some very cheap and clearly marked, supposedly, titanium frames and exactly Poppy9's husband, mine broke in exactly the same place and in the same way after only six months! I was told "well, they are only titanium alloy, you couldn't afford to buy pure titanium". Not strictly true! They were misrepresented as "titanium" - it depends on the level of the metal used in the manufacture. I have had titanium frames at twice the cost (very expensive) and they were really tough from Vision Express and no trouble. The moral of the story is - you get what you pay for - and I fell for it too!

PeteMc

My frames were from Vision Express! Good point though, can't remember what I paid for them but from what i remember the lenses were probably about 3 times the price of the frame.

MikeLB

I used to work at Tesco Opticians. The warranty is 12 months on all spectcales.

Titamium Frames are not unbreakable - they are/ should be sold as light weight, non allergenic alternatives. They can be reshaped moreso than standard frames (Bent and refitted to the face more easily with less risk of metal fatigue snapping).

Even the flexy frames which are 'unbreakable' break. I snapped 3 pairs when demonstrating their felxibilty to a customer one day! Very embarrasing.

When it comes to glasses, the term unbreakable refers to standard every day useage. We had one customer who kept yanking off her glasses by one leg, the legs kept snapping and only after the 3rd replacement when I sat down with her and asked her to demonstrate how she removed the glasses did we work out what was going on. She never came back with broken glasses for the remaining 12 months I was there! We had another customer who bought flexy frames and took them back saying they had broken when they were scruncing them up. We declined to replace them because scrunching up your glasses is not normal wear and tear!

As for going back to Tesco to get a replacement FOC after 2 years, I wouldnt even try to be honest. But they may be able to sell you a replacement frame which will be advertised cost (if still on sale) minus lens price. Or thats how we used to do it anyway. But when frames were 12 months old we used to have great difficulty sourcing replacements as the stock kept changing.

Poppy9

Went to Tesco's today. OH just asked if they had any frames to fit lenses as lenses are ultra thin job that cost an arm and a leg and in excellent condition as he has worn them so little.

They have the same frames but she couldn't tell us how much they will cost. She needs to check with the lab as they will probably charge for fitting too she said. The frames are marked as £99 and I suspect they are going to want about £60 for the frames. Too much considering they don't last very well. If he had worn them daily I think the breakage is acceptable but considering he wears lenses most days I doubt he has used the specs more than 1 or 2 days a month. Not good really. My cheapies that I buy for myself from The Optic shop (£65 for 2 pairs) last a lot longer considering 1 pair are in the car for driving and are handled frequently, the other pair sit on the coffee table for TV. Both pairs have been sat on and reshaped numerous times over the last 18 months or so.

He's also going to try spec savers as they have fitted lenses from broken glasses for me into new frames for £25. It helps they have a lab on site so can say yes or no straight away.

MikeLB

If the frames are marked as £99 then you should be paying either £80 or £85 for the frame, as basci lens price is included in the Tesco price and in my day this was £15. If you had more expensive lenses, the price you saw included a £15 supplement technically as you didnt have the standrad lenses. It sounds like it may have changed from what you just said, but they should be able to fit the lenses into the new frame in store FOC. Thats what we used to do anyway.

In Optical mode, you always have to be very careful about having lenses recut to fit new frames, mainly due to the optical centres of the lens and the frame size will affect their position. (as you mention thin lenses, i suspect its a more complex prescription than normal) Its highly frowned upon as very bad practice in the industry. General rule of thumb is that if the bridge of the frame is the same size or smaller, and the lens area of the new frame is also smaller, it can be done.

But then again after 2 years, its eye test time again! lol

Poppy9

Thanks for the info. Mike. He does have a current prescription as he wears lenses. Lenses are from Specsavers (30 day/night monthly disposables). The lenses from Tesco's caused irritation for some reason.

His prescription for lenses is +3.75 (L) +4.50(R). I'm sure his specs are intentionally slightly different though for some reason.

MikeLB

Strange they should cause irritation, did happen though, they used to really only deal with CIBA Focus products. We could occasionally supply Bausch and Lomb but we tended to stick with the big name suppliers for reputations sake as opposed to own brandng the Lenses.

C/L prescription is always different from Spectacles for a couple of reasons. Useless bit of info but it does make sense. As the lens is stuck on your eye, the prescription on a lens should IIRC be slightly less than the specs! Was something I never even thought of until it was explained to me when I first trained up there! The other reason was usualyl to give one eye a + and one a - to balance the eyes out for near and far and force them to work together. Didnt happen often though.

Oh this is briniging back memories! lolol. :j

Poppy9

Had a phone call from Tesco this morning to say glasses are done and the cost is £39.99. We hadn't told them to proceed she was merely going to find out how much they would cost.

Anyway OH happy with cost so asked me to collect as he is working. The assistant, different to the one we saw last night, didn't show me the glasses she was just going to ring them through the till. I picked up the case to look at the glasses and immediately noticed a split in one of the lenses. It's about 1/2 cm long by the screw bit. I didn't think it had been there before as I'm sure the OH wouldn't have bothered reusing the lenses. I asked the assistant about it who said yes she knew and it was written in the notes and she didn't do it (she had fitted the lenses this morning). I rang my OH while I stood there to check with him. He said no definitely no crack. The assistant last night also didn't point it out nor did she write the notes.

The assistants attitude was strange and she was trying to get rid of me. I refused to accept the glasses so she said I would have to wait until monday to speak to the manager.

The thing is I accept there was a risk in the re-using of the lenses but I don't like someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes (oh quite funny expression in this case). We hadn't authorised them to proceed so we hadn't discussed risks. Surely if she noticed the lens was cracked it would have made sense for her to ring us before proceeding.

OH is not happy at all as he's had problems with Tesco's when he first had the glasses as the lenses were poorly cut and noticeably jagged in parts on the edges. They tried to tell him it was normal before they replaced them.

The contact lenses he had from Tesco's caused ulcers on the inside of his eye lid. Don't know why. He's tried a few different types with spec saver but finds the 30 day/night ones the most comfortable.