Prescription glasses for £8.50 inc delivery, anti-scratch/glare and UV

markfieldpete

I had some varifocals from selectspecs over a year ago, and they are absolutely perfect. They cost under £45 including postage, and that was not a special offer, just their normal price, including coatings. I sent them an old pair of specs so they could check the distance between my pupils which is the important bit, and I took the frame size from an existing pair so they fitted just right without any adjustment. Previously I had paid £250 at a chain opticians!! And yes I too am a silver surfer, who likes to make the grey pound go as far as I can.

nedmundo

lawsofnature wrote: »

High street opticians seriously need to buck up their acts - stop blaming people who buy specs online for failing business! You need to adapt eg. set up your own e-com business and compete. I find it utterly patronising that you blame customers for your loss of business, and how we 'the customer' should continue to fork out for high prices so you can continue providing a service and invest in better equipment.

My brother worked in the industry at corporate level, and I can report that the mark-up on contact lenses and glasses is HUGE (more so than most other products).

Now I'm happy to pay more to see a high street optician for my purchases (say £50-100 above an online price), but the prices differences are simply too wide now. I recently phoned around all the major chain and independent opticians in my area to get a price on 1.76 index lenses - the prices varied hugely, from £150 to £500 and this excluded the frame price. Now I understand prices will be higher than online (we aren't stupid, the customer knows how business works), but the mark-ups are simply at exorbitant levels in many cases. I had to spend an afternoon finding a reasonable deal on a thin pair of lenses - this is unacceptable.

Someone above mentioned opticians playing dirty with prescriptions (ie. making the illegible), well I experienced this too when asking for a contact lenses prescription from my opticians who has had a huge amount of business from me over many, many years (going all the way back to childhood). I got a scribbled unreadable prescription, and I saw the guy do the scribbling before he gave it to me - they lost all my business that day (they aren't one of the big chains).

I still prefer to buy my glasses in a store, but I'm going to take the chance with an online seller this time. If anyone is worried their prescription is intentionally wrong, get two eye tests done, and buy using a credit card that gives you some protection should the goods not arrive. With respect to measurements, I'm simply looking for a pair glasses that offer the same measurements as the glasses I have now ...you can find the measurements of your current glasses by looking at the inside of the arm.

My post wasn't meant to be patronising, it was merely a statement of fact as to why there is so much disparity between high street and online prices. Yes there can be a high mark-up, but it really isn't that black & white.

So apart from setting up an online dispensing service, what you do you suggest? Also, what brand of 1.74 lenses were you asking for? They vary in cost and quality (optically and coating durability) enormously.

bignev_3

The offer is still on.....
I checked first thing this morning and it was not mentioned on the homepage. I thought the offer was over! The homepage keeps changing, but if you go to the "Prescription Glasses" section, they are still there. Apologies for any confusion caused.

clairebrown7

I agree with #69

Opticians on the high street have been making an absolute fortune on us - you always see them driving around in flash cars hmmm I wonder why?!

Online opticians are obviously the future. I use www.SpeckyFourEyes.com so does my boyfriend and so do my parents. My parents wear varifocal glasses and between them they have saved over £500 in the past 2 years by swapping to speckyfoureyes. £500 is a decent amount I'm sure you'll agree.

C:j

nedmundo

I don't think it is entirely fair to tar us all with the same brush. My car is so unflash you wouldn't believe!

blue_haddock

After seeing this offer and having just had my eyes done i decided i would try this place for my new specs.

I wasn't too sure about how to type in my prescription so ticked the "will post/fax my prescription" Next morning i got an email asking me to confirm i wanted plain glass and not prescription ones. I emailed back saying i would fax my prescriptionm over from work.

At work i duly faxed it to them and after an hour or so decided to call them to confirm they had received it and that everything was OK. Their phone line states something to the effect of "We are an internet based company and as such do not man the phone line so please email your query to us"

I then decided to email them to confirm they have received my prescription and also to ask why bother having a phone number if they do not use it. I have not had a response back apart from an automated one saying my glasses are in production now.

Based on my dealings so far i am not happy with the level of service received and would be highly wary of using them again.

racey

Received a pair of prescription sunglasses for £23 from spex4less within a week of placing order. Communication was good too.
Can't fault them :T

Willy_Heckaslike

Re Select Specs
I have just received the two pairs of spectacles from this company. I am very pleased with the quality and the service. Very good frames and lenses.
The glasses are actually sent from Hong Kong. Mine were posted on the 29th May and I received them this morning 1st June. It did take a few days to complete the order though. I ordered them on the 20th May.
The whole process was simple enough, you will have to quote your pupil distance which was simple enough with a metric ruler and someone to take the measurements. The distance between my pupils was 67mm. No adjustment was needed either.
I was quoted over a £100 from Tesco opticians for a cheap pair. and the same from specsavers so £10 + £3.50 postage for two pairs was a no brainer. I don't know why people on this forum are making such a fuss about spending £5 on specs. Its cheaper than a pack of fags or 2 pints of beer. I will certainly be ordering from them again. I hope this helps some of you doubters out there. Thanks to MSE for letting me know about this fantastic deal.

lawsofnature

nedmundo wrote: »

My post wasn't meant to be patronising, it was merely a statement of fact as to why there is so much disparity between high street and online prices. Yes there can be a high mark-up, but it really isn't that black & white.

So apart from setting up an online dispensing service, what you do you suggest? Also, what brand of 1.74 lenses were you asking for? They vary in cost and quality (optically and coating durability) enormously.

Actually for the customers - it really is that black and white - they want the cheapest optician on the purchase of an essential good. I have not seen anything in either your comments or other by opticians that have satisfactorily explained the massive mark-ups. As I said, and I am sure most people would agree, a mark-up is indeed necessary for a high street cf. to e-commerce, but there seems no justification for the HUGE mark-ups some opticians are charging.

Ah I thought the brand issue would be raised - I asked for Zeiss, as I used to wear Zeiss 1.74 glass lenses and they served me well. None of the sales assistants would confirm whether they sold Zeiss - a good majority that I spoke to actually had to leave me hanging on the phone just to discover if they sold 1.74 lenses. The brand doesn't really bother me as I change my glasses regularly - frankly I'd prefer two pair of cheap 1.74 glazed glasses then one expensive pair of Zeiss (this is assuming all the online sellers use cheaper plastic...Iris who undercut the high street quotes said they do use Zeiss).

But for sake of argument, putting the lense issue aside, this still leaves the huge mark-up differences on the price of designer frames in-store cf. to online.

nedmundo

nedmundo wrote: »

Hopefully this will explain the situation.

By the time overheads such as equipment, rent, staffing, fixtures, fittings, utilities and consumables are taken into account. the average eye exam costs at least £50 to provide, whilst the NHS (in England) pays a paltry £19.80. Most private fees aren't a great deal more. The argument given by the NHS has always been that we can subside it from dispensing - which is what we have to do as judging by this forum, most people begrudge paying £20 let alone £50 or £60 for an eye exam. The simple reason that some companies offer free eye exams is to tempt people in the hope that they will order some glasses (or contact lenses) there (you can draw your own conclusions from that).

Couple the overheads with the fact that the average independent practice doesn't have the buying power of online retailers or multiples then yes - we are more expensive than online retailers, but I can assure you that we (at least the majority) are not ripping people off. I'm sure you would be the 1st to complain if the practice was poorly staffed, inadequately equiped, shabby in appearance, inconvenient in location and didn't spend enough time to examine your eyes thoroughly.

So, if patients take their prescription elsewhere (which they are legally quite entitled to do), the optician makes a loss. If enough people do that, the optician will have to cease trading. Also, if there is not enough income generated from dispensing, there will not be any money left to reinvest in new equipment, training and services, which consumers rightfully expect.

What's written there is true - whether you want/choose to believe it is up to you.

As I implied a bit earlier, some online suppliers also have a huge mark-up, which they hide by pointing the finger at high street opticians. The difference is, they pay less for goods and have lower overheads. Therefore, there are occasions where they are not necessarily any cheaper and have an even bigger mark-up!

I'm bowing out of this one now - I think both points of view have been well expressed and I'm happy to leave people here to make their own minds up.