Glasses Deals Discussion

ofutur

The Boots £5 voucher still exists. You'll find it in their eye test app for smartphones.

geordie_ben

Has anyone managed to order sunglasses from Glasses Direct on their home trail? I wanna try them on first before buying

Jazziesmum_2

So angry to see advice on the cheap specs page advising people to buy their glasses on line AND THEN GO TO A HIGH STREET OPTICIAN TO HAVE THEM ADJUSTED!! What a cheek. These independent opticians have to pay rent, rates, heating and lighting, pay an optician and try and persuade people to buy a perfectly good pair of spectacles, then provide a service for aftercare and fitting - why on earth should they provide an adjustment service for people who have bought specs on line? This is sounding the death knell for the high street independent shops who are fighting to survive. I do not agree with this.

geordie_ben

Jazziesmum wrote: »

So angry to see advice on the cheap specs page advising people to buy their glasses on line AND THEN GO TO A HIGH STREET OPTICIAN TO HAVE THEM ADJUSTED!! What a cheek. These independent opticians have to pay rent, rates, heating and lighting, pay an optician and try and persuade people to buy a perfectly good pair of spectacles, then provide a service for aftercare and fitting - why on earth should they provide an adjustment service for people who have bought specs on line? This is sounding the death knell for the high street independent shops who are fighting to survive. I do not agree with this.

Do you own an independent shop by any chance?!

kondormid

At least some of these online spec sellers are companies that are based in the UK and therefore pay corperation tax to the UK.

Unlike a certain high street opticians which is an offshore company that makes money from NHS scripts. Follow the money and you see it goes straight out of the UK Tax pool and into offshore bank accounts.

Now thats a cheek in some peoples eyes.

I wonder how many people will look to see where the big high street company they have bought from is based before they discover they should have gone somewhere else.

bitemebankers

Jazziesmum wrote: »

why on earth should they provide an adjustment service for people who have bought specs on line?

Because it's good business sense?

When you've finished frothing, you might like to consider that the trend towards buying online has created a profitable niche for independent opticians. A certain percentage of online buyers would benefit from having their new glasses adjusted professionally and this is a service that websites cannot provide, but independent opticians on the high street can, and they can charge for it too.

It's very shortsighted (pardon the pun) of highstreet opticians to start throwing toys out over this, instead of looking at other ways in which they can make money, like charging for PD measurements and adjustments.

geordie_ben

Most opticians have been ripping people off for years with huge markups.. is it our problem you haven't saved up your money better? NOPE!

bitemebankers

geordie_ben wrote: »

Most opticians have been ripping people off for years with huge markups..

You're entirely wrong there. There's a fairly big margin on glasses but sight tests are sold at way under cost. The COST PRICE of a sight test in the UK is around £60. You pay between £0 and £20 typically.

newsgroup_monkey

Firstly, to answer above, I've never seen a poor optician.

Anyway, can someone have a whine at Sunglasses shop please.

I quote from the Glasses discount page...

Sunglasses Shop has assured us it will not hike the prices for the duration of the voucher.

Poppycock.

Sunglasses you can get after the £20 spend and £50 discount include Ray-Ban 2129 Shiny Blacks for £44 (were £75) now £75, a pair of Oakley Five Squared Polished Black glasses for £37 (were £68) now £68 and a pair of Police 1584 brown glasses for £18 (were £49) now £49

So they clearly have put the prices up

bitemebankers

newsgroup_monkey wrote: »

Firstly, to answer above, I've never seen a poor optician.

Why should you see a poor optician? If you'd trained for years and passed dozens of exams and were subject to continual professional assessment, I expect you'd want to earn a decent wage too.