Cost of glasses from local optician

steve99

Hi,

We have a very good local optician that we have used for a number of years for both glasses and contact lenses. I have known that they are a little more expensive than we could have found elsewhere but we have had good service from them.

My wife needs new glasses and they have quoted £600. This seems a little expensive!
It breaks down to £150 for a non-designer frame and £450 for lenses.

The lenses are varifocals and described as 'bespoke'. This refers to something to do with widening the field of vision.
I can't remember what she paid about 3 years ago but I don't think it was anything like as much as this.

Is £600 a excessive or is this reasonable for a good quality frame and lenses?

TIA

Steve

nedmundo

It depends exactly what they are. There are some non 'designer' frames which cost more than designer, purely due to design, material and origin. Usually they originate from Scandanavia or France.

Lens wise, I would guess that they are high index and a top design.

suki1964

I get my Varis from Specsavers

I pay £125 for the frames ( the most expensive designer, then theres the titanium for £169)

I pay £109 for the top of the range vari lenses. You can pay a bit more for the made to measure varis but I have never had a problem with these lenses

I then pay £40 on top for the thinning of the lenses and the anti glare etc etc


I then get to pick a second pair free ( except for the £40 thinning charge)


Shop around. She is perfectly within her rights to take her prescription elsewhere to be filled

[Deleted User]

My husband usually pays about £450 for his (mine are much cheaper) as he needs to have bespoke lenses made. He pays for the high index lenses (he pays for the slimmest ones he can get) and this is what costs a lot of money. £600 does seem a little steep.

mishkanorman

$450 doesnt seem outrageous but it would help to know what lens you are getting, zeiss ?

The problem your wife will now have is that she has been treated to top of the range lenses for years, downgrading now would be like going from a rolls royce to a ford fiesta they will still 'function' but boy will she notice the difference !

GlasweJen

I'm guessing £450 is for one of the zeiss range of lenses.

If your wife has a high prescription it may well be that the lens recommended is the only varifocal lens available in her prescription. The other reason for the high cost could be your wife has chosen a frame that is too shallow to accommodate another lens so needs a bespoke one made up.

It is really up to you and your wife, are you happy paying £600? Ask the optician/dispenser if there is a cheaper option, can you get a lower index lens or lighten the cost by chosing a different frame that will accommodate a standard varifocal?

suki 1964, specsavers "top of the range" varifocal is not the top of the range vari on the market - far from it. The premium companies and independants have much better lenses under their belts but they are far too expensive for specsavers or the supermarkets. If the OPs wife has previously had problems tolerating varis then a supermarket/specsavers lens will never be suitable.

maskerade

Hi,

I just had to get new lenses and I got them from Ciliary Blue (google them). The lenses are excellent quality and half the cost of even Specsavers. So... even if she wants new frames you could buy the frames and send them off to be glazed at Ciliary?

Running_Horse

And how would you get the heights of the varifocal lenses correctly fitted?

GlasweJen

Oh one of my patients tells me that you measure yourself using a mirror apparently. Whenever I get glasses I always ask one of my colleagues to measure me up.

maskerade

I know I had to send them my old glasses so they could get some measurement right - could be that?

Sue_S

I've used Asda for my last 4 pairs of specs. It cost £99 for 2 pairs and my prescription is about -11.5 in each eye so I got 1.74 index lens. I didn't have my eyes tested at Asda I took in my prescription from my optician.

The price has changed, it's now £95 for one pair of designer varifocals but still amazing value. This is copied from their website:

"The single vision complete price includes prescriptions within +20 and -20 up to a -5 CYL. The varifocal complete price includes prescriptions within +9 and -8 up to a -4 CYL. The bifocal complete price includes prescriptions within +4 and -7 up to a -4 CYL. Certain lens brands are excluded, for a list see www.asda.com/opticians"