Cheapest optician for glasses

GlasweJen

With a prescription like -13 you'd be silly to buy online, who's going to check your PD against the optical centres of your frame, measure your heights and check that you're not already tolerating prism error from someone else's mistake years ago?

Fair game if you have a small prescription but anyone above a -4 should be properly measured (lower if there's an astigmatism).

zaksmum

I always buy my glasses online. I use a company called spex by post and never had any problems with them.

I fill in their online prescription form and have the glasses with me in about 2 days. Usually I pay about £30 a pair and have had loads of compliments about them.

esuhl

GlasweJen wrote: »

With a prescription like -13 you'd be silly to buy online, who's going to check your PD against the optical centres of your frame, measure your heights and check that you're not already tolerating prism error from someone else's mistake years ago?

Fair game if you have a small prescription but anyone above a -4 should be properly measured (lower if there's an astigmatism).

That's one reason I'd always gone to a High Street opticians. But those measurements in Optical Express were done by a blustering customer-service person (not the optician), and it was done so quickly (I don't even think she held the ruler still against the frames, just held it up for a "rough guess") that I spent the next six-months trying not to go cross-eyed. When using a computer, I'd usually have to close one eye to stop the confusion (and headaches) of seeing two images that didn't line up.

To be fair, my prescription is so strong that every pair of glasses I've had has been like that, but not to such a degree. Just touching the frame of my glasses and moving the left lens down by about a millimetre makes objects a metre away seem to move by 5mm or so. There's no way to keep a pair of glasses in precisely the right position to stop such angular distortions no matter how accurately they're aligned.

I'm torn between getting what I *know* will be a poorly-aligned pair of glasses online for maybe £250, and spending £600 to £750 in a shop for a pair that will still be far from perfect...

I wonder if I can have the eye test and buy the frames in a shop (so they can take the necessary measurements of how the frames fit my face), then just buy the lenses online...? If I can get them for £100 to £170, then that's a massive saving on the ~£500 I've spent on lenses in the past...

Anyway, I'd like to thank whitelabel for those links -- it's food for thought even if I do end up paying full price on the High Street again...

The_Goose

scotsbob wrote: »

Well someone has to pay for all the expensively located high street shops and mass advertising.

I read about spex4less on one of the forums here and have used them for the last 5 years.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/cheap-glasses

Get your free prescription from a local optician and then get the spectacles online.

www.spex4less.com

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have twice used an online company to get glasses, in fact it might even have been spex4less, I can't remember.

They were varifocals.

The first time it was quite clear they weren't right, and I had to send them back to redo.

The second time, they seemed to be OK, but next time I had my eyes tested, the optician (at the School of Optometry in London, so not a high street chain) said that the prescription had been made up completely wrong, and he was very surprised that I hadn't had huge problems with them.

I won't be buying online again for varifocals., even though it's cheaper.

I might possibly buy online for driving glasses which I wear over my varifocal contact lenses (as one eye is also slightly adjusted for reading and one for distance).

However I think Specsavers do a two for one offer, which if I need two pairs of glasses (one varifocal, one for driving) will probably work out cheaper than getting the over-60 discount, though I haven't worked that out yet.

Yogibear

whitelabel wrote: »

Im not here to take the !!!! out of any one or the eyesight, just trying to make the point that cheaper alternatives are available.
low cost DOESNT have to mean low quality

this company
http://www.thinlenses.co.uk
even does reglaze service where by you provide your own frame.
You can get "well known" designer frames for £100-200 with cheap lens in or just a nice cheaper frame if you liked it
then get them reglazed to your specification


Reglaze Service £20.00
Distance/Everything
Glass
1.9 + Index Lenses £148.00
Anti-Reflective Coating Free
UV400 Protective Coating Free
Scratch Resistant Coating Free
Total £168.00

that would still be a cheaper option

or a pair of calvin kleins from their site
CK 860 £76.00
Reading -
Glass -
1.9 + Index Lenses £148.00
Anti-Reflective Coating Free
UV400 Protective Coating Free
Scratch Resistant Coating Free
Total £224.00

:cool:

http://www.glassesframesandlenses.com
this company also specialises in high prescription lenses including zeiss
Booth & Bruce 867 frames in Cherry Cola at £100.00
+ Distance lenses FREE
+ Ultra thin 1.9 index glass lenses at £189.00
+ Standard colourless lenses FREE and Super Hydrophobic Coating FREE Change options
Total: £289.00


Its not about being able to afford things, i can afford what ever i need to afford I just choose to pay as little as possible for everything, meaning I have more money to spend on things in general, this is a moneysaving site afterall...

yes it`s very good of you posting these links but I have eyesight of - 30 in both eyes I cant get glasses any cheaper than £700 ,my God I have tried ,it`s actually depressing me to be honest,we can`t get any help from the NHS sorry a £15 voucher matter of fact we wrote to Sturgeon the Health Minister in Scotland not a cheep from her no reply:mad:

whitelabel

-30 ?

Is that on a scale of registered blindness (serious question) ?

The company ive linked only go to -26 online but maybe give them a call if they can do further ?
and at least you dont have to pay for prescriptions

nedmundo

whitelabel wrote: »

-30 ?

Is that on a scale of registered blindness (serious question) ?

The company ive linked only go to -26 online but maybe give them a call if they can do further ?
and at least you dont have to pay for prescriptions

No - that is dependent on corrected vision, not the strength of correction. With strong prescriptions like that, there are other factors which need to be taken into account such as lens distance from eye and fitting heights as well as monocular PDs, so I'd strongly advise against online specs for that sort of prescription.

Chick100

If you are in Edinburgh there is a shop called Spectacle Outlet in Peffermill. Just take your prescription there and they are much cheaper!

Sue_S

esuhl wrote: »

Well lucky you. How dare you take the p*** out of my eyesight?!

I simply don't believe that you could find a pair of 1.9 index glass lenses to a -13 prescription for much less.

And how would you approach buying frames online with no idea as to whether they would be suitable for the lenses I'm buying?

Have a look at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2025831

£79 for one pair, £99 for two! Including lenses! I've bought 4 pairs of specs from Asda and I am very shortsighted. My prescription is -11.75 plus astigmatism. They're an excellent price and they will give you the thinnest lenses for your prescription. I got 1.74 as I wanted plastic and I believe 1.9 is only available in glass which is heavier. I would never buy online as with higher prescriptions great care needs to be taken with measurements, e.g. PD and the distance of the specs from the eyes. ASDA is just like any other optician, if you're not satisfied they'll change the specs.

david39

I had my eyes tested at Specsavers and they tried to sell me expensive lenses. I wear varifocals and they showed me the difference between cheap and expensive lenses.

With varifocals the difference shows up in the lower area of the lens (the part for reading). In a cheap lens, the field of view that is in-focus is very narrow - as the lenses get more expensive it gets wider until a Zeiss lens has a field of view almost the width of the frame.

I did not fully believe this when it was explained to me and refused to buy from them and went to a smaller "discount" optician where I got a set of glasses for £99.

I'm sorry to say that Specsavers were correct. These lenses have a very restricted focus area in the reading section - so much so that with a normal book I cannot read from one end of a line of print to the other without moving my head or the book from side to side.

Fortunately, I am due for a retest next month and next time I will not be scrimping on the cost.