Specsavers and their expensive extra options - advice please?

Doc_N

Been using Specsavers for many years now, and while they were once cheap, they're certainly not now - mainly because of the cost of their add-on options. They're masters at confusion marketing - and also upselling by commission-hungry staff.

Wife needs varifocals (additional cost £49, £79 or £119, depending on 'quality').

She also needs Thin + Light lenses because her prescription would otherwise be too heavy to wear comfortably (additional cost £45, £65 or £95, depending on how thin).

So with a £99 frame the cost can be as high as £313 - certainly not cheap.

The 'free' second pair would only be free without the Thin + Light lenses. Thin + Light is chargeable on the second 'free' pair.

The question I'd love to have an answer to is this: just how much difference is there between those varifocal lenses which vary between £49 extra and £119 extra?

And how much difference between those Thin + Light lenses which vary between £45 and £95?

There must be huge profits in this for Specsavers (given that Asda, for example, include the cost of varifocals and superthin lenses without extra charge) but how do those Specsavers options really stack up. How bad are their basic quality £49 varifocals, and how heavy are their basic £45 Thin + Light lenses?



Anybody out there with some inside information?

CrazyNerd

Specsaver's staff do not get commission. With varifocals, you get what you pay for. If you use a VDU at work or do a lot of reading the more expensive varifocals give you a wider area for these distances. Thinner lenses mean that the lenses are denser to bend the light with less thickness. The dispenser will make a recommendation depending on the frame choice and the prescription. ASDA can sell very cheap glasses because they sell other things that make them a big profit. Specsavers and the rest of the multiples only sell glasses and contact lenses.

teddysmum

Asda include thinner lenses free of charge, if your prescription makes them necessary. I bought four pairs from Asda for very near to the price of two pairs from Specsavers, but the Asda ones had thin lenses throughout while the Specsavers ones had only one thin lens per pair.

Carrot007

Yes use ADSA. You even point to it yourself. Since moving from specsavers to ASDA I could not be happier.

Specsavers have just gone down the route of gouging you with NEEDED extras.

GlasweJen

Specsavers have a computer programme where they can type in your wife’s specification and it will show you how thick the lenses will be in standard, 1.6 index, 1.67 and 1.74 (the higher the number after the decimal the thinner the lens generally but not always). As for the varifocal it depends on the frame choice and why she uses them, if she’s using them at a computer all day go for one with a wide corridor, if she’s wearing them mainly for distance with an occasional glance to read a label then don’t bother.

pollyanna24

Do Asda really include the thinner lenses for no extra cost?

I'm very high prescription and always pay to have them as thin as I possible can. I'm about a -13.

Doc_N

pollyanna24 wrote: »

Do Asda really include the thinner lenses for no extra cost?

I'm very high prescription and always pay to have them as thin as I possible can. I'm about a -13.

They do indeed. Their prices are hugely lower than Specsavers, which has moved over the years from one of the cheapest to one of the most expensive.

OK if you want just basic lenses but once you get into thinner ones and varifocals it's seriously expensive.

maisie_cat

I'm not sure what has happened to specsavers, my husband has been using them for years and his latest 2 pairs of varifocals have been rubbish.
Collected end of November and he is there now for the 5th time because the prescription is in the wrong place. Of course they are not interested, they simply keep adjusting the frames.
For £400 it was a waste of money because I can see him having to go elsewhere.

pearl123

I deeply regret using specsavers. Poor quality glass. Plus they are not that cheap for the quality they are offering.

Doc_N

maisie_cat wrote: »

I'm not sure what has happened to specsavers, my husband has been using them for years and his latest 2 pairs of varifocals have been rubbish.
Collected end of November and he is there now for the 5th time because the prescription is in the wrong place. Of course they are not interested, they simply keep adjusting the frames.
For £400 it was a waste of money because I can see him having to go elsewhere.

Shame. They used to be cheap and reliable. Now they're expensive, not very reliable, and deliberately making their prices difficult to follow. You go in with the expectation of paying maybe £125 and come out with a bill for three times that.

Competition from Asda will hopefully force them to up their game, and lower their prices.

Carrot007

pearl123 wrote: »

I deeply regret using specsavers. Poor quality glass. Plus they are not that cheap for the quality they are offering.

I could also add that a couple of the last times I used them before going to asda (and yes the OH's staff discount was my main reason for trying them out!) that the coating they put on kept peeling off at the edges. Although despite all places (ie not just SS) dodgy the lense is your problem no warrenty they did repalce them.

Oh I was going to try tesco first as I work near one. But the idiots in store could not read my prescription and could not contact SS so left it up to me to get it. I just waited until I was due and went to asda. Have they not that machine that can read a precription from the glasses? SS do, and used it when they gavbe me some glasses and I said not a chance they have been made right! So that's another bad SS point.