MoneySavingExpert.com/Cheapest way to buy Contact lenses article discussion area

JB126

ogspeed wrote:

My son went to Boots for an eye test specifically for contact lenses, They refuse to release his prescription untill he has bought lenses from them and used them for a month, is this legal, is this a practice carried out by all opticians ? I thought they had to give the prescription to you. Iv spoke to Boots optician and they say they have to be sure the prescription works for each patient before they release it.

To further this, I've recently had a contact lense trial at Specsavers (which I paid £20 for). I'm happy with my lenses but want to buy online becaue of the huge price difference but they want to charge me another £20 for telling me what my prescription is! Can they do this? Doesn't seem right to me. ANy one any ideas?

James

robskillz

Depending on what the lenses are (daily disposable/monthly etc.) the prescription will be marked on the box/packet of lenses for each eye!

tushingham

hi,

anyone how or where to get your contact lense prescription after a contact lense checkup, without having to buys lenses from the opticians where you had the test?

thanks in advance

t

avondale

Well i ordered from ASDA a years worth of monthly disposables, proclear by cooper vision, also 3 months supply of bausch and lomb eye solution at a total of £7.50 for 2x360ml. The lenses cost £55.84 a total of £63.34 and with a £10 off voucher code a total of £53.34. Not a bad saving i think. In my opinion Specsavers are expensive, normal eye solution there own brand is £7.50 for 250ml. To sign up on there direct debit they wanted £10 a month, i know that includes solutions and a contact lens check but i still think it's pricey.

janemoore

I have just ordered from sainsbury's contact lenses. The price for my daily lenses was the best i could find anywhere online a £18 per 30 pairs of focus dailies including FREE postage and I even earnt nectar points too!

I phoned them with a few questions and the service was excellent.
For once i think saisnburys have got something spot on!

https://www.sainsburyscontactlenses.co.uk

vishpatel

robskillz wrote:

It was time for me to order my next 6 months worth of Daily Disposables last week so as usual I shopped around on the internet on all the usual UK sites, and also tried the Dutch price comparison http://www.elcheapo.nl/ again.

Well the Dutch sellers turned out cheapest again! in the UK GetLenses was pretty much the cheapest (with Rpoints too) at around £112, but were utterly upstaged by http://www.lensexpress.nl/ in Holland who charged just £91 (in Euros) for the same thing! Ordered them Monday afternoon, and they arrived the following Monday via Royal Mail.

Very pleased with the service, and their site is fairly easy to use even though it is in Dutch and I don't spek a word of it! A bit of copy and paste into Altavista's Babelfish translator was all that was needed. They replied to my email in English last time I was shopping round, so you may be able to order by phone if the website is too daunting.

I recommend at least looking what's in the rest of Europe now and then, in the name of money-saving!

HTH, Rob

Mine arrived from https://www.lensexpress.nl in 2 days!! £167 for 12 months supply of Focus Dailies. No prescription required...

samhan

Has anyone tried ordering from http://www.contactforlenses.com?

they seem to be really cheap with the acuvue dailies at £14 for 30 pairs and £10 for the focus dailies.

This seems like the prices are too good to be true.

Sam

janemoore

I have had a quick look and that price is per BOX not per pair! For my focus dailies https://www.sainsburyscontactlenses.co.uk is still cheaper at £18 per PAIR and free delivery and nectar points!

mamazaac

samhan wrote:

Has anyone tried ordering from http://www.contactforlenses.com?

they seem to be really cheap with the acuvue dailies at £14 for 30 pairs and £10 for the focus dailies.

This seems like the prices are too good to be true.

Sam

The prices are for 30 lenses, not 30 pairs so you only get about 2 weeks worth in each box. They do offer a Focus Dailies box of 90 lenses for £25.99 which would work out at £17.33 per month, which must be one of the cheapest though.

regvardy

I got this weblink and article from the FT online 26/04/2006 of all places (I don't pay for the FT online, they are currently running a free online trial with no details, its actually very impressive)

The guy who invented daily disposables is now cutting out the middle man (increasingly the supermarkets) and selling daily disposables direct to the public at £12.99 a month. (total price)

http://www.daysoft.co.uk/contactlenswearers/index.asp

I pay £55 for 3 months supply of Biomedics daily disposable from Visiondirect. I currently get free postage because they are reorderred and I get a further 10% discount thru Quidco. Total price £55.

The equivalent 3 month suppy of lenses (96 pairs) (from the inventor of daily disposables), are £39 total. PRICE WAR, and he doesn't like supermarkets.

Inventor aims to transform disposable contact lens market

By Andrew Bolger, Scotland Correspondent


A price war is likely to break out over daily disposable contact lenses with their inventor starting to sell to consumers directly, significantly undercutting supermarkets such as Tesco.
Ron Hamilton, 64, cofounded the company that developed the technology in 1989, selling it to Bausch and Lomb, a US-based eyecare group, in 1996 for $33m. A further $15m was paid for intellectual property rights. Mr Hamilton agreed not to sell contact lenses for five years.
However, when the restrictive period ended in 2001, Mr Hamilton launched Daysoft, which he claims will transform the market and make lens cleaning almost redundant overnight. A month’s supply of the company’s own daily disposables will cost only £12.99.
Although most sales will be made over the internet, Daysoft said it was committed to supporting independent opticians threatened by recent legislative changes, which allowed supermarkets to start selling lenses.
All the big contact lens manufacturers have been keen to supply supermarkets at prices lower than those available to independent opticians. But this is not a route to market that appeals to Mr Hamilton. “Contact lenses are not baked beans and as a privately-owned business we never want to find ourselves working under the lash of some buyer from Tesco or Asda,” he said. “Our unique price point opens up the possibility of a health revolution in eyecare as it will allow users of monthly lenses to move to daily disposables – one in 10 wearers is allergic to lens cleaning solutions. But the best way to do this was to remain in partnership with independent opticians.”
Daysoft claims lens wearers would be able to save up to £250 a year compared with prices from chains such as Specsavers and supermarkets. It said its high specification lenses were 30 per cent cheaper than online supermarket prices.
Daysoft supplies more than 5m daily disposable lenses to independent opticians across the country. By combining this with selling direct to consumers, the company aims to increase its UK market share rapidly to more than 5 per cent, which would see its UK sales surge from £700,000 last year to more than £3m by 2008.
Where a wearer places a direct order, Daysoft will credit that person’s optician, if they have an account with the company.
Mr Hamilton said: “It is the independent opticians who have helped us develop our UK business and we intend to remain loyal to them.
“The wide customer base they give us and the personal professional service they give consumers, combined with our unique lowcost manufacturing and supply technologies, represent the best ‘partnership’ benefiting contact lens wearers.”