I wear glasses every day and always get good quality lenses. Zeiss progressives with photochromic darkening, all the coatings etc. Typically around $600 + frames. That's a bit much for a spare pair or two to throw in the car or boat for emergencies (to get me home in case primaries get lost/broken).

How bad is the optical quality from Zenni? For the price, I'm guessing they can't be much above cheap safety glasses.

Any experiences?

For ordinary, no option glasses, my wife loves them. She can get several styles for very little. She wears contacts most days but nights and a few days she likes her glasses.

I use their progressive bifocals. They are in my opinion every bit as good as the $600 pair I had made at the local optometrist. I did have a pair with the photo-chromatic lenses, but one lens broke. I am not sure if this was a result of a different material being used in the lens or a manufacturing fault. In any event I can buy 6 pairs for the same price. Comfort, optical quality, and clarity all seem the same to me.

Just bought a pair from GlassesUSA online, although I swore I never would. They work well and cost me 60 bucks. I'm soon going to buy a spare pair or two for the vehicles.

I'm about 6 months on my first pair of Zenni glasses. GTG. I also bought some polarized blades with prescription lenses behind the blade....Mehhh. Both with some clip on polarized for the glasses came to 52 bucks shipped so I'm happy with that.

Costco if available.

RMD

MNSIG, I got a spare/backup pair from Zenni with similar options as yours. In my limited experience, the lenses seem very comparable in quality to my LensCrafters. The frame does not feel as sturdy, but at 1/4 the cost, I can buy another pair if needed.

I tried Zenni. I thought they were total crap.

Very bad experience.

They took a very long time, I believe it was every bit of three weeks, to fill the order.

The lenses had a very distinct yellow color. Very yellow. I complained. Zenni Customer NO-Service took a few days to respond, then told me it was some sort of protective (anti glare?) coating.

I told them that I had NOT requested any coating. I have been wearing glasses for seventy-five years (since I was five years old, I'm 80 now) and have always had lenses that were clear.

Told them that I wanted lenses with NO coating, NO yellow color.

They replied, essentially, "tough. That's the way we do it, take it or leave it."

I returned the glasses for a refund. 50% refund. Yup, they kept half the money for producing a totally unacceptable product. It took a long, LONG, time for the refund to show up.

I returned the glasses via a signature-required service so I know when they received the return. It was more than a week before they admitted that they had received the return shipment and started to "process" the refund.

My suggestion: Try CostCo. Their optical department does high quality work at moderate cost. Both my lined try-focals and my lined bi-focal sunglasses were under $150 (each) for the lenses. Their frames are reasonable, too. Or you can supply your own frames; Costco imposes an eighteen dollar up-charge if you do supply your own frames, but that's not terrible.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
I wear glasses every day and always get good quality lenses. Zeiss progressives with photochromic darkening, all the coatings etc. Typically around $600 + frames. That's a bit much for a spare pair or two to throw in the car or boat for emergencies (to get me home in case primaries get lost/broken).


How bad is the optical quality from Zenni? For the price, I'm guessing they can't be much above cheap safety glasses.

Any experiences?

Ask your eye doc (if he dispenses) about a budget second pair. That is what we offer.

Yes, I'm biased!

Don't order plastic frames that are very thin. Seem to be a lot of breakage. And i can't find warranty information anywhere on their website.

 
Absolutely great for spares. I order them for single vision reading glasses, and bi-focal computer glasses, as well as for shooting glasses (same strength as computer). Their delivery time is not quick, but not horrible, either. You can get some great quality frames from them, or some really poor cheap frames. They are my go-to for anything but my primary glasses, which are Vari-Lux progressives.
 

Zenni is all I wear. They are absolutely as good as the ones made by the dispensing optician affiliated with my Opthalmologist, at a small fraction of the price. I don't buy photochromic lenses but mine are high index progressives with the fancy coatings. They're so reasonably priced I buy a spare of both the clear and the sunglasses. Four pair from Zenni are a couple hundred bucks cheaper than one pair of the equivalent from the optician.

I've got 2 pair, one with the slight yellow tint because I look at computer screens all day and a pair of sunglasses. they're all I wear.