My routine trip to the eye doc yesterday brought the suggestion that I get some “office glasses,” essentially progressive lenses optimized for distances between “writing at the desk” and “reading the calendar on the wall over there.”

I found frames I liked ($300, yikes), and by the time the frame-and-lenses package was totaled up it was roughly $700. That’s crazy.

I spent a few minutes surfing the web this evening, and found my frame at several of the online stores — one offering it as low as $99. Add in the lenses, and the package comes out at $450 or so. Still not pocket change, but way better than the local shop’s price.

Naturally, though, there’s a bit of skepticism and “what-ifism” involved. Is the online store truly as good as they say? What if the glasses don’t make things clear as expected? (Can’t just go down the street and ask, “can we adjust this?”) And so on.

There are several of these online glasses shops, with ads all over TV and the internet — America’s Best Eyewear, GlassesUSA, Frames Direct, Vision Express, EzContacts, and several others.

Who’s got good (or bad) experiences to share?

I'd be hesitant and probably wouldn't do it but I've never tried. I would only try if it was a known brand like Rudy Project or Oakley.

Frames and lenses are expensive - $500-700 sounds pretty typical to me for branded framed (ie - 9999 or Silhoutte or whatever) and lenses (zeiss, hoya, etc with coatings).

I would not pay that much for any frame made in chicom though (even branded like oakley). Italian, French, US (ie - lindberg) or Japanese frames for me. The latter is preferred - they just fit me better.

Do you have a Warby Parker nearby? We get all of ours there. I only wear mine at night, contacts during the day.
Not sure if they can do the lenses you need, but their frames are really reasonable

They have [had?] an online option where you pick a few frames & they ship them to you to try before you buy, but the local store is better as they have nearly the full selection.

Haven't had a pair we were dissatisfied with yet.

I’ve seen the Warby Parker ads, but the closest store is about a two hour drive from here. (I’m kinda in the sticks…) I’ll check them out online in just a moment.

In the last hour-and-a-half, though, I’ve learned that there is an America’s Best store here in town — less than a ten-minute drive away. That’s the store who offered (online) the Oakley frame I want for just $99. “Lensed up,” the package is about half the price I got yesterday. I can tolerate that, I think.

They’ve got Saturday hours, so I believe I have a plan.. I’ll print the online quote and see if they can match it locally.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
I’ve seen the Warby Parker ads, but the closest store is about a two hour drive from here. (I’m kinda in the sticks…) I’ll check them out online in just a moment.

In the last hour-and-a-half, though, I’ve learned that there is an America’s Best store here in town — less than a ten-minute drive away. That’s the store who offered (online) the Oakley frame I want for just $99. “Lensed up,” the package is about half the price I got yesterday. I can tolerate that, I think.

They’ve got Saturday hours, so I believe I have a plan.. I’ll print the online quote and see if they can match it locally.

Even if they can't match it, you can at least try the frames & order online, and still have a local resource for adjustments

I just bought a pair of glasses for under $40 from Zenni Optical.

I buy all my kids' glasses from there as well.

Zenni
EyeBuyDirect
Marvel (safety glasses)

Zenni

Thanks, y’all, I had forgotten about Zenni.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Even if they can't match it, you can at least try the frames & order online, and still have a local resource for adjustments

Good point!

Framesdirect.com used to be based in Houston. I used to order online and pick them up in their showroom, met the owners a couple of times. I have not bought from them in years since I had lasik, but check them out. They carry a lot of frames.

Been using Zenni for few years. Save so much money I can buy two sets and still save. I buy transitions and then a pair of prescription sunglasses for driving.

Had an eye exam yesterday at Costco for $65 and a pair of progressive glasses with transition lenses plus prescription sunglasses for driving all for $405.00. That's hard to beat.

I have been using Zenni for years

I get my prescription sunglasses for under $100 and progressives for about $100. You can get regular glasses very cheap

You need to know your "PD" pupil distance. Your eye doctor may not give you this info. Just use a metric tape measure and have someone measure you pupils center to center in mm

Also, I keep it simple, for framed glasses I stick to squarish frames, sunglasses a Ray Ban looking frame. I have a few frameless ones as well

You can upload a pic of your ugly mug and try on frames too

To make sure the measurements are right, I measure the dimensions on my current glasses I like and compare that to the frames online to make sure they will fit. The last ones I bought a couple of months ago took about 10 days to arrive

I was looking for a specific pair of Modo (Japanese) titanium frames. The "retail" price was $500, but Select Eyewear had them for $149, which was less than most of the other online discount sites. I was hesitant, as there were not many online reviews of Select, and the return policy was not as generous as some of the other companies. I took a chance and ordered them. They were genuine Modo frames and there were no issues with the order.

I had the lenses made by my local optician. I've ordered frames online and had the prescription filled locally for decades without difficulty.

Here is the issue with buying online from my perspective:

Proper fitting of the glasses to the individual wearing them is essential. Part of this is measuring the distance between the pupils of the eye. This cannot be done remotely.

If this isn't done correctly, you will not have good vision with the new glasses, as the eye may not be properly centered with the center of the lenses.

This gets more and more critical if you have one or more of the following conditions:

1) A strong correction
2) Astigmatism
3) You wear multi-focal lenses (bi-focials, tri-focals, or progressive lenses)

You can pay a local practitioner to measure the distance, but they have no incentive to do this correctly since they aren't selling you the glasses. Plus, the cost eats into your savings.

If you have only a single-vision, mild correction, you might be able to use mail-order, but I wouldn't risk it.

My most recent pair of glasses is from freeprescriptionlenses.com I was able to get italian rayban wayfarers with zeiss photochromic lenses. I'm on a "minimize stuff bought from china" kick right now. I got recommended his youtube videos while I was trying to find other optics videos. However, his website isn't the most polished and can be a bit difficult to navigate.

Other places I've used and had a great experience are:
rx-safety.com I bought safety glasses to use for yardwork
glassesusa.com I've gotten several pairs from them. i had to return a pair once and that process was smooth.

quote:

Originally posted by Genorogers:

Had an eye exam yesterday at Costco for $65

Good deal. Local Costco optometrist charged me $99 for the exam.

My wife is a fan of Zenni

quote:

Originally posted by btanchors:

measuring the distance between the pupils of the eye.

When you're examined for the prescription, ask the prescribing optometrist / ophthalmologist to include the PD as part of the prescription. I do that, and they note it on the Rx. Mine is 66 / 63; I use multifocal lenses, thence the two numbers -- 66 is for the distant portion of the lens, 63 is the near.