I’m going to see an Opthamologist friend of mine and get my eyes tested so that I have all the numbers I need for a new pair of glasses. But then, I googled getting glasses online and there’s a million places and I have no idea who is good and good value and won’t break the bank.
Any advice from prior experience here?
I’ve had several good experiences with zenni optical. They ship straight from China and are very cheap.
This is one of those threads I expect to be deleting spam from for years to come, sigh.
I bought a pair from USA Glasses. They were flimsy and broke soon.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I made it. If you can think of phrasing that’s less of a honeypot, please feel free to change it!
No, it’s all good! Keeps me on my toes.
I just ordered for the first time online, from Warby Parker, mainly because I was walking by one of their stores with a new prescription in hand, so they could do the measurements for me. It was $250 for a normal pair and $350 for some bifocals.
When I took some existing glasses to an eyeglass chain (LensCrafters) they more or less told me they would break them trying to make new lenses for them, so I just went with new frames. The frames are not as nice and have fewer size options. Really the size of head thing is the main one, and you can’t tell unless you try them on (or want to send them back).
But I’m not going to spend $1,000 for glasses at Lens Crafters (or similar) anymore.
Glasses are an infuriating monopoly with basically all western brands owned by Luxxotica. There’s a simple test - are the frames over $70 US? Then they are owned by Luxxotica. Source: I know someone who owns an eyeglasses business.
Online direct from China is the way to go. The frames are the same quality in many cases (maybe not ti-magnesium-dilithium, if you fall for it). The style of the frames is not quite up to Luxxotica in some cases, personal opinion.
The main issue is the inter-pupillary distance which can be done at home but is a hassle.
Recently had ok experience with Optical Factor.
Zenni has ultralight flexible titanium frames too, and you won’t be paying $250, I can tell you that! They’re cheap enough to buy multiple pairs for prescription sunglasses.
You do need your pupillary distance, yes. Just ask your ophthalmologist at your next checkup, or I guess fake out Lenscrafters.
If you do want to buy local, Costco is absolutely, without a doubt, your best bet.
Prescription sunglasses are the dream! Zenni has them cheap?
As I recall it’s like an extra $17 or something to add tint with UV protection. Been a couple years.
I have used eyebuydirect multiple times and I like them a lot.
Don’t buy the $7 frames or whatever as they are junk, but the $20+ or whatever frames are good.
I use them for single vision normal and sunglasses and been happy. I wouldn’t buy them in a retail store anymore.
For my progressives I do use the optometrist since my understanding is the online progressive lenses have a reduced effective vision (the sides have more blur)
I tried eyebuydirect and went straight back to zenni. They got the prescription wrong. Just a sample size of one, of course.
I’ve had about 10ish pairs all be correct, but obviously that’s also just a personal anecdote. I do think that is one thing about online glasses that you have to take into account is that there’s some timeframe risk there if they need remade or they are behind or whatever.
Yeah, but Zenni is so much cheaper (and coming from China) that I wouldn’t bother. I haven’t had any wrong prescriptions from Zenni, but some frames didn’t look great on me. I put them in the drawer for backups. Oh no, wasted forty dollars.
That’s definitely one of the nice parts. I will order two pairs and whichever one I like more becomes my regular glasses and the ones I like less go in the car for backup.
I’ve bought two pairs from Warby Parker over the years. https://www.warbyparker.com/
Pros: inexpensive; fast delivery; select 3 frames online, get them in a few days to try on and send back. Lightweight frames. Good looking (for my tastes). Physical stores near me.
Paid $378 which was for progressive lens and included higher density lens and UV light transitioning which were extras.
Cons: light weight make them feel a little cheap. They’ve held up in that I’ve dropped mine a few times and they haven’t broken or gotten scratched up. HOWEVER, two days after wearing them they began to stretch out and become loose. I went to a store location and they tightened them up, but after a week, they became loose again.
I ended up putting a tiny piece of aluminum foil where the hinge is in the meantime while I figured if I was going to get them “fixed” again or just buy something else. Ended up wearing those for two years as is.
When it came time to replace them, I just ordered the same pair. I was trying to be economical, and was too lazy to go to a physical store and shop around. Had the same issue with them feeling loose - used my aluminum foil trick. Fine, until I forget, close them up and the foil falls out!
I’m due a new pair soon and keep thinking I should go back to a nicer, more expensive pair, but when I think of what I used to pay for glasses before, it’s disgusting. I’m tempted to order another pair.
I use this place all the time. I’m notoriously leaving glasses somewhere (I work at different clients and who knows which desk or where I left them). They’re cheap. I seem to perpetually have 2 for 1, so I can get two pairs from anywhere around $40 to $80 depending upon how expensive a frame I want. Honestly, the cheapo ones are fine, and they’ve never messed up my prescription, I probably have 5 pairs in wait, including a couple of prescription sunglasses in our family cars, a spare pair in my backpack, etc.
I feel like there are two conversations in this thread. One between folks who think $300 glasses are inexpensive and the other between folks who think $40 glasses are inexpensive.
My partner just got a few pairs from Zenni, which definitely implies cheap. One of them’s glow-in-the-dark! :D
In can vouch for eyebuydirect as well.
Think I’ve never bought mine for more than $100 and that’s with the thinnest lenses ( still thick because I have terrible vision).