I’ve been wearing (and paying) for brick and mortar glasses for most of my life. So, I’ve always thought it was normal to pay anywhere from 300 to 500 dollars for a single pair of glasses. I would usually keep a pair anywhere from 4 to 5 years with the hope that they wouldn’t get broken. I didn’t get my first pair of RX sunglasses until I was in my 20’s because they were a luxury when factoring in the cost alongside my normal glasses.
But, that’s all changed. I want to thank Ira and GlassyEyes for opening my eyes to online eyeglass retailers. I’ve been reading this blog for the better part of 2 years, now. I didn’t need a new pair of glasses when I first heard about GlassyEyes, but it was nice to know I had an affordable option once I needed them. That time finally arrived a couple of months ago when my 2 year old accidentally knocked my glasses off a shelf. Plastic doesn’t react well to being dropped on hardwood from 4 feet up, so needless to say, I was now committed to getting a new pair. Thankfully, I had my sinfully ugly ‘buy one get one ½ off” emergency backup pair from LensCrafters waiting in the wings (btw, these glasses STILL cost me in the neighborhood of $110.00 and are horrid looking). Knowing the processing time of most of these companies, I knew it would be awhile before I would have new frames. I scheduled an appointment with my ophthalmologist and even told him that my intentions were to purchase online. He wasn’t able to measure my PD, but he made sure he wrote down the RX as legibly as he could. He was shocked and intrigued by the fact that I can purchase complete glasses for 30 bucks and said he wants a full report of my findings. My wife measured my PD at home and I was ready to go shopping. My first order was placed through Goggles4U. I ordered 2 pairs of glasses without tinting and 1 with tinting for sunglasses. My total order was around 85 bucks (including a discount through GlassyEyes). I tend to like Retro styled half rim frames or bold plastic frames, so I ordered 1 or each for my regular glasses. The whole process took about 2 weeks from order to delivery. Unfortunately, the sunglasses and one of the other pairs of glasses were completely off (absolute blurriness when I wore them). So, Steve at G4U promptly had me re- order them and put in a new order free of charge as replacement. Unfortunately, it has been over 3 weeks and I am still waiting for this order to be delivered. The crazy thing about all of this is that I then placed a different order through Zenni about 4 days AFTER placing the replacement G4U order and the Zenni frames arrived over the weekend…I would put it at around 2 weeks total. I am relatively satisfied with the way G4U is handling the situation (they emailed me yesterday that the shipment may have been lost) and I’m reasonably happy with the one pair of glasses I got from them. However, I’ve seen a lot of comments about Zenni’s optics and I have to agree. They are far superior in clarity and comfort. The G4U optics have been checked out and they are spot on, but there is just something about them that isn't quite as good as the Zenni lenses. Bottom Line: I'm absolutely hooked on online glasses, but I may stick to Zenni for price, selection, and processing time. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Check us out at the oft-updated http://www.glassyeyes.com! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlassyEyes" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/glassyeyes?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
