Buying New Glasses

Xaev

So I went to the optometrist the other day and had my prescription updated for the first time in five years (it's barely changed at all). Now I'm left with the prospect of deciding which glasses I should get to replace my old, beat up ones. I'm not sure what the best way to get them is (e.g. ordering online or in a brick and mortar store) or what the best way to get a good deal would be. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

strebalicious

I don't wear glasses, but my wife and son do, so I have to go get new ones all the time. I couldn't really imagine getting them off the internet, but that's because my wife's eyesight is terrible. The last one she bought wound up being over $600 (note: only $100 of that was the for the frame).

The convenience of trying them on, seeing how they look and fit on your face, and also having the people at the store take all the measurements to make sure everything lines up, not to mention having a place to take them back to for adjustments or fixes, probably outweigh any savings you could get of the interwebs.

Saaruto

Go to the store, get measured and whatnot, pick out the frames you like. Write down the measurements you get. Then, take yourself to a website of repute and buy said frames at 1/5 of the price. I have had great success with 39dollarglasses.com and eyeglasses4all.com. I know they sound sort of wonky, but they are really great alternatives to spending a ton more money at Lenscrafters for the same stuff, especially if you know what you want.

soxbox

Seconding 39dollarglasses.com - have used optical4less also. My girlfriend has terrible eyesight with a very strong prescription and has had no issue at all with the glasses she has bought online without even taking on any of the extra options.

All the 'extra grinding' and 'special lenses' that they try and push at us blind-ies is exploitation.

This guy - http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com/ - covers the online glasses world and has discount codes for all the good ones.

tofu

I've had a lot of luck with http://www.goggles4u.com/

I never buy eyeglasses in store anymore because they cost ten times as much

President Rex

This is a year old and excerpted from a random assignment for a class, but it'd likely be of use regarding ordering online. The most important things to note are: getting your pupillary distance measurement, standard glasses measurements like arm length and frame width, and that if you have a very heavy prescription you may not be able to order them.

Because the majority of eyewear aficionados need to wear their glasses regularly, the aesthetic value of eyewear often takes a backseat to function and comfort. If your nose and ears hurt it doesn’t much matter if you look chic. This is where the first major problem with online eyewear purchases comes in: evaluation. One of the greatest benefits of purchasing eyeglasses in stores is the ability to try before you buy. Online sites can provide you with a stack of photos, but it doesn’t matter if they won’t fit on your face. Many sites provide frame measurements but this doesn’t always help. Not knowing how to utilize measurements can also cause problems (for instance: temple arm length is measured in a straight line from the lenses to the tip of the arm and not around the curve of the arm). There is a degree of leeway, so online shoppers need not fret that much.

Online purchases require knowledge of optometric prescriptions (or at least how to enter them into textboxes). Many websites provide this information in useful help boxes. This area of online purchases can also be a problem for customers with strong or unusual prescriptions. Sphere measurements for prescription strength over +10.00 (farsighted) or under -10.00 (nearsighted) are not provided by many sites. Many wearers also have an astigmatism (the cylindrical and axis portions of a prescription for a non-spherical eye), but this area generally doesn’t suffer from limitations. Other complicated prescription lens requirements - like prism corrections or trifocals - are often not offered. Much like in retail stores, more powerful or rare prescriptions may be more expensive or take longer to manufacture.

One of the more complex portions of prescriptions is pupillary distance – or the distance between the pupils. Some online stores make no indication of how to obtain this measurement, although many optometrists omit the measurement from prescriptions (because retail stores take this measurement before ordering or grinding lenses). This is the portion of the retail process where the retailer has you try on the glasses and puts a marker point on both lenses for measurement. Most online shoppers will need someone else to measure the distance for them (or try the less accurate method of looking in a mirror).
Many online stores offer a variety of lens options – such as tinting, anti-reflective coatings, scratch-resistant coatings, and polarization – but may not properly inform the customer as to their proper use. This problem also happens in retail stores, where employees may try to sell you on those fancy photochromic lenses without explicitly telling you what they do. It can be more of a problem online if there’s no indication of what a particular option does. Thankfully there are quite a few online stores and informative pages out there and the eyewear industry in the United States is somewhat standardized. One of the problems new eyewear purchasers might encounter is the mixed terminology usage for some lens types. Some reference the lens by material (glass, plastic, polycarbonate, or others), some only mention the index of refraction of the material (how much the material bends light – higher numbers mean the lens can be thinner).

The great benefit from buying glasses off the internet, however, is price. A set of bifocal glasses may cost $150 or more in a retail store, but look for an inexpensive frame and you may end up paying as little as $30 including shipping. Stronger prescriptions will still run near $60 with cheaper frames, but this is still pretty economical compared to the alternative $200 or more. Many online stores offer a vast selection of frames to choose from (often more than the few hundred available at a retail store). This can include budget frames or unique frames which may not normally be stocked. Some factory-retailers can price frames as little as $8. It’s important to note that not all online retailers are cheaper than their physical counterparts.

Some online retailers:

Zenni Optical – http://zennioptical.com/

+Informative help boxes for lens options, prescriptions, and other fields.
+Very inexpensive factory-direct frames and lenses.
+Cheapest lens costs for moderately high index plastics with a variety of free treatments
+Informative and streamlined website

-Only Zenni frames
-No prism correction for lenses
-No high-index lens (1.7 or 1.74 index of refraction) offered by many competitors

EyeBuyDirect – http://www.eyebuydirect.com/

+Inexpensive frames from a large variety of brands
+Name brand frames
+Abundance of frame information and help boxes

-Lens power (sphere) can only reach +/- 10.00
-Fewer included lens treatments (bevel and polish, anti-reflective, etc.)
-Moderately expensive lenses (offers high-index lenses up to 1.74, though)

Goggles4U – http://www.goggles4u.com/

+Large variety of inexpensive frames
+Useful search function allows searching according to width and length
+Virtual Try-On allows visitors to view the aesthetic appeal of frames (but not whether they fit)

-Requires an account to access lens pricing information.
-Useful guides for finding measurements.

As for soxbox' comments: a higher index of refraction will generally benefit you if you've got a strong prescription (there's a huge weight difference). Some brick-and-mortar places perform a roll-and-polish for free (makes the edges look thinner), but you often have to pay for it - especially online.

But photochromic lenses are basically useless (you're probably better off with one prescription pair with clear lens and another prescription pair of sunglasses). Anti-glare coating is useful, but I've only ever seen scratch coatings wear off (without preventing scratches) and leave an oil slick-like appearance on the surface.

MichaelLC

I got my latest pair at For Eyes, using my insurance and it was around $150(?) for check-up and glasses.

If you've already got your numbers, I was happy with the service and with the glasses I've had 2 years now.

VisionOfClarity

I go to lenscrafters. With my old insurance I got a discount, I don't with my new one. However, since we have a AAA membership we get a 30% discount again. It's the only place I've gotten my glasses from for the last 12 years. I get my prescription sunglasses from them as well. I like them because I can walk in for free adjustments whenever I need one and they have the 30 day money back guarantee. Which was great when I got a pair that my eyelashes kept hitting and needed to get a new pair. I brought them back a week later and got the new ones, only having to pay the price difference between the two pairs.

MagicToaster

I like to get mine at the store because I can try it on. You can know all the measurements you need to make it fit your face, but you won't know how comfortable it is to wear untill you actually have it on your face.

If you can go to the store and try it on, then find the model you like online, you win.

DoraB

Ditto store recommendation because you really can't be 100% sure a pair will fit/flatter you until you try them on. The one piece of advice about this I would give is to beware the salespitch and shop around. If you walk into a place like Sears or something, they're going to start saying things like "But if you buy this pair, it qualifies for this if you get multiples, which is a huge savings!" And it might sound really good, and maybe it even is, but you won't know unless you shop around. Don't leap at the first "bargain" you're offered; do your research, call other places, and don't be afraid to say "No, thank you" to someone no matter how friendly/pushy they may be. You could save a lot.

Also, discounts! A lot of places give discounts for things like Triple A memberships, but don't tell you this. Also, also! Warranties are your friend. You may think you're super careful with your glasses, but things can happen. I speak from experience here; if you can find a place that offers a good replacement policy for a good price, absolutely take it. It might be a few extra dollars now, but it could save you hundreds down the roads.

mehmehmeh

I bought all my prescription glasses online. Yes trying them on in a store is great but the online places are so cheap you can order a few pairs and still come out ahead. I have six pairs of glasses now and paid under $120 in total for all of them. I bought from a few different retailers but the majority from zenni.

Xaev

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll be going in to a local retailer soon and getting my measurements and examining some frames (as soon as I have time off work when they're open).

Althusser

http://www.warbyparker.com has some good looking frames for $95 with lenses, and has a really good return policy/free shipping. They are supposed to be able to send you glasses to try on, but they never seem to have try-on pairs in stock.

Oh and they match every pair of glasses you buy from them and send a pair to some poor people.

Trying to wade through the zenni site makes my brain hurt. Can't beat those prices though.