Frugal Options for Prescription Eyeglasses: what is your experience?

[wren]

It seems that there is a wide range of options for eyewear, from dollar-store reading glasses, to online sellers, all the way to designer frames at fancy Optical shops.

What are the most cost-effective choices you have discovered, while still taking good care of your vision?

We have been re-using our old (good quality) frames when new prescriptions are required (both of us wear bifocals, so cheap reading glasses only work for specific situations). That does save paying $125./pair for new frames. We don't care if we're somewhat out of fashion...:~). We also learned that the 'Second pair is Free' promotions are not really free: you can usually buy one pair for half the cost of the 'Free' deal.

I heard that prescription glasses are inexpensive online, but how do you know what quality you are getting? And optical shops bend new frames to custom fit your face; they don't fit perfectly from the factory.

[rosarugosa]

I'm a fan of Costco for eyewear. I agree with the custom fitting concern, and that's why I've never gone with an online option. It usually takes a bit of fiddling before I find them to be comfortable.

[catherine]

My kids have gone to Warby Parker for online glasses, and they're very satisfied with them. And they're half the price. I've looked into Zenni, which is also online.

Warby Parker sends you a few pair to try on and then you send back the ones you don't want. Both Warby Parker and Zenni tell you how to measure and they also allow you to upload a picture so you can "try on" glasses.

[rodeosweetheart]

We have used Zennis with great success. My husband is extremely nearsighted, and glasses for him at the eye doctor run about 400 dollars. He got three pairs of wonderful glasses at Zennis for 125! They are fantastic.

[Tammy]

Costco was half the cost and 100% of the quality, as compared with the private optometrist office we had been to in the past.

[profnot]

I love ZenniOptical.com I first used them 5 years ago then again 3 years go. I'll use them again next month.

When I get my eyes examined, I tell the doctor I need to order online for financial reasons. He then gives me all the measurements I need for ordering online.

[ToomuchStuff]

How did you guys go about the spacing on the frames you got from Zenni or those online stores (there are a few of them)?
I know pupil spacing is important to get the center of your perscription correct. (relatives work for eye surgeon and his glasses shop)
That said, I have bought at Sam's club, due to the aboves lack of safety glasses, and we used to have an eyeglass clearance store (bought frames from other shops, etc). I wish that place was still around (glasses tended to cost between $35 and $50). You might find something like that locally or the companies might do what several have done instead. (send to third world countries to keep higher prices/profit margin's here)

[Oddball]

My three online orders looked good at first but fell apart in about a year. Lesson learned. Now glasses are one thing I am not frugal on. I have three pairs I wear in rotation -- just for fun, like ties or shirts -- and have spent an obscene amount of money on them. They are part of my face to the world. I would never skimp if I were buying eyes, nose, or cheekbones, and in recent years I've treated my glasses accordingly. Some of my clothes too, but ounce for ounce, my glasses cost way more. I'd be afraid to admit how much. :0! But they pass the YMOYL test -- i.e., they're worth it to me!

[kib]

Funny, Oddball, I came to the same conclusion and went to a really nice local shop, understanding that this was going to cost well over $1000 ... and then among those thousands of gorgeous expensive glasses, I couldn't find anything I really liked on my face. I wound up using the shop's very precise prescription online at Glasses.com and I'm finally pretty happy with both the lenses and the frames - a nice designer frame and a complex prescription on sale, about $200 total - and hoping they last for years. I will admit that it is a crapshoot of sorts, especially with progressive lenses, as to whether they'll get the focal points in the exact right place, but this time it worked.

[Oddball]

KIB, sounds like a great deal. I plan to keep my nice frames forever. They are classic styles, so no need to update with the times. They could actually end up costing less over time than new cheapos each year.

My pricier clothes should pay off too. I used to buy a lot of thrift store clothes but kept donating them back when I realized I didn't like them after all or they didn't really fit. If you add up the money and especially all the time I spent on that merry-go-round, those clothes weren't so cheap after all. I now have a wardrobe I love that will last many years.

So my lesson on glasses and a few other things has been "do it right, do it once," as the saying goes.

[kib]

Yep, I still do thrift stores but I've learned my lesson, no more bags of purchases followed by giant hefty bags full of donations for me. I'm still thrifting because I put on a few pounds and don't want to commit to high end stuff quite yet, but I've gotten much pickier. I keep reminding myself there's a good chance it's in the thrift store for a reason.

[Glo]

We use Sam's Club optical department. Never had a problem.

[SteveinMN]

Before I chose to vote with my dollars against Walmart, I bought a couple of pairs of glasses there and thought I got a very good price on high-quality goods (I have one of those strong prescriptions, though I wasn't in bifocals back then). Sam's Club ought to be identical. DW has done well at Target Optical, but her prescription is nowhere near as strong as mine.

My last pair was done at a local independent optical shop. It was expensive (though lower priced than some of the numbers mentioned here) but I've gotten lots of compliments on the frames (yeah, I'll admit I still care) and the lenses have been fine so far. What I've read about on-line prescriptions for people with high-index bifocal Rxs like mine was not encouraging and, this time, I didn't have the luxury of waiting out shipping and sending back and shipping again. It's encouraging to see here that people are doing well (for the most part) with WP and Zenni.

As for the frugal part, I'd check to see if medical insurance includes at least a credit toward eyeglasses or if any affinity group you belong to (employee group, social organization, professional society, credit union, etc.) offers discounts. My experience is that small independents tend to charge more because they don't deal in volume and tend to offer more fashionable/purpose-built frames and lenses because that's how they differentiate from the mass marketers. We also have access to a healthcare-reimbursement account (pre-tax); though we never qualify (knock on wood) it is possible very expensive eyeglasses on lower incomes also may qualify for at least a partial Federal tax deduction.

[jp1]

I agree that costco is great. The eye doctor there is good. The contacts significantly cheaper than my former eye doctor charged. I assume the glasses are too but I haven't bought a pair of frames in at least a decade so I can't really speak to that.

[Teacher Terry]

I am still wearing the frames I bought 18 years ago. I have 3 pairs but I only need them for reading so that may be why they are lasting so long. If I wore them all the time I would probably be more picky.

[Rosemary]

DH and I have been ordering prescription glasses (for nearsightedness, reading, progressives, and presc. sunglasses) online for years. Between the two of us we've probably ordered 20 pairs of glasses online. We have never had an issue with any of the companies we've used (probably 4 different ones... I look around to compare prices and frame styles).

One of the numbers that has to be provided is the pupillary distance. It is simple to measure. I generally measure it three times before sending the prescription... but now that I've measured it so many times, I'm confident that I have the right numbers for each of us.

As for the fit of the frames, I don't know how they do it -- but they do seem to just fit right out of the package. I think that a lot of the adjusting that needs to be done at the optometrist must be due to the frames being bent while lenses are inserted or something like that.

One suggestion I have for anyone who is ordering a first pair online is to look for frames with similar measurements to a favorite old frame, so that the size is something that is similar. A few millimeters in either direction on a lens makes a big difference.

[freshstart]

double post

[freshstart]

I read that in NY your optician has to give you your pupillary distance but the store will fight to keep that info because that is what you need to get online glasses. But I did get one saleswoman to give it to me. I am extremely nearsighted with bad astigmatism so I was limited to a very few online sites that could make my glasses. I got a normal pair of glasses and prescription sun glasses for way less than $50 for both at Zenni.

then I had a detached retina and there is only one lab in the tri-state area who will do my awful prescription, I have to get regular lined bi-focals because progressives only work up to a point. I tried without success the online sites, just about every optician store I could think of. I always got told, "go back to XYZ store, only they will be able to fill them." That's where I went for my "good" glasses, they knew me for many years and yes, they could get my lenses from this special lab. For $1600 for just the lenses! I got the least expensive but sturdy frame I could find, so all told, it was $1800 with a 20% offer they have with my employer. I felt physically sick. It cannot possible cost THAT much to make the lenses?

I digress. Zenni still sends me emails with promotions. glassyeyes.com is a blog that the guy likes to give out tips on online glasses and who has the best deals. I haven't read the blog since it no longer applies for me. But when it came time for measuring PD, he's very helpful. He also rates sellers by quality of product

[Gardenarian]

Another vote for Costco!