Spectacle purchase question

[Philly112]

I fancy a change of glasses shortly, but I am unsure where to get them from. Has anyone used an internet only service such as Glasses Direct? Or are any of the high street chains close in price?

Many thanks
Phil

[emo72]

hi mate
i just bought a pair in specsavers, i had issues with them , it wasnt their fault
its just that i wasnt comfortable in one eye, they got me a new pair straight away.

i wouldnt fancy having to resolve any issues over the internet.

[Threemonkeys]

Just used Specsavers, they had an offer buy one get 1 free, so 2 pair designer frames £125 very Happy and a decent choice.

[themilkman23]

Vote for Specsavers here too, you can't go wrong with the two pairs for £125.

Went into Vision Express and cheapest glasses were ones on sale which would be in excess of £100

Be careful as some places the price you see isn't the price you pay as it might not include frames. With Specsavers what you see is what you pay.

[deckingman]

Yes I use Glasses Direct all the time. Have done for about 3 years. Much cheaper than specsavers because they don't have the overheads. They even use the same labs as specsavers. Glasses made to your presciption starting from about £20 Brilliant service, never had a problem.

[Philly112]

Many thanks for all your advice.

I've sent off for 4 free samples from Glasses Direct, and will get down to Specsavers at the weekend for a look.

Phil

[Jenn]

We used Glasses Direct for my husband but the frames we ordered weren't the quality we expected (not as good) as they didn't even sit straight on a table.
The lenses also weren't quite right, my husband could see a change in focus when looking to different angles. A sort of wobbly effect.

We sent them back without any problem so they're good on that but I'm afraid in our one experience we did get what we paid for.

[Desmo]

I just bought some from Specsavers too due to a prescription change. As I'm on one of their monthly contact lens schemes, I got them half price

[orpheus]

Originally Posted by Jenn

We used Glasses Direct for my husband but the frames we ordered weren't the quality we expected (not as good) as they didn't even sit straight on a table.
The lenses also weren't quite right, my husband could see a change in focus when looking to different angles. A sort of wobbly effect.

We sent them back without any problem so they're good on that but I'm afraid in our one experience we did get what we paid for.

Did you take an accurate pupilary distance measurement? This is a critical measurement when fitting glasses, but no high street optician will tell you it.

[scott spock]

Originally Posted by emo72

hi mate
i just bought a pair in specsavers, i had issues with them , it wasnt their fault
its just that i wasnt comfortable in one eye, they got me a new pair straight away.

i wouldnt fancy having to resolve any issues over the internet.

Same here. Taken 3 attempts at lens replacement to get anywhere close to resolution. (I have varifocals BTW which seem to be hit and miss at getting a comfotable "fit".

[nheather]

My wife has just got her first pair of vari-focals. Hugely expensive so she looked on the internet.

Could have made a big saving but in the end she went to Vision Express because she felt it important to be able to try on loads of frames to see which one she liked the best.

Some of the online places will send out frames to try, but charge for each frame. Some don't offer that service at all.

If you are going for branded frames then it is possible that you could find some on the high-street and then try and match them up with the online ones but in most cases we didn't find that was possible - even within the brands the models seemed to be different at each retailer.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Jenn]

Originally Posted by orpheus

Did you take an accurate pupilary distance measurement? This is a critical measurement when fitting glasses, but no high street optician will tell you it.

That didn't seem to be the problem (and even if it was most people won't know and would risk having this issue), it was more like the lens had waves so say if your eyes panned from left to right you have a 'focused - not focused - focused - not focused - etc.' effect.

[Philly112]

Originally Posted by nheather

Some of the online places will send out frames to try, but charge for each frame. Some don't offer that service at all.


Nigel

Glasses Direct are doing 4 trial frames for free (including free postage both ways at the moment).
So I will see how these are and make a decision based on that and what happens at Specsavers.
Many thanks to all for the input.

Phil

[nheather]

Glasses Direct are doing 4 trial frames for free (including free postage both ways at the moment).

That's good, didn't spot that one - or my wife had already decided she wanted to get them from the high street so didn't show me that one.

Cheers,

Nigel

[deckingman]

Although Glasses direct prices start at about £20, you can pay more and have designer frames. Just compare the prices from Specsaver and Glasses Direct for the same frames - there is still a significant saving. By the way, I'm in no way connected to Glasses Direct - just a happy customer.

I'm not very good with glasses - tend to drop them, sit on them, lose them etc. So I tend to buy the cheap ones - at £20 a throw, I have several pairs scattered around (including sun glasses).

A little tip you may not know is that if there is a history of Glaucoma (may not have spelt that right) in the family (i.e father) and you are over 40 years old, you get free eye tests. So I tend to go to Vision Express (just because it's convenient) once a year and get a test/prescription.