Anyone used online sites for prescription glasses?
specifically thinking of getting our son some cheap prescription sunglasses for holiday for wearing in pool, as his normal day to day ones are quite pricey
Got some fairly basic varifocals from Glassesdirect about 6 weeks ago, recommended by a mate. Been absolutely fine, cost about £67 delivered, and arrived very quickly. I'll get my next pair from them too.
Really the price opticians charge is ridiculous, no wonder you sometimes struggle to get a prescription from them.
Got my previous glasses from Specsavers. Prescription had changed but my old glasses were knackered anyway. But when i went down to browse the frames, they insisted on steering me straight to the £100 and upwards ranges, you dont even pass the cheaper ones. And never mind all the bloody add-ons!
+1 for glasses direct. The Oakley frames and varifocal lenses I wanted were over £400 at Vision Express. Think I paid about £175 in the end. Was a bit sceptical at first as my prescription has a prism as well and a couple of mainstream opticians have screwed it up in the past. No such issues with Glasses Direct.
Never had a problem with Glasses Direct , I have to get my lenses thinned for my prescription which pushes the price up with the high street retailers but Glasses Direct are usually about half the price.
In terms of making sure they fit , they've got a " Best Fit" selector on their website where you input the dimensions off your existing glasses and they show you what they've got that will fit. I have noticed in with the past few orders from them that they have cut back on the types of frames they'll let you have on trial , I know you've never been able to get Oakley's and designer brands on trial but my last order I think it was no frames over £89, which was a bit of a pain but it all worked out fine!
So, a company that no one has ever heard of but has a customer base about the same size as Apple or Facebook dominates the glasses business worldwide. It pulls in around €25bn a year and is a French/Italian conglomerate called EssilorLuxottica. Ignoring cheap far east products , Essilor in France makes just about all the lenses and Luxottica in Italy makes pretty much all the frames that any of us ever buy.
So, Luxottica owns directly Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol and makes under license almost all the "designer" brands while Essilor owns Transitions and Varilux, etc, etc. They have the market stitched up so it's not surprising the products are so expensive. They even own Sunglasses Hut and John Lewis Opticians for God's sake. Essilor alone has acquired more than 250 other companies in the last 20 years.
It has always surprised me that they manage to get away without being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority. I guess it's because they "only" run 25% of the worldwide business - but it is the important, expensive bit. The bit with the huge price mark-up.
How do you get the glasses to fit properly, as I always find it takes several visits to get them adjusted correctly?
You do have to quote a PD measurement. Which you may need to get confirmed by your optician or use their online tools to measure.
They referred me to an App (now deleted of course) for this. Was very easy to use and I did it a few times and took an average reading to use in the prescription section. Worked out fine for me but probably worth getting the optician to measure it for you if a new prescription is required anyway.
They must hate it when you just ask for the prescription at the end!
Got my sunglasses from Glasses Direct, but I don't go cheap for my main glasses cos frankly, I wouldn't buy a cheap nose or ears if I needed to put them on my face!
Comments
Both times designer brands, both times a lot cheaper than what you'd pay in store... e.g. at least half the price
Always been really quick, really straightforward, and will keep doing it.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/search/#stq=Glasses&stp=1
In terms of making sure they fit , they've got a " Best Fit" selector on their website where you input the dimensions off your existing glasses and they show you what they've got that will fit. I have noticed in with the past few orders from them that they have cut back on the types of frames they'll let you have on trial , I know you've never been able to get Oakley's and designer brands on trial but my last order I think it was no frames over £89, which was a bit of a pain but it all worked out fine!
So, Luxottica owns directly Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol and makes under license almost all the "designer" brands while Essilor owns Transitions and Varilux, etc, etc. They have the market stitched up so it's not surprising the products are so expensive. They even own Sunglasses Hut and John Lewis Opticians for God's sake. Essilor alone has acquired more than 250 other companies in the last 20 years.
It has always surprised me that they manage to get away without being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority. I guess it's because they "only" run 25% of the worldwide business - but it is the important, expensive bit. The bit with the huge price mark-up.
An old and America-centric article here but interesting nonetheless. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-luxottica-own-80-of-the-eyeglass-industry/
They must hate it when you just ask for the prescription at the end!