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Wed. Aug 05, 2009

The One Where I Get Some Cheap Glasses

Getting old sucks. You hit your 40’s, and the single-vision glasses you’ve worn since youth no longer cut it, now you need bifocals.

Then you hit fifty, and your bifocals still work well at distance, and up close (about 12 inches or less), but your eyes have developed a new range (18”-36”) that simply isn’t covered well at all by your bifocals. Except this very narrow portion of the bifocal’s progressive transition, if you tip your head back just right.

That 18 to 36 inch range is where my monitors sit. Yeah, it became a real pain in the neck. So off I went to the eye doctor, to get a new prescription, and some new glasses. But the last time I did this, the wife and I went together and $1,000 later we both had new glasses. This time, I wanted to get more for my money.

And I did. For roughly the same amount of money ($561.65), I got four very nice pairs of glasses; one set by visiting a local optometrist, and three sets ordered online.

Druid Hills Eyecare

My first stop was my local optometrist at Druid Hills Eyecare, Dr. Grigoriy Solomon. Dr. Solomon and his staff treated me well, set me up with a new prescription, and placed my order for some computer glasses (single vision, tuned to that 18-36 inch range).

Cost: $335 ($110 frames, $125 lenses, $95 glare/scratch/UV coatings)

Glasses: Perfect. So much lighter than my previous pair, and perfectly tuned to the environment where I need them, at my computer.

Experience: Obviously the most expensive pair of this group, but I am more than willing to pay a fair price for specialization. These are the glasses I’d be wearing much of the day while working at the computer. I wanted them to be right, and I wanted the vendor to be local (with the online vendors, your options for corrections are not as good).

Turnaround time: 24 hours. Yes, they told me it would be a week, and then called me the next day to say they were ready for pickup.

Armed with my new prescription (plus the crucial pupil distance), I proceeded to a site I bookmarked some time ago, glassyeyes.blogspot.com. There I found links to most of the popular options for online glasses, and I began my shopping spree at two places.

www.eyebuydirect.com

Here I chose the a frame named the Purapel, with progressive bifocal lenses, Anti-Reflective coating, and UV Coating. Just a basic replacement for my old glasses.

Cost: $78.85. I added 2nd day shipping, but I also had a 30% discount code I found at glassyeyes.blogspot.com that essentially paid for the extra shipping cost.

Glasses: The glasses are great, prescription very accurate. No complaints.

Experience: The online order process went smoothly, and you’re then able to log-in to your account and check the progress of your order. After one week, the site said my order was completed, my glasses were undergoing a quality check, and would ship shortly. I was supposed to get an email when this happened. For a full week the site claimed my glasses were still undergoing that quality check. And on the day I was about to call them to see what the problem was, they arrived at my door. Two weeks to the day after they were ordered.

www.zennioptical.com

I choose two items here. One, some progressive bifocals, with photochromic lenses (they darken in bright sunlight automatically), with Anti-Reflective coating. And a certain retro-cool look.

Cost: $76.90

Glasses: I like these a lot. Lightweight, fit well, and look good. They don’t adjust to brightness changes as quickly as I would like, but that’s always been the case with this type of lens, and the reason I’ve always avoided the extra cost in the past. But at this price, I decided to go for it.

The other choice I made are described as “Wind Goggles.” They have progressive bifocal lenses, Anti-Reflective coating, and the sun/wind shield flips up.

Cost: $73.90

Glasses: I love these. The full wrap of the sun screen is nice, and the ability to quickly flip it up when needed is great.

Experience: It had been a couple of days past the suggested two week delivery time, so one Monday I called the support number they list on the site. A guy nicely informed me that my order was due to arrive late that week at his location in California, from their factory in China. I would then get an email when it shipped from there and I should have it by early the following week.

48 hours later I got a DHL package direct from China with my order. Shipping cost? $4.95 … from China. Total turnaround time, 19 days.

All in all, I was very pleased with all of the glasses I got. I can definitely tell a notch of quality difference between my locally purchased glasses and the ones bought online. But I would describe that “notch” as the difference between an A and an A-minus. And the price difference was substantial.

If you go to these online sites expecting to get quality glasses for $12, as some claim they can provide, you will likely be disappointed. By the time you pick some decent frames, add extras, etc., you may well end up in the $50 to $80 range. I averaged about $75 per pair, and there was not a “dud” in the bunch (it’s easy to find complaints about many of these vendors). But in my experience, it’s a very good value for your money.

I think my parents probably paid more than $75 for my first pair of glasses back in 1972. And they were way uglier.