Why are my glasses so expensive

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[Lois]

Should have gone to Specsavers

[rlw]

Your lenses are expensive as they are varifocal and high index - end of story - and about the same as I was paying before I went to Accuvision. The last few pairs I bought all came in at £600+. Your options are non high index glass and non varifocal. I bet specsavers could do you a pair of st readers and a pair of st distance glasses for about £150.

Wait until your prescription is static and get yourself off to Fulham.............

[Deva Link]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Mine are high index varifocals and I did get them from Specsavers. I'm -5.5 in both eyes.

I have a plain pair with Essilor lenses and a "free" reactive pair with Pentax lenses. I'm not sure how the price broke down but I paid £600. From memory the Essilor lenses on their own were well over £300.

Somewhat annoyingly the pair with Pentax lenses feel more "comfortable" on my eyes but that could just be the darkness of the lenses stopping the glare.

[defblade]

www.optical4less.com

No-one at all will do my lenses on-line in the UK as they are "complex" (actually, dead simple, just very very strong) but these folks delivered, and at £84 rather than £3-400 I was being quoted here.

[rlw]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

-8.5 and -9.25 and unchanged for about three years more or less, certainly by no more than .25. I now have a pair of fancy reading glasses graduated from +.5 to +2.0 and they weigh sweet FA and cost about £200. Distance vision is better than 20/20 and I have already saved the cost of one pair of glasses since having the laser treatment. I reckon that on a three year lifespan for the average specs, I will be quids in after another 6 1/2 years.

[F i F]

There is a High street optician named on this thread.

You couldn't pay me to go there.

Well you could pay me £4000 perhaps and then I'd go there, buy some specs, then throw them in the skip and head off to a proper opticians.

I am completely unable to recommend that company, I appreciate some are very happy with the service they provide, however I am not one of them.

I have no issues with the sight test they provide, but I find the fitting and measurement side of things very poor. It is in the measurement, fitting of lenses to the frames, and the checking of the fit to the customer where most problems occur ime.

Why people go to internet companies for specs never ceases to amaze me.

my 2p fwiw, not all will agree I know.

[Deva Link]

F i F said:

There is a High street optician named on this thread.

You couldn't pay me to go there.

Well you could pay me £4000 perhaps and then I'd go there, buy some specs, then throw them in the skip and head off to a proper opticians.

I am completely unable to recommend that company, I appreciate some are very happy with the service they provide, however I am not one of them.

I have no issues with the sight test they provide, but I find the fitting and measurement side of things very poor. It is in the measurement, fitting of lenses to the frames, and the checking of the fit to the customer where most problems occur ime.

Why people go to internet companies for specs never ceases to amaze me.

my 2p fwiw, not all will agree I know.

This is like posts here complaining about "Volkswagen" when people in fact mean their local VW dealership.

SpecSavers is a franchise operation but like any large organisation the standard of care you get is (almost) entirely down to the capability of the person dealing with you.

Both my wife and I, and both our kids, wear glasses so we've had a fair amount of experience with opticians. The big advantage of the chains is that they don't baulk at having to start again if you're not happy.

We've used independant opticians and they're very reluctant to do anything which might cost them money.

[F i F]

Deva Link said:

F i F said:

There is a High street optician named on this thread.

You couldn't pay me to go there.

Well you could pay me £4000 perhaps and then I'd go there, buy some specs, then throw them in the skip and head off to a proper opticians.

I am completely unable to recommend that company, I appreciate some are very happy with the service they provide, however I am not one of them.

I have no issues with the sight test they provide, but I find the fitting and measurement side of things very poor. It is in the measurement, fitting of lenses to the frames, and the checking of the fit to the customer where most problems occur ime.

Why people go to internet companies for specs never ceases to amaze me.

my 2p fwiw, not all will agree I know.

This is like posts here complaining about "Volkswagen" when people in fact mean their local VW dealership.

SpecSavers is a franchise operation but like any large organisation the standard of care you get is (almost) entirely down to the capability of the person dealing with you.

Both my wife and I, and both our kids, wear glasses so we've had a fair amount of experience with opticians. The big advantage of the chains is that they don't baulk at having to start again if you're not happy.

We've used independant opticians and they're very reluctant to do anything which might cost them money.

This is like posts which complain about using a small local garage which screws up bla di bla. You can see (fnar fnar) where this is going.

Both my wife and I and our daughter wear specs so we've had a fair amount of experience with opticians. Right that's the pissing contest out of the way.

I can say that the worst experiences we have had have been with big chains and in particular baulking at starting again when we have not been happy. I've also had a scrip wrongly copied down from the test to the order form, and they baulked at that initially until pressed for an investigation. Had incorrect fitting of the lens into the frame, and baulked at that and again only when pressed and was found by a locum who appeared to get some grief from the management for correctly diagnosing their mistake. Incorrect advice when it comes to frame size and frames passed off as new frames when they proved to be ex display frames. All from chains.

The independant optician we have has been straight on the ball, on the rare occasion something has not gone right. For example last set of specs my wife had a problem which gave her severe migraines, they had no hesitation in doing the eye test again and remaking the lenses, high index varifocal with photochromic coatings. But then we've hardly had a problem, unlike with the chains. Others that I have recommended to this firm have also been highly delighted.

Of course this may be just one good independant, albeit actually a small chain of two shops. However I'm sure there are some not so good independants.

As I said in my post, re the particular chain optician discussed, and as a reminder I quote "I appreciate some are very happy with the service they provide" unquote; and obviously I'm very happy for you.

However I have seen how several different branches of that particular chain of opticians operate and knowing how measurements should be made, and how lenses should be fitted, then I found everyone of them totally lacking which is why I will not recommend them.

Note nothing that either of us has said in this makes me right and you wrong, nor you right and me wrong. Just different experiences, which, with respect, I have been at some pains to point out.