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The Eyewear industry has turned into complete Bull

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TwiceOver said:
The other day my wife cleaned her glasses as usual and this time the Tranistions layer rubbed off. She is at 14 months so they are out of warranty. $450 for a pair of glasses that only lasted a year.

Before the pair of glasses I have now, my last pair of glasses lasted 10 years.
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Only clean your glasses with water and a soft cloth. I used the lense wipes from Costco a few times and it rubbed off the coatings on my new lenses.
 
Everyone keeps mentioning optometrists in this thread but not ophthalmologists. Any time I've had an issue with my eyes I've always gone to see an MD and not some guy at WalMart...

He does his thing and writes a script. He doesn't care about selling anything.
 
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Let Zenni speak for you.
Buy cheap, teach them a lesson.
 
gotsmack said:
Only clean your glasses with water and a soft cloth. I used the lense wipes from Costco a few times and it rubbed off the coatings on my new lenses.
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Most AR coatings don't last long. AR coatings are made usually from Glass and they scratch. I had the AR applied to some lenses a few years ago I remember it scratched badly.
 
smackababy said:
I used to get my eyes examined every 6 months on the dot. That was because that was the minimum time allowed for your prescription to remain constant to qualify for free PRK in the military! Sadly, I never qualified. Damn prescription would change every time (and the one time it didn't, I was in my deployment window and couldn't get the surgery). =(
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What service/post was that? I didn't have to meet those kind of requirements a and I had it done.
 
when I was in the Navy we could have free lasik.
But the doctor would not recommend it until your prescription had been steady for 2 exams in a row.

I never had that.
 
Phokus said:
Most people don't know this, but one Italian company has a monopoly on eyewear (glasses + sunglasses)... not only that, but they own most of the most popular eyeglass/sunglass stores (aka vertical integration) Edit: Forgot they own of the 2 large vision insurance companies too!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDdq2rIqAlM

Most eyewear is overpriced, as a result.
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i don't know how you could be on the internet for more than 3 minutes and not know that. it's only posted in every thread about glasses ever.
 
Big exception to Zenni for me is a pair of safety glasses, they have nothing that meets OSHA standards. The glasses I like are the ones many in the military use, Wiley X, and seems like only sold through B&M.
 
TwiceOver said:
The other day my wife cleaned her glasses as usual and this time the Tranistions layer rubbed off. She is at 14 months so they are out of warranty. $450 for a pair of glasses that only lasted a year.

Before the pair of glasses I have now, my last pair of glasses lasted 10 years.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of that. My high Rx transitions were less than $100 from Zenni, and no issues, but after 3 years some scratches showing. I usually clean dry with a microfiber cloth.
 
Optometrists have crazy high overhead costs to comply with government record keeping regulations. They are forced to upsell their products.
 
BrunoPuntzJones said:
Everyone keeps mentioning optometrists in this thread but not ophthalmologists. Any time I've had an issue with my eyes I've always gone to see an MD and not some guy at WalMart...

He does his thing and writes a script. He doesn't care about selling anything.
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Well yeah, that is best case scenario. But most MD's charge more for an exam than the ODs do.
 
FYl, just to clarify some things. Retail OD's; Walmart, Costco, Sams..., are contracted to do exams only. They lease the facility within the location and make money do to high traffic. Glasses and contact sales, hence the profit, goes to the retail establishment.
 
I purchased my most recent pair of glasses from Coastal.com. I kept seeing the stupid facebook ad for a free pair of glasses, so I checked it out. I ended up paying $17 for shipping and a lens upgrade. The frames and lenses are as good or better than any I've ever gotten from a retail establishment and it was ridiculously cheap. They're the only pair of glasses I've ever had that I haven't managed to scratch in the first year.

It's too bad they only give one free pair.

These are the frames I got. I just made sure to carefully check all the provided measurements to make sure they would fit my face. They fit extremely well.
 
Last edited:
I haven't read this thread (just OP), so this may have already been mentioned. There's a company in Italy that owns a huge amount of market share...they manufacture most major brands of glasses.

This is the parent company for Lenscrafters and many other major retailers. Because they manufacture and distribute to their own stores, they can drive out the competition and drive up prices.

Definitely, get your prescription, try on glasses at the store.....learn which lens shapes you prefer and find a comparable pair online. You can use the numbers on the frames to figure out what fit you like best and order fairly easily...
 
steppinthrax said:
I've been wearing prescription glasses since I was 4 yo (32 now). I remember getting my first pair of glasses in a mall. The procedures and process was very clinical. You can't see, a doctor writes you a prescription and you pick out a set of glasses.

Now it's become high pressure sales. The $20.00 frames cost 120 to 200 and they try to push you on the highest index lenses with coatings (anti-glare, anti scratch etc...) By the time it's all said and done you are spending 3 to 400 on a pair of glasses!

My glasses broke yesterday. I decided this year I was going to purchase glasses online (zenni optical). I went to myeyedr to get a basic prescription for eyeglasses. At the same time I will need something called a PD (Pupillary distance) since I'm ordering online. Once I told them I need to PD, they starting pushing on me, "oh your ordering online". That's not a good idea, most people end up having to come back to us. Your presciption is very different and your going to have a hard time getting a good fit. I got this BS mantra from both the OD and the sales staff. Finally in order for them to give me my Right and Left PD I had to sign a "Internet Purchase Waiver" pretty much saying that I will not come back to them again for anything and they "wash their hands".

I bought two pairs of glasses from Zenni Optical with High Index anti-reflective lenses for 75.00 (10% off back to school coupon) + 4.95 shipping, WTF is going on here....
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDdq2rIqAlM
 
BrunoPuntzJones said:
Everyone keeps mentioning optometrists in this thread but not ophthalmologists. Any time I've had an issue with my eyes I've always gone to see an MD and not some guy at WalMart...

He does his thing and writes a script. He doesn't care about selling anything.
Click to expand...

Right, because MDs totally aren't influenced by medical device companies.

"Some guy at Walmart. . ." that is insanely arrogant and condescending. Heaven forbid optometrists do a bit of marketing and discovered, surprise surprise, that location, location, location means a lot. They set themselves up where customers are. Get over yourself.
 
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