Cost of Eyeglasses

[The Critic]

My glasses were over two years, scratched and the victim of a collision with a laptop - so it was time for new ones.

I got my eye exam and the prescription did not change significantly. Both the cube-mates at the office and our CEO suggested a well-known independent optician here in Monterey. I am used to going to Sears, Lenscrafters, etc so this was my first experience with a "professional" optician.

Even with our vision plan's $150 benefit ($100 for frames, $50 for lenses), it still came to over $300 for a pair of glasses with a decent frame and single-vision lenses. I was shocked. I must admit that the frame appears to be of a much higher quality than the one I currently have, but still...

I do not remember paying this much for glasses before - either I have gotten pickier with my choices, become more discerning in the quality of the stuff I buy, or stuff has simply gotten A LOT more expensive.

What are you folks paying for your glasses?

 

[EType]

My plan now allows Costco so I'm pretty much just paying $40 for the lens upgrade as most frames fit within my frame allowance.

See if you can go out of network and use Costco. My out of network allowance is more generous than the allowance at Costco and the range of all eyeglasses at Costco before allowance looks to be between $150 and $200.

 

[Merkava_4]

I'm not paying anything for glasses but I'm seriously considering buying my next pair. I apparently have a wide nose bridge and the VA doesn't have frames with a wide enough nose bridge. If I paid $300 for a pair of glasses, I'd expect them to fit so well that I don't even feel them on my face.

 

[hr1940]

I paid over $650.00 for a pair of regular glasses and a pair of sun glasses. I try to be conservative but I want to get a quality pair of glasses. I tried one of the chains once and had to go back 3 times for them to get the prescription right. Medicare pays for the eye test but that is all.

 

[SuperDave456]

I've bought $300 glasses.
I've bought $400 sun glasses.

Then again in college my glasses were broken just before finals and I went to Wally World with my perscription and got some $80 glasses.
I could of gone the $40 or $60 route, but those were kids frames and looked funny on me.

Also, the quality of the frames varies.
My current glasses and sunglasses the lenses are 3 years old, the frames are around 5 years old. The frames are on their 2nd set of lenses, and I am thinking about them getting a 3rd set of lenses.

As in all things in life, to some point you get what you pay for. But then again, your mileage may vary.

 

[Silk]

I get my glasses from the supermarket - they cost more, but the quality is far superior than at the $2 Shop.

 

[eljefino]

I got some from Zenni online.

My eye doctor had some scam of a plan, they pretended it was insurance but it really wasn't. It included "frames up to $100" but somehow every set of frames on the shelf started at $150. What a racket. I passed. Also the upgrade to high index lenses was $90.

So I go online. Zenni's boost to high index was super cheap, probably $15. My clear glasses came back great. It takes a couple weeks, as they make them in China, stick them on a container, slow boat them to US, and dump them in the mail.

OTOH, I got some polarized sunglasses where the lenses weren't cut "in phase" and one eye would see reflections on one plane and the other eye would not. This was annoying and I called for an RMA and sent them back.

As time ticked on, 29 days passed since placing my order, and I hadn't heard boo from them. I defensively challenged the cost with my credit card company. They called Zenni on my behalf and couldn't get through. Money back.

I would still give them a shot, on a fairly basic pair of glasses-- get a spare. My $6.95 frames are very well made. You don't have to send your prescription in: you can even make up numbers, use an expired one, etc, they don't check, which is pretty shady. These replaced a falling apart set I got from walmart named after Ruben from American Idol-- which actually looked a lot like his from the show.

 

[Mr Nice]

Yep, $300 sounds about right for a 'walk in' pair of glasses at a business in your area.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

If I had to wear glasses on a constant basis, I'd purchase higher quality frames and lenses from a real opticians office. If, like in my case, you only wear glasses on very rare occasions, I'd go with a less expensive alternative.

I had Lasik done about 5 years ago, and after my vision settled down I went for an eye exam. My regular eye doctor suggested glasses to "tweak" my distance vision. While I'm still 20/20 or better after Lasik, the glasses allow me to read street signs from a very long distance away. As my eye doctor put it, they give me "high def" vision. I also use them to cut nighttime glare while driving.

I used my pre-Lasik frames for both regular and sunglasses that I keep in the car. Both frames were high quality frames, not the cheapies from the corner optical mart. If my memory server me correctly, when I originally purchased the frames they were well over $100 each, and that's been close to 10 years ago.

About 2 years later we had some leftover money in my wife's flex account, so I went to a local "2 pair for $99" optical mart to pick up another set of glasses and sunglasses to carry in the pickup. While they're ok, the difference in frame and lens quality is very apparent. The older frames, even though thinner and lighter than the newer frames, are far more comfortable and durable. The lenses from my eye doctor have far better optics than the cheapies from the corner optical mart.

Bottom line, you often get what you pay for. If you don't wear them often (like me) then the cheapie glasses may do quite well. But frankly, if I had to wear them on a daily basis, I'd opt for the higher quality (and more expensive) frames and lenses.

 

[Shannow]

If you grabbed a pair of crutches, or even worse, a wheelchair, every time that you had a twinge of pain following exercise, a workcout, or climbing a few flights of stairs, you would quickly become dependent on said crutches or wheelchair.

Why are people so happy to grab glasses ?

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
I got some from Zenni online.


That's where I've been getting all of mine for the past 5 years.

Quality has been right up there with all the previous glasses I got from Costco & Sam's for the previous 8-10 years at a tiny fraction of the cost.

We've now got prescription sunglasses in each car and a couple pairs of normal glasses each - for less than the cost of the one pair of auto-dimming lens glasses. Which, BTW, I would never buy again.

 

[supton]

I've wondered about doing Lasik, as a form of saving money. If I could get out of buying glasses for say 10 years... and then only have to buy generic reading glasses for a while after that...

Then again, I haven't bought a new set in like 5 years, for some reason the pairs I have (sunglasses and regular) just haven't broken. It's a bad idea, as I have no backup and I'm quite nearsighted. I'm used to wearing glasses all the time, been doing so for over 20 years, it would be odd to no longer do so.

It's weird: I have a tough time wearing protective eye gear. I have a couple sets of cheapo goggles, for weedwacking/whatever. Drive me nuts. Yet every so often I will notice that my eyeglasses are filthy: I clean them about once/month, maybe twice (try to keep wear down). For some reason I'm sensitive to low quality glasses, yet not dirt... Weird.

I dunno. I look at it like anything else. If I spend $300 and get 5 years out of them, it's a cheap cost per month. Especially for something I absolutely have to have.

****

Anybody else get the flex frames? Last couple pairs I've gotten were flex, and I'm not sure I'm going to do it again. First pair finally snapped an arm after 6 years or so, second pair is still doing ok after 5+ years. But I swear, they slowly bend on their own. I mean, when I was in high school, sure, every so often I'd get hit in the head while PE or whatever; haven't had that happen in decades now, so why are they bent? I kinda like them, under the premise that they should take a hit or two w/o breaking; but I'm not realizing that my cheapo $100 sunglasses that I bought like 20 years ago still haven't broken--and those are definately not flex. Just not worn daily.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
If you grabbed a pair of crutches, or even worse, a wheelchair, every time that you had a twinge of pain following exercise, a workcout, or climbing a few flights of stairs, you would quickly become dependent on said crutches or wheelchair.

Why are people so happy to grab glasses ?


Medically required. I'm not allowed to drive w/o them. For me, everything blurs after about 18 inches. W/o my glasses there are few road signs that I can still read.

As I said, I'm tempted to do Lasik, at the same time, since my prescription is stable I'm a bit leery of some guy attacking my eyeballs with a laser...

 

[joaks]

I have two pairs of glasses that I usually wear. One was $20 from goggles4u.com and one was free from zenni. The free pair I won off of a facebook contest but would have been around $50 with the hydrophobic lenses. Very happy with both. Best glasses I have ever owned.

 

[Danno]

"zennioptical.com" here as well.

On my 3rd prescription with them and now using bifocals. Coated, high index glass, progressive bifocal, with magnetic sun shades is about $60 delivered. Takes about 10 days to get them.

As for the "shady" comment on not verifying your prescription ... come on ... really????

I have a vision plan for $200 every 2 years. I usually order 2 pairs in order to have a spare,keep them in my travel bag and never go above my plan limit. Extra clip on polarized sun shades are $5.

Same glasses through my optician, Costco etc would be $350 to $450.

Stunning deal.

 

[supton]

IIRC in NH a lens prescription is only good for 2 years. After that it's not usable. Contact lense prescription is good only for 1 year.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
If you grabbed a pair of crutches, or even worse, a wheelchair, every time that you had a twinge of pain following exercise, a workcout, or climbing a few flights of stairs, you would quickly become dependent on said crutches or wheelchair.

Why are people so happy to grab glasses ?


Because I can't see without them.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: Shannow
If you grabbed a pair of crutches, or even worse, a wheelchair, every time that you had a twinge of pain following exercise, a workcout, or climbing a few flights of stairs, you would quickly become dependent on said crutches or wheelchair.

Why are people so happy to grab glasses ?


Medically required. I'm not allowed to drive w/o them. For me, everything blurs after about 18 inches. W/o my glasses there are few road signs that I can still read.

As I said, I'm tempted to do Lasik, at the same time, since my prescription is stable I'm a bit leery of some guy attacking my eyeballs with a laser...


I'm near-sighted as well. I can read without my glasses but have to wear them to do everything else, (walk, drive, watch television, look at my wife). The last time I had an eye exam, I ask the eye doctor about Lasik. She told me it would be no problem, they could fix me up and I could do all of the above with no problem, but I would have to have reading glasses. I read all the time - so I would go from one type of glasses to another - what's the point? She said as well it would last about ten years and I would have to have it done again. I told her, "let's just stick with what we've got then."

 

[jcwit]

I get my glasses for free thru the VA, but with that said we also use Zenni and Choice Eyewear. Have been using either one for over a decade with complete satisfaction. And nowhere near $300 in cost.

 

[jcwit]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
If you grabbed a pair of crutches, or even worse, a wheelchair, every time that you had a twinge of pain following exercise, a workcout, or climbing a few flights of stairs, you would quickly become dependent on said crutches or wheelchair.

Why are people so happy to grab glasses ?


Ever try driving a car when you're unable to see the steering wheel? This should answer the question.