[ale] [OT] [Way OT] need to fix eye glasses or replace at reasonable cost

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

I wanted to thank you again for this interesting and informative discussion.  For better or worse, I've ordered some new bifocals from zennioptical.com.  I've never had bifocals before, so I may hate that experience, but that won't be Zenni's fault.  If this works, you all will have saved me $ 200 - $ 300.  At those prices, I would have just made do with my old glasses.  I chose the cheap shipping, so they probably won't be here until October.

I've learned a lot, and I thought I'd summarize it for everyone for your future reference.

Here are the links that were specifically recommended by you all:

http://18004glasses.com/  - lens replacements in existing frames, a few other vendors offer this too
zennioptical.com - many recommendations
http://coastal.com/
http://www.optical4less.com/

Blogs and websites you mentioned:

http://www.cbetternow.com/costco-eyeglasses-and-eye-exam-how-much-does-cost-t44.html
http://www.clarkhoward.com/categories/health-health-care/discount-eyewear/

I actually looked through google for hours in search of other online discounters.  I had a very specific list of criteria that I wanted, being an engineer, and didn't get that from anyone.  Zenni came the closest to matching my list and giving me the information and control that I wanted.

Those criteria were as follows:

Bifocal lenses with line - Some vendors don't give you a choice and jump right to progressives.  Zenni gives you a choice.

At lease 1.6 refractive index plastic - With a strong prescription, this makes the edges thinner.  Some don't sell the high index plastic.  Some do but charge you huge fees - like $ 175.  Zenni offers it at a reasonable price.

Anti scratch and UV coatings - Standard with Zenni.  You cannot not get these, but I wanted them anyway.

NO AR coating - Some vendors don't let you remove this, particularly with hi index plastic.  I read at least 1 forum post saying that this flaked off with Zenni.  Considering my experience with my WalMart lenses (current pair), I'll skip this coating.  It will probably adversely affect any photos I'm in.  Hopefully, my night driving won't suffer too much.  My glasses prior to 4 years ago didn't have AR, and I don't remember a problem.

Spring hinges - Helps keep you from destroying the frame.  Just a coincidence that the frames I picked (based on size) have this.  But, nice to have.

LARGE Aviator style lenses.  Everybody's personal preference is different, but I want the glasses to be as big as practical so I see the world when I look all around and not the glasses.  I must be in a minority.  These frames are all but extinct.  My current lenses are 56 mm wide and 47 mm tall.  I could not get this at Zenni.  The ones I ordered are 57 mm wide but only 42 mm tall.  That 5 mm of lost height is a bit of a concern because the bottom edge is where the bifocal lens will be.  Many vendors don't fully specify the size of the frames, particularly lens height.  If you have a large hat size, frame width and temple length are important too.

Let's talk about bifocals for those of you younglings (with glasses) that don't need them ... yet.  Take a postit notepad and cut yourself a 10-15 mm wide strip of one sheet where the adhesive is.  Attach this to the bottom of one of your existing glasses lenses.  Repeat for the other lens.  So now, the bottom part of each lens is covered.  Look around and see what you CAN STILL see at a distance.  Everything below the postit will be invisible in this case, and would be blurry with bifocals.  I already know, for instance, that I'll probably have to tilt my head down to view the air conditioning controls in my car.  This is going to be interesting.

The clerk at the America's Best Contacts and Glasses store where I got my exam drew a line on my existing glasses with an erasable marker to show where the bifocal would be, should I use my existing frames.  She noted that all items below the line at a distance would be blurry.  It was a very interesting experience.  I had her erase it and move it a few times to try to envision how it would be while driving the car.

So, my choice is A) not be able to read sugar packages and business cards without removing my normal glasses, or B) not be able to read my air conditioning controls in the car without tilting my head.  HMMM ...  We'll see what happens.

The distance from the base of the lens to the bifocal line is the bifocal length or segment height.  THIS IS MEASURED DIFFERENTLY depending on whether you're getting progressive lenses or lined lenses.  If you're getting progressives, they measure from the base of the lens, to your pupil, which is a bigger number.  In my case, with my old frames, that was 30 mm.  If you're getting lined bifocals, they measure from the base of the lens to the line, which is a smaller number.  In my case, with my old frames, that was 14 - 18 mm, with my preference being at 18 mm.  You don't want the line in the center of the lens, since half of what you see would be blurry if looking straight ahead.

Zenni did not give me the choice to set the bifocal length.  It would have been nice to be able to do that.  That number would be different with different frames though, at a different point on my nose, etc.

The strength of the bifocal section is listed as ADD on the prescription sheet.  Some online vendors let you specify different ADD settings for each eye.  Zenni only allows one number for both eyes.  In my case, my Doctor wrote the same number in both blanks, so it's OK.  I don't know how often people need different ADD settings for each eye.

One thing you need to have the Doctor or clerk write on the prescription is your PD or pupillary distance.  This is the distance between the pupils of your eyes if you're looking into the distance.  It's best to have them measure this with an instrument.  That may be separate from the eye exam, when you're talking to the sales person, and they may not do it right away if they know you're not buying from them.  In my case, I was willing to consider their products, but they were not price competitive with Zenni at all.  Their prices are probably among the best within the walk in store segment, but buying there would have probably cost $ 200.

Some vendors also allow you to specify a NEAR PD, which is your PD if looking at something close.  Since your eyes converge, this is usually about 3 mm less than the distant PD.  The Doctor did not specify this in my case, so hopefully Zenni figures it out.  Zenni's ordering system doesn't provide a place for it.

Some Doctors measure PD from your nose to one eye and from your nose to the other eye.  I believe Zenni's ordering system can accept this.  In my case, I just had the one cumulative number.  I never really thought about the fact, before, that some people's eyes are closer together, even with similar hat size.  Go figure.

When you get the exam, you may have to ask for your prescription, as they may not volunteer it.  However, Federal law requires that they give it to you.  Ask them to specify the PD as well, and, if you're reusing your same frames, the bifocal length as well (if relevant).  In this case, make sure you specify whether to measure the bifocal length based on a lined lens or a progressive lens.  My clerk automatically assumed I was talking about progressive, which was not the case. 

Here are some other vendors that looked good during my research, but I don't have any experience with them nor any personal recommendations for them.  I noticed a wide variety of sophistication on web sites.  The best ones will let you narrow your frame search by gender, material, shape, etc. and will let you specify multiple search terms at once.  They will also give you lots of control over, for example, bifocal style, plastic refractive index, and coatings.

http://lensesrx.com/ - also offers lens replacement

http://www.bestpriceglasses.com
http://www.bestpriceglasses.com/Our-Advantage - sounds like good customer service

http://www.marveloptics.com/ - This one had a price similar to Zenni but didn't offer the plastic that I wanted.

Here are a few other random notes.

Someone mentioned being allergic to eyeglass frame metals.  I really hope that 's not a problem with me.  I don't know what my new glasses are made of.  I only remember one time in my life where that was an issue.

My discounted insurance price for my exam, at the participating provider, would have been higher than what I paid at America's Best.  That was $ 45 for the basic exam plus $ 15 for the field test which measures eye health.  Using that, they don't have to dilate your eyes.

One mild annoyance with the Zenni ordering process is that they email ALL your data to you including your account password.  They DO strip out your credit card number however.

Thanks again for all the information you shared with me, and the money you saved me.  I hope this additional information is useful to some of you.

Sincerely,

Ron



"Ron Frazier (ALE)" <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I have two eye glasses issues I hope you can help me with.  You've
>already been warned this is off topic.
>

-snip-



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Ron Frazier
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