Brave New Specs

• barrieabalard
• January 7th, 2010

Prescription glasses ordered over the Internet? Folks, you know I had to check it out.

I was way overdue for an eye exam—I could barely read the third-to-top line of the eye chart with my glasses ON—so yesterday, I took my coupon for a $49 exam and had the deed done by a local optometrist. (My health insurance does not cover routine eye exams.)

I discovered some interesting things.

First, doctors will say almost anything to convince you that, “you get what you pay for,” meaning you should pay them more because whatever they are offering is superior. In some cases, I’m sure that’s true. But when it comes to eyeglasses, after buying them for forty years in many different locales, I am not convinced that paying more automatically means higher quality, or more accurately-ground, prescription lenses. But the doctors sure tried hard yesterday to convince me that paying three to four times more for glasses made by them (as opposed to made over the Internet) was worth it.

Second, there are legitimate concerns when buying prescription eyeglasses over the Internet if you are buying multi-focal lenses (bifocals, trifocals, etc.) as I am. With multi-focal progressive or “blended” lenses, that is, bifocals with no telltale line, the level of the lens with regard to your line of sight for distance use is critical. Internet sales generally don’t offer the custom fitting and adjusting that is sometimes necessary with multi-focal lenses. I am not convinced that custom fitting is always necessary when it comes to single-vision lenses, which I wore before I needed old peoples’ glasses (hey, don't shoot the messenger).

Third, there is no level of BS some people won’t stoop to in order to prevent you from getting the information you are entitled to by law. Did you know you have a legal right to a copy of your complete eyeglass prescription? Of course, eye doctors don’t want to give it to you, because it gives the consumer power, enabling you to buy your glasses anywhere you choose instead of with them. I had to press (politely) for a copy of my prescription. They finally gave it to me after I told them nicely I knew I was legally entitled to a copy. However, they refused to supply me with the critical measurement of pupillary distance, or PD. (You must have an accurate PD number to make eyeglasses.) The reason why they couldn’t give the PD to me was a rather specious claim that giving anyone their PD means that the doctors can be sued if the patient takes the PD measurement and buys glasses made by someone else with it.

Yeah, right.

What they could be sued about is beyond me—I mean, eyeglasses don’t cost gazillions of dollars and don't normally cause any bodily harm if they're incorrect, nor have I ever heard of any such cases—but that is the reason they gave me. Not wanting to be obnoxious and argumentative, I thanked them for the reason and departed, because I don’t know for sure that they aren’t correct. In New Jersey, there might be some cockamamie law involving PD usage. (Hey, it’s New Jersey. Anything is possible.)

Fourth, they implied that internet purveyors of eyeglasses are all dishonest and fly-by-night, and that the FTC is looking into banning the sale of prescription eyeglasses over the Internet. Again, this might be true, or it might not. But by the time they threw in this claim, I was suspicious of what I was being fed.

And yet—I bought a pair of multi-focal glasses from them, for two reasons: A, buying multi-focal eyeglasses that work well really is more likely to succeed if you are doing so in person, and B, I fell in love with a pair of cool frames. I admit I am notoriously picky about my eyeglasses because I must wear them for everything I do. I am also enormously vain (LOL), so when I find a frame that works for me, I will get it, usually regardless of price. (I had searched online sellers of glasses for hours without finding a frame I liked that was wide enough, top to bottom, to hold multi-focal lenses.)

Also, the price seemed reasonable for glasses not ordered over the Internet. The price quoted to me was $278 for progressive bifocals in the frames I’d chosen. A friend who had recommended the America’s Best chain recently paid $288 for trifocals in Georgia, so the price I was paying did not seem out of line. I might have been able to have them done cheaper at Wal-Mart, but as I have one pair of incorrectly-made glasses from there, I will never do so again. (While my eye exam at Wal-Mart was thorough and of good quality, the eyeglass lenses were not.) I might have also been able to have my glasses made more cheaply at various other chains (you know the names), but my experiences with chains when it comes to prescription eyewear is uniformly lousy. For that reason, I tend to stick with small, local businesses that have good word-of-mouth.

Finally, my eyes require a rather odd prescription that, as I’ve discovered over the years, is difficult to get done right. I don’t want to spend seventy to a hundred dollars on glasses over the Internet and have them turn out unusable. I want a local place I can bug and bug until they get the prescription right, if such actions are needed. I generally go many years between changing prescriptions, so the annual cost works out to perhaps fifty dollars a year. A buck a week for good eyeglasses is worth it to me.

However, the frames I bought supposedly do not come with clip-on or magnetic sunglasses, so I will have to find some form of sun protection for my eyes to minimize the risk of macular degeneration. A search online for the maker of my new frames has indeed turned up no available clip-on or magnetic sunglasses, as they told me at the optometrist’s office. Therefore, my options are: A, I could try a single-vision distance prescription pair of sunglasses, made by an Internet supplier; B, I could try a multi-focal pair of sunglasses made by an Internet supplier (because they’re just so darned inexpensive if I use cheap frames), and see whether they work out; C, I might buy a pair of Cocoons™, which are sold as complete glasses that fit over your regular glasses, and also as clip-ons and flip-ups. (Note: the price I was quoted for Cocoons at the optometrist was twice what I found on the Internet at the Cocoons parent site and many other authorized sale sites—outrageous! Always do your pricing research.)

Of course, I could always have a pair of prescription sunglasses made at the place making my new everyday glasses—NOT. The price would be $400 or more for a single pair, patently ridiculous for someone who doesn’t work outside for a living but who wants to protect their eyes when they leave the house for an hour or two most days.

I’ll update you with my locally-made glasses and how good they are/aren’t in a future column. I’ll also fill you in on which sunglasses solution I select, and the effectiveness and price of what I choose. In the meantime, if you want to try ordering eyeglasses over the Internet, here are some places to start. You will need your full prescription—figures for Sph, CYL, Axis, ADD, and PD, the required elements of any eyeglass order. Every eye web site I looked at explained what these numbers are, or provided you with the needed resources. If your eye doctor won’t give you the PD (pupillary distance), you can learn how to do it yourself, with help from a friend. You also need to learn about the different sizes of frames available in order to get a good fit; most sites provide a page about selecting frames. I started by measuring my favorite pair of eyeglasses to get an idea of what general size I might need.

Note that neither I nor StockTwits endorses any of the sites listed, and that they are listed in no particular order.

http://www.framesdirect.com/eyeglasses/

http://www.globaleyeglasses.com/

http://www.optical4less.com/

http://www.visionworkseyewear.com/

http://www.eyebuydirect.com/

http://www.theyedoctor.com/

http://www.zennioptical.com/cart/home.php (Recommended by an acquaintance, but site is slow and thus annoying)

http://www.glassesusa.com/ (Freelancers Union members get a discount)

For Cocoons: http://www.cocoonseyewear.com/

Tickers: ADD (eyeglass prescription), Axis (eyeglass prescription), buying glasses over the Internet, CYL (eyeglass prescription), multi-focal eyeglasses, PD (eyeglass prescription), prescription eyeglasses, pupillary distance (PD), saving money, single-vision eyeglasses, Sph (eyeglass prescription)

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