Eye glasses wearers in the US, where do you buy your glasses from these days?

perishthethought@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 74 points –

I've been going to VisionWorks but I want to shop around this time. I don't want to go to any Luxottica store.

I've never bought online. Is that a good option now? How do you know how the glasses are going to look on you?

Thanks for any ideas.

ETA: Thanks everyone. Great tips and info!

41

ZenniOptical. My prescription is pretty strong (-6) but they manage to make the lenses pretty thin. I think a usual pair costs me $50 versus $500 at the optician’s store.

Thirding the Zenni recommendation. I have bought 3 pair from them now, both regular Rx and sunglass Rx and they are always fast, cheap, and well made.

Been using Zenni for years. Hell of a lot cheaper than any brick and mortar and I’ve never had any issues.

How are they still only $50 for you at Zenni despite having a higher prescription? My prescription wavers back and forth in the -7 to -7.5 range and it's always way more money than their average price to get high index lenses. I think the last time I tried plugging in my prescription it was more like $100, but I can't recall exactly.

Because of my strong prescription, I'm also wary of using a place like Zenni because if the lenses are made slightly imprecisely or if they don't get the PD just right or have it fitted to my face correctly, it's significantly more noticeable and impactful for me. Have you noticed any issues with your relatively higher prescription and buying online?

To me, while I pay more like $300 at the optician, at least I know they will be correct as opposed to gambling with $100. If my prescription wasn't as strong and the price was lower, I'd probably be more inclined to try Zenni.

For that I'd go with an opticians, my dad had issues with his from Zenni because they didn't get the lenses quite right. He did have issues with his eyes though that required some complex glasswork though, so that could have contributed.

Used Zenni for years. Cheap enough that I can even have sunglasses! I did Warby Parker one year and the try-on experience and quality was good. But Zenni price wins the day.

Bought a couple of pairs from Costco.

Got two pairs from Costco recently. Definitely impressed with how quickly they were ready and the overall quality.

My last ones are from Zenni. No complaints.

In fairness, my optometrist has reasonable prices and good selection. And I’ve had good luck at Walmart in the past.

I've gotten my glasses at Walmart for years.

May not be as cheap as those online places, but at least they have glasses that dont look like they belong on a chainsmoking grandmother in the 1970s, lol.

Also, what really sold me on Walmart is that a couple times while traveling I had an accident with my glasses..took them to the local wal-mart and they fixed them without issue, just asked "You got these from walmart?" and "Would you say you got them in the past few years?"

Yep to both, and they go into the back, fix them, give'm back, no charge and i go about my business being able to see again.

Zenni is pretty good. My current pair is from Firmoo and is also pretty good. Goggles4u has also worked fine for me, but they took ages to ship.

I use EyeBuyDirect. The only thing I don't like about them is that it's kinda hard to get a refund from them

Eye Buy Direct was half the cost of even the cheapest store bought glasses in our case, and I really like their order status tracking! Don't sign up for their emails though, you'll get like five a day 😳

Depending on how picky you are about how glasses frames might look or feel, you may want to consider finding frames separately and mailing them in to get lenses added. It will still save you money! But if you're less picky they do have both virtual try one and measure your pupil distance so your chances of liking them seem good!

A bit pricier than the other options listed in this thread but I'm really happy with my glasses from warby Parker. I like having an in person store to try on frames and the customer service is pretty great

Ditto. I used Zenni for a few pairs but the frame quality is noticeably better on my Warby pairs. That said, I have a very high prescription, and Zenni did a better job on a lightweight high-index pair of prescription sunglasses than Warby did. The highest index sunglass option from Warby Parker still came out fairly hefty.

I keep meaning to take a look into Warby Parker. Them having physical stores is just so much less risky with a strong prescription.

Edit: Never mind...for my prescription, Warby is basically the same price as the optometrist. Did they go up in price recently? I don't remember that being the case prior.

I've been buying from Zenni for the past few years. You can't beat the prices for prescription glasses.

I've been going with EyeBuyDirect the last few times I've gotten new glasses. I've used Zenni a few times, and they're definitely on the list of places I check, but EBD has a better selection. I save so much money on frames I can afford better lenses, and they run 2 for 1 deals pretty often. So I get a pair of regulars and a pair of polarized sunglasses.

You can upload a picture and then try on the glasses virtually and judge that way.

Zenni has really good prices. I bought some prescription sunglasses from them for about $50. The site suggested I spend an extra $70 on high-index lenses but I ignored it. Glasses work great.

Zenni as well here. Overall I'm happy. To answer your question: the website has a semi-functional "virtual try-on" that works well enough for checking the look of glasses. I only used to it gauge the size of them, because I have a big head.

Worth noting that if you have a strong prescription, you're going to pay more wherever you buy them. I have a -4.5 cyl number, and the glasses I wear now cost around $100, despite the frames starting at like $25

Local optometrist.

I did buy some sunglasses online from EyeBuyDirect, but they cost about as much as they would have at the optometrist. That is, after adding on the coatings and things that I want.

The frames definitely felt cheaper than the nicer name brand frames. But theyve held up for when I use them in the car.

Firmoo almost exclusively. Really cheap glasses that look and feel pretty good. And they have my prescription on file so when I inevitably lose my or my wife's glasses reordering is a breeze.

Had amazing luck with Warby Parker. Way cheaper than Walmart out of pocket for much, much higher quality than any of the vision stores I’ve been to

I know people who have good luck shopping online because of the price and variety, but I prefer in person because I'm so incredibly picky about my glasses.

Zenni Optical. I get progressive lenses with anti-reflective coating and a nice frame for a little more than $60 US. That's probably ten percent of what I'd pay at a mall store.

I’ve been in a rough spot lately, so my glasses are about 8 years old now. Hopefully I can get some insurance this year to get a new prescription, at which point I’ll be shopping wherever it’s cheapest and insured!

We've tried online but had bad luck figuring out the PD number at home. Not sure if anyone has tips to measure it more accurately

Zenni will ship you a PD ruler for free and I think has a pdf of one.

I still get eye exams at my Dr. I make sure they send me with my rx including PD.

My wife is bad at using the pd ruler

I feel like they have tried to tell us we couldn't have the PD because they knew we were going to buy glasses online.

Just ask the optician to do it for you. Or the ophthalmologist. Or whoever you're seeing. The medical professional has a duty to give you your biological data. That's above selling glasses.

I got one pair from Zenni and they were junk, definitely "get what you pay for" level crap.

I got my most recent pair from Eyeconic just because it's connected to my insurance company somehow, and even though it cost around twice as much I'm definitely more than twice as satisfied with them.

You're not wrong. I would say they're functional junk. They're definitely cheap, but they got my prescription spot-on , and it took me like 4 months to notice the slight warping on the lens. If they weren't all I can afford, I would buy from elsewhere, but they aren't the worst thing I've had to compromise on for price. I wish my cheap junker car worked as well as these glasses.

I've pretty much purchased glasses exclusively from Zenni for the last 8 years or so. They have frames that every level, but they're cheap enough that you can just try different frames till you find the ones you want. I'm pretty cheap, so I order the $8 frames. And now I've settled on a style I like and I just reorder it every time. So I've got a drawer full of zenni glasses now.

Being inexpensive is a good thing, that way I can have throw away glasses for trips and backups and backups and backups. And an extra pair for the car and an extra pair for the other car. Cheap is amazing