Mildly Infuriating

Zennioptical.com

I got mine for $30, they can make them mute expensive, but for just glasses, it's perfect.

Have you tried Zenni?

I'm an ABOA advanced optician, I've helped with lens designs, I've made my own line of frames, worked with every insurance company, and know the technical details of virtually every product on the market.

If it's going to cost the same either way, do not get the online glasses. The 250 in store is discounted from probably 1200$, and the difference is immediately noticable.

The online glasses will not be measured to fit you properly, the focal point will be a best guess, which makes progressives have a ton of distortion, the frame won't be adjusted and have no standards of material and shitty spring hinges, the transitions will be an old off brand composited lens that will delaminate after some time, the antireflective will be the cheapest, smudging crap possible, and the lenses will be thicker and heavier.

Go to a local optical, not any chain you've ever heard of. No corporate execs to pay means actual paid professionals helping you see better, as opposed to collision salesman trying to rip you off.

Online glasses are for single vision rx's for children, not anybody who really needs glasses.

I'm honestly not sure which frustrates me more. That teeth and eyes are not considered important enough aspects of health to be covered under normal health insurance. Or the shit insurance that's available even when you pay for additional policies to cover them.

Seamless bifocals=Progressives. I got mine at Zenni Optical for like $145 all in.

Okay, I'm going to go against the grain here and say "Don't go with the really cheap online glasses".

I used eyebuydirect, Zenni, and a couple of others for many years, and was pretty happy with them, especially for the price. However, one thing I'd always noticed is that they'd wind up being pretty beat up with some large scratches in the coatings, or they'd just fail and start flaking off by around the 1 year mark (I'm pretty hard on my glasses, tbf) and I absolutely had to get new ones. I just kind of accepted that I was very hard on my glasses, and that's what happens.

However, I started going to Costco just because my insurance wouldn't cover any of the online places, and the quality of the lenses and coatings are absolutely night and day. I've had 10 pairs now (sunglasses and normal lenses), and only had one with a single scratch in the lenses, after having them go flying across a cement floor due to me doing something quite stupid.

I don't think you need a membership for their optical center either, but I'm not 100% sure.

Yay the conglomerate that owns glasses production and distribution.

It's not just the US, Essilor is a virtual monopoly.

That said, my glasses are 50% less online than at a local shop.

Also, thank insurance companies for inflating prices

If you have Costco membership, their optical department is pretty affordable. Frames are $50-80. Lenses another $80 or so, but depends on complexity and of you get transitions and whatnot.

eyebuydirect. You'll need to measure your pupillary distance if your prescription from the doctor doesn't list it.

$250 for glasses like that is very cheap. I also have bifocals, not the thinnest lenses either, IIRC they were one step up from the standard ones. A light frame but nothing special, the frame was like €100, the entire set of glasses was around €650. The lenses only have a cylinder in them; no prisms or anything like that. If you need more complicated or stronger/thin lenses they can easily go over €1000.

Even if you have the optional insurance for it, that doesn’t really help you. The amount they cover is basically the same amount you pay for the additional coverage. You’re better off putting the money in a savings account earmarked for your next set of glasses.

Also, if you need anything but the most basic single focus lenses without any cylinders or prisms, get them at a real optician. The online store can’t properly measure where to place the lenses in the frame (they need to be properly centered in front of your pupils).

I understand your frustration. This sucks major league. I know a fairly cheep German glasses company who ship worldwide (production for most glasses worldwide is Thailand, that's where the company gets their products as well). They've got a very generous refund policy as well. If you want to, I can pm you their website.

Just to give you a little something:

My glasses cost around 500€ to 700€ per glass (so around 1200€ plus frame) and I have to pay them myself.

eyebuydirect. I got my first pair from them for $11, shipped, just to test if they could get my weird prescription right. if you want all the bells and whistles, you can get one up to about 150, but I basically got a dozen pairs for what Target wanted for a single pair.

Comedian Kyle Ayers has Trigeminal Neuralgia as well. He's about to do the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with his show (Hard to say) all about how he's been dealing with it. I know that doesn't help you with your glasses, but maybe his comedy can help alleviate some of the pain and worry.

Good luck.

I tried bifocals, and they are just not for me. I work on a computer all day, and having to jog my head around in order to have appropriate focus sucks.

So ... when I go to get an eye exam, I have them give me two prescriptions. One for distance (driving, movies, whatever), and another for about six inches past arm's length - how far away my main monitor is. Then I get two pair of glasses online for ~$40 each, and a pair of distance sunglasses for $50.

I like the distance sunglasses better than transitions lenses, because they're darker than the transitions would ever get. Adding other fancy coatings will certainly increase the price of the lenses, but I think I only did scratch resistant on my regular distance pair, since I'm not doing somersaults while on the computer.

If you have a membership, check out Costco. They often have really good prices on this sort of thing.

If you do buy them online, make sure to submit the receipt to your insurance- they should cover at least some of it.

I think Costco glasses are a good deal, even if you have to buy a one-year membership to get them. Don't know if they're available online, but don't you want to try glasses on in person to make sure they fit and are comfortable?

Fub fact: they both cost $250

Zenioptical it's like 75 for every option and I wear them more than the glasses I paid hundreds for

I bought glasses out of insurance from a company that I don't think sells out of insurance glasses anymore. But it cost like $120 (getting glasses the normal way would've probably been a 4 digit number, so I consider $120 cheap for glassss), all I had to do was find my old prescription numbers then increase them by like 1 increment. Saved tons of money. Your eye doctor will refuse to tell you your prescription numbers if it's been more than 1 year since your last appointment but there are ways to measure the lens curvature using light and shadows. You can't get them any cheaper without becoming a glass blowing expert and doing it yourself, and you'd have to diy a lot of other far fetched stuff while you're at it, so good luck with that

Get Kaiser Permanente!.... I got new $150 for my $20 copay, which I was told I didn't need to pay!

Weeks later they started sending me daily reminders to pay my copay and the extra 100 I owed on the frame!

Surely I don't understand healthcare.