Online Glasses

[Missoni]

...I have previously purchased glasses from Tesco, a boutique optician and SpecSavers. Glasses from Tesco were ok; from the boutique I ended-up paying silly money for someone's pleasant bedside manner. Varifocal Glasses from SpecSavers proved excellent and cost me less than the other two. Despite that, I know that the margins are obscene on glasses as confirmed by a recent media report that even designer glasses with quality lenses will unlikely cost more than £30 and then sold to me and you increased by a factor of 10 - 20. So I recently purchased some varifocal sunglasses from SmartBuyGlasses. Scary at first, charged me twice and communication was shite, resigned myself to chalking the episode up to experience. But received the glasses after about 2 weeks and they worked, were not fake and much less than high street prices but still in my opinion ridiculously overpriced. Whilst I would not use them again, I would purchase online again. Any one else purchase varifocal glasses online?' how has your experience been?'

 

[Sabre]

My next glasses need to be tri-focal. My last set of glasses was from Tesco. They are better value than SpecSavers, I am unsure of going online.

 

[Cristobal]

I bought varifocals (my first pair) last year from Mr Spex in Germany and had a very good experience.
First you need to order and try the frames you are interested in; that is the long part of the process. So you order on their website the frames, they will debit you the price of the frames as a deposit. Let's say you've found a pair that suits you, take a photo (as big as possible), a close up focusing on the frame and your eyes: the goal is for the opticians to be able the measure the pupillary distance and the height of your pupils in regard with the frame (Mr Spex's instructions state to take a picture of your face with the spectacles, like an ID photo, but it is far too imprecise). These are obligatory parameters to calculate/set the corrective glasses. You will deal most of the time with a representative (therefore not a technician, but he/she will always transmit your questions/remarks to the opticians), so just ask her/him to transfer the photo. Mr Spex provides labels with the trial frames to send them back to Germany for free, as soon as they get their trial frames back, you get reimbursed. Once the frame chosen, you just have to order the frame again equipped with varifocals and to provide the prescription, opticians will do the rest. The whole process took 3 to 5 weeks (shipping the trial frame plus their return 3 weeks, making the new spectacle about 2 weeks) and cost me between £150 and £200 (I cannot remember precisely, I think it was about £175, basic but solid black plastic frame at £50). Moreover, you should know the size (width of the frame and length of the branches) that fits you, it will help to choose the right frames. I hope it will help.

 

[Missoni]

I bought varifocals (my first pair) last year from Mr Spex in Germany and had a very good experience.
First you need to order and try the frames you are interested in; that is the long part of the process. So you order on their website the frames, they will debit you the price of the frames as a deposit. Let's say you've found a pair that suits you, take a photo (as big as possible), a close up focusing on the frame and your eyes: the goal is for the opticians to be able the measure the pupillary distance and the height of your pupils in regard with the frame (Mr Spex's instructions state to take a picture of your face with the spectacles, like an ID photo, but it is far too imprecise). These are obligatory parameters to calculate/set the corrective glasses. You will deal most of the time with a representative (therefore not a technician, but he/she will always transmit your questions/remarks to the opticians), so just ask her/him to transfer the photo. Mr Spex provides labels with the trial frames to send them back to Germany for free, as soon as they get their trial frames back, you get reimbursed. Once the frame chosen, you just have to order the frame again equipped with varifocals and to provide the prescription, opticians will do the rest. The whole process took 3 to 5 weeks (shipping the trial frame plus their return 3 weeks, making the new spectacle about 2 weeks) and cost me between £150 and £200 (I cannot remember precisely, I think it was about £175, basic but solid black plastic frame at £50). Moreover, you should know the size (width of the frame and length of the branches) that fits you, it will help to choose the right frames. I hope it will help.

...it sounds like the extra effort maybe worth it with Mr Spex, especially if you secured your glasses at a better price. I took a risk with pupilliary distance as it was not recorded on my prescription. The vendor set an average pupillary distance; I was lucky it worked for me. That said, I do not have a great deal of confidence in how accurately pupilliary distance is measured by opticians, it seems a bit hit and miss even if they use an ipad. I have learnt from the process though and will ensure that this is detailed on future prescriptions. For the future I will stick with online vendors and endeavour to get existing frames reglazed. Once we are on the path of corrective vision, it is a continuous process!...

 

[Missoni]

My next glasses need to be tri-focal. My last set of glasses was from Tesco. They are better value than SpecSavers, I am unsure of going online.

...I am thinking of giving tri-focals a go; I see them less and less these days but I think the immediate step change could be in some circumstances better than vari-focals and for those where vari-focals do not work...

 

[Cristobal]

...it sounds like the extra effort maybe worth it with Mr Spex, especially if you secured your glasses at a better price. I took a risk with pupilliary distance as it was not recorded on my prescription. The vendor set an average pupillary distance; I was lucky it worked for me. That said, I do not have a great deal of confidence in how accurately pupilliary distance is measured by opticians, it seems a bit hit and miss even if they use an ipad. I have learnt from the process though and will ensure that this is detailed on future prescriptions. For the future I will stick with online vendors and endeavour to get existing frames reglazed. Once we are on the path of corrective vision, it is a continuous process!...

Why I chose Mr Spex ? Two years ago I already ordered them one pair of glasses for myopia as a back up (which became my main pair), £50 all inclusive (I still have them, they really solid). It turned up well.

As for the PD I already knew it, an optician gave it to me in France (depending on the optician some will refuse to give it to you, but you just need one comprehensive one), but for varifocals the height of the pupil from the bottom of the frame is needed as well to centre/adjust the glass.

If it can reassure you, in the 80s opticians in France used to take picture to measure all those measurements and apparently Mr Spex opticians do it as well, you just need this kind of close up in which they can measure in millimetres:

From my experience, the best way to take the photo is to place the camera (I used my phone...) against a wall (this way the camera is really vertical) or a windows (for the light), and take several pictures until there is one in which the frame is really horizontal and without too much reflections. After that, a bit of post-processing with a basic photo software to enhance contrast/light should help too.

I just have some reservations on the built quality of Mr Spex own brand basic frames. It seems that over the years they feel a little less solid (still good though), maybe they have changed the material in order to reduce/keep the prices attractive. My two years old frame look indestructible in comparison with the one year old one (that will likely last me 3-4 years without any problem), same quality construction but material seems cheaper.

As for reglazing, I tried two different online British opticians, one was good (everything went smooth for distant vision sunglasses) and the other one was dreadful (varifocals), it took more than 4 weeks to get a quote (although they claimed to get back to you in a few days after receiving the frames on their website and YT video, in addition their quote was inflated by 50%), and then again 5-6 weeks to get the frame back, horrible experience... In comparison the German opticians looked ultra-professional.

 

[Missoni]

Why I chose Mr Spex ? Two years ago I already ordered them one pair of glasses for myopia as a back up (which became my main pair), £50 all inclusive (I still have them, they really solid). It turned up well.

As for the PD I already knew it, an optician gave it to me in France (depending on the optician some will refuse to give it to you, but you just need one comprehensive one), but for varifocals the height of the pupil from the bottom of the frame is needed as well to centre/adjust the glass.

If it can reassure you, in the 80s opticians in France used to take picture to measure all those measurements and apparently Mr Spex opticians do it as well, you just need this kind of close up in which they can measure in millimetres:

From my experience, the best way to take the photo is to place the camera (I used my phone...) against a wall (this way the camera is really vertical) or a windows (for the light), and take several pictures until there is one in which the frame is really horizontal and without too much reflections. After that, a bit of post-processing with a basic photo software to enhance contrast/light should help too.

I just have some reservations on the built quality of Mr Spex own brand basic frames. It seems that over the years they feel a little less solid (still good though), maybe they have changed the material in order to reduce/keep the prices attractive. My two years old frame look indestructible in comparison with the one year old one (that will likely last me 3-4 years without any problem), same quality construction but material seems cheaper.

As for reglazing, I tried two different online British opticians, one was good (everything went smooth for distant vision sunglasses) and the other one was dreadful (varifocals), it took more than 4 weeks to get a quote (although they claimed to get back to you in a few days after receiving the frames on their website and YT video, in addition their quote was inflated by 50%), and then again 5-6 weeks to get the frame back, horrible experience... In comparison the German opticians looked ultra-professional.

...this is really useful, thank you. I will now make sure I quote my PD for future orders and will also give Mr spex a go. Which company did you have a good experience with for reglazing?. It seems you now have the experience to order online in future and no doubt you will get better value for money and probably choice. I suspect the need for corrective vision becomes more frequent as the years go by. I am now thinking that my next holiday in a couple of years will be as much about sourcing excellent, value for money dentists and opticians!

 

[Cristobal]

The good experience for reglazing was Ciliary Blue, but it was not for varifocals and now that I googled it, I can read some bad reviews, so be overly cautious. Apparently, they have rebranded:
https://www.reglaze-glasses-direct.com/

As for Mr Spex, maybe you should give their own brand frames (which are fairly cheap) a try. It is a calculated risk.

My British cousin is planning to have his entire teeth redone in France. He had some work done in Asia (Thailand), but there it is definitely a hit or miss; in his case it was OK, but for one of his uncles it was a terrible mistake. Recently he had all his teeth removed here in England and got dentures, but even after 3 adjustments, it is so so, hence the will of going to France. In France, it is so expensive sometimes that people are tempted to go to Hungary. There are sometimes some failures, but it seems mostly good and very well organised (trip, hostel, etc). The problem is if there is an emergency, no French dentist would treat a person who had the work done in Hungary because of insurance and guaranty problem I guess.

 

[Missoni]

Thanks for this...yes tempted by Thailand or Hungary just thinking ahead to when I may need implants but hopefully not...now where is that electric toothbrush! ...

 

[Brad.bates]

I use glasses direct for all my glasses. They send Samples of the glasses to try on with a label for return. They always have deals on aswell. Really easy to use aswell.

 

[Sabre]

My NHS dentist in 2008, said my teeth were in a good condition. I moved to the Netherlands and I suddenly needed €6500.00 of work .

My previous UK dentist was private from the mid 90's.

 

[Cristobal]

My NHS dentist in 2008, said my teeth were in a good condition. I moved to the Netherlands and I suddenly needed €6500.00 of work .

My previous UK dentist was private from the mid 90's.

 

[Northam Saint]

I've used Selectspecs three times and had no issues. Saving approx £200- £250 each time. That was on varifocals with anti glare, anti scratch and photochromic.

The only thing you don't get is the custom fitting you get in the opticians. With arm adjustments though this is achievable with the use of SWMBO's hairdryer.