The cost of spectacles ...
Is enough to make me think twice about getting new glasses before all possible pairs have become unusable. The situation arose about a fortnight ago when the left lense fell out of my reading glasses and broke in two, so today I went to a new optician for three pairs. A bi-focal pair for work, a distance vision pair, and a pair of readers.
I ordered the bi-focals with plastic lenses in a robust plastic frame with fairly tall lense apertures so as to allow for a decent area to read through as well as full scale distance vision in the top half. I am having a full bar acroos in the reading part - 505/50 split - as though this is not cosmetically the last word, it is much easier to use in the work environment. The distance pair, in thinner glass, in a six year old titanium frame that is the most confortable I have ever known in forty five years of wearing glasses and is unusual in have a bridge fit, and the readings glasses will be fitted in a sixteen year old frame once used as my main pair with plain glass leneses. This is another titanium frame with bridge mount.
I could not afford to have gone to my old optician, whose prices have rocketted, and so I tried Specsavers, and might pleased I am with the service in terms of easily the most forensic eye-test I have ever had, and clear and simple presentation of prices and options, so that I did not feel in anyway coerced into this or that option.
My old optician had an interesting price structure for lenses, and given that I have five discrete problems with my vision, his lenses were indeed very expensive as each problem led to a surcharge for the extra element in the lense grinding. At Specsavers, lenses are flat rate priced.
Because the correction is very strong, large glass lenses become very heavy, so instead of using modern square shapped frames [a triumph of of style over function if ever there was one] I was allowed to reglase old frames with oval appertures. Obviously one signs a waver just in case the frame colapses when the fixing screws are taken out, but that risk aside, this is all good. The lady advisor said the old frames are of high quality and the likely-hood of failure was minimal.
Including the new frame for the bi-focals, the total cost for three pairs was a little over £220, which compares very favourably with my last visit [to my old optician] which resulted in a bill for £390 for two pairs, a distance and reading and reglasing existing frames ...
Has anyone else had a pleasant surpise with opticians lately?
ATB from George
Posted on: 23 July 2011 by pjl2
George,
Being out of work at present I get mine for free, from a limited choice of frames. I pay £10 extra to have the plastic lenses thinned, but on the last visit there was a young "hot-shot" assistant who desperately tried to convince me to pay £100 extra for a pair of Zeiss lenses. These, she claimed , were even thinner and would perform much better. So, a choice between paying £10 or £100 for a pair of specs when we are short of money. Not a difficult decision!
Peter
Posted on: 23 July 2011 by shoot6x7
George,
Try zini optical, they're based in Hong Kong and the cost of complete specs is about $29 dollars.
You type in your prescription details and choose your frames. The $29 version has quality high-index glass, anti-reflective, coated lenses.
My wife has three pairs and they are all of excellent quality.
Posted on: 24 July 2011 by George Fredrik
One of the pleasures of brand new lenses is how fine everything looks! I'll have the new ones in a fortnight.
I could easily have spent more on the lenses. The readers - I refrained from the additional cost of thin glass, though they will be heavy. But the old frame has reasonable sized oval apetures, so that will help. I hate plastic as I always end up scratching them fairly soon. So the work glasses are to be the most practicle form of bi-focals in plastic for the simple reason that if they get damaged, they will be replaced like for like with the minimum cost possible - a compromise, for sure.
Only the distance vision glasses [again in an old oval frame] will make some concession to luxury with the selection of the next thinnest glass to the standard. This a small additional cost, and the next levels of thin-ness are disproportionately expensive for the weight saved! This has its parallel with cycles. Standard is heavy, next level of lightness is not much more expensive, and after that the law of diminisihing returns bites hard.
But the links to other suppliers of made up [to the correct prescription] spectacles are useful and worth considering, should anythng go wrong before the next eye test is due.
Thanks for the replies. Just off to buy some speaker wire from Maplins as I have been given some veteran Warfedale speakers, which otherwise would have made the recycling bin. Worth getting some wire to see what they might do on the end of my set. Warfedale Denton 2XP. I don't know if these were well regarded in their day? All they need is a little TLC with the Antiqwax as the cabinets are a little faded, but the cloth on the front is still tidy. They have screw down terminals rather than banana sockets, so probably not the best quality even for their vintage, but they may work well!
ATB from George
Posted on: 24 July 2011 by Willy
Just did mine a couple of months back. Around £235 for varifocals (inc. frames). These are much improved over the previous ones I had, amazing breadth of field of focus. £115 for polarised driving lenses in my own frames (they're tri-focal or something weird like that).
As for scratch resistance I find the plastic lenses quite resilient (always clean with a cloth not a tissue). Got caught up in a sand storm in Phoenix last week - glasses stayed in the cases - squinted a lot.
A while back I gave up on Specsavers and went to an independent optician. He's older then me and I like that in a medic. My last eye test took about an hour with everything measured 3 times and a chat in between, and a lecture about healthy eating thrown in (more fruit, less coffee).
Willy.
Posted on: 28 July 2011 by Frank Abela
George,
I have a friend who has a fairly strong (and weird) prescription whose lenses alone cost around £400 from a good optician. Recently he tried ASDA's optician because they made great claims for price competitiveness. He needed a backup pair y'see, so he tried them - £70...the pair....or was it each? Not sure but still a lot cheaper than usual! Now, he admits they're not quite as pin sharp as his more expensive ones, but he said that if he hadn't had the original pair he'd have been happy with his ASDA pair. Bear ASDA in mind next time perhaps.
Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.
