Eyeglasses by mail?

[brewerpaul]

Anyone here had experience with ordering Rx eyeglasses online? Good? Bad?
I'm thinking in particular of getting some progressive, varifocal lenses along the lines of Varilux. Locally I've been quoted anywhere from $200ish (Wal Mart) to $600 (national chain optician).
That Wal Mart price was for basic progressive lenses, but they can also supply higher grade ones. Good news there is that if I'm not able to adapt to the lenses, I can get a full refund, not just an exchange for lined bifocals.
I'd also welcome people's experience with progressive lenses in general. I don't really need distance correction-- just reading and mid-range (computer, sheet music etc).

[littleblue]

A few months ago I ordered a pair from zenni optical, and it was definitely a bad experience. It was slow (nearly 3 weeks for them to arrive) and the glasses showed up bent pretty far out of shape, though they did go back to proper shape pretty easily. I also had a lot more trouble with adjusting to wearing this pair of glasses than I ever had before (comparable to when I first got glasses), though they apparently match my prescription. I need my glasses for everything though (they are 'for distance', but really, I can't see anything clearly that more the about 4 inches from my nose), and maybe glasses or mid/near distance would be different. My glass are also not bifocal/progressive.

Zenni optical has their glasses made in china and then shipped over, so perhaps a company that has glasses made in America might be better (I think you're located in America, but if not, then probably made where you're from). And I would definitely recommend a different company, though I don't have any specific recommendations.

I went the online route because of the cost and what I could afford. If the next time I need glasses, money is still as tight, I would definitely consider a different online company and hope for better results. But if I had the money, I would buy from a shop I could go in and deal with personally. I also think buying online could be a good way to get some spare glasses on the cheap.

[s1m0n]

According to a piece in some paerrt of the business press last week, the major glasses by mail outfit doesn't do bifocals, let alone progressives. One simple lens is much like another but every progressive is unique. They have to be tailored to the wearer's face, particularly to the location of each pupil relative to the bridge of your nose. There's no good way to mass produce that.

[mutepointe]

Who does all the necessary measurements? I've worn glasses since the second grade and just got trifocals (they rock!). I think lenses have to be centered over the eye and where the frames sit on your face and where the bifocals really need to sit. Are you just hoping to be average and the eyeglasses will be ok?

[s1m0n]

Just this afternoon I was in an optometrist's, because my current prescription is for progressives, and a piece of the frame broke off. I never really liked those frames anyway, so I dug up an old pair from my single-lensèd youth that had a frame I liked better. Luckily they're just a tiny bit smaller all round, so I took them in to the shop around the corner and asked them if they can re-shape the outline to my old frames. After a lot of careful measuring, and after making me peer into the pupil-mapping device, he said it looked like it'll be possible and they'll ready Friday and cost $20. Which was a lot less than I'd fear, and definitely less than getting the broken frame fixed.

[Feadoggie]

I'd also welcome people's experience with progressive lenses in general.

This doesn't fall under the medical advice" restriction , does it? My advice probably should be given with a caveat. My eyecare professionals are family (sister in-law and her husband)and own their own eyecare practice and optometry shop as well. One stop shopping. Woohoo!

I have worn Varilux progressive lenses for a long time. They have improved a great deal over that time. I'm using a brand new Varilux type of lenses in the last two months. They cure all the issues I had with previous models. Sorry, I do not remember the name.They work very well for day-to-day activity. I can sit at the computer for long periods with no strain. I can operate lathes and other prescision equipement in my shop just fine. There are some things for which they are not ideal, as you might expect, like watching TV while reclined or doing detail work above our head.

Obviously you need a good doctor to do the examination and prescribing. One key to making progressive lenses work is the accurate measurement of your center of vision in the frames you are buying and then making and fitting the lenses to the frames and your head. Screw up the initial measurement and the lenses don't get made right. Get a bad frame fitting and the lenses won't line up either - poor focus, headaches, dizziness, etc. There is enough that can go wrong that I think it is prudent to use a professional you can depend on every step of the way and especially one that will correct any issues that may arise as well.

Just my two cents.

Feadoggie

[s1m0n]

I like mine. I've had my first set for a couple of years and adjusted right away. It wasn't until the frame broke and I had to use an old set as backup that I realized how much I depended on them. I go everywhere with a book under my nose, and I'm now constantly putting on and taking off my glasses all day long. And when I say, 'constantly', I'm not exaggerating.

[rodfish]

I think S1mon is correct about the needed measurements for progressives. I tried them a couple of years ago (from Walmart) and they really did a lot of measuring exactly where they would sit on my face and so forth so I don't think I would take the chance of ordering them online.

In my line of work my eyes are constantly moving from side to side and I found that progressives wouldn't work for me because when I would glance to the left or right (instead of slightly turning my head, which you apparently have to do with progressives) my field of vision would go out of focus. So I would have to constantly move my head back and forth ever so slightly to keep things in focus and it just drove me crazy. I'm sure that most folks could get used to that, but I couldn't so I went back to wearing bi-focals, and actually have now gone to tri's.

Something else I've experienced is the need to have my frames adjusted periodically. If they get a bit loose, or start to slip down my nose slightly, for example; I just stop by the eye-doc's place and have them adjusted for free. Only takes a few minutes and they're done. Can't do that on-line.

Lasik is probably my next choice. (Maybe)

[brewerpaul]

Who does all the necessary measurements? I've worn glasses since the second grade and just got trifocals (they rock!). I think lenses have to be centered over the eye and where the frames sit on your face and where the bifocals really need to sit. Are you just hoping to be average and the eyeglasses will be ok?

No, I'll be having an eye exam by my ophthalmologist and will get a full prescription from them.

[dwest]

An anti-glare coating will make it easier to use your binocs for birding. I can't imagine anything else quite so important.

[Latticino]

I've had progressives now for a little over 3 years and can second what others are saying about getting them professionally made and fitted. They are a bit of a shock at first, both from a cost and use standpoint. My wife has been wearing them for over 10 years and I could never understand why her glasses cost on average 5 times what mine did, until I go a set of my own. I find that now if my perscription doesn't change appreciably I "make do" with the older perscription rather than replace the glasses (after all that money could be more properly spent on a new instrument, and you really aren't supposed to be looking at the "dots" anyway). I find a trick for keeping glasses longer, for me, is to get them made out of real glass instead of plastic. They dont' scratch nearly as much and I get a lot more use out of a pair.

As far as using them, it took me about a week or so to get used to the "turn head and keep eyeline level" rather than glance to the side to focus for peripheral vision. Until then it is like having a cheap high as things go out of focus and get distorted by just rocking your head from side to side... Don't worry, you get used to picking up the info on fast moving blurrs for driving and the like. Now that I have them I can't do without, and my eyesight isn't all that bad. Prior to progressives I would look over the top of my glasses to see anything within a couple of feet, and that became tiresome at work, not to mention making me look like an old gaffer...

good luck

[emmline]

I think everyone is advising well, if this is your first adventure with progressive lenses. They are odd and a bit hard to adjust to. I would have worried that they were "wrong" if I hadn't had an optician there to explain them a bit. Maybe once you're used to the way they're meant to feel, mail ordering would make sense.

But there's also the adjustment factor. Things are always tight on my ears until the technician does some tweaking.

[hans]

I tried varifocals once and could not stand it, and had them swapped for normal lenses. I did not like the narrow zone of focus, and all that head moving instead of eye moving. I like moving my eyes and a wide focussed field.

[Doug_Tipple]

For five years of my life I worked in a commercial optical lab that ground lenses and fitted glasses for professionals in the area. We made a lot of progressive lenses according to the doctor's prescription for power and proper optical alignment (grinding the shape of the lens so that the optical centers are in the correct position). It's been twenty years since I have been involved in this, and I assume that a lot has changed in the industry. Whether progressive glasses can be purchased satisfactorily by mail order, I have no idea, but I would guess that they can. I do know that the fitting of the lens to the patient is a crucial part of the process. I doubt that you would want to receive the mail order glasses and start wearing them without returning to your doctor or optical technician to see if they were correctly made and to have them properly fitted to your face.

For the last twenty years I have been wearing the same pair of progressive glasses that I made myself. Every time I have had my eyes examined, my prescription hasn't varied much from my current glasses, so I keep wearing them. I had a little trouble in the beginning adjusting to the progressive lenses, having worn bifocals for some years. Now, however, I would never go back to bi-focals.

[highwood]

I have progressives and like them (1st pair not so much, 2nd pair are fine).
However for computer work, reading music, and doing any kind of work in which I have to look up plain old reading glasses (cheap at many many places now) work great - better - for me. Nice to have both.
I'm sure much depends on your prescription needs as well.