Cheap glasses? (and update)

[juliet]

There is a slowly-growing crack in one of the lenses in my glasses. Can anyone recommend a cheap place that I can go to in-person for an eye test (haven't had one for a couple of years) and to get the lenses replaced? (have no particular desire for new frames; certainly not enough so to *pay* for the hideous experience of choosing the damn things).

ION: I have spent the last couple of weeks helping angelmine and my brand new oddson Luca :) He is very lovely, and it's been a great, if intense, experience. (I miss both of them now I'm back in London!) I have been singing to him, viz: Leonard Cohen (Hallejulah has 7 readily-available verses, which makes it excellent for singing babies to sleep), the Magnetic Fields (Papa Was A Rodeo being one of the few songs I already knew all the words to even when massively sleep-deprived the day after Luca was born), and Billy Bragg (The World Turned Upside-Down; indoctrinate 'em while they're young!). I feel I am fulfilling my oddparently duties well.

Have also been to Belfast for a funeral, which was and still is a sad thing.

Now I mostly want to sleep for a while.

Comments

[sfred]

...and Billy Bragg (The World Turned Upside-Down; indoctrinate 'em while they're young!)
This made me smile. Hurray for new and lovely people.

Sorry there's sad stuff too.

For eyetests and glasses, I like Specsavers. They charge almost as much for putting lenses in old frames as for complete new glasses, but if the point is that you like your frames and don't want to choose new ones, they will let you keep them and put new lenses in.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I got my eyes tested at the start of the year in boots -- there was a voucher lying around that made it super cheap (but as it turns out my eyes are bad enough to get me free eye tests). They were friendly, professional and at the end gave me the required prescription so I could buy cheap glasses online.

As it turns out, buying cheap glasses online turned out to be a nightmare but that's another story.

[juliet]

Oh, I thought I couldn't get replacement lenses in existing frames online, but it turns out I can. I went to Boots for years & years but for some reason (they did something Bad but I can't now remember what) stopped...

(is there anyone you would *not* recommend dealing with, then, in the light of your own experiences?)

[steer.livejournal.com]

I bought glasses from perfectglasses.co.uk and from glassesexpert.co.uk.

Glassesexpert took two months to deliver so (because they were cheap) I bought another pair from perfectglasses in the meantime.

Now, when you look at the websites closely you notice the websites are pretty much the same apart from minor structural. Then when you actually buy you realise you're going through the same back end systems. I guess it could be they just hired the exact same web system designer but it does feel like in the end they're different fronts for the same incompetents.

Anyway, long story short, glassesexpert took two months to deliver glasses. Perfect glasses after one month told me that my prescription was really complicated and they would need another £25. I told them to give me my money back. They then told me they would sell me the glasses at the original price. Still waiting for glasses.

Looking around further an awful lot of the cheap glasses buying places have a very similar website look and feel -- my guess is they're all bunging cheap frames (different frames for each company) on lenses from the same people and it's those lenses which cost the money. The front end parts of the website look sufficiently different to make you think you have a choice.

None of this affects you if you're just getting lenses for existing frames.

[adjectivegail]

By any chance. Is there a website that you found was searchable by glasses size? I need larger-than-normal sized frames, particular if I look at women's frames, and. The few sites I've looked at I've had to go into each frame spec separately to find the dimensions :-(

[steer.livejournal.com]

Sorry, none of the ones I looked at took frame sizes. I also need larger than normal size but I took the decision just to buy metal frames and bend them. :-)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Yes.

www.lensway.co.uk

Click on 'Female' then use the buttons at the top to select colour, size etc.

[abi]

The Boots offer is still going, if you can get your hands on a voucher - I had my eyes tested there on Wednesday and it cost £5. I think it's normally £20 without the voucher.

[juliet]

Ooh, thanks, you can download it from their website.

My irritation at whatever it was they did when I SPURNED THEM FOREVER (which I can't remember anyway; I just remember being LIVID) has been trumped by my desire to save £15. Sigh.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

I like Vision Express.
But I have to admit I'm not very price sensitive on things to do with my vision.

[juliet]

I wouldn't be if I thought I was going to get less-good stuff; but I figure that if buying in the UK, lenses (which is all I want) are going to be fine basically wherever I get them from.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

I was thinking more of the eye test - my local Vision Express has really good professional services, I reckon they're better than the more high end Dollond & Aitchison I used to go.

[lovingboth]

We use Jay's in Peckham (and also Camberwell Green and Sydenham, I think) for eye tests etc. Good and independent.

Somewhat to my shame, I did then use the prescription to get my current set from glassesdirect.co.uk who were a lot better than some of the other experiences with online stuff here.

[angelmine.livejournal.com]

I have spent the last couple of weeks helping angelmine and my brand new oddson Luca :)

For the record, 'helping' in no way covers the extraordinarily fabulous job you did and are still doing of supporting us both...

Luca is very lucky to have you as his (fairy?) oddmother, I can't think of anyone better. You have been, and are, amazing :-)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I used to get paid-by-work eye tests at Specsavers, and they were fine. Now work have switched the contract to Tesco, who are also fine (and markedly cheaper if you're paying yourself).

For glasses, I've no experience of getting lenses replaced, I'm afraid.

My strategy is to buy very, very cheap glasses online. This enables me to be entirely relaxed about choosing them. I just buy the cheapest I can find that look remotely suitable. If they don't suit/fit me, I just buy another pair. Not that I've had to do that anything like as often as I expected. (Once in about six years, I think.) I used to to use GlassesDirect.co.uk (I think they were among the first, if not the first), and had no trouble. But they're not nearly as cheap as they used to be. These days I use Tesco, and paid something like a tenner for the pair I'm wearing at the moment.

Hooray for Luca! And hooray for helping out. Go you!

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

I was much relieved that Owen liked me singing things that aren't nursery rhymes. He particularly likes Monty Python and They Might Be Giants, and Love Cats by The Cure is one of his favourites. It's quite fun finding out what he likes and doesn't like in fact - he has very definite preferences.