Slashdot Mirror

This is the invisible hand of unregulated capitalism.

I got yer invisible hand right here ...

And here ...

If the invisible hand is working, we should have alternative sources selling eyewear at a lower prices. Do we? It turns out that yes, we do have alternative sources selling at lower prices.

Warby Parker was founded specifically because some business-school students noticed that glasses were overpriced and thus there was plenty of room in the market to sell a product at a lower price and still make money. (The same guys who founded Warby Parker also noticed that razors were overpriced and then founded Harry's.)

In this Slashdot discussion several people have said they bought from Zenni Optical and saved money.

That's two, and I'm pretty sure that if you dig you can find more.

The only "failure" in the market is missing information. Go to https://www.zennioptical.com/ for your glasses. Tell the eye doctor your doing it and that their prices are ridiculous. They won't like you. But if enough people do it, they'll drop their prices.

https://www.zennioptical.com/

$50 is their top of the line stuff. I get the $15 glasses that the doctor tried to sell me for $400. I've bought enough pairs that I spread them around the house and in my car so that I don't have to look for them.

Not affiliated, but I can get my lenses and frames from Zenni for about $30 a piece and I have terrible eyesight.

Same with me. I buy my glasses from zennioptical.com for $19.95.

If you are paying $99.95 at LensCrafters, it is not because of some vast capitalist conspiracy. It is because you are an idiot.

The prices in the summary are why some of our family have started using https://www.zennioptical.com/ (no connection except as customer). One family member got very basic lenses & frames for $9 if memory serves (could be off but it wasn't even $40 with shipping), Mine were more but had more features. It was worth getting the account and submitting photos to "try on" glasses, but one order I placed would have been better if I had paid attention to the posted length of the temple and actual frame & lens dimensions: next one I did better and it is good now.

(My one complaint is that their customer service gave info that was overconfident -- they didn't really know. And their site EULA had terms I didn't like, and nobody was willing to discuss it, either at the posted contact info or the customer service. But the site FAQs etc were helpful for other things, and I was able to adjust frames myself, etc.)

Maybe not by law (I haven't checked), but most glasses shops won't cut a set without it.

I have never, not once, had a problem buying glasses with an outdated prescription. I currently buy from Zenni Optical. They don't even ask for the date. There is no legal requirement for them to check. I just type in the data from my old prescription.

I have ALWAYS, every time, had a problem buying contacts ... until I started ordering overseas. It is ILLEGAL for an American company to sell contacts without a current prescription.

Can you buy your glasses from somebody like Zenni Optical over there? My wife and I just changed over to them about a year ago and we're paying between $15 and $60 for glasses depending on the bells and whistles. The company I worked for made biometric imaging hardware and did a lot of custom lens designs and the engineers were noting that we could manufacture much more precise and complex lenses than you get in a typical pair of glasses for a tiny percentage of the normal price of prescription lenses, so I went hunting. Lo and behold, there are places that sell glasses at prices that reflect what they are: a very simple single lens of mediocre precision mounted in a cheap ass wire or plastic frame.

It's not a fricking pacemaker or insulin pump. We've been making hardware like this for centuries. Schools should be *giving* simple prescription glasses away to kids with vision problems.

I chose to buy progressive glasses, but not covering the whole range from close up to infinity, but only from close up to medium range. I can't drive with them, but for working at a desk they let me read close up, and see the monitors (3) easily. As suggested, measure to determine the distance you need, and a decent optometrist should be able to write the prescription for close up to screen that you need. Or you can do it yourself from the full range progressive prescription - here is a good guide which contains all the terms you will need for further research: http://blog.zennioptical.com/w...

Don't use progressives or bi-focals. Do this:

Take a tape measure and measure the exact distance to your monitors when working.

Go to an optometrist and get a written prescription for that exact distance (bring the tape measure with you*) including the "PD", pupillary distance, at that range. Do not buy the glasses from them.

Go to Zenni Optical
http://www.zennioptical.com/u6... ...and order some $6.95, single vision prescription glasses from them that fit your PD size.
Add the standard anti-reflective coating for $4.95

For about $12 you have custom computer glasses.

* Yes, I actually do this. And, yes; I'm a nerd.

He didn't have the $1506.95 to order Google Glass and order a pair of prescription glasses from Zenni Optical as a backup.

If you're looking for other online glasses providers (and want to avoid the Luxotica cartel) there's a few alternatives that I've seen come up on previous discussions:

Zenni Optical
glassesshop ?
goggles4you
cheapglassess123
Warby Parker
Classic Specs

We bought 3 pairs from Zenni Optical for just at ~$100 ($110 I think?) and we've been *very* pleased. This after paying $250 - $300 per pair year after year at the local places. Seriously, the glasses online are so cheap it's worth it even just to have a throwaway (for going to the beach, theme parks, etc) or a backup pair.

Perhaps if he was able to scrape together $1500 for Google Glass (presumably more since he's got prescription lenses in it), he could have found $50 for a pair of cheap prescription glasses to use in places where Glass either isn't feasible or allowed....

http://www.zennioptical.com/lo...

If it's his only pair of prescription lenses, then he's an idiot. If he owns other prescription lenses but decided to bring the wearable video camera to a movie theater anyway, then he's at best a troll and at worse, still an idiot.

You could always try Zenni Optical:

http://www.zennioptical.com/

You could always try Zenni Optical:

http://www.zennioptical.com/

http://www.zennioptical.com/

I get decent quality stuff on the midgrade lenses for the price the optometrist pays.. whenever I get a new set of glasses, I order 3 more sets from this place.

Nothing like having 2 sets of spares and one set of "grunge glasses" to use when getting sweaty or really dirty to keep the expensive nice ones looking new.

Once these are cheaper then I might switch, but for now the $60 progressives that I bought from http://www.zennioptical.com/ are working just fine thanks.

I've heard this misleading figure a number of times and I wonder why you use it. If 70% of the people like what they have which isn't my experience given that I just paid $400 for new glasses and contact lenses with an eye exam while having vision insurance then I don't think this would be the issue that it is.

Good lord, man! Shop around! You can get prescription glasses for under $10. Contacts are tougher, but even those are at a deep discount online. I typically take as many contacts as my insurance will give me and buy glasses online.

In the meantime, charging long distance rates and 40 cents per text without a plan will continue unabated for the foreseeable future.

You can get a prepay plan for $3.00/month and pay 8 or 9 cents per minute. If you don't need the big fancy plan, don't buy it!