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Contact Lens Startup Hubble Sold Lenses With a Fake Prescription From a Made-up Doctor (qz.com)
Alison Griswold, reporting for Quartz: The Hubble contacts sitting in front of me are everything the ads promised: two weeks' worth of soft, daily lenses in robin's-egg-blue packaging. They arrived promptly, one week after I placed an order on Hubble's website, and three days after the company notified me the contacts had shipped. The lenses were packed in cream-colored boxes and came with a five-step guide, illustrated in different shades of pastel. There's only one problem: I don't wear contacts, and I ordered these using a fake prescription from a made-up doctor. Hubble was founded in May 2016 as a direct-to-consumer contact lens brand -- the Warby Parker of contacts, if you will. The company aims to make buying contact lenses as cheap and easy as shopping on Amazon. It has fast become a star of New York's startup scene, raising more than $30 million from investors that include Founders Fund and Greycroft Partners. Its valuation tops $200 million. Since the service officially launched in November 2016, Hubble claims to have sold $20 million worth of lens subscriptions, and says it's growing 20% month over month. Hubble expanded to Canada in August and plans to be in the UK as early as January. Quick service, cheap contacts, and whimsical branding have made Hubble a speedy success. But in its rush to disrupt the consumer experience, Hubble also appears to be playing fast and loose with some basic consumer protections.
I care why? Knock yourself out.
Is this like buying beer with a fake id?
Seriously? It's not like someone is going to get high on contact lenses and go commit crimes.
You did something under false pretenses and your an idiot trying to blame them.
Contact lenses aren't a controlled substance, are they? The point of the prescription is to get lenses of the proper specification for your eyes. Is there any real reason for Hubble to second-guess you if you say you have a prescription? If not, then there doesn't seem to be a problem.
So who cares?
Am I supposed to be concerned about some company I never heard of until today?
Is it anyone else's problem besides your own if you write a fake prescription and it gets fulfilled?
Why the fuck is this on Slashdot? Come on editors, news for nerds.
Seriously? And if so, why?
Oh no! A company sold me contacts at the prescription I requested even though it didn't come from an optometrist / opthalmologist!
Should people go to their eye doctor for regular checkups? Yes. Does sending out contacts due to fake prescriptions hurt anyone? No. I fail to see the problem.
i guess
Why ( or even is) it required by law that glasses / lenses only be sold to those who are prescribed them by a Eye DR? What if I just want 10 pairs of different magnification to demo in my science class? I don't see where there should be some kind of problem with getting them even if you don't have a prescription. I suppose their could be a down side of mistyping a prescription but I'm not sure how you would fix that unless you called every DR and verified the persecution , which sounds expensive.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
Contact and eyeglass prescriptions aren't routinely verified like drugs are. Usually only in the case that something looks inaccurate on the prescription. The point of the prescription is to keep ophthalmologists in business when you come in for your yearly checkup.
Disclaimer - I work for an large national optical chain in the US and prescriptions are almost never verified.
This is exactly how we wind up with a flood of fake-prescription contact lenses showing up on the dead bodies of young people who've overdosed on astigmatism correction at night clubs.
... so what? Now, if this was a story about someone pretending to be an optometrist or ophthalmologist messing with other people's vision, that would be different. But this? Stop it. Really.
Or maybe the tone of outrage here, is a bit absurd? If you want to deliberately falsify the documentation needed to purchase something you're going to wear in your own eyes to correct your own vision
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I mean, there aren't a lot of people buying prescription contact lenses and then selling them on the black market, are they? I don't see why the company would care if the prescription was from a fake doctor or not, nor do I see why people would care at all unless they were investing in a competing company and just wanted to spread some FUD.
It's not their responsibility to make sure you don't order lenses with an incorrect or fake prescription.
I donâ(TM)t need a doctor to tell me what to place in my eye? If the contacts meet government quality standards, then that should be the end of the regulations.
Contact lenses aren't classified as a medical device in Europe, you can get them over the counter in any drugstore. I don't see how this is a problem.
The real problem is some dumb journalist drumming up tension by inventing a doctor.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
The only reason you need a Dr prescription is that they were able to lobby to make it a requirement because they were losing so much contact business from 1800 contacts. Now they've managed to require contacts have a 1 year expiration to make you go toss $100 each year to get a new prescription.
The prescription is there for the buyer's protection. If someone actively tries to circumvent the system, they lose that protection, that's all. You can't get high on contacts, use them to poison someone, etc.
If this were commentary on the risks associated with receiving potentially dangerous medications with fake prescriptions from fake doctors, I would be interested in the lively debate on the other side of it. Unfortunately, I can't imaging anything less worrying than the illicit use of non-prescription contact lenses.
Perhaps this was satire so deep that nobody but the author was in on the joke.
Like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.
Here in Canada there's been a popular website called Clearly where you enter your prescription and can order glasses or contacts. No 'doctors note' required.
So long as the contacts and glasses are up to spec (like the actual prescription, sterile, etc) I don't see what the big deal is? If I need a new set of contacts after 6mos, why should I have to go and visit an optometrist? Same if my glasses break? My prescription didn't change for nearly 30 years.
What happened to all the 'anti-regulation' attitude that we expect from the US? Why are you letting Big Optometrist tell you what prescription you can order?
We can't trust the goyim to buy their own prescription lenses! Won't someone please think of the starving optometrists? I thought we had legislation to protect us, I mean them, from this!
If you wanted to damage your eyes, it would be cheaper, faster, and more reliable to just stab them with a fork.
Log in or piss off.
Just because there is a prescription involved, that doesn't mean there is a problem.
in this case a prescription is simply a lens specification. What it DOES mean is that one may order contact lenses made to any particular specification from this vendor.
Take a chill pill
I just had to fix that.
I go to a doctor, he sees my eyes, he passes judgement. I can read his prescription, and I can chose to visit him again when I feel the need, or when he suggests it. I can ignore him, not buy anything. I can even get eye glasses for free and chose not to use them. Cuz, you know, I'm free like that, and so should you.
What I don't need is someone telling me I can't buy a product that I decide to do on the cheap, which I would use solely use for my own benefit, because that product purchase requires pointless REDTAPE - it's not a gun, it's not a car, it's not a strong radio device, it's not a flying one. So who gives a flying fuck?
You guessed right - opticians, doctors, and the money that stops flowing in the direction of overpriced, overmarketed crap that serves the exact same purpose. Those are the ones who care for stuff like this. Don't be an Ajit Pai and sell that stupid requirement as consumer protection.
I love stuff like Hubble. I just don't think they'll be lukcy in the UK - Daysoft lenses already has much of Europe covered for cheap, amazing, convenient contact lenses. And most of all, lenses that only need my check stating "I have a prescription for these, make this purchase my responsability". The only thing that can happen after I press that check is not consumer protection: it's consumer litigation because he didn't buy through establishment rules.
That is NOT basic consumer protection. That is basic capitalism.
We already have services like this... and ones that are driven by actual prescriptions...
i.e. Go to optician, get tested, get prescription, go online, get lenses cheaper than the optician sells them. (In fact, in some cases the optician tells their patients to do it, as it's a better/cheaper service than they can provide).
My 70 year old mother has been doing it for years, so I fail to see what's innovative and disruptive about this outfit.
The US corrective wear industry is a giant scam and a monopoly cornered by a small number of companies and a very skewed set of rules. Routine eye exams are often not covered under medical insurance policy, and "contact lens fitting" even less often. The costs are high, and optometrists do everything in their power to limit usefullness of their prescription. Most will actively resist providing one in writing to be used by a 3rd party. Even when they do (as they are required by law in most states) the prescription will invariably be time limited, usually to 1 year. So, you have to get another refraction test in a year for glasses, and another "fitting" for lenses - which for adults is nothing more than writing the same prescription for the same lens brand, and charging anything from $50 to $200.
This is pretty much US only - in most countries anyone can buy eyewear of any strength they choose (or, if they want, refraction test is usually done by a machine for free on the spot).
I wear both glasses and contact lenses (depending on activity) and due to the state of the optical market here have been buying both prescription glasses and contacts from abroad. In fact, waiting on another pair of RX "transitions" glasses right now for the total price of $55 (from China). Several previous glasses came from China and Korea ($60-$80 total, all "transitions", thin lenses, anti-reflective coating) and the quality is excellent.
I use the same lens brand and type for over 15 years now, and certainly do not require annual "fitting" of any kind. My lenses usually come from the UK, and even including shipping and some price premium, still come out cheaper on an annual basis than if I were to go through the process here.
And, of course, it is all perfectly legal because those countries do not require any "prescription verification", and generally let people deal with their eyesight as they see fit.
When the rules make no sense and are designed primarily to line the pockets of specific industry, why is anyone surprised that some choose to work around them?
I like the part of the article where they mention how the established players in the consumer contact lens market have the same issues.
These guys don't deserve this article, they're just distributing mid-tier (but real, and FDA approved) contact lenses with colorful packaging. Let's have some more investigation into the startups peddling anti-aging pills and diet drinks.
Geez.
Newflash: you can order eyeglasses and contacts without an actual prescription.
The bigger news is how hard it is to pry the prescriptions out of the hands of Luxotica-owned companies like Lenscrafters so you can actually order more affordable eyewear online.
You can order anything you want from an optical shop anywhere in the world. I usually order my glasses from Hong Kong. Instead of buying one pair, I buy 3 or 4 pairs, for the same price as the locally made ones and then scatter them around the house and the car.
Amazon let me order size 6 shoes even though I'm a size 10 wide! Don't they know I could injure my toes? Do they know they are stealing money from the poor shoe salespeople who are specially trained to measure my feet and make sure I get exactly the right size?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
This is one case where I don't want them verifying the prescription.
I buy glasses from Zenni Optical. I enter the numbers from the prescription into their web form, and two weeks later I get glasses. Cheap.
I want computer glasses? Add 0.50 to my correction figure. I want reading glasses? Add 1.50 to my correction figure. I want to make strong reading glasses for my mom, who doesn't normally need glasses at all? Just get her some glasses with "+3.00 0.00 0.00" prescriptions.
This isn't rocket science and there's no room to "abuse" this. Worse, if there's any sort of crackdown on this or change in the law to require that these prescriptions be vetted -- it's going to hit me with either increased costs or decreased flexibility, and probably both.
QZ lied about the doctor, lied about the prescription, and Hubble didn't catch it? Oh, the horror.
I'm not worried about them not vetting prescriptions. There is no real path for serious abuse, at most, cheapskates poorly guesstimating their vision, and with a few months of playing "better or worse" with them, they can find something that works well enough anyway.
I am concerned about them being safe. If these contacts are sitting in bleach or will otherwise harm eyes, that's a problem. But this doesn't seem to discuss that.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
... by the eye doctor lobby.
The kids are all into lensing.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
You want to advertise how good your lenses are, so you use the name Hubble. Genius.
I was able to buy dangerous equipment online... WITH A FAKE COMPANY NAME! ... WITHOUT CONSULTING MY DOCTOR!
I took over the counter medicine
I was able to start an exercise program and use new exercise equipment... ALSO WITHOUT CONSULTING MY DOCTOR!
I stuck my knife in my toaster when I was home alone... AND NOBODY STOPPED ME!
What is the world coming to? How can we ever survive in this DANGEROUS and UNREGULATED world?
If they sold contact lenses with bacterial infections I'd worry. Providing a product that accurately meets a prescription is what they're supposed to do. If anyone fakes a prescription, they're being stupid. There's not a damn thing you can do with contacts that don't meet your needs. Someone wasted a lot of time looking for a story. Too bad it doesn't matter in any meaningful way.
Costco sells corrective eye glasses without prescription. You just pick them up right there in front of the pharmacy area. They don’t even make sure you’ve gone to the optometrist that’s right there next to the tire department.
...until this same idiot finds out that you can order magnifying glasses from Amazon without even a fake prescription or any requirement to show a physics qualification. These are far more dangerous than a contact lens: you can start fires with them and even use them to read the small print most companies don't want you to see.
Hubble execs should be in Alcatraz.
Can't this guy be put in jail for impersonating a Dr? Pretty sure writing fake prescriptions is pretty illegal.
I have been able to order contact lenses on the internet using whatever prescription I please for well over 10 years. Spectacles too.
So what?
It is convenient and cheaper. I don't need a new optical prescription. Every time I do get an eye test, the numbers are pretty much always the same. And I have little doubt that the factory that churns out glasses or contact lenses by the million to internet customers is no different from the one that supplies the "full fat" high-street stores at several times the price.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Is it just a way how to prevent US startups from getting into very profitable market? Is the "investigator" sponsored by competing lens producers? Or is it just a cheap way how to do bombastic reporting? :-) It is like sun-glasses in my country. You can obtain information what UV filter is good for your health from your doctor but then it is up to you what glasses you actually buy.
Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
Only reason a prescription is required for contacts in the US is Congress passed a bill in the earlier 2000s because kids were buying specialty contacts for Halloween and damaging their eyes. But personally I believe it was the lobbyists for the optometrist and/or ophthalmologist who pushed it through so they'd get more patients. But they pushed the requirement as "think about the children".
Here in the UK you don't need a special prescription to buy glasses or contact lenses, but if you do need to use them then it is good to know what it is! It doesn't need a doctor, but an optician to test your eyes. VR glasses, Harry?
If you want to go cross eyed no one will stop you. Just use a real prescription from a doctor, duh. Grow up and take responsibility for yourself.
You have been able to do the same with online eyeglass purchases for years - which is great since the american eye wear market has been overpriced for way too long, like 10x overpriced, which is basically the way it is with most of the health care industry. Just be smart and get a real prescription.
Significant areas of concern with regards to misuse, scarring of the cornea, infection and possible eventual loss of vision.
Some might argue that permanent vision loss may be something worth having a trained professional look at you once every 2 years for.
You can get pharmaceutical grade opioids mail order w/o a prescription...
Until then, do not commit fraud and then blame somebody else for letting you.
Actually.... I don't think this is an issue. I've seen national suppliers claim that all they need is the numbers on the boxes your contacts come in to ship you replacements. Makes sense as to why the place I go for eyeglasses charges extra for the prescription to be written out and didn't provide the boxes the last time I got contacts..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
That someone actually thinks contact lenses should be a controlled substance. Perhaps they should be controlled as well as lutein. We wouldn't anyone to pay a fair market price for shit you can get all Walmart for a fraction of what your opt is charging.
According to the 2004 "Fairness To Contact Lens Consumers Act", the eye doctor is legally required to provide a prescription to a customer. Specifically, they are not legally allowed to prevent you from acquiring the script from your exam, and are not allowed to lock you in to make it through them through additional legal contracts.
The customer is then allowed to bring the script to any eyeglass maker. The lens maker shall reach out to the doctor, and the doctor has 8 hours to confirm the script. If the doctor does not respond, the lens maker is legally allowed to proceed to craft and sell the lenses. So, you are opted in unless a response is given.
A lens maker is not required to have a current doctor-signed prescription to manufacture and sell the glasses; the script is just curvature specifications. In many states, you aren't even required to have a current script, even though most doctors put a 2-year limit on it. This is more to limit the liability of the parties involved. The lens maker is delivering a product as requested according to the script given. You can pay cash for glasses like any other product, but most people don't pay 100% cash, they have vision medical plans.
And now we get to the rub, an insurance company will not compensate the lens maker without proof of a doctor's prescription. So, if this author also submitted insurance information, to bill the insurance company using a falsified prescription, then the author is legally culpable for insurance fraud. Additionally, using a falsified prescription may result in eye strain, which in this case would be the liability of the buyer who sent in the script.
That are your eyes. You are free to damage them or hit next lamp post.
Where you have problem?
You are free to gouge one of them with safe plastic fork.
These are specifications for a lens, not morphine/oxycontin/etc. As others are noting you can buy generic reading glasses at many drug stores/retail stores as easily as you could buy a bag of chips. If there is a requirement that contacts have a prescription it is a technicality at best.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I ordered them from 1800 contacts once and entered the wrong prescription, they had no problems delivering them. Of course I had to order the correct ones after that so I could see. Then again, I had the doctor write my new prescription in my file once, only to have someone type it into the computer incorrectly. I didn't find out until years later, after my eyesight got worse in that eye that had the wrong Rx
As others have pointed out, this is a non story. I do wonder if the source of story is from somebody that has an interest in a different lens company.
I need different powers of contacts depending on what I'm doing that day. If I'm on a computer all day, there is a pair for that. If I'm going stargazing, there is a pair for that. If I'm walking in the woods hunting for shrooms, yup, another pair. Night? Completely different script too.
I have only found 1 optometrist that understood my need for dialing in lenses given the application. The problem was that their computer system wouldn't allow the different contact prescriptions. Sure, she gave me a paper copy, but I had to keep the paper copy, because their system wouldn't allow for the multiple 'scripts.
This company offers a service to me. Please let me decide what specifications I need for my eyes.
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
I thought the main idea behind the script was so that you had the right magnification... if you order the wrong contacts, its your eyes that are going to get fucked up... it's not like you're going to use them to cook meth or some shit. I'd be more concerned of the contacts were built of dangerous materials or not being cut to spec.
Who cares if the person uses a fake prescription. If they want to do this, then they take their chances. This article sounds like propaganda for the Luxottica monopoly, the one that owns 90% or more of the optics industry, including the optics clinics. These guys are so evil, that when Oakley tried to protest/fight them, the Luxottica monopoly removed Oakley sunglasses from all their stores (which means basically ALL of the glasses stores). Oakley's stock tanked, and Luxottica swooped in and bought Oakley at a bargain basement price. The reason why glasses are so expensive is entirely the fault of Luxottica.
Seriously, this should not be on Slashdot. It is entirely corporate propaganda.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
It's easy to buy glasses on or offline the same way.
Dear lord! This is probably what happened to this woman: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40630852
I'd argue that for every person who buys ill-fitting contacts with incorrect parameters with a fake prescription, there are THOUSANDS of people with perfectly valid prescriptions risking injury by wearing old/damaged contacts because they can't afford to replace them as frequently as they should. Low-cost replacements are a GOOD thing.
The truth is, most disposable soft contacts have SO MANY engineering compromises (especially toric ones), even flawlessly-fit lenses have pretty mediocre results, so comparing the best and worst is more like "kind of mediocre, vs not great"
It's like glasses... any halfwit with a ruler, a collection of lenses, and 5-10 pages of notes on fitting theory can come up with a reasonable set of +/- sphere values that are a net improvement over "none at all". Mitigating small amounts of astigmatism when looking straight ahead isn't much harder. Most low-cost glasses (under $100 lenses) aren't much better than this anyway.
So, what *does* require a skilled optometrist with substantial gear? 2-surface freeform aspheric lenses. Normal (sphere-only) lenses are molded as-is, cut, and polished. Cheap (sphere+cylinder) lenses have the sphere molded into them + the cylinder ground into one side. In both cases, visual magnification or minification occurs, which makes new lenses hard to "adapt" to & compromises depth-perception. But if you grind curves into BOTH the front AND rear side, you can SIMULTANEOUSLY correct focus errors AND neutralize-out magnification/minification.
For astigmatism, that's still not quite good enough... to correct sphere & cylinder (while neutralizing-out magnification/minification) across the entire lens field (vs "straight ahead"), you need to grind complex curves into both surfaces that are calculated via ray tracing... AND know how to properly measure additional parameters like the angle at which the lenses are tilted & their precise distance from the pupil... not all stores selling "HD lenses" do this properly, and if they don't, the results can be WORSE than cheap molded lenses. When done correctly, glasses with 2-surface freeform aspheric lenses won't distort your peripheral vision or distort geometry (or at least, won't do it nearly as badly as cheap glasses). You'll put them on, and things will just be sharper.
2-surface raytraced freeform lenses aren't something you'd WANT to buy online... a "normal" prescription (sphere+cyl+axis) doesn't have enough information, and every pair of non-identical frames will produce slightly different measurements for things like tilt, vertex, etc.
The problem? In the US, at least, chain vision stores are fixated on promoting things like "ultra-thin" lenses and "no-line progressive bifocals". The same technology behind them can be used to make near-ideal lenses for customers with astigmatism, but most front-line sales associates at those stores have no idea what you're even *talking* about if you say "custom-raytraced 2-surface (digital/HD) freeform aspheric lenses". The OPTOMETRIST might... but s/he's not the one who'll do the half-dozen extra measurements required to complete them. Most times, it'll be done by an employee who's literally winging it & doing it for the first time in weeks/months/ever.
The moral: if you have astigmatism & want genuinely better glasses, find an opthamologist who does Lasik (ie, who has the eye scanner & above-average training/experience) with on-site store & ask about "custom digital/raytraced/HD 2-surface freeform aspheric lenses". If the opthamologist looks confused or does anything besides confidently grin with delight because he'll get the satisfaction of fitting the best glasses money can buy... go somewhere else.
They won't be cheap, but you'll never be able to stand normal cheap lenses again. In theory, an optometrist could do it... but because the scanner is so expensive, they're usually only found at places that do Lasik (and by extension, have at least one opthamologist) since you NEED one for Lasik, and they're too expensive to buy JUST for eyeglass-fitting. And chain stores tend to "simplify" the fitting process, leaving you with compromised lenses.
You can just buy contact lenses without any prescription. Sure, they come with serious warnings, and the occasional rare moron damages their eyes, but all in all, this works pretty well. And it keeps opticians honest with regards to the prices they charge for check-ups and lenses. So either the US population in general is too dumb to follow instructions and heed warnings or this is a scam to keep prices high. Possibly both.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
...we need a prescription to buy eyeglasses or contact lenses. Although, when I view it as a protection racket for established players that charge a premium for their protected services it starts to make a lot more sense.
I go to the eye doctor about once every six years, prescription is only good for two years. Never had an issue ordering glasses, I don't see what the issue is, don't ruin cheap and easy to get glasses for the rest of us by complaining.
Clearly it must be a slow news day.
The purpose of a prescription for eye glasses is so that you can go from the specialist who measures your vision to the person who fits lenses to glasses or wherever you order contact lenses from. this is so that the person making or ordering the lenses doesn't have to rely on your shitty memory "uhh i am a 3 in the left eye and a 2.75 in the right... or was it the other way around"
I order my contac lenses from clearly contacts for several years now and i get brand name contact lenses in the prescription i order. Sure they usualy have asian writing on them but they always come in a short time frame, properly sealed and i have never had a problem.
Maybe the author of this article should have actually gone and asked someone in his office their thoughts on it first and then seen how much of a nothing burger it is.
You can erode your cornea and cause permanent vision damage. It's not just the prescription strength that matters. Also they have to be weighted correctly if you expect them to actually hold still in your eye. Even correct contact lens wear has a comparatively high risk of sight-threatening side effects, like starving your eyeball of oxygen and chronic eye-infections. There's a reason they want you to see an eye doctor, and why the eye-doctor wished you'd wear glasses. Contacts are risky, full stop.
With eyeglasses on the other-hand, the worst you will get is a headache... but you still need the right prescription to have them be of much use. The reading-glasses set may be fine with self-guessed or off-the-shelf lenses, but people with high myopia, astigmatism, prism, bifocals, etc are not going to get usable prescriptions by guessing. Too many variables; no way to test them online. Please remember that people use these glasses for driving on public roads.
No. The point of the prescription is that wearing contact lenses without regular checks is dangerous. With them, it is very safe, but some complications can creep up on you slowly and when you notice yourself, it is too late. One is that contact lenses reduce the flow of oxygen to the eye. Usually not a problem, but in some cases that means blood vessels start to grow into your lenses. The check-up will catch that early, before you have any impairment. When you notice yourself, the damage is done.
This is still not a reason to require a prescription, as idiots that ignore clear warnings can do damage to themselves in various ways, but it is a reason to have those checks done.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Just to add... this is basically a somewhat new application of several older technologies:
* a wavefront scanner that maps the actual shapes of the cornea, lens, and retina
* raytracing software, to calculate the shape of a complex, 2-surface lens. The hardest part about developing this software was learning where to step back and NOT try to fix some specific higher-order aberration. Glasses will never be positioned precisely (they slip, frames bend, etc), and if you try too hard to fix HOAs precisely, you'll make matters WORSE if the lenses deviate from their ideal positions. With scleral RGPs and Lasik, you can be more aggressive because the resulting lens is more stable. The trick was finding the happy medium that makes things "sharp" without making things "weird" when the glasses slide down your nose or the frames get slightly bent.
* CAD/CAM, allowing a robot to precisely grind a complex shape (calculated from data from the above) into two sides of a lens.
* Much of the lens theory originally developed for progressive bifocals... but applied to precisely correct focus, mag/minification, and astigmatism instead of merely transition different magnification strengths.
IMHO, if you have astigmatism, freeform digital aspheric lenses (when expertly-fitted) are a huge improvement over the mass-market norm... but if you have astigmatism AND need bifocals, it's absolutely a non-negotiable requirement. The catch is, you'll probably want to experiment with a few pairs of cheaper progressive lenses first to see what progressive shape you prefer (you might hate one layout, but be ok with another), and THEN spend the cash replicating that shape (but with improved optics) into freeform lenses after determining what it is that you actually *want*. It really isn't something you can determine through research alone... it takes some live experimentation, and you'll rarely be happy with your first attempt.
suckers are those who are fooled by the implied dangers here.
The next thing you know, they'll be telling us we have to take the prescriptions medical Doctors prescribe.
...the not-actually nearsighted terrorists have ALREADY WON, people.
-Styopa
or any other online shop like http://www.lenscatcher.com, What is the problem with that?
-EOM
If the patient forges the doctor's prescription, that should be on the patient!
It has always irked me that you need an eye doctor's prescription to get lenses or contacts. I view it as collusion between the optometrists and the lens providers since the prescription expires after a period of time.
They are my eyes. I should be able to do whatever I want to them. Make me sign a legal disclaimer, but let me have control over my own prescription!
Needing a prescription to buy contacts is fucking stupid and a racket. Whoever thinks this is bad can go to hell.
And when will he have cause to confirm the size?
You forged a doctor's prescription, had it filled, and are now writing about it? Have you talked to a lawyer about this?
And you blame a company for falling for your forgery?
Either you don't really think that it is a big deal that you should require a doctor's permission to buy contacts, or you don't think that forging such a prescription is a big deal. Either way, you probably should not be writing about it.
Nothing about this story belongs here - not "news for nerds," not even tech, not even some kind of crime of remote interest, just some "journalist" blogging about how he committed fraud over the most victim-less crime imaginable and it's somehow someone else's fault? No way legitimate users upvoted this garbage in the firehose, not even the users who call themselves legitimate which post blogspam - this going well beyond blogspam. MODS PLEASE BAN OR REVOKE THE KARMA OF EVERYONE WHO UPVOTED THIS IN THE FIREHOSE - probably the best filter you'll ever get of spammers.
and AMA may just sue them!
And this story is nothing.
"perscriptions" for glasses etc are all bullshit anyway. sounds like op just noticed.
The real issue that many internet or online buisness's seem to feel that laws don't apply to them or they can pick and chose which one to follow.
Lots of business model's are disruptive and reduce cost when they ignore laws and regulations their competitors need to follow.
So what if Hubble shipped you lens when you don't have a prescription. I have been ordering glasses and contact lens from clearly.ca for years. they don't ask for any nonsense about actual pdf copies of prescriptions. There is no downside for the consumer who fraudulently orders unnecessary lens. The lenses are real, your the person running a dumb experiment.
Whats the risk. that you have wasted money on buying something you don't need. Why would you do that? i buy glasses this way because they save me money over the industry normal 600% markup on glasses. If you want to waste your money, have fun. Hubble is acting fraudulently, you are.
I don't see any issue. He made an order and got what he ordered.
Because contact lenses are not opioids, nobody has an interest in faking prescriptions for them. This story is just "mediscare" from some established, overpriced optical company that is fighting the holy way of medallion taxicab companies against Silicon Valley interference with its racket.
I pay a doctor for my prescription but they only give it to the glasses store they are associated with.
I should get the prescription which I can fill out wherever I prefer.
And soft contacts are not rocket science. You should be able to purchase them like reading glasses.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Contact Lenses are a gateway to things like larger screens and telescopes. Think of the children.
I placed an order on Hubble's website.
Why the fuck is this on Slashdot? Come on editors, news for nerds.
Because when you put them on and everything looks a little blurry, they send a couple of astronauts to correct them.
Alison Griswold is a fucking idiot
The editors at Quartz are fucking idiots
Quartz is a horrible site, run by idiots
msmash is a fucking idiot for posting this
and yes, i'm a fucking idiot for making this comment, but that doesn't change the fact everyone above sucks and this doesn't belong here
Um... so the only people who actually care about this are optometrists who aren't going to be able to charge patients to do the eye exam routine over and over again in order to keep the prescriptions "current" right ?
The company has drawn the ire of the American Optometric Association (AOA), which earlier this year lodged a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
I see absolutely no financial interest in people visiting AOA members for prescriptions here, none at all.
Quartz Media is shilling for the opthamologists. There's no other explanation for it. No wonder their website provides no contact data for themselves, no place to leave feedback, no way to comment.
In The Netherlands I can go into a normal supermarket and buy prescription disposable contact lenses in boxes of 10 or 20 for under 10 euro. No formal prescription needed.
But fuck that, I just had my eyes enhanced with lasers so I don't need em anymore.
hearing aids are an even bigger ripoff.
Just sayin.
and it didn't work.
It's an advertisement.
Try reading it again with that in mind, and you will see.
IS it that I can buy (+) reading glasses without a prescription, but am forced to pay equivalent to an extortion fee to a doctor so that I can buy (-) glasses so that I can see something in the distance? (we know why, because there is an entire industry completely dependent on these mandatory regulations and the politicians in the swamp allow it to continue). I believe it is against my basic human rights to not be able to buy something so basic as a simple aid to be able to live a normal life without nanny state saying I am allowed to do so.
SPAM warning.
Iâ(TM)ve worn contacts for almost 30 years and have a severe prescription. You absolutely should get a doctor to look at you once a year unless you want to go blind. Iâ(TM)ve had exams detect increased blood vessel growth due tonlacknof oxygenation from wearing lenses too long to a benign nevus on the back of my retina.
These guys donâ(TM)t give a ratâ(TM)s ass about your eye health, go ahead and defend them but if youâ(TM)re a contact lens wearer, sometimes things take years to go wrong and when they do, youâ(TM)ll be kicking yourself for those few hours you saved.
...let me reiterate this:
* so in a country with a liberal gun ownership regime, choosing your own method for ordering lenses has to be government-controlled?
So, what's the original problem we were trying to solve?!
You can do the same thing with any online Contact Lens vendor.
This is somewhat moronic. Do you honestly expect a large provider like this to place phone calls and verify your eye prescription? NONE OF THE LARGE PROVIDERS DO THIS. So, please, whomever wrote the article: think before you start some unnecessary friction like this. It's simply irresponsible. And as others have pointed out, glasses aren't drugs or something horrible like that. IF someone wants to f*ck up their eyesight, it's their fault.
Also no plano. They clearly offer just the easiest prescriptions in the most common physical size (many contact brands come in ONLY one size). If you guess at your prescription based on your glasses prescription and you're happy with the results, I don't see a problem.
But in its rush to disrupt the consumer experience...
Contact lenses have been available online for two decades (e.g. 1800Contacts).
How is this company "disrupting" anything? Is it the packaging? Seriously? That is some Apple-level "courage," right there.
Holy crap, the tech industry is driven solely by narcissistic hipsters anymore. Let me guess, this company was founded in Red Hook or Williamsburg, wasn't it?
Even outside of the whole lens and frame racket with Luxottica artificially keeping prices high there is the optometrist racket, at least here in Canada. There was an owner of an online glasses place here in Canada that is currently in prison because the optometrist lobby made sure the laws will put him there.
I'd say almost without exception every single optometrist is associated with a store that sells lenses and frames. They get a cut from every sale they reference. If you get a prescription from them, they will actively try to sell you stuff from their store. Some (although they are not supposed to) will not even give you your prescription personally, and will rather only pass it on to their store for you to use. Some you have to strongly ask for it, and they will argue with you about it and tell you all sorts of horror stories of people buying things online etc... They will make it as difficult as they can for you to use your actual prescription because they make money off sales. They likely make little money off the simple eye exam and prescription itself. So this activity while illegal and unethical is widespread and pervasive.
So the fact they the writer made up a fake prescription to prove a point doesn't really bother me about the fact that it worked. In fact I would be a bit more concerned if it didn't. That said it should be the consumer's responsibility to get a good prescription from a certified optometrist , not the onus of the company providing the lenses to check to make sure they did.
Anyway the whole industry from so called doctors who are supposed to be of high moral standing with a code of ethics to the sales of the Luxottica monopoly is so shady, scammy, and a racket I literally couldn't care less about the writers concerns. They are all a bunch of people that are taking advantage of folks with a medical condition which requires aids to fscking see, and they are all profiteering off the backs of people who have little choice of paying whatever they these jerks say they should pay, or not being able to see. I've worn glasses my whole life, with a pretty severe prescription, and regularly pay 700-800$ for glasses, which god forbid you ever break, scratch, or lose them as you are going to have to replace them out of pocket. Anyway I'm pretty sure the general public has about zero sympathy for these bums at this point.
I buy glasses and contact online from China. If you can come up with the prescription yourself, more power to ya'! Personally, I just go to the local mall to get a prescription written up, by law they are required to provide you with the prescription without you needing to purchase any eyewear from them. Millennials need to be taught what the word "research" is and begin doing some before trying to write authoritative posts on the Internet.