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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.
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?
I am a physician, and I'm pretty sure you're wrong.
My office sends out about 20-30 prescriptions a day. Unless it's for a controlled substance (ie: narcotics), there's NEVER a call back to the office to check if a script is legit.
And even if it is a controlled substance there's no call to the office unless the script comes in an unusual format (ie: a printed out script rather than an original signature of the provider).
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
Not denying the thing about Luxottica, but the prescription problem for contacts is real. Try to order contacts in the US without a prescription. You can't get them online, and if you want to get them from a store they'll be happy to give you a fitting... for an extra $50-70.