Went to see the independant eye doctor, in the Walmart kiosk. Turns out my eyes went from about -6 to -4.5, meaning the glasses I've been using are too strong.
Not sure how that works. My eyes had been getting worse, since age of 12 or so, when I needed my first eye glasses.
Their basic frames are $29 and up. Single focuss lenses for $60 and bifocals for more (can't remember the number). I fired up the computer, and have several pair of glassess coming from Zenni Optical. Zennis start at $6.95 for single focuss (includes the lenses). They have a deal running, shipping for $4.95, and if you order over $50, shipping is no extra charge.
I'm buying a couple pair for the vehicles, and trying out a set of glasses with the bifocals I definitely need. Be interesting to see if my new, up to date prescription helps any. I'm guessing it will.
I tried getting a prescription thru Zenni and they had problems getting what I wanted. I went back to my eye doctor and he advised me to stay away from the discount places and find a private optician. Sometimes it's really tempting to save the money, but I'm taking my doctor's advice.
Not uncommon for near-sightedness to decrease after age 45 or so. Mine are certainly better. My 83-year-old mother hardly needs her glasses anymore, except for the bifocal lenses. The upper half is almost uncorrected glass.
Shouldn't be a problem for Zenni. The one thing they DON'T do is prism correction. My original prescription had 4 degrees in each ey, and they couldn't do that. I had been experimenting with leaving out the prosm entirely, and found tht I could actually see better without it, as I'm pretty used to correcting for the double-vision, and non-prism lenses are "clearer."
If you have a complicated formula, Zenni might not be able to do it. Who can tell?
OTOH, did you really expect your doctor to say "Hey, buy the cheap glasses, and don't give me any of your money?"
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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I tried getting a prescription thru Zenni and they had problems getting what I wanted. I went back to my eye doctor and he advised me to stay away from the discount places and find a private optician. Sometimes it's really tempting to save the money, but I'm taking my doctor's advice.
That's worth knowing. I thought I needed prism lenses, but the eye doctor didn't find any need.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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Shouldn't be a problem for Zenni. The one thing they DON'T do is prism correction. My original prescription had 4 degrees in each ey, and they couldn't do that. I had been experimenting with leaving out the prosm entirely, and found tht I could actually see better without it, as I'm pretty used to correcting for the double-vision, and non-prism lenses are "clearer."
I've gotten a bit more near-sighted with one eye and Zenni expressed concern that one lens would be much thicker. I tried to talk with someone there, but I had no luck talking to someone there. My doctor said that my prescription is a little bit out of the ordinary, but not excessively so and anyone competent optician could have helped me by using a different refractive index material for the problem lens. I think that Zenni probably does most of it's business with the simple stuff. My doctor doesn't like the discounts because he doesn't trust their work.
I started with prism lenses, with virtually no other vision correction when I first started working in electonics, back in 1977. I had been correcting by looking out of one ey (unconciosly), and when I started doing a lot of close-up work, it became a problem. Over the years, the prism part of the prescription never changed, but the vision correction became progressively more powerful. After a while, I changed eye doctors, and the new one said that having prism correction makes everything slightly blurry because your looking a little sideways through the glass, and that makes for more glass to look through and also the prism screws up the prescription a little (why they can't correct for this, I don't fully know).
Long story short, my old glasses (with the prism correction) cost over a thousand bucks. I gave Zenni a shot (without the prism), and I can see better than I have in ten years. Go figure. At my last eye exam, he rechecked the prism, and said that I was correcting for it as well as the lenses would, and it would be better just to leave it out of the new prescription.
My next step is to buy a set of trial lenses. I know that my eyes change during the day, and wouldn't it be cool to have morning glasses and evening glasses? also I can figure out a proper prescription for sitting at the computer and another for reading and another for working on the lathe and another and another....
Trial lens sets are a couple of hundred bucks on ebay, and they'll pay for themselves in a year (me and my wife) - we go to the eye doctor twice a year, and the insurance doesn't cover the $60 for refraction, just the "medical" part of the exam. So, given the starting point of the current prescriptions, it shouldn't be so hard to do it myself.
As for cataracts, I, thankfully, have not gone down that road (yet).
One other thing you ought to know: no matter how fancy the prescription, no pair of glasses is going to fix your right-tilted view of the world ;-)
If zenni lenses are going to be thicker for one eye than the other, that's the way the're going to be from any lab. You might ask zenni if they can use higher refraction material in the thicker lens, to even them out. It's going to be a special for them, but they might do it. I've never had a problem talking to someone there (California).
Your Doctor doesn't trust them because either: a) he doesn't make any money from them b) he isn't familiar with their work c) he doesn't realize that ALL of the lenses he's seen recently have come from China. There are (practically) no US optical labs anymore. Lenscrafters, Sears, Target, and virtually all of the others (including the small guys' distributors) buy the same stuff in China.
BTW, my prescription is pretty complicated - quite different in each eye. The only part zenni couldn't do is the prism, and I'm actually better off without it (see a couple of posts above).
I tried to communicate with Zenni to discuss my prescription, but I didn't get any response both from voicemail and email. I was motivated to use them and I did want to save money on glasses.
I suppose that you can impugn anyone who's in business and making money -- a company supplying prescriptions or an eye doctor making his living. I just choose to trust my doctor, maybe just because I can see him face to face. :) He's told me that he read a recent trade publication claiming a significant error rate in prescriptions coming from the discount houses.
Perhaps. I've got nothing to gain wherever you fill your prescription, but if you ask the people in this group who've bought from Zenni, I don't think you'll find a dissatisfied customer. Between my wife and me, we've bought probably a dozen pairs, and they've all been as good as, or better than locally purchased glasses that cost many times as much money.
I have not bought from them in about a year, but I have a new prescription in hand and was planning to order in the next couple of weeks, as soon as I have some time. I HOPE your experience with them is an isolated one and doesn't indicate that their level or quality of service is on the decline. But I suppose it's possible that with increasing popularity, they haven't kept up with their staffing requirements. I will report back here after I've ordered.
i believe you can order bare lenses from zenni. i have a pair of their sport glasses where the lenses are on a separate frame that pop into the sport frame, so you may be able to do that pretty easily.
I also hope their quality level has remained high. Will let you know what happens.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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I have not bought from them in about a year, but I have a new prescription in hand and was planning to order in the next couple of weeks, as soon as I have some time. I HOPE your experience with them is an isolated one and doesn't indicate that their level or quality of service is on the decline. But I suppose it's possible that with increasing popularity, they haven't kept up with their staffing requirements. I will report back here after I've ordered.
Myself alone, have probably half dozen pair of Zennis, and every one has been good. I do have mild astigmatism, that requires correction.
The order at present is for about 6 pair of Zennis, and cost about $75. Included two set of bifocals.
Walmart, their cheapest pair for one was $90. And that was single focus.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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Perhaps. I've got nothing to gain wherever you fill your prescription, but if you ask the people in this group who've bought from Zenni, I don't think you'll find a dissatisfied customer. Between my wife and me, we've bought probably a dozen pairs, and they've all been as good as, or better than locally purchased glasses that cost many times as much money.
I had trouble the first time I ordered. One temple screw on the frame was stripped so they sent me a new frame, after 2 weeks of email to them. I finally called and got through.
Ditto. The difference for 3 pairs of glasses (reading, computer, and everyday) is over five hundred dollars!
I'm 3 for 3 good prescriptions so far. That's 3 pair 3 times. My acid skin is eating the temples on my glasses again, so I'm going to order some replacements next week.
-- Energy and persistence alter all things. --Benjamin Franklin
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