And why the vast difference between high-street stores?

Specs are 2 years old, and feeling the strain a bit on the old peepers.
Got a free eye test at vision express, and as suspected the prescription has changed a bit.
I asked how much to simply reglaze my current frames (which I got 2 complete sets from Specsaver for about £170…). It’s £106 per pair just for the lenses. Extra (at least £99) for a pair of frames if wanted.

I know it’s a daft question (as you can spend £100 or £10,000 on a bike), but…… why such a price difference, when really I’ve been perfectly happy with the quality and performance of the specsavers lenses (bar them now being too weak!)
The lady in Vision Express stated “our lenses are better quality with better optics”, and when comparing Oakley sunnies to cheapo ones I “get this”, but will this be the case with 9normal, not weird) prescription glasses??

DrP

I use a local glasses maker eyesdirect (he isn’t an optician) for my glasses, they come out at £30 to £40 a pair depending if I go for the thinner coated lenses or not. Other websites are available. High street are a rip off.

You can get exactly the same frame and lenses for about 1/3 the cost on line, huge over heads in running a high street optician. I just buy mine online.

same as bikes, you can buy online from CRC and the like instead of using your LBS

Online stores can’t do eye tests or measure up for odd presciptions or diagnose glaucoma and the like though, so when we all buy specs online and there are only a few mega-chain optician stores left who do you think will be doing eye tests and charging through the nose?

^^^ true, but if the high street opticians didn’t exist, would we be paying £100+ for an eye exam?
edit: was responding to footflaps, then got ninja’d by nbt!!

I thought the eye test fee was set by law, could be wrong. Personally I’m quite happy getting my eyes tested at Vision Express, then buying my glasses online.

I brought one pair of prescription Oakley glasses (not sunglasses) online for about £180 then my current pair from a local recommended optician for nearer £300. I have to say the difference in lens quality is massive. I have a prescription which means I have to go “double thin”, in the cheaper ones the lenses stick out very slightly from the frame, and you can see they haven’t be seated with as much care, the new ones are much more neatly seated in the frame and are thinner (even though they were sold as the same type). Also the scratch resistant coating is actually scratch resistant on the new ones and if I do manage to scratch them they’ll replace them for free.

I guess its just a case of how anal you are about attention to detail, the cheaper pair were a perfectly functional pair of glasses, but the more expensive ones are just that bit nicer.

Eventually high street rents will drop to reflect the fact that most things can be bought cheaper online and so shop over heads will fall and high street prices will level out a bit. That’s my prediction for the next few years.

I’ve got three sets of online glasses and they are all as good as high street ones. As with high street shops, there are good ones and bad ones. Buying online doesn’t automatically mean low quality.

Footflaps, In a logical world you’d be right, but try that on the greedy landlords who expect upward-only rent reviews. It’s only when business rates are raised to punitive levels on empty properties that the situation will change.

I get mine online now, the price difference is too great to ignore

I realise that the more people that do that, the higher eye test costs will get but I suspect that a lot of people [me included] get free tests via a voucher from work anyway.

Oh, I don’t pay for eye tests. and I get £20 off my lenses.
I go to an independent optician. I get very good service, but I do pay for it. But I’d rather have good service than typical British customer care.

I think we’ll see a fundamental shift in the high street, online sales is a trend that’s going to keep increasing it’s % of total sales until something changes – that something being high street prices, which are massively raised by very high shop rents. Eventually the market will even out….

I just paid a lot for some Oakley Bucket frames with Nikon lenses. I had one of the most thorough eye test I’ve ever had at the same optician, my perscripition has changed quite a bit since my last pair.. One plus about high street over online is you can pop in for an adjustment whenever…

Luckily I only need reading glasses,Once I’ve got my
prescription,I’m off to Clas Ohlsen for some,3 for a
£10 last time I went 😆

problem is the most commercial property (stores and offices) are owned by large commercial landlords. They have investors who’ve invested based on a portfolio worth X with a return of Y% per annum. If rents drop, then the return drops, and the investors lose money and that can’t be allowed to happen, so offices and shops stay empty rather than allowing rents to go down.

I’m reading this with my £3 SuperDrug back up reading glasses. I have two other pairs £250 and £100. There is I doubt the two more expensive pairs have better lenses and the rest is premium for nicer frame. Reading glasses are much cheaper than “general” ones as I assume the lenses are cheaper.

The fact is these places like vision express have high cost town centre premises so that’s what you are paying for. Companies like SuperDrug sell a huge range of products so have much more revenue to bear the premesis costs

Just had the same thing with glasses, Vision Express wanted £200 for a pair of Oakley frames then another £240 for the lenses on top of that. I could have bought a set of Oakley prescription sunglasses off them for less!
When I priced it online, I could get the frames for £100 and lenses for £70.

When I need lenses now, I use Ciliary Blue online, they will regalze your old frames for about £40-£80 depending on which lenses you need.

I use my local opticians when i was at uni i used online,everyone in my house wears glasses to some extent. I use my local due to the fact that I have 2 different stigmatization in each eye, my optitian gave me a prescription and within 2 months my eyes had changed they swapped my lenses and retested for free, where as the online glasses places would charge as they have nothing to do with the prescription.

DrP, go online mate. Find some nice frames you like, (go to a shop and try them on like I did if necessary) then save £100 ordering online. I got some fantastic Oakley Tumbleweed 0.5s from eyewearbrands.co.uk with the very best lenses they do for £155 delivered. Best glasses I’ve ever worn by a mile

My optician is a bit of a MILF.

It’s cost me a fortune over the years….

Great using on-line sites but they will only do prescriptions down to -6.00. I have to use a high-street optician for my -7.25 🙁 £200 a pop

I appear to have reached the point where I will shortly need varifocals and my optician said it would be good to go for a set now so I could get used to them… then said it would be £600!!!

Due to family issues with glaucoma I have always used the same opticians, they know my eyes & have records inc pics going back years, I am not planning on £600 though

DrP YGM

problem is the most commercial property (stores and offices) are owned by large commercial landlords. They have investors who’ve invested based on a portfolio worth X with a return of Y% per annum. If rents drop, then the return drops, and the investors lose money and that can’t be allowed to happen, so offices and shops stay empty rather than allowing rents to go down.

Eventually this will all sort itself out and investors will lose some money.

Last time I went to Hong Kong, I picked up some corrected lens for my Oakleys for £60!

You don’t have to pay stupid money for glasses. The specs I’m wearing right now cost me £20 two years ago for frames and lenses, plus the prescription fee. I got them online as emergency spares but they turned out to be so comfy I just started wearing them all the time. There’s nothing wrong with getting fancy ones if you want to, though. I have spent lots on specs in the past, I wear them all the time so they’re effectively part of my face and worth getting right.

(I also have some stupidly expensive Rx Oakleys because normal specs really don’t cut it for riding.)

Oh don’t.. jeeze the hasstle I’ve had with Vision Express..

I decided to get my eyes tested (routine 2 yr cycle) and decided I’m handsome enough for new frames and lenses so decided on two pairs, one vari focal and one reading (for PC Office reports yadda yadda) anywhos since I don’t need glasses for driveing etc I thought long and hard about what to do.
So popped into VE in Canary Wharf and eyes tested, frames ordered, lenses ordered, paid bill £1500.00, walked out feeling a bit light of wallet. A week laters I picked up the glasses, got shoddy “here they are” from dispencing OpTom and I thought to myself, I can’t really see very well out of my right eye, put it down to new prescription..
Decided I couldn’t see very well, got in touch with Customer Services and a retest organsised in Southampton (cos’ I’m darn sarf again) and lo and behold I was right, the prescription was wrong..completely wrong.
So I’ve been waiting again another two weeks to get my “cough” new glasses..

Shoddy, very shoddy.

If I went for some deal or other then I’d probably not moan, but these frames were blinkin expensive, so too the lenses.

“will probably look online for my next pair”

My missus has at least 10 pairs of glasses/sunglasses (all prescription made), maybe nearer 15. I find them loitering in every room, much like her boots, shoes and handbags … 😯

Cheers Hora – Seen it, will look at it in more detail(boom boom) at home later!

DrP

I’m wearing two pairs from them. They are very good. I inputted a typo with my prescription- not that far out but they came straight back to me and questioned the value.

Another happy eyewearbrands online shopper. Also http://www.irisoptical.co.uk/ are very good value for very nice frames and if you live in London they have shops you can visit then order online or in-store.

I had to get glasses this year for the first time, test paid for by work and I got lots of good advice from the optician. Got my first pair from them and happy to pay for the service but the back-up pair were online as all future pairs be.

This thread is the equivalent of giving me a paper cut and putting lemon juice on it.
I just forked out for extra thin, varivocal Nikon lenses – at four times the cost of the Ray Ban frames they’re going in.
Christmas is cancelled kids.

Three for £10, rip off Britain again, my reading glasses cost 2.50e from Lidl in Germany.