[Closed] CONTACT LENSES - any recos for on-line

Tend to use: [url= http://www.feelgoodcontacts.com/ ]FeelGood Contacts[/url].

UK based with free delivery and normally a voucher (Google them) with at least 5% off their advertised prices. If you can't find a voucher give them a call and they should also give you the 5% off deal over the phone.

If you aren't obsessed with branded lenses, try Daysoft.
http://www.daysoftcontactlenses.com

If I'm planning on wearing mine all day, I stick to my ACUVUE extended wear ones but at £43 for 30 days worth, if I'm putting a pair in for a run or to go swimming and then taking them out an hour or so later, Daysoft at 1/3 of the price are just fine.

+1 Day soft

Another Daysoft user here.. Wear them all day most days.

The Silk solution ones are a bit nicer!

Good service from [url= http://www.visiondirect.co.uk ]VisionDirect[/url].
they didn't even check my prescription with the optician, which surprised me. Saved hassle though!

I went to http://www.contactforlenses.com

Fairly quick and have the advantage that they didn't ask for proof of my prescription etc which some places do.

I went for the AcuVue TrueEye disposables which are £36 for 30 pairs.

Daysoft here for the last two years... And I'm a photographer. Comfiest lenses I've found online or anywhere.

thanks all, giving Daysoft a go

VisionDirect were always spot on for me, used them for years. They occasionally asked for current prescription details, handily always accepted a .jpg by email taken with my phone.

Good service from VisionDirect.
they didn't even check my prescription with the optician, which surprised me. Saved hassle though!

You know this is a legal requirement......

......sounds like really good service,
sounds like they really care about your [s]eyes[/s] money

You know this is a legal requirement......

Only for companies based in the UK though, according to
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/Cheap-Contact-Lenses/

Remember that unbranded ones may not offer the same protection for your eyes as some of the branded makes, e.g. Acuvue have UV blocking filters built into them. Might just be marketing bullsh*t but worth considering especially of you are going to wear the all day every day.

If I'm planning on wearing mine all day, I stick to my ACUVUE extended wear ones

Any reason? I find Daysoft more comfortable than any others I've worn and they seem more secure for riding as well (less problem with them drying out).

Guy who started Daysoft [url= http://www.daysoftcontactlenses.com/GB/All-about-Daysoft.aspx ]supposedly invented disposable lenses[/url]

Day soft here too, the new silk ones are deff better for all day wear.

The Specsavers ones are very good, £10/month, with a free check-up, and all the sterilising fluid, and you get free or discounted specs as well.
Because my left eye is fine for distance I only wear one lens, so I only pay £5/month.

Don't know tbh- prob because i was on std acuvues but for real long wear days - sometimes 15 or 16 hours at a time - i found my eyes getting a bit sore. Same with the day soft ones. Then the optician put me onto acuvue trueye which are imho better. I'll have to try these silk ones next time and see.

Only for companies based in the UK though, according to
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/Cheap-Contact-Lenses/

So you would trust your eyecare to some non UK anonymous inernet company. You know alot of CL wearesrs really are a law unto themselves and deserve the eye problems they get.........

......wonder if this internet company can refer you for a corneal ulcer you develop for over use and lack of regular eyecare check ups and dont try to tell me it doesn't happen........I own an opticians and it does

and the really funny thing we have had a patient try to sue us who hasn't been seen in practice for over 5 years and has been ordering lenses off the internet.......you know the only thing that stopped her winning we could prove we had sent her reminders to make appointments which she had ignored

So you would trust your eyecare to some non UK anonymous inernet company.

Errr.. yes. They have good reviews and I'm getting branded & sealed packages of contact lenses from them that I'm sure are the genuine article. Why would I trust them any less than a UK based distributor?

.....wonder if this internet company can refer you for a corneal ulcer you develop for over use and lack of regular eyecare check ups

over use: I hardly ever wear contacts - usually just for sports and the occasional night out.

check ups: you assume too much. Not having to faff about proving what prescription I have is rather different from never bothering to get my eyes checked.

I still go for check ups. That is only sensible.

I own an opticians and [s]it does[/s] I am pissed off that I am losing my huge markups on contacts because of companies like these

FTFY 😉

Errr.. yes. They have good reviews and I'm getting branded & sealed packages of contact lenses from them that I'm sure are the genuine article. Why would I trust them any less than a UK based distributor?

To be provided with a lens it should be prescribed by a medically trained professional to give the best suit and fir for your eye.

your so called sparkling internet company provides people with their 'nearest equivalent' and sends you on your way

I would say this is a pretty damn big reason to distrust them.......

over use: I hardly ever wear contacts - usually just for sports and the occasional night out.

check ups: you assume too much. Not having to faff about proving what prescription I have is rather different from never bothering to get my eyes checked.

I still go for check ups. That is only sensible.

do you go for an eye test or a contact lens check up as these are two completely different procedures? oh and the prescriptions for each can be different

ack to the resposible bit you could be wearing the wrong prescription for your eyes.......

I own an opticians and it does I am pissed off that I am losing my huge markups on contacts because of companies like these

The biggest lol yet that shows you reaaly 'know' your stuff most disposable lenses the profit margin is less than £1 per box

To be provided with a lens it should be prescribed by a medically trained professional to give the best suit and fir for your eye.

your so called sparkling internet company provides people with their 'nearest equivalent' and sends you on your way

The "nearest equivalent" they have supplied me exactly matches the lenses I was paying through the nose for at my opticians (the "medically trained professional" who gave me my prescription in the first place).

Same box, same brand, same model, same base curve, diameter and power.

Or are you saying that the lenses I get from my optician have some other secret specification that doesn't get printed on the boxes for some reason?

most disposable lenses the profit margin is less than £1 per box

So how is it that there is so much variance in price then?

e.g. £107.99 for 90 pairs of Acuvue TruEye from ContactsForLenses (or Tesco or ASDA) but £126 for the same lenses from Vision Express.

I make that a £3 difference per box of 30 lenses.

e.g. £107.99 for 90 pairs of Acuvue TruEye from ContactsForLenses (or Tesco or ASDA) but £126 for the same lenses from Vision Express.

could quite easily be Tesco's pricing.

and think yourself lucky, my contacts are c£100 each lens!

and think yourself lucky, my contacts are c£100 each lens!

sounds like a david thomas complex lens which are expensive

e.g. £107.99 for 90 pairs of Acuvue TruEye from ContactsForLenses (or Tesco or ASDA) but £126 for the same lenses from Vision Express.

HAHA we charge less for those so guess its 'Tesco/ASDA super pricibg again

and with regard to

The "nearest equivalent" they have supplied me exactly matches the lenses I was paying through the nose for at my opticians (the "medically trained professional" who gave me my prescription in the first place).

you completely missed the point, how 'old is that CL prescription, is it still current, and is it actually a contact lens prescription, if the answer to either of these is no you could actually be damaging your eyes, but more fool you.......

£107.99 for 90 pairs of Acuvue TruEye

Vs £36 for 92 pairs with Daysoft. After some resistance Boots did my check up with my Daysoft and I go back regularly. They're a third of the price of the Acuvues and at 20p a lens if they get uncomfortable they're cheap enough that you can just bin and put another in.

HAHA we charge less for those so guess its 'Tesco/ASDA super pricibg again

Well if you are undercutting the cheapest prices available on the internet then no wonder you are moaning about your profit margins. 😀

how 'old is that CL prescription, is it still current, and is it actually a contact lens prescription, if the answer to either of these is no you could actually be damaging your eyes

Yes it is a proper contact lens prescription. No, it isn't current. Probably 2 years old. But my eyes felt absolutely fine wearing them and my vision was fine.

I'm sure you will tell me how awful that is, but is a [i]potentially[/i] slightly old script [i]really[/i] worse than wearing no contacts and just squinting all the time?

Using that company meant I could get a box of contacts before I went away on holiday without faffing around with going to the opticians and being press-ganged into a 12 month "contacts by post" contract when I only needed one box.

I'm actually due at the opticians soon to get myself some new glasses and I'll be sure to get a contact lens check up and script while I'm there. But I certainly won't be buying contacts from them.

Thought it was a fairly basic principle in business that slagging off your competition just makes you sound like a bit of a tool. I wouldn't choose to buy contact lenses off someone as arsey as the hustler.

I'm interested in some contacts for occasional use too - will probably give Day Soft a go, thanks everyone. 🙂

Grum, its not arsey, its just you dont have to pick up the pieces after someone loses the sight in an eye due to what amounts to stupidity and 'cheapskating'.........we do, ask anyone who has lost sight due to a corneal ulcer

1 how painfull it is

and

2 Do they now wish they had listned to their optician

with having owned a practice for over 10 years and had a wife in optics for more than 20 [b]EVERY[/b] one who has had this problem has regretted not listening and thinking they could do it cheaper themself

you only have 1 set of eyes are they really worth taking stupid risks with?

+1 on the sounding arsey bit

As stated above, I use branded lenses for long term wear as prescribed by my (contact lens) optician and have a 6 monthly check up. But at £1.50 a pair, for when they might only be in for a few hours I find Daysoft absolutely fine, and a fraction of the cost.

Do you honestly feel that I'm taking stupid risks with my eyesight? Are you honestly saying that unbranded lenses like Daysoft ones are substantially lower quality than branded ones? I assume if you are you'd be prepared to name your practice and stand by that allegation - or is this just nameless non-attributable bad mouthing?

I have no problem naming my practice as Karen J Boulton Opticians in Wellington Telford, at no point have I said the lens is inferior I have stated that the prescribing of the daysoft lens falls outside the guidlines layed down by the G.O.C. the governing body for all opticians in the U.K.

My problem is that we care about peoples sight, the anonymous internet companies care about the bottom line.

Do you think it is an 'accident' that the company's address is Jersey (to fall outside of the UK guidlines for both medical practices and probably taxation(wonder how many of the daysoft wearers blast amazon for this tactic)) but the phone number you call is to the motherwelll area in Scotland.

Ha! Just revisited and noticed my post caused a right ol' uproar. 🙂
As Graham's already said, I ordered the lenses I was prescribed for, so I don't give a monkey's if they check with my optician or not.
Boots Opticians pissed me off, so I ordered elsewhere (and saved money). They don't give you an eye check everytime you buy lenses from the shop, so what's the difference?
When I'm due a check up, I'll go to an optician.

So can I ask again. In my situation, where I am checked every 6 months by a UK high St optician, but choose to use cheaper lenses for some of my wear pattern

1- do you in your professional opinion feel these lenses are in any way substandard compared to the branded ones?
2- do you think I'm taking a risk in doing what I'm doing?

I'm actually not trying to be difficult now, I'm genuinely interested in your opinion; I don't want to risk my eyesight (fwiw my optician has noted no ill effects in my checkups)

I have no problem naming my practice

Fair play to you.

And FWIW I appreciate your professional concerns.
I don't personally feel that I'm putting my eyes at any kind of increased risk - but I am sure there are plenty of numpties out there who would just buy some contacts online without ever seeing an optician.

So can I ask again. In my situation, where I am checked every 6 months by a UK high St optician, but choose to use cheaper lenses for some of my wear pattern

1- do you in your professional opinion feel these lenses are in any way substandard compared to the branded ones?
2- do you think I'm taking a risk in doing what I'm doing?

I'm actually not trying to be difficult now, I'm genuinely interested in your opinion; I don't want to risk my eyesight (fwiw my optician has noted no ill effects in my checkups)

Cant be too exact but here goes as i dont know the lens types involved

My only real concern here is does your Optom know you are wearing the cheaper lenses, and has he seen you in them? If the answer to both of these is yes then I would have no issue with it.
If the answer to either or both is no then get it checked out and all 'should' be OK, but there is a chance the 'cheaper' lens is not suitable for your eye, in converse the optom could actually also say use the cheaper full time as they are better suited to your eye actually saving you money

We actually have patients that do this and dont see a problem if the lenses are both suitable

Hustler is spot on with what he's saying, as an Optometrist myself alot of contact lens related problems I see are with people who buy online and don't keep up with lens checkups, thinking their eyes are feeling fine so everything must be OK.

90% of the time this may well be the case, however underlying, symptomless problems may be there.

GrahamS, if your CL spec is 2 years old no one should be supplying you with lenses. At my practice you can buy single boxes etc. In the situation of a regular patient of mine going away on holiday, I'd have given them a few trials FOC to tide them over

simons nicolai uk... Daysoft is no comparison to Trueye, Daysoft are shite compared to the likes of Trueye.

[i]people who buy online and don't keep up with lens checkups[/i]

Not the case. So the uproar was unnecessary.

Daysoft are shite compared to the likes of Trueye.

Again, genuinely interested - on what basis?

The funny thing is that when I used to be on an official, UK-based, GOC-guideline-following lenses-by-post contract I ended up building up such a huge stockpile of lenses that I was still using them for years after the contract finished. 😀

The material they're made from, the Trueye is based on a silicone hydrogel which allows much more gas to be transferred through the lens material, also the lens coatings make them more hydophillic, in theory to make them more comfortable in the eye.

The Daysoft UV is an older material which is more comparable to the Focus Dailies basic lens, which in itself is 3 steps behind Focus' new silicone hydrogel daily similar to the Trueye. The 2 are at opposite ends of the Daily CL spectrum, but both may well be comfortable in your eye

GrahamS One reason my CL wearers aren't on a contract like that so they can't build up too much of a stockpile!

Sounds like what I need to do is find myself a decent independent optician instead of using the big chains.

Trouble is trying to find one with a good range of glasses, sunglasses and sports/cycling glasses, and contact lenses, at a decent price, that is open outside of 9-5 office hours.

Any suggestions in the Newcastle area?

So for my typical wear patterns - I use trueye if I'm going to have them in for an extended period, but for an hour's swim or a run / bike where wear is much shorter and daysoft work just fine - I reckon the cost/benefit balance makes sense. I wouldn't go to daysoft completely but equally trueye's at £1.50 a go soon adds up

[i]Sounds like what I need to do is find myself a decent independent optician instead of using the big chains.[/i]

I did have, then Boots bought them out.

[i] in theory to make them more comfortable in the eye.[/i]

But not in practice for me. Funny how few opticians actually use contacts themselves with their [i]theories[/i] an all... 😉 (got something in my eye)

I did have, then Boots bought them out.

Funnily enough I last used Dollond & Aitchison, then [url= http://www.danda.co.uk/faq/?cat_id=15 ]Boots bought them out too[/url].

DezB, you'd be surprised, all 3 optoms that work for me wear cl's on a daily basis, one even wears monovision (dont go there gets even more complicated).

And yes we have patients who use daysoft lenses who we still look after the aftecare for, but they are cheap for a reason.......ts old technology.........doesn't mean its bad just that there is better out there

I don't wear CL's on a regular basis, but have tried them to see what they feel like. Personally I hated the feel of Acuvue lenses, but I haven't tried the Trueye yet, I find Focus Dailies Aqua comfort plus much better, it'll be interesting to see how the Focus silicone daily lens feels, it will be expensive like the Trueye, both being classed as a premium product.

The issue with putting silicone in the lens is that it has the effect of stiffening the lens, so although it lets more air through, you may be more aware of the lens in your eye and actually feel more at home with a regular hydrogel lens.

thotherjonv... that kind of wearing pattern is spot on, the advantages of the premium lenses comes with longer wearing times, where poorer lenses will dry out and start to feel uncomfy.

Personally I hated the feel of Acuvue lenses, but I haven't tried the Trueye yet

I went from AcuVue Moist to TruEye. Can't say I really noticed any difference to be honest.