Just found out that Pallyanny has spent £360 on a pair of specs. Works out at £150 per lens and £60 for the frame. She already spends about £300 a year on throw away contact lenses and only wears glasses once a month at best

How can a single lens cost £150 FFS ?? Has Boots ripped her off?
Or am I just out of touch ?

has boots ripped her off

err yes.
http://www.glassesdirect.co.uk

You’re out of touch.

I bought 2 pairs and sunglasses early in the year. I didn’t see much change from a grand.

£3 at Wilkos

Just find a pair that works for you and away you go 🙂

seriously, I never spend more than £100 so I reckon it must be the frame [strike]mark up[/strike] cost

Or am I just out of touch ?

Yes 😳

For comparison, bought two pairs last year – cheap rimless frame with very good/thin/light lens for work and a robust pair of Oakleys with medium quality lens for my daughter to try and pull apart for home. Didn’t have much change from £800 – and after shopping around this represented ‘good value’. I agree – 😯

Well, I’ve been shocked at how Boots claim BOGOF and have ended up with a sky-high bill. Have vowed to go elsewhere next time.

You’re out of touch. I have more money than sense 😉

I bought 2 pairs and sunglasses early in the year. I didn’t see much change from a grand.

Gave up on the major stores & went to a local independent. £50 for single perscription, anti-scratch lens for my perfectly fine rimless spec’s, quote £100+ from the big stores as they just want to sell you new frames. Was so happy with the prices, I’ve updated my spare set, sunglasses & bought some new sports reactalight spec’s too
Blink in kiddy gets my recommendation

Depends what you need AFAIK too. Astigmatism correction, lens thinning, glare coatings etc all add to lens prices.

Whether she has been ripped depends on the lens spec. I am -7.5 and have stupidly thick standard lenses so go for the thinnest available which is usually about £200. Then I figure if I’m going to spend that much on lenses I might as well get some designer frames so £350-£500 is easily achievable. Luckily as an occasional contact lens wearer I also get the glasses half price at D&A.
If I only had mild shortsightedness I would just get cheaper lenses and frames so £50 pairs would be possible.
Also looking at it another way glasses last me 3-4 years and are on my face 70% of the time so the cost isn’t that bad compared to some clothes you may only ware a handful of times.

I need quite a strong precription for Astigmatism and have been quote daft prices for lenses alone (£300+). Costco come in at £110 the frame range isnt the best but just buy the frame else where and get it glazed there. Also if you go to the states check there or as I did HongKong £80 all sorted.

As cheers+drive said if you have a strong prescription and don’t want milk bottle lenses you’re screwed.

Last pair of glasses i bought were £400, they are 12years old now. so i guess that is not to bad, i have changed the lenses once and that was £250.

But then i do have crap eyes and astigmatism, so i don’t get much choice.

i’ve got some prescription oakleys that cost about that. but then i’ve just got a pair from lensway in their mad free frame sale the other week, 60quid and thats only because i have to pay for super thin lenses.

Yes, they really do cost that much BUT you can save a packet by going online. I looked at Vision Express for frames, and got a total quote of £450 for -6 or so lenses, extra thin so they don’t look like coke bottle bottoms.

Went to metsuki (online shop), bought the same frame and lenses for £220, IIRC. There’s a little bit of jiggery pokery in measuring your pupil distance, and obviously you have to tweak the frame yourself behind the ears etc, but you save a packet.

I was quoted £500 to £600 4 years ago …

Hhmmm … sometimes I wonder how much profit do they earn.

People overpay for designer names shocker!

I got a pair of no-name reading glasses from my local Indy, change from £100.

The wife just paid £320 for chanel frames with the best lenses (she’s blind as a bat, without the sonar too) online. Every conventional high st optician wanted well over £600.

The lenses would have been over £450 on their own!

Another interesting thread!

I have the anti-glare lenses and they very quickly get smeared, ie having to clean them several times a day with lens cleaner. Anyone else get this?

b r – Member

People overpay for designer names shocker!

I got a pair of no-name reading glasses from my local Indy, change from £100.

You have been ripped off big time there. Bear in mind in the far east, with child labour and slave etc, that would probably cost £15 max.

While working in the far east long time ago I bought an Esprit frame with plastic lens (more expensive than glass there), short sighted lens of 3.5 & 4.5, high index, super thin, harden, anti-glare, multi-coated, all in for … £30. I am still wearing the same one as I type.

🙄

p/s: Oh ya … I stripped off the frame colour to bare metal using sand paper and it looks new!

cinnamon_girl – Member

Another interesting thread!

I have the anti-glare lenses and they very quickly get smeared, ie having to clean them several times a day with lens cleaner. Anyone else get this?

Yes, all the time but couldn’t care less really as I only clean it once or twice a day by wiping the lens using toilet papers …

Gawd bless you soma_rich! (I work for glassesdirect.co.uk)

As with anything it’s all about covering costs, bikes that retail at £1000 might have only cost £150 to manufacture but each pair of hands they go through has to make a mark up…

An independent opticians might sell 10 or 15 pairs a day and has to fund a shop and staff out of that. Buying on the Internet isn’t suitable for everyone (for bikes or specs) but it’s another option.

Selectspecs.com same glasses in boots (“police” frame) £129 dearer

anti-glare lenses and they very quickly get smeared

Yep.
All gimics from opticians are just that. If you have to pay extra for it then IME it’s just a rip off. The best pair of glasses I ever had were just lenses and frames, non of these extra things they try to add on top.

You should go to an optometrist you trust who gives sound fair advice. Ar coats are not a gimic they do improve the optics of the lens and allow less light to be lost through reflection. They don’t get dirtier quicker, they just look dirtier as they are clearer in the first place. Fastidious cleaning is the way forward, and definitely not using t shirts/jumpers etc.
Having said that AR coats are not for everybody, they need looking after properly.

In life you often get what you pay for, high index/coated/photochromatic lenses are expensive for a reason, having said that you can save by not opting for “branded” lenses like Zeiss and Nikon etc.

With frames you do get what you pay for, shite budget frames are made from poor quality metal with crap joints and will not old their shape for long.
If you buy decent quality frames and you look after them they will last.

It’s just like buying a bike, you can spend £7K on a carbon FS with full XTR etc or £100 on a BSO from Tesco, which one would you rather pedal, cheap and cheerfull, or all those expensive gimics??!!

I’d rather pay a sensible price for something that just works. I don’t want a £7K carbon lovely, nor do I want a hundred quid ASDA special. I, like virtually everyone other spectacle wearer in the western world (and don’t try and tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve been wearing glasses since before half the people on this forum were born) just want some glasses that do their job and don’t have any problems.

And yes, after about at least fifteen pairs of glasses at the very least, I’ve ascertained that a lot of what I get told at opticians is bobbins by living with what I’ve been sold. My riding glasses were AR coated as were a number of pairs before them and they last five minutes before they start permanently smearing and distorting. My uncoated day to day glasses don’t do this.

And I didn’t go with a branded lens this time like I have done for twenty years because I was told they were better. Yet again, I know more than the optician because I’m using the things and they’ve been wrong, there’s no difference.

Hey, what do I know? 30 years in glasses and I haven’t got a clue. Everybody ignore me.

I’m tempted to go into business making Ti frames

A bit of viral marketing to sell the niche and get the buzz going amongst the gullible that it’s a ‘must have’
Call it something like a ‘frame for life’ [strike]when[/strike] if it breaks, I’ll send it away for 6 weeks to have someone weld a big brace on it.

why’s no one thought of this before?

This time next year …………..

I got 2 pairs of glasses from Asda for £69, both designer, i don’t like paying full price for things!

My Mum has just been hoodwinked into signing up for a £5k hearing aide.

Samuri, getting riding spex AR coated is retarded on the part of an Optometrist and yourself if you claim to have smeared plenty in the past, so you evidently don’t know what you’re talking about and by the sound of it neither does your Optometrist so I suggest you go elsewhere.

Getting a pair a spex that work without spending a fortune is a simple process if you go to the right place and got the correct professional advice.

Personally I would never prescribe an Ar coat for spex to be used when biking as they would get trashed pretty quickly. And if you came to me complaining of smeary lense that were coated it would be the last pair you got, thus saving me having to hear you moan about them and you saving money.

After 30 years maybe you have more to learn from someone who knows more than you?!

i just bought a stannah stairlift fitted for 800 quid for my father in law BARGAIN.. pity they dont help you see any better..

Shouldve gone to Specsavers!!!

Paid 150 4 years ago and still using them although need some new ones really. Got a normal pair with anti-glare and scratchproof coating and a pair of sunglasses. Just Osiris and Quiksilver frames, nothing too fancy just do the job. Saw the Asda optician prices the other day and nearly had a heart attack!