Hi all.

Having a miserable time with the purchase of my new glasses. Don't know if I'm just unlucky, or if anyone else has had this issue with these particular glasses.

About three months ago:

Decided I need a new pair of clear prescription glasses. I had over a decade of use out of a pair of Oakley E-Wires, and I've always liked Oakley, so I thought I'd go for more of the same (or similar). The optician that tests my eyes doesn't do Oakley, so I go shopping on the high street. I find myself in Vision Express.

Don't particularly like any of the off-the-shelf prescription frames, but then the optician points out that the sunglass styles are also available to special order with clear lenses. This is great news, as I really like the Whiskers, so I order a pair with clear prescription lenses to my fairly modest prescription. £275.

A few weeks ago:

After a long wait for my glasses, I get an automated text message telling me to go in and pick them up. Very excitedly, I do this. Happy boy. A couple of days later, I spot that where the lenses are clamped together near the bridge, cracks have started to appear in the lenses. One of the cracks appears to be growing.

I go back to the shop. They acknowledge the problem straight away and tell me they will sort it. Fair enough.

A week or two later:

I get word to go back to the shop to pick up my glasses with their new lenses. When I do this, I notice one of the lenses is scratched near the clamp. I point this out. The helpful guy in the shop scurries away for a few minutes, then gives me back my glasses. The scratch is reduced but still visible. At his request, I gave him a few more hours. Still a small scratch. So I leave again without my glasses.

A week ago

Not having received a text message, I call Vision Express to discover my glasses are, once again, ready. I chat to the manager on the phone and he tells me that in the course of the last few weeks I have received not only replacement lenses but a replacement frame. It sounds good.

I pick my glasses up. The scratch is gone and all seems good. When I get home, I inspect the glasses closer. I notice that one of the screws has been replaced with a non-standard, slightly bodged one that has scratched the frame during installation. No big deal as not visible from the outside. Then I notice that, though I've been told that the frame has been replaced, the same imperfections I noticed in the alignment of the original frame are still there.I can even see a tiny tiny trace of the scratch I noticed during the last installment.

Despite these things, the glasses are still a massive improvement on their previous incarnations, so I decide I'm happy.

Yesterday:

I notice that one of the lenses has 'popped' backwards out of its position, leaving a tiny gap between the lens and the frame. I pop it back into position.

Later, I notice the other lens has done the same. This time, as it has moved back, the lens has hit the corner the bridge of the glasses and, once again, been damaged.

I am so fed up with all of this.

I don't know if I have:

– A problem with Vision Express
– A problem with prescription Oakley Whiskers
– Bad luck

Does anyone else have any experience of this situation?

The guys in Vision Express are being helpful, but I still don't feel I'm getting a product worth £275. They are probably as sick of me as I am of having to pester them.

Will I ever get this sorted?

Any opinions, anyone?

are these proper oakley lenses? If so, then its oakley who put the glasses together IMHO, you will find them very good service wise.
My oakley prescription rx have always been good. Got a pair of square wires about 6 years old, on their 2nd set of prescription oakley lenses. My standard glasses are sculpt 6 with clear oakley lenses.

If not (i.e. vision express lenses, pentax etc.), then you are in the hands of vision express, good luck!

the optician makes more money selling you their own lenses, rather than oakley ones btw

Can someone summarise that for me please? 🙂

I've had two pairs of Whiskers (sunglasses), and both developed lens popping behaviour, but only after being dropped, sat on etc. The frame seems very prone to going out of alignment, and once this happens you're pretty much buggered. Good news is replacement frames are cheap through Oakley customer service.
FWIW, I bought Rotor 4.0's for prescription glasses, and really like them.

I have a pair of Ti Whiskers, with std Oakley lenses atm although I was thinking of having prescription lenses fitted.
I have forund the frame to be pretty flexible, which is a good and bad thing. They are easy to bend back into shape if you squash them but then again they are easier to squash!

I found that if I kept them in their soft case, I couldn't put them in a bag or pocket as the lenses would udually pop out.
Now I keep them in a 'vault' type hard case and they are fine. Lovely sunglasses too.
I'd be interested to know if you have Oakley lenses though.

OK,to start at the beginning with each of your points, cracking near the screws is poor, shouldnt happen and needs to be replaced regardless of what the 'manager of VE (vision express) says.

Second point, if they scratch the lens then they should replace it.

Third point the optical screw, this tbh is forgivable, these things are tiny and if dropped can be very difficult to find (we use magnetic mats to try and prvent this, but sometimes still lose one) but should be replace with one as similar as possible.

With regard to the third point , i would need to know your approx prescription to be sure, but it sounds like the rear surface curve of your lens is too great for the curve of the frame (this could also be the cause of point 1 above). I good opticians can ask for the curvature of a lens on the front and rear surfaces to be adjusted to suit certain frames.
I personally wouldn't be happy with the above job, but having said that you go to the high street 'factory' shops and you pays your money and takes your choice as the saying goes

I ordered mine direct from oakley, much better response, mine are sunnies with prescript so not over fussed about the fit that you need with a clear lenses as you wear them all the day.

Oakleys CS is amazing, i had a big off and damaged the lenses, gave them a ring, sent mine off a week later replaced lenses, i paid a modest amount for the lenses but i expected that.

Vision Express use their own lenses in Oakley RX Glasses they sell – I found this out the hard way, they still charged me the same amount for substandard lens
Ever since i get Oakley UK to do my glasses for me

tell them you're not happy with the standard to date and get aq full refund. then take your prescription and order the same ones directly from oakley.

to houns just because it says Oakley on it for a clear RX lens definately doesn't make it a better lens, just maybe not one as suited to the frame re my curvature point above, unless you go for polycarb or high index lense then all are made from the same cr39 material, just that some people take a little more care about what shape is formed from the blank.

Companies with "saver" or "express" in the name shold be used to buy food and booze and not trusted with expensive things…like your eyesight IMO 😛

I had Whiskers with the lenses popping out, they were brand new and had never been sat on. Unfortunately, I was out of the UK at the time but might try giving Oakley a call about it.

Thanks all, particularly the hustler.

You've collectively made some very useful comments, some of which have shed more light on this.

I've just spoken to the branch manager at Vision Express and told him I would like my money back.

He would like to speak to Oakley first, so we're talking again tomorrow.

Thanks again for views, everyone.

oh, and houns – How did you find out the lenses were Vision Express's own ones, not Oakley?

VE will almost certainly use their own lenses. Which branch (area) is it as I know someone who may be able to help you?
I've got Nikon lenses in mine, mainly coz they were the middle-price option and still **** expensive at £350!
You can just ask them who made the lenses in your specs, if they lie then…

The fact is that you're being offered defective products, get 'em to sort it out!

CliveA I have many pairs of oakleys a couple of pairs are from Vision Express They use there own lenses as mentioned above I've had my owmnproblems!!!!! My sunglasses are Oakley lenses fitted in the factory -brilliant. I also have a couple of prescription glasses and both pairs had an great lenses no probs except when I went clubbing they had an O which showed up under UV light which was slightly trippy……. 🙄

I use a different Optician now an v.happy.

I've had three pairs of Oakley frames with Rx lenses in, one pair of WHY3's glazed by the optician, in clear, which were very good, and a pair of WHY3's glazed by Oakley with Fire Iridium sunnies, which are amazingly good. The third pair were going to be the clear WHY3's with Transitions Rx Emerald Iridium lenses. Unfortunately, the lens style I chose wouldn't fit the frames, so Oakley made the glasses up with a pair of alloy WHY8 frames and gave me the frames for free!
Always, always go to an indepenent optician who deals with Oakley and sells their sunnies. Mine were through Brian Vousden in Bath. They are outstandingly good, I recommend them without hesitation.

Thanks for the extra responses.

Vision Express told me that for sunglass frames like the Whisker the lenses are from Oakley and assembled by Oakley, while for the conventional prescription styles, the lenses are supplied in house.

Bearing in mind the comments here, I'll keep an open mind about the accuracy of that.

People who have stated that Vision Express use their own lenses – How do you know this?

Ta.

Hi All.

Just to let you know how this ended.

The manager at Putney Vision Express says he spoke to Oakley. He then left left me a couple of messages, each adding another layer of confusion to this silly business.

One message said there'd been a mix-up and that my glasses had been 'accidentally' glazed with Vision Express's own lenses at their head office.

A day later, he left another message. This one spoke of a temporary technician who'd been working at the branch while the manager was on holiday. Apparently this had something to do with things. I couldn't quite see how.

I called the manager back and he offered to get my glasses sent directly back to Oakley (odd, because that's what I'm told would have happened before) and that this time it would all work out OK.

Enough is enough. I asked for my money back. And, to his credit, though he tried to assure me that he would be personally making sure this was sorted, he didn't resist. I think he recognised that the mickey had been taken and I was fed up.

So yesterday he gave me my money back, after a quick last-ditch attempt to tempt me to stick around for a discount.

So several of you were right. Avoid Vision Express. The staff at Putney Vision Express, Ajay and Shak, have been friendly and polite throughout. Unfortunately, that is the only good thing I have to say about all this.

So now, especially as I've lost my old spares and I'm relying on contact lenses, I need to start again. I'll either get them directly from Oakley or I'll go to an independent optician that's been properly recommended by friends.

Any competent Oakley-equipped optician tips in Farnham, Guildford or Brighton, anyone?

A final update for anyone who's interested:

A representative from Oakley made contact with me, prompted by my references to this situation on Twitter.

He seemed fairly embarrassed by the whole business. He had made contact with Vision Express in Putney. In reference to their latest attempt to correct their previous mistakes, Vision Express had told Oakley they had been requested to "add Oakley lenses to a customer's existing own frames". I made it clear to the Oakley guy that this wasn't the case – I had only ever asked for complete glasses, manufactured by Oakley.

It became clearer that there was a strong possibility that Vision Express, rather than just making mistakes, had actually deceived me, trying to pass off their own cheaper lenses as genuine Oakley ones, charging me the full price, and making the situation worse when trying to correct it.

In view of all this, Oakley agreed to supply me directly (I think they have stopped dealing direct with customers in general, preferring to operate through retail shops these days).

I received my new glasses through the post and they are fantastic. The lenses fit the frames perfectly and the quality is great.

Interestingly, the bottom corner of the left lens has an 'O' icon. This was never a feature of any of the lenses I received from Vision Express.

So there we go. A happy ending. But I will never go near a Vision Express again. And I'd recommend my friends avoid Vision Express too.

Good on you, at least you've got there in the end & hopefully had your faith in that brand restored.
VE – would only bother with them for run-of-the-mill stuff I suppose.