Cheapo online frames

I have bad vision, REALLY bad vision. I have been wearing glasses since Kindergarden and most likely should have been wearing earlier too. When I was in the tenth grade I had to start wearing contacts because my Rx was so bad that the weight of my thick glasses caused me massive headaches after wearing them for only an hour. It wasn’t until I was in college that I could again wear glasses. It was then that the eyeglass industry had come out with ultra thin lenses for people with high a prescription. It cost a pretty penny, around $500 dollars and the frames were only $100 of that (Ralph Lauren). Every time I have gotten glasses coverage or any information on buying new glasses it would cost me equally as much if not more to get new lenses for my prescription strength.

A year ago a friend of mine bought new frames from ebay and I envied her because she just had to take them in and get lenses, nice and cheap. Me, the frames are the cheapest part of new glasses so I have stayed with the old frames and glasses for over ten years.

My Old Ralph Lauren glasses

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my old glasses, they look great on me and they are really durable. The Rx hasn’t changed or anything either it is just… well the anti-glare coating has worn off and there are some scratches, in spite of the anti-scratch coating (more then ten years of use it makes sense). Then when I drove down from Canada to the US for a four month trip and left my glasses at home I felt sunk. I wear contacts often but not having glasses to break up the wearing is frustrating. A few friends of mine gave me recommendations for online eyeglass dealers and links on research and everything pointed me to the same place. “zennioptical.com” I was running low on contacts too so when I went in to get my vision checked I had the doctor give me all the information I needed to order them online. (if you do this, make sure you get the PD, your doctor will not remember) Then it came to picking frames. I know the big complaint is “I have to try the frames on to know if they are good” Well I am the same way. So with my sister’s help I tried on the various frames at my doctor’s store, we decided square frames look best on me, and rimless thin frames don’t look good. (All the frames in his store were designer and hugely expensive.) I wanted something different from my old glasses, because I figured these frames would be a nice back up pair anyway, so I picked a set that looked kinda wild. Lime green and black. I placed the order and in two weeks they were shipped to me. Not only was I able to order glasses & frames for under $70 but I was also able to get anti-glare coating, anti-scratch and a polarized sunglasses shade custom for the lenses all included. Also, the site accidentally charged my card twice (I must have hit back, refresh or something) but rather then waiting for me to catch this mistake/problem the site caught it and refunded me automatically and emailed me to let me know. Most sites would wait for you to catch that.

Clip on Shades

Yesterday the frames arrived and I was very happy with them. They were not as wild and drastic as I thought they would be, the lime green is subtle, but they look nice. They came with a hard plastic case and a microfiber cleaning cloth that matched the green frames. Now the only draw back is not getting them custom fit to my head, but having worn glasses most of my life I knew how to adjust them myself. Plus, most eyeglass places will adjust for you, I bought my old frames ten years ago and have had two other places adjust them for me. No one cares where you bought them. :)

So all in all, my opinion of ordering glasses online is a thumbs up :)

• You can find the site I worked with here: zennioptical.com