SPECTACLES

I have been going to the same independent optician for over 30 years. We are good friends. They give excellent service and they always offer an excellent range of low price frames. They are situated in an area with many low-income households and cater for their customers needs and budgets.

I have just had an eyetest (at Specsavers) and ordered my specs online at Glasses Direct. I had a Free Home Trial of four pairs (with plain glass) to see which ones fitted well and looked good. They arrived the day after ordering.

After trying them on, I decided on the two pairs I wanted, and ordered them using my Specsavers prescription. The one thing that was needed that was not on the prescription was the distance between my pupils, but a tape measure and the help of a neighbour soon established that (it was 6.3 cm, which would have been the default if I had not been able to measure it or ask at the opticians.)

I could have had two pairs including scratch-resistant coating for £55 (including lenses) or a second pair free with any of their glasses at £55 or more. I opted for one pair at £75 and a free second pair. I could have added tinted lenses free. If I had not wanted a second pair, I could have had 20% of the one pair.

Thinner lenses, scratch resistant coating, anti-reflective coating and UV-400 protection added £33 for each pair (but I could have chosen standard thickness plastic lenses, scratch resistant coating and anti-reflective coating for £12 a pair, or the extra thin and light lenses with all the other extras for £75 a pair)

As it was, I paid £108 for the first pair, and £33 for the second - a total of £141 for two pairs of thin lensed glasses with the various coatings.

If I had only wanted one pair with standard thickness lenses and o fancy coatings, I could have paid just £44, that is including lenses and frames. There is a pretty good choice of styles at the minimum price.

The reason I don't go to suppliers such as Glasses Direct is my specs always need a bit of tweaking to get them to fit well and be comfortable. I worry that they will not fit and wonder what would happen if they didn't. Any experience of that Elegran ? The prices are certainly tempting.

They seem to have solved that with the free trial of frames. Certainly I tried on the four pairs and two that I had thought would be good were not. The two I chose fitted beautifully. If I had not liked any of them, I could have kept trying on more until I found some that I liked.

If you have some already that fit you well, look on the legs near the earpieces, and you will find the leg length and nose bridge width listed, and the diameter of the lenses. All Glasses Direct frames have these measurments quoted in the catalogue, so you can select ones that match the old ones that you know are a good fit.

This page has a place to enter these measurements to filter the list to show the nearest ones.

Just noticed that my paragraph about coatings, thinner lenses etc is a bit ambiguous. The prices quoted are extra to the basic frames and lenses (that is, £12 extra for anti-reflective coating, for instance) The extras are all set out to choose before you find yourself committed to the order.

Well, that's something I never knew, Elegran!

Thanks for that information, I've just had a look at my distance specs and the measurements are there - could be useful in the future

The bigest problem is reading that information when you have taken off your specs to look at the inside of them! You need a spare pair! Also it wears off when you have had the specs for some time, so on the most comfortable and well-used of them, it will be the least easy to read, so not much use.

Even if the glasses match all the right measurements, I still find that the optician has to do final tweaking of the sides to make sure my glasses sit squarely on my face and do not tilt and fit my ears properly - even the exact shape of the bridge of the nose can be a very personal variability and need adjustment. I am happy to pay for the reassurance of a final fit by my optician for really well fitting specs.

Specsavers have always done excellent tweaking when my glasses have arrived, in fact they are extremely reluctant to let you take them without the final fitting!

If I had to wear specs full-time I might feel differently about my choice of provider, of course.

Ana you have a point, I wore glasses almost continually from the age of 11 until I had my second cataract operation about 5 years ago, I did dabble with contact lenses but never really got on with them.

When you wear glasses all the time, they do need to fit well, and even though now I only really need them for driving and distance viewing, I still want them to fit perfectly.

There seems to be a very good offer for specs from a Glasses Direct type of place (not GD but I can't remember the name). The offer is through MoneySavingExpert.com. Probably worth a look.

Why am I hearing all this just a couple of weeks after I paid through the nose for a pair of very classy titanium framed glasses with ultra thin varifocal lenses?

Check out www.spex4less.com

I've had quite a few pairs of bins from them, and they were all excellent and not expensive. I have glasses for reading, and also a pair for computer use, with a slightly longer focus.

I shall keep on patronising them!

I am being a poster girl for Specsavers I know but I would like to stand up for them and other high street stores or individual opticians.

To be able to purchase your glasses you will have had to have an eye test. Now that optician whom you used and not purchased the glasses from will not expect your loyalty as it is a service they provide but they had to be used to obtain your glasses from the internet.

I would urge you however to remember that high street optician/individual optician will have to pay for premisses, rates, staff and some very expensive equipment. My Specsavers always amazes me how many staff they employ, both front of house and in the background doing technical jobs.

Just saying

Pogs could it be that they can afford so many staff because of the profits they make on their specs? Just a thought!

I don't see it that way.

I think I have said how much my recent purchases have cost per pair and it doesn't seem much more to be honest. £70.50 a pair inclusive of variafocals.

I was so pleased with the aftercare I received. Dealing with a company on the internet would have not told me I had an eye problem would it. How could an internet company examine my eye and send me to hospital? The internet obviously works for some but I am playing devils advocate and pointing out how they can undercut but that's not the whole story.

Specsavers don't pressurise you to buy new frames, either. DH used his original frames for several years running - they were happy to fit new lenses when he needed them.

I have used reglaze my glasses.com you send a pair of frames Freeport and they will give you an estimate of the cost before going ahead. You always know you will get a good fit because they are your old frames. I have designer frames which won and have had them redone a couple of times.

I have used online glasses suppliers and had no problem, even though I have a weird prescription and need all the bells and whistles (varifocal, high index etc.) You can ask the optician/dispenser to write your pupil distance on the prescription. I have done that and they have happily complied.

DD was discussing internet v local opticians recently because she had gone to the optician we have been using for the last 30 years and been really impressed how carefully her glasses were fitted.

Adjustments were made to the arms so that her glasses sat straight, despite one ear being ever so slightly lower than the other. More importantly, adjustments were made to the frames to make absolutely sure that her eyes were looking through the optimal part of the lens and not slightly to one side or above or below. As she said, this is something that only an optician can do as she was unlikely to notice if her eyes were under unnecessary strain because her eyes were focussing slightly off the optimum part of the lens.

She says after noticing all this she will no longer be tempted to go online. She knows what she is paying the optician for.