Lost the things some years back, apparently long enough back that I’m not allowed to use my old rx.
So, got a new rx, new exam, picked out new frames, should be here by Christmas.
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The last time I got new glasses, I got a spare set of the exact frames I bought for the new lenses. I figure that, if I break my frames first and the lenses are still good, I’ll just move the lenses into the spare frames. And if I need new lenses first, I’ll have them put into the spare frames, and the old frames will be my backup if I damage the new frames. I’m hoping it’ll save me a little bit of money in the long run.
That seems good in theory, but I don’t know about in practice.
Do… glasses mfgers… allow people to send them lenses, from their ‘personal reserve’?
Or do they just have their own production pipeline?
Or could you find some kind of analog to a cobbler, but for glasses?
Is that even a thing that exists?
… Or are your frames simple enough you could do it yourself, if you are dextrous?
… … Or would being mildly blind hamper that process?
I legitimately have no idea, about any of those, but those do at least seem like pertinent questions.
I … go to a glasses store? They still have independent stores, and there are chains inside Walmart and Costco and probably other places I’m not thinking of at the moment. They generally do minor repairs for free
So, if you mildly damage your frames, like get one arm out of alignment? You can bring your frames into most glasses stores and they’ll do their best to re-align the frames for you (with the caveat that if something breaks, they’re not responsible). If you lose a screw or need your glasses tightened, they’ll do that too if you ask them. I’ve never been charged for doing this, and none of them have actually broken any of my frames.
If you have a simple® prescription and break your frames, you can walk into most glasses places and ask about replacement frames. They’ll almost never have identical replacements - glasses “fashion” moves on too quickly for that - but they’ll often have something similar that they can fit the lenses into. Sometimes they’ll need to trim the edges of the lenses a bit, and sometimes there may be little gaps between the frames and the lenses, but you can absolutely do that. When I’ve done this (longer ago than I’ll admit), they only charged me for the new frame.
I have a stronger prescription these days, and glasses “fashion” still moves faster than I do, but unfortunately my prescription is now strong enough that it’s partially based on the distance of the lens from my eyeball, as well as the angle the frames sit on my face (there’s a prism in one lens). So trying for the “eh, find something close to this broken frame” game doesn’t work for me anymore. Thus the second pair of empty frames. If I break my old frames, I’m absolutely positive I can walk into most glasses places, say, “Hey, these frames broke, can you please move the lenses to these identical frames”, and they’ll be like, sure, no problem and no charge.
TIL!
Thank you, I’m not very experienced at owning / using glasses.
New glasses have been a pain for me in recent years. With my astigmatism and myopia, I get chromatic aberration with high index lenses so have to pay more for Trivex.
And more recently I’ve developed presbyopia in my 40s, and full range progressives didn’t work for me at all, even with the fanciest widest view (aka - expensive) lenses. So now I juggle two pairs of glasses, a pair of single vision lenses and a pair of office lenses for just reading and computer distance.
Of course insurance only covers one pair, and partially at that, so when I need new glasses, that’s like… $750 - $800 now in total.
I am astigmatic (if thats not a word, its a word now, just go with it) in both eyes, but apparently considerably moreso in one eye, which is also farsighted, where the other eye is only mildly astigmatic… but has worse actual clarity.
So my eyes are like if you made binoculars out of duct taping together two different telescopes, each differently smudged and focused.
… at least I don’t have glaoucoma or mac. degen?
I ended up getting a general use main pair of transitions, and an rx sunglasses that are not transistions… both have uv/blue light filters… all of that came to approx ~$750, but its out of my vision plan, so all I have to actually pay out of pocket is the copay for the exam itself.
It… sounds like you have an even more complex and frankly expensive set of conditions going on though.
I don’t even know what presbyopia is.
You using that word is the first time I’ve ever read that word.
Obviously, I could just wiki look it up, but … could you describe it?
Seems more… sociable.
Though that may be too much excitement for this extremely dull community.
About to get my first prescription glasses at 61. Should be interesting.
My first glasses made my eyes hurt for a few days as I adjusted but wow was it nice being able to see details again
I did the same today. After two years my right eye has changed enough it was noticeable.
While wearing glasses all the time would help I only use them for reading and computer use. No progressives, no bifocals, just straight readers.
They asked if I wanted to buy glasses and I declined. I’ll order online for a fraction of the cost like I did last time.
I totally get ordering online, I only didn’t because I… forgot that I had been smart enough last year, to set myself up with a fairly substantial vision ‘allowance’, this year.
If you didn’t have that? Yeah, order online, probably around roughly 1/3 cheaper in general, seems to be my rough feel of it.
3/4 cheaper in my case.
My current glasses are from Nov 2023. I bought a pair from the optician adding several upgrades.
Figured I’d look unto buying a pair online as backups. The price difference amazed me. Approx $60 vs $300. I even paid a little extra for lighter lenses.
I wear the cheaper ones everyday.
unrelated - posted eleswhere i went to the optician today. i did not get glasses from them. Insurance covers part of the lenses only. no thanks. i paid my $10 copay and left with my prescription.
Damn, that much huh?
Well thank god for hypercapitalist healthcare, makes gauging the situation so much easier!
Apparently I really lucked out with my vision benefits, seems like most people in this thread are … yeah more or less paying nearly, or entirely out of pocket.
But I get to pay the nonsense fake prices with nonsense fake money.
… and that is my description of this as someone who had a career in stats and data analysis, educated as an econometrician.
This shit is insane, opaque, and confusing even to a data dork autist like me, christ.
So I recently was dating a woman named Lorraine. But then I met another woman named Claire Lee, and I liked her more. So I had to break it off with Lorraine.
🎵 I can see Claire Lee now, Lorraine is gone.🎵
~😬 Congrats on the glasses!~
Costco has a buy 1 get another at 50% off sale sometimes. I didn’t realize but that doesn’t have to be the same prescription. So if you have a spuse or buddy it could be a way to save some cash.
Also, some of those online stores don’t give a fuck about prescriptions. So if youjust want a replacement but are a few months out of date you can order one.
