New Glasses

I ordered new glasses today!  Whoo Hoo!  Two pairs of regular glasses and one pair of sunglasses.  All for under $12 each.

How is this possible you ask?  I'll tell you my little secret.

Zenni Optical.

They are brilliant.  It's like buying glasses wholesale. I go into any glasses store at the mall, try on a bunch of different frames, decide which ones I like, then come home and find them online for a fraction of the price.  What would normally cost me $250 after insurance turns into $15 including shipping. No insurance needed. I can even try the glasses on an uploaded picture of myself to make sure they fit my face correctly.

I first ordered glasses from Zenni in May 2010.  I'd just gone to the eye doctor at Lens Crafters and purchases a pair of glasses there.  After my insurance the glasses cost me something like $210.  I don't have any special prescription or lens needs, but I did have them add the non-reflective coating.  Then as an experiment, and because our HSA would pay for it, Eric and I decided to order some frames from Zenni and compare the two.  I didn't order the exact same pair but it was the exact same prescription.

Eric has a really strong prescription in his glasses.  In order to not have heavy Coke-bottle glasses he has to have the really expensive, light weight lenses in his frames.   His one pair of glasses at Lens Crafters was $325.  After insurance.  

When we placed our 2010 order with Zenni we bought one pair of regular glasses and two pairs of sunglasses for me, and one pair of sunglasses with the more expensive lenses for Eric.  Our total including shipping was less than $99.  Four pairs of glasses for under a hundred bucks.  After spending nearly $500 at the glasses store in the mall. I was already impressed.

It did take us longer than expected to get our frames.  The website told us 2-4 weeks and we didn't get ours until just after the four week mark.  I was starting to get worried. They did eventually come though and they were worth the wait.

The pair I got from Zenni were meant to be spare glasses.  The ones I got from Lens Crafters were supposed to be my grown-up, everyday glasses.  Six months after I got my 'grown-up' glasses, they broke.  A year later the 'fun' pair are still going strong. They've lost a few of the gems at the temple but are otherwise stellar.

I've heard that some people have a problem with Zenni frames not being the correct prescription.  Personally I haven't had a problem.  The Zenni glasses are exactly the same to look through as the ones from Lens Crafters.  Eric says the same thing. Oh yeah, I can also take my Zenni frames into any local glasses store and they'll do free adjustments to fit them for free.

Since everything went so well with our last order we decided to go ahead and try again. Eric priced some glasses for himself at Lens Crafters for $250 (after insurance.)  We found a pair that look exactly the same on Zenni for less than $40.  That includes his expensive lenses and the anti-reflective coating.  I ordered another three pairs, this time two regular glasses and one pair of sunglasses.  Zenni changed their prices a little and the frames I chose were even less expensive than last time.  We ordered four pairs of glasses: one pair with anti-reflective and more expensive lenses, one pair with the sunglass tint, and two regular pairs with anti-reflective coating.  All for less than $89. They're running a special right now where you get free shipping on orders over $50, so we saved $4.95.

Even if you don't wear prescription glasses I recommend you check these guys out. Less than $17 for a pair of sunglasses is pretty awesome.  I know how easy it is to lose and scratch up sunglasses, for this price you could have a whole wardrobe of shades!

According to the website we should get our glasses in 7-14 days.  Experience tells me it'll probably be closer to a month.  As soon as the box comes in I'll model my glasses and post pictures!