I think I need to fire my optometrist.

[N80]

I lost my glasses recently. Freak accident. I need them for near and far vision...so, work, reading, driving, computer, TV, etc.

I go to a local optometrist walking distance from my house. They are friends of the family. Not close, but friends nevertheless.

I have some cheap, old glasses I got off the internet. They are a prescription behind and hurt my eyes and nose by the end of the day. That's what I've been wearing since I lost my good glasses on Saturday, March 3rd.

Called for an appointment because it was close enough to time for my yearly visit and want to make sure my prescription hasn't change again. They got me in on Thursday March 8th. The waiting room was full. Several of us had to stand waiting to be taken care of. Felt rushed through the whole process. I get my exam, no change.

I know exactly which glasses I want. They are outrageously expensive but I know that going in. They are rimless, super light with progressive lenses and quite durable. Total cost near $1000. Out of pocket around $350 with insurance, and flex spending kicked in etc.

They order them. I wait. Head aches everyday due to cheap old glasses. Eight days later, I call. Still no glasses.

I call today 12 days after my appointment. They say the frames came in yesterday and they Fed Ex'd them to the lab for the lenses today and they should have them by Monday or Tuesday of next week which would be 18-19 days after my appointment.

Now, right now I'm not complaining about the busy office or the insane cost of these glasses. I'm just wondering if this sort of wait time is typical for nice, progressive lens glasses? Almost 3 weeks? What if I didn't have these back up glasses? If this is normal, I'll address the sloppy office service with the optometrist, again, a friend of the family. If not, I'm going to call them, cancel the glasses and go find someone else. I'm fairly new to this glasses stuff and they are the only place I've ever been. It just seems nuts to have to wait almost 3 weeks for $1000 glasses. Just curious to hear other's experience.

 

[Redbug]

I have been wearing Gas Permeable Contacts, (hard contacts), since about 1974. It has been about 8 years since I have been to the Eye Doctor. I went in at the beginning of March. I had some minor changes to my contact prescription and the Doc asked if I wanted glasses as well. I have not had a pair of backup glasses since I entered the Air Force back in 1980. Anyways...I got new contacts and glasses with progressive lenses in about 6 working days...they don't count weekends. I think the place you are using is slow. Did you notice if they have a hitching post out front and a pitcher pump in the bathroom for water?

 

[bunyip]

Our Optician is on a farm about a mile away and we know him quite well but he doesn't do deals, he generally quotes about a week and a half for new glasses but more often than not he drops them of for me at home about 3 days later.
Same deal as you I want to buy new glasses and I think I am putting a deposit on a celebrity mansion, mine are bifocal and photochromic with magnetic polarised sunglasses that are the same style and don't look like clip ons.
My wife has worn glasses for most of her life and used to wear contacts but she developed a bad reaction to them and can't wear them any more, I can't wear them because I have bifocals so I can use them for distance and the computer which is where I spend a lot of my day when not driving.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I lost my glasses recently. Freak accident. I need them for near and far vision...so, work, reading, driving, computer, TV, etc.

I go to a local optometrist walking distance from my house. They are friends of the family. Not close, but friends nevertheless.

I have some cheap, old glasses I got off the internet. They are a prescription behind and hurt my eyes and nose by the end of the day. That's what I've been wearing since I lost my good glasses on Saturday, March 3rd.

Called for an appointment because it was close enough to time for my yearly visit and want to make sure my prescription hasn't change again. They got me in on Thursday March 8th. The waiting room was full. Several of us had to stand waiting to be taken care of. Felt rushed through the whole process. I get my exam, no change.

I know exactly which glasses I want. They are outrageously expensive but I know that going in. They are rimless, super light with progressive lenses and quite durable. Total cost near $1000. Out of pocket around $350 with insurance, and flex spending kicked in etc.

They order them. I wait. Head aches everyday due to cheap old glasses. Eight days later, I call. Still no glasses.

I call today 12 days after my appointment. They say the frames came in yesterday and they Fed Ex'd them to the lab for the lenses today and they should have them by Monday or Tuesday of next week which would be 18-19 days after my appointment.

Now, right now I'm not complaining about the busy office or the insane cost of these glasses. I'm just wondering if this sort of wait time is typical for nice, progressive lens glasses? Almost 3 weeks? What if I didn't have these back up glasses? If this is normal, I'll address the sloppy office service with the optometrist, again, a friend of the family. If not, I'm going to call them, cancel the glasses and go find someone else. I'm fairly new to this glasses stuff and they are the only place I've ever been. It just seems nuts to have to wait almost 3 weeks for $1000 glasses. Just curious to hear other's experience.

The poor service and outrageous prices are what drove me to Zenni on line glasses. I still have to go to the thieving local place for the exam but that's it. I've been real pleased with Zenni and will continue to use them.

 

[Streetcar]

Most decent sized cities will let you get glasses the same day.
Just got pair of progressive bifocals with transition tinting for my mom. $300 ready in one hour
Frames were $100 lenses were $200

 

[nybirdman]

Kind of went through the same thing a year ago;I was months before new glasses were right,ordered a frame that was no longer produced(the optician's fault).When you get a eye exam you own the prescription and get your glasses any-where.$1,000 for new glasses is insane.

 

[N80]

To be fair, the $1000 is just on paper. And with insurance the exam costs me nothing. But, the actual cash price of these is about $600. Still insane. But, they are insanely light and insanely good optics. The frame pieces are titanium. Made in Austria. I know, I know....sounds ridiculous but regular glasses by the end of the day have my nose sore and these hardly weigh anything.

And the back up glasses I have are from EyeBuyDirect. They are progressive, rimless and pretty decent for about $50. But they are heavy, in comparison, and the optical quality is noticeably less. So for now, I'm sticking with these expensive ones. The brand is Silhouette.

There are other optometrists in the area that carry this brand. Maybe it would take them all three weeks with this brand, I don't know. But too me, three weeks sounds like too much time for someone who wouldn't be able to do anything if he hadn't purchased some cheap back -up glasses off the internet....which only took one week to arrive.

I'll look into Zenni as well.

 

[bunyip]

There is the joke about the Jewish optometrist teaching his son the trade, how do you decide on a price asked the son, well, you show the customer the frame and then say the lenses are $250, if he doesn't flinch you then say each.
Typically here (me anyway) single focus lens about $200, bifocal $300, +photochromatic $200 so mine are $500 plus the sunglass attachment and the frames, last ones cost me about $700.
Wifes were $900 with graduated tri focal and frames with photochromatic.
Mine are a plastic tortoiseshell hers are titanium.
On a sidenote the difference between good sunglasses and cheap are the curve, a good lens will have what is called a 6 or 8 base curve which is roughly the same contour as the eyeball and the result is no peripheral distortion, cheap lens are flat or just a aesthetic curve that achieves little and you can notice distortion when looking around the frame moving your eyes only, Ihad a friend who used to manufacture sunglasses that were of exceptional quality, I used to write his ads for magazine advertising and never paid for sunglasses for about ten years, regretably he sold the business now I have to buy my own again but he showed me a lot about optics and materials.

 

[fried1765]

The poor service and outrageous prices are what drove me to Zenni on line glasses. I still have to go to the thieving local place for the exam but that's it. I've been real pleased with Zenni and will continue to use them.

I had cataract surgery, and no longer need glasses (except for $10 reading cheaters), but my ophthalmologist, who is a personal friend, recommends Zenni to all his friends.

 

[N80]

I've got prescription, progressive Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses that I love. I know the Wayfarer style isn't that hip these days, but its what I've always worn.

I started with these Silhouette brand glasses when I was looking at different frames for my first pair of non-reader glasses. I was about set on a typical, fairly inexpensive frame when the optician handed me a pair of the rimless Silhouettes. They were so light I was immediately sold....even after almost fainting at the price.

And since this thread is already rambling I'll tell you guys the back story as to what happened.

I was walking the property line of my land along a fairly high creek bank, about 6 feet above the water. This 'creek' only flows when its wet and we've had a fair amount of rain lately so there was water in it. Anyway, I noticed an old no-trespassing sign that my father had made years ago out of a license plate down in the leaves right on the creek bank. I leaned over to pick it up and when I went to take a step my foot was caught in some barbed wire and I fell forward onto the edge of the creek bank and then went head first into the creek right into about a foot of water. I have no idea where my glasses went. We looked but could not find them. It was cold that day and I was soaked and I went into the water with my Nikon D750 ($1800) and a 35mm Nikkor lens ($300). So I was focused on the probably ruined camera and the fact that I was freezing. My wife was there and dried off the camera after I bounced up out of the water and tossed it to her. We came back later that day and could not find the glasses anywhere.

I was lucky just to have some bumps and bruises and no serious injuries.

The camera was malfunctioning in a number of ways but there was never any water in the shutter box and after doing all the electronics drying tips it has returned to normal function.......so I was blessed in a number of ways.

Losing the glasses stinks but it all could have been much worse. If the camera and lens had been trashed it would have been about a $3200 tumble.

I've fallen in the woods more times than I can count but this one takes the cake!