Speaker 1: Ordering your prescription eyeglasses on the internet without human interaction just sounds like a bad idea, but I did it. I learned a lot. And I'm gonna walk you through the process and tell you what mistakes to avoid. Turns out. It's not as bad as I assumed it would be. And it's worth a try. Even if you have a complicated prescription.
Speaker 2: I see,
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Bridget Carey, and I can see squat without corrective lenses. I'm always rocking contacts [00:00:30] when I do videos Fornet, but today we get to explore. The glass is wearing side of my life. Nerd alert. Oh, I shouldn't done that. I'm still wearing contacts. I always bought glasses in person, but working from home all this time with little kids has been bad news for my be speckled life. I needed a backup pair and I didn't wanna spend a lot of time or money. Prescriptions are very exact. I thought for sure, if I order online, I'm gonna get something wrong. I don't even like to [00:01:00] buy shoes online. How all I supposed to buy glasses online and know if it's gonna look good and not screw up my vision. Why not do a little journalistic experimentation? Right? I am nearsighted. My glasses are used for backups around the house. I like my frames to be fun. I like bright, happy colors. And so I went hunting for a spare pair that can hopefully handle being tossed around a bit.
Speaker 1: [00:01:30] Now my experience will be different from yours, but I hope you could take away some lessons from my journey. And if there's any online glasses, retailer that you wanna learn more about, there's gonna be links to everything featured in the description below. So I started with Warby Parker and I thought it was gonna be a winner since it's the only online glasses site that I've actually heard of before. But I was disappointed in the selection. Warby Parker will mail frames to your house to try on for free, but it does limit the colors and styles [00:02:00] that you could have sent to you. And the samples were even less colorful in person. If that was even possible. Now I did manage to find one sample in red, but it was too small for my eyes. Like the frame just interrupted my vision. You can tell it just a little bit.
Speaker 1: Now I had five frames sent to my home to try on, and I just had one week to send them back frames. You get have plain glass. You're not getting anything with a prescription. So you're not getting the true weight [00:02:30] of what your final glasses would be. This is more about judging the look of the frame. I'm not used to glasses that wing up that much, but it's a little more fun. All right, you're in the maybes. I was searching for the most colorful ones, but to me, they all felt pretty basic and kind of similar, not bad, but just not for me. I could take selfies though, to think about the frames for later. And I appreciated that I could easily pack them back up in [00:03:00] a provided box, no fuss or anything to fill out. The experience was very different. However, on two other websites, I tried glasses USA and I buy direct because they give you your actual prescription in the lens and frame together, all finished mailed to your house.
Speaker 1: So the glasses are the final product. And if you don't like it, you have two weeks to return it before you get charged. That felt like a lot of pressure to get it right when you're not an expert in the field and these sites, don't always hold your [00:03:30] hand to tell you everything you need to know. You can get your doctor to send you your basic prescription. Like what number you are in each eye, but you may not get every piece of information you need. For example, these sites will ask you for something called a PD number and it's on you to figure it out. It means PARY distance. The measurement in millimeters between your pupils, not every doctor's office will give you a PD number over phone. [00:04:00] It's not even listed on the prescription paper. My doctor told me they didn't have my PD number in my record, even though I've ordered glasses from them before.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, you may need to sweet talk your optician or go in person to get a fresh measurement. If they gave it out easily, maybe they know you would buy glasses online. And instead of what the doctor oof, some websites like glasses, USA will tell customers if you don't know your PD number, just leave it at 62. No, no don't [00:04:30] do that. Don't guess it may not be a complete disaster to be a little off in your number. If you have something simple, like single vision lenses, but it's your eyes don't play around here. Other places like I buy direct heavy tutorial on how to measure yourself. There's a ruler you can print out and you just put it up to your eyes in the mirror, but it was not easy to measure my own eyes. So you may want to recruit someone at home to help it still may not be perfect, but it can get close.
Speaker 1: I found my PD number to be 60, 62. [00:05:00] They also ask what kind of lens you want. Now I have a heavy prescription, so I knew I should get the more expensive thinnest lens option, but I was loved unsure if I needed extra features like water resistance. That's the sort of thing I wish I could see the difference of in a store or ask an expert about this part feels weird, but if you're deciding between two or three frames and the store you're shopping from has a good return policy, just order them all at once. That [00:05:30] way you can try them on together to compare at the same time before the return window deadline closes in less than a week. I got a tealy purple and a purplely teal pair from glasses USA. I never had a glasses. This, this shape for my adult life. I'm glad I ordered two from glasses USA because one was just awful and not at all.
Speaker 1: What I expected from the picture online. Hello, there I'm a hip granny and [00:06:00] a couple days later came a lovely purple frame from I by direct, very simple, very bold. Like it came out of a comic book and it was a little larger on my face than I expected. And, uh, I'm gonna have to walk around and definitely see if there's any blurriness or if it, the, to me felt great, but I soon realized the cute colorful one was not fitting right and slipping off my nose. And I was getting one of those really strong eye strain headaches, which could be normal with new lenses, but it was influencing [00:06:30] me to return them the purple frames from eye by direct one me over, they just felt better with less of that new glasses, eye strain. And they also had this extra bendy spring in the arm joint.
Speaker 1: That's a plus to me because that means they can handle a little more punishment, not to dimension. They're just cute. There was no issues packing up the glasses, USA frames to return them. I made sure to take photos just in case and use a auto bubble wrap because I was paranoid, but [00:07:00] I was never charged for the glasses. And I didn't hear a peep afterward from glasses USA. That's a win overall. I'm pretty happy. I made it work. I got a fun color and I didn't spend a lot for a frame that feels pretty reliable. Now all of these websites had coupon codes and at the time of my purchase with high end lenses and protective coatings, it came to be a little over $100. Now, of course, everyone has different needs and different tastes. So to help get a broader perspective, I wanted to bring in two other scene video producers to join [00:07:30] me in this experimental journey of shopping for glasses online for the first time let's call 'em up. Thanks for joining me, Marta and Chris,
Speaker 3: I just wanted a second of classes. I already have my main one and I wanted something that was maybe a little bit killed or more original. So I went for semi
Speaker 4: [00:08:00] I wear glasses all day, every day, but also I have kind of a tricky prescription. I have to wear progressive lenses for reading and distance. And, uh, I used to have a prism. So I ended up getting them from glasses, usa.com, which has a huge selection of frames, but also a very, very high end selection of lenses
Speaker 1: And Marta. You were going for something affordable. So did you end up liking what you got? Was there anything that you missed out on by, [00:08:30] uh, shopping this
Speaker 3: Way? Probably the main difference was that I didn't have the option as you did of ordering several, trying them at home, returning what I didn't like. You can return them, but it's not like a full refund. I had to more carefully choose what I wanted.
Speaker 1: Parker. How about you with your prescription? Do you feel like this experience delivered for you?
Speaker 4: It actually ended up working out really well. I had picked out the frames [00:09:00] that I liked at the optometrist office, but if I had gone through and bought 'em from the eye doctor themselves, it would've been $687, but when I bought 'em through glasses, usa.com, they ended up being $327.
Speaker 1: Would you do this again? Marta?
Speaker 3: I think I would definitely do it again. I was very scared about the idea of buying glasses without actually trying them on, but this was pretty successful. I, I find that the tools that the website [00:09:30] offer me were pretty decent to get an idea of what I was getting and I am pretty happy with the quality. Um, I think I look really cute.
Speaker 4: I get a bunch of offers now from glasses USA, for sales and two for ones and things. So I've actually been considering adding to my repertoire glasses choices so I can have maybe different looks from day to day.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm happy too. I love my purple pair. I feel like [00:10:00] it really opened the door to buying more than one pair of glasses because, uh, of how easy it was to return if I didn't like something. And, uh, overall I didn't spend that much, uh, this only cost about $100.
Speaker 1: [00:10:30] So if you want something fun or simple or cheap or complex, there are options out there. Just take your time and be sure to carefully read those return policies. If you want more info, we have a links in the description along with a link to our CNET, Roundup of best overall glasses buying sites. It features more coupon co and a few other websites we didn't even get to get [00:11:00] into for our experience like overnight glasses.com for when you need something very fast. And there's lendable, which lets you swap out fresh lenses for a frame. You already love. Please hop in the comments and share your experiences and tips. Or if you have any other websites you love because on this topic at there's plenty weekend nerd out about right? Nope, Nope. Still wearing my contacts. Uh, a little dizzy. Oh yeah, yeah. Not gonna do that again. No.
