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Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

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Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#121

Post by mmastrac »

Epskampie wrote: post #88
Void_ wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this technique a real thing? Can we get an expert's opinion?

I'm not an expert, but I researched it a bit online since I found a charlatan who was promising people they could get rid of glasses completely. Expert opinion is that this is not possible, myopia is a physical condition that cannot be reversed easily. It is possible to get used slightly weaker lenses, but this is mostly your brain learning to adjust to the slight fuzziness. This seems in line with what tianmingwu ex…

Is that EndMyopia / BackTo2020? I signed up for the "email intro" just to see what it's about, but it's really just a bunch of breathless testimonials and random references saying that you should wear slightly less strong glasses than your prescription.

He's basically trying to get people to pay $99 for a forum to talk about the same stuff.

The TL;DR for his program seems to be that glasses cause myopia to worsen, especially wearing distance glasses for close-up work. Might have something to it, but not $99 for.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#122

Post by dreamcompiler »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #116
blackbrokkoli wrote: post #40

Title correction: Why are glasses so expensive in the US? The American eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry. Please stop using the US as the "that's how it is"-standard. In Germany, you pay a very reasonable (from my layman perspective) price for the lenses, maybe about 40$ plus another 30$ if you want to have non-reflective glasses or product from big name producers and stuff like that. Like every fashion pr…

They're very reasonable in Japan too. If you visit Japan, bring your eyeglass prescription. There are lots of stores in Tokyo that grind their own glass that are not owned by Luxottica. This is how I got the best (and cheapest) pair of glasses I've ever owned.

Postscript: My Japanese friends tell me they get their glasses from South Korea, because they're even better.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#123

Post by birdman3131 »

lowercased wrote: post #69
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm seeing more and more of these "smart headphones" that happen to maybe increase selective noises and cancel some others out but are not "hearing aids" due to the medical device designation.

i've been using bose qc20 for a few years for the noise cancelling. I'm curious about the 'hearphones' - to know if the effect is similar to the qc20 'pass through' mode - which still muffles some background noise but opens up to allow voice frequencies through. can't get any clarification if the effect is similar or something radically new, and don't want to spend that much $ to find out. :)

I have a pair of Sony MDX-1000X headphones. Very good noise canceling. Passthru is a joke though. Everything passthru is slightly usable. Vvice passthru is horrible.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#124

Post by tzs »

dawhizkid wrote: post #46
jawns wrote: post #15

Reminder, if you're in the US, the FTC says your eye doctor must give you your prescription after your exam. If a doctor refuses to do so, they can face legal action and penalties. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/05/buying-prescriptio... That said, I don't think the FTC stipulates what information must appear on the prescription. Many docs leave off your PD (pupillary distance), which is a necessary measuremen…

biggest scam is that glasses/contact prescriptions only last a year in the US

I wonder if that depends on state and/or who prescribes it?

I got a new prescription in 2017-07-07, and just took a look at it. It says it expires 2019-07-07.

I'm in Washington, and got it at Walmart.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#125

Post by traek »

unmole wrote: post #109
traek wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a US newspaper. Do you also ask the German media to specify Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in every headline?

Angela Merkel is Germany's Chancellor, not Prime Minister.

Fixed, thanks.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#126

Post by jimmydddd »

themodelplumber wrote: post #45
fma wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did my vision exam last week at Costco. The Costco optometrist is independent from the eye glass department, which is owned by Costco and you need a member ID to buy from. The prescription had PD on there. When I used to do target or lens crafter... I had to ask.

I went to a local business a while back, where the optometrist was about 2-3 years away from retirement. I didn't want to offend them but politely and clearly stated that I would like to get my prescription. Still, they made a big act about parading me through their small collection of frames, and even suggested a few they thought I should try on. Just to humor them for a bit, I put on a pair and they made me look li…

The sad thing is that it appears that (in the US) for optomtrists, the eye exam is just a loss leader for the eye glass purchase in the "store" they also own. I assume my eye dr. went to college, medical school, and then some additional training (2 more years?). He does a very comprehensive eye exam, and my VSP insurance only pays him around $70 for the exam.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#127

Post by stevewodil »

uf wrote: post #103
Epskampie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might consider an ultrasonic glasses cleaner. They are pretty cheap (around €50), and clean without touch.

Thanks, I’ll check that out. But otoh it’s another thing you’d have to carry around. I‘ll also try buying glasses online as suggested elsewhere. I do that with contact lenses already (dailies for when I’m on stage).

I've had good luck with eyebuydirect, and have heard some good things about Zenni too.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#128

Post by LastZactionHero »

throwawaymath wrote: post #16

It would also be nice to not need a prescription for contact lenses in the United States.

Second! My prescription hasn't changed in 10 years, do I really need to keep going through this?

And recently, it seems like all the optometrists have started tacking on a $40 "contact fitting fee" that technically isn't part of the insurance-covered exam.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#129

Post by CarriersSuck »

CompelTechnic wrote: post #76
dawhizkid wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

biggest scam is that glasses/contact prescriptions only last a year in the US

Which brings up another benefit of using an online eyewear vendor: they let you type your own prescription in. If you are personally fine with using a two-year-old prescription, do it. When I ordered glasses a year ago, I also played around with the idea of eliminating astigmatism from my prescription by adjusting the cylinder value to 0 (it was only .25 in one eye and .50 in the other) and offsetting the sphere valu…

That's awesome. Anything more than about a half diopter and you'll probably not get away with that in glasses. Contacts can go a little higher. I'm personally astigmatism sensitive, so I have to be spot on for degree and diopter.

Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry

#130

Post by bergesenha »

sftwds wrote: post #75
jawns wrote: post #15

Reminder, if you're in the US, the FTC says your eye doctor must give you your prescription after your exam. If a doctor refuses to do so, they can face legal action and penalties. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/05/buying-prescriptio... That said, I don't think the FTC stipulates what information must appear on the prescription. Many docs leave off your PD (pupillary distance), which is a necessary measuremen…

It doesn't hurt to ask! The last time I got my eyes examined was at some cheap lenscrafters-type store which had a promotion for 2 pairs of glasses and an eye exam for ~$60. The PD wasn't on the prescription, but the doctor made the measurement after I asked about it. There was a very limited selection of glasses that were available for the 2-for-$60 promotion, and they really tried to upsell me to more expensive fra…

Around here the store has some cheap frames they use for advertizing. The problem is they look like something a crazy old aunt would wear, with wild coloring. If you want anything like normal glasses you have to pay for the expensive brands. It’s really sad seeing institutionalized and less fortunate people wearing those cheap glasses...
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