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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

#151

Post by wuliwong »

jandrese wrote: post #26

Walk into any eyeglasses store and what do you see? Tons of designer labels on everything, labels that were clearly just sold to some third party outfit to slap on their frames. As someone who generally avoids high fashion it drives me crazy to see all of those expensive and useless logos on everything along with $400 price tags. I'm glad to see all of these online outfits so ready to undercut them.

Walmart wanted to charge me $180-240 just to replace lenses in my frames. Even without a brand name it's still expensive!

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

#152

Post by cgy1 »

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…

It depends on the vendor. Warby Parker, for example, requires you to scan/upload the prescription given by your doctor, which obviously has a date on it. I guess it's always possible to just edit out or change the date on it though.

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

#153

Post by gwern »

pugworthy wrote: post #19

You want to know what's outrageously expensive, yet equally important for basic ability to function in the workplace and other situations? Hearing aids. Hearing aids are glasses for your ears. But compared to them, glasses are unbelievably dirt cheap, and basically fully covered by a lot of decent company insurance plans. Hearing aids? Not the case. Imagine if glasses cost $2-3000 per lens. PER LENS. And your company…

One word: Costco. The hearing aids alone pay for decades of membership fees.

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

#154

Post by leeoniya »

checkdigit15 wrote: post #96
bunderbunder wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nit: An optometrist is usually fine if all you need is a refraction. It's when you're dealing with something that requires medical intervention (glaucoma, pars planitis, etc.) that you need to shell out for an ophthalmologist. An optometrist can still catch that stuff, but will need to refer you for treatment.

This is a good point and also worth pointing out (in the US at least) that most ophthalmologists will be covered under your medical insurance not your eye insurance (if any) because they are medical doctors. I was getting my contact lens exam/fitting recently and the optometrist wanted me to get something checked later by an ophthalmologist. He said it was probably nothing to worry about but made it clear that it was…

my wife is an optometrist.

it's amazing the stuff she finds. she's found brain tumors and literally saved people's lives by referring them early to a neuro-ophthalmologist when they came in just to update their prescription. many latent systemic problems are also clearly visible in the eye: hypertension, diabetes, etc.

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

#155

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#156

Post by grawprog »

My girlfriend's worked in the eyecare industry for over 10 years now in just about every aspect of the industry. Cheap lenscrafter type places, respectable optometrists, opthamologists and the factories where they make glasses.

Just about everything is bullshit. The expensive brand name frames come from the same place as the cheap ones and cost the same, around $5-$10 for the store to purchase. Frames are marked up typically 200-300%.

Stuff like anti-reflective coating should not be charged extra. Most lenses are made from plastic with this built in.

Also, lenses take about 30 minutes to make on small CNC routers, which many places have in house and are usually made by the opticians working there in those cases.

While working for some of the shadier places, my girlfriend was told to straight up lie to customers(not patients....they don't think of the people that come in as patients) about what they needed to get them to spend more.

My recommendation would be to avoid opticians and chain type optometrists, they just want your money and they have no problem lying to get it.

The whole industry is ridiculously corrupt.

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

#157

Post by wgerard »

jimmydddd wrote: post #126
themodelplumber wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just a clarifying point:

Optometrists are different from Ophthalmologists. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors (i.e. they have an MD), optometrists are not. Optometry also involves post-graduate training, and results in an OD (Doctorate of Optometry).

In the type of store you're talking about, it's much more likely you'll see an optometrist, not an ophthalmologist.

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

#158

Post by 40acres »

I signed up for an HDHP and HSA when I got my first job because I wanted didn't want a premium deducted from my paycheck (young and short-sighted), turns out it was one of the best decisions I've made financially.

I'm healthy so I haven't had many medical expenses at all, but I've been able to amass a decent health emergency fund through my HSA and "splurge" on certain qualified medical expenses. For instance I got a pair of relatively expensive superscription glasses over the summer paid for through my HSA.

I know it's not for everyone, and I'd really like Congress to make an HSA more appealing to lower and middle income folks, but I think an HSA is a solid way to plan for medical expensive if you're in the right demographic.

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

#159

Post by todipa »

jimmydddd wrote: post #126
themodelplumber wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Such a waste of an education for a job that can be done by someone less trained. The only constraint is regulatory.

I get my eye exam checked every year for other more serious and complex diseases so I think there is a role for the more trained medical professionals but these exams need to be disentangled from the expensive professionals. That is the way to bring the costs down to a fraction of what they are...

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

#160

Post by rhinoceraptor »

wlesieutre wrote: post #31
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…

They also can’t require a membership to get an eye exam, so if you don’t want the pressure to buy glasses there, Costco is a safe bet. They’ll give you your prescription and literally wouldn’t sell me glasses even if I wanted them, since I wasn’t a store member. I did have to measure my own IPD though, which I did with a ruler and a mirror. EDIT: another reply notes that they did get their IPD at Costco, so this migh…

A tip for anyone measuring their own PD, shine a bright light in your eyes so your pupils constrict. That will make finding the center a bit easier.
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