I would also like to know why it takes my HMO (Kaiser) 6 weeks to make lenses, and why their invoices don’t list what products they sold you.
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
#92Title 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…
I had to pay €150 for lenses in Finland. And this was at Specsavers, the "cheap" place. Frames were only €30 though. Maybe you have a very simple prescription.
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#93Reminder, 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…
However, you can easily measure your own pupillary distance exactly down to the millimeter with a ruler and a mirror.
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#94Title 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…
The original article too long for you to get through? ;-)
The company that basically owns the entire eyewear industry top-to-bottom is Italian. Just merged with a French company.
I know it's popular on HN to talk about how crappy the US is, but in this case you jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#95The bridge of my nose is shaped weird apparently and it makes most glasses not fit very well, they tend to slide down all the time. I've gone to different places and perplexed the people there trying to help me find something that fit properly. They said everything sits too far off my face. I dunno what to do but push my glasses up. I basically cant buy any of the cheap online options though because they never fit.
I have a similar problem. I measure glasses that do fit and buy ones with the same dimensions using the search tool on Goggles4U. Sometimes they still don’t fit but are good emergency pair. I also heavily bend the part that goes behind the ear so they look more like an L than a hockey stick or straight line (like glasses meant for headphones/aviation).
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#96Reminder, 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…
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 outside his scope of expertise to diagnose or make medical recommendations.
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#97Reminder, 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
My insurance fully covers annual exams, so that doesn't bother me too much. If the period between covered exams was longer than the prescription period, yeah, I'd be peeved.
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#98I enjoyed the Adam Ruins Everything segment on Luxottica... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAeHuDcy_bY
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hearing aides are also insanely cheap to produce, they are not complicated devices and that market is only surviving due to the medical device status of them causing a high barrier to entry.
I wouldn't say "insanely cheap", from what I understand the production costs are something like $50-$150 per unit (not per pair!) and that's with cheap overseas labor, although cheaper devices exist. They are not complicated devices inasmuch as we don't consider circuits complicated, any more. There's a lot of R&D that has gone into making those things work the way they do. I do think that the prices are inflated, an…
Those are similar COGS to like, iphones, a luxury good. If they only cost $600-1000 I think that'd be significantly less egregious than $2000-3000.
Re: Why are glasses so expensive? The eyewear industry prefers to keep that blurry
#100I'm the CTO of an online eye test for the European market ( https://easee.online ). We work together with online retailers that want to offer prescription glasses at much lower costs and they need us to go fully online. The industry has had pretty absurd margins for years, and that's fine for the fashion aspect of course, but I believe there should be affordable options for everyone, especially as the plastic only co…
Looks interesting, I'll check it out!
FYI your copy hasn't been translated from Dutch everywhere on the English site. (Ik hou echt de stroopwafels!) Also your scrolljacking really works badly on Firefox mobile, it scrolls back up a bit five seconds after I scroll down, making it super annoying.