Spend the money to get real glasses.
Written: Jun 13 '08
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If you are only a little bit blind, then go for it. I have a couple of friends who love their Zenni specs and have several pairs. However, if you are blinder than the average person, then STAY AWAY. Additionally, if you like guarantees, 100% refunds or ANY customer service whatsoever, then I say steer clear.
I am nearsighted, -8.5 and -9 respectively in each eye.
I ordered a set of glasses from this place, a cheap set (with standard index lenses) at first to see how they did. After several weeks and a few unresponded to e-mail from me to them, my glasses finally arrived. They were THICK, but I sort of expected that. But what I did not expect was for the lenses to not even be cut to fit the frame! On the inner corners were two gaping, obvious holes where the more ovular lenses did not meet the slightly more retro-angular frames. Well, they seemed alright enough at first and monry is tight, so I decided to get a second set of the same specs and just pay the extra $40 for the high-index (in other words, "thin as possible") lenses. I made this second purchase about 48 hours after receiving my first pair.
I should mention at this point that I, at this point, was still having the fishbowl effect that one gets from a new, stronger perscription. I have been wearing glasses since I was 4 years old, and I am 26 now, so I am pretty hep to what to expect in this department. That is, usually the first couple of hours tops you have the warping of vision and then things settle down. However, by day 3 (less than 24 hours after making second online order) I realized that this severe warping was NOT going away at all, and after doing some reasearch I realized that this was worse than I had thought. I called a number of eyeglass places, from local spots to national chains, and was given the same answer across the board: pupilary distance. If you have a pupilary distance of, say, 60, then that could mean you have 35 in one eye and 25 in the other; not just 30 and 30 even. If this measurment is off in the way the lenses are cut, then your vision will be permanently skewed through those lenses. This is why REAL places put that thing on your face to measure exactly where your pupils actually ARE, not just how far apart they are from each other. Chances were that my second pair from Zenni would be no better than the first.
So I called Zenni to try and cancel the order, as one might reasonably assume they could from any online vendor. The first few attempts I got a busy signal. I was relentless in my calling them, and finally got put through to the hold music and "you are the tenth customer in line". Then I was ninth, eighth, seventh, right on down to second, where I sat for nearly 2 hours. I had to go to work, so I hung up.
When I got home from work I tried again. Busy. Busy busy busy. In the next two days following, I was never able to get through to this place.
Finally I had to call my bank and have them CANCEL MY CARD in order to stop the payment from going through, since there was clearly no way I was reaching these people after days of trying to no avail. That was quite a fiasco with the bank and the ripple effect that cancelling my card had on the rest of my financial life, but that is a woeful tale unto itself. The point here is that I should have never had to go through that; I tried to call less than 24 hours after placing the order, to cancel it, and was never able to contact a human being. SHADY.
AFter sifting through the mounds of positive consumer reviews, I finally found a few others who had the same problems I did. One lady even said that the return address on some glasses she sent back for refund was to a GARAGE OF SOMEONE'S HOUSE.
I ended up taking the frames, which were super cute, to a real place and shelling out about $300 to get new lenses put in. My fishbowl effect was gone instantly and I could not be happier. I just wish I had never spent the $50 to begin with on the first pair, or gone through the hubbub and fees with my bank to stop payment on the second order.
BOTTOM LINE: Zero customer service, fine print reads that you only get a 50% refund if you mail them back, zero guarantees, lenses that don't even fit the frames properly, misapplied pupilary distance causing permanently skewed vision. You get what you pay for.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
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