Prescription sunglasses in a week for $25.99 shipped!
Written: Jun 29 '08 (Updated Jun 29 '08)
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My seven year old son recently started wearing glasses. Since my husband and I both wear glasses and contacts - we are well aware how expensive they can be. After spending over $200 for his exam and a good pair of Flex-On glasses for him I headed online to order him his spares and his prescription sunglasses. A friend of mine had recommended this option to me since her special needs child also wears glasses. She told me that the best advice she could give me was "get a spare pair". I am sure this advice applies to any child who needs glasses, let alone one on the Autism spectrum. She pointed me to an online blog all about ordering glasses online called the Glassy Eyes Blog (http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com/) where I learned "everything I needed to know about ordering glasses online"... Wow!
There are several online websites where you can get glasses very inexpensively and I have now ordered from 2 of them - Goggles 4 U and Zenni Optical. I tried out Goggles 4 U for a pair of prescription sunglasses for my son earlier this month. I had a coupon code (from the Glassy Eyes Blog) and so I was able to save another 5% on top of my already inexpensive order.
About Goggles 4 U
www.goggles4u.com
I found an enormous selection of glasses at Goggles 4 U, to the point that it was almost a bit overwhelming. They have 'pull down' menus so you can choose if you want plastic (polyflex) frames, metal, memory metal, male, female, etc. One thing of note is that the pull-down for children's frames came up empty. This initially steered me away from this website until when I was looking at other frames I found that there is an ability to do an advanced search by size, color, etc. Using this I found that they indeed did have glasses that would fit my son and the selection was huge (way more than an optical shop in the mall!).
The most important thing you will need when ordering your glasses online is both your prescription (including a pupil distance) and measurements for the frames. You will want to know in millimeters the distance across the front and also the length of the temple. You can get the temple distance off of the inside of a current good fitting pair of glasses you already own. Then you need to measure for yourself across the front of the frame and also the lenses height and width as far as the bridge. Since the measurements are in mm you can then use these measurements as guidelines to find a frame that will work for you with similar measurements. I really liked that the Goggles 4 U site allows you to put in minimum measurements and search for frames that way. I do wish the search functions on their site could be opened up to enter in maximum sizes as well because the sheer number of frames that it yields is astonishing as is!
Frames started at $12.99 and then the pricing went up from there. After selecting frames then you need to select your lenses and lense type - whether you need single vision, photochromic, glass or CR39, how thin you want them, etc. My son got single vision lenses that I had tinted for sunglasses (80% grey). The lenses were scratch resistant and anti-glare 1.57 (thin) made of CR39 material for $13 and included the tinting for a total of $25.99.
Once your frames & lenses are selected then you need to enter your precription from a current (less than 2 year old precription). It is important to enter it exactly as is from the precription and make sure you don't flip any measurements from negative to positive or vice versa. They do have an extra $5 charge if the prescription is particularly strong but that didn't apply to us. A measurement that you need when ordering online is the PD (pupillary distance). You can find instructions on how to measure the PD for yourself online at Goggles 4 U or the Glassy Eyes Blog. In our case I got it from the optical place that we had recently filled my son's dailywear glasses from.
Goggles 4 U has FREE shipping which is basic on all orders. Additional expedited shipping can be added up for up to $12 extra.
Checkout was easy enough and there were options to pay via secure credit card payment as well as paypal. I had some money in my paypal account so I opted for that. An email was sent to me when the order was placed that included all of the order details (including the prescription). The email included a link in it for tracking purposes so that I could go online to see when the order shipped. In our case the order was placed on the 10th and then shipped on the 13th. It did take about a week to arrive from them from the west coast (CA) where they are located to the east coast (NJ) where we live.
When my son's sunglasses arrived they were as expected and fit perfectly. I was glad that I had done "all my homework" ahead of time to know the measurements that I needed and made sure the frames were just the right size for him. For $25.99 I was able to get him prescription sunglasses so that his eyes could be protected and he could still see. Since the "cheap" sunglasses you can get for kids tend to range from $5-15 I was able to just spend a little bit more on Goggles 4 U and get his 'made to order' without breaking the bank.
All in all, a good thing since my son's glasses were broken a week later (not the glasses fault) but simply a result of a 7 year old enjoying summer camp. Goggles 4 U doesn't have a warranty on their frames against breakage, so I have since had to order him a new pair. I'm frustrated that my son's glasses broke but the way they broke could have happened to any frames - I had the same breakage occur on my designer frames that cost me way more than $25.99 (nearly 20 times that). If it had been several hundred dollar glasses broken - I'd have had a fit. As it is, I was able to just go back online and order a new pair and go on my way - no broken budget.
I'd absolutely order from Goggles 4 U again, and recommend them to anyone looking for discount frames and specifically for presciption made to order sunglasses in about a week.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: MT
Location: Jersey Shore
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