Freak369's Full Review: Coopervision Vantage Thin Fw Contact Lenses
My former optometrist is a complete moron. Not only did she screw up my first eye exam and insist that my prescription had changed [after 17 years of the same strength], she ordered me lenses that I didn’t want, didn’t ask for and made clear that I could not wear. If you wear lenses and you suffer from calcium build up you know that the disposable ones are the way to go; when they start to feel dry or scratchy you toss them out and break open a new blister pack. After telling her that I flat out refused to pay for them she smugly said, “They were already billed to your credit card” and handed me the little bag with them in it. I called my credit card company and filled them in on the details and they said that they would take care of it because I never authorized her to charge the lenses to my card, only the exam and first set of disposable lenses. Why would I want contact lenses that are ‘year long’ wear when I know that I can’t wear them for more than a month without pitting happening? The credit card company said that they refused to take them as a return because they were a “special order” item but they were going to reverse the charges because I never authorized the purchase or signed anything for them. Considering that I had the $120.00 taken off my card I figured I might as well use them, after all the trouble I went through, I wasn’t going to throw them out.
CooperVision Vantage Thin FW Contact Lenses
The CooperVision Vantage Thin FW Lenses come packaged in small bottles instead of the small plastic and foil blister packs that the disposables come in. Since I normally wear the same prescription in both eyes [contrary to what the former optometrist claims] I had a little bit of trouble remembering which lens went in which eye, she didn’t even bother to write “L” or “R” on the containers for me. Thankfully I dug out a slip that had the strengths written on it and was able to put them in the correct eye - I did this knowing full and well that I wouldn’t have perfect vision from these. At first they felt good but my vision was drifting, one minute things were clear and the next minute one eye would get a little blurry. This happened a lot when I would be reading something and then look up at something more than a few feet away. Some of that has to be the fault of the incorrect prescription but after wearing them for about six hours my eyes felt itchy and dry. I used some ReNu Rewetting Drops and tried to stick it out. It was no use, these things were just too uncomfortable to wear.
Now, before you ask me if I had them in wrong, they were in correctly. There was a little bit of slippage when I would blink so I took them out to see if I had them in backwards but they were indeed in correctly. I took them to my new optometrist and he chuckled; “I don’t like those, I don’t like those at all”. The first problem he saw was that the base curve wasn’t correct; second was the diameter, it was off as well. That could have been part of the reason why they weren’t all that comfortable but even though they were not ‘sized’ right, having them on my eye wasn’t fun at all. After being charged sixty dollars for each eye [the charges were reversed but still, the cost is outrageous] I expected these to fit perfectly. If the credit card company hadn’t reversed the charges I would have been stuck with these. I didn’t really care for any of the CooperVision lenses that I tried at either optometrists office and my new doctor was pretty satisfied with keeping me in one of the Acuvue series of lenses. On a side note, CooperVision claims that these are deposit free, I can’t comment on that because I have only worn them from time to time when I was out of lenses or the pair I was wearing were soaking. Pitting and deposits usually occur after two weeks of wear for me and I haven’t worn these for that amount of time.
These are not disposable nor are they extended wear; simply put you can’t sleep in them or wear them for a week and toss them out. I wouldn’t suggest these lenses to anyone unless they own stock in CooperVision or have some loyalty to the company. Why? For the price you can get almost a years worth of disposable lenses and have ones that feel completely comfortable in your eye, eliminate the need to have to soak or clean them with an enzyme product and if you lose one it’s not that big of a deal. I did send CooperVision a letter about what happened; I wanted to send them the lenses as well as the containers to see if there was something wrong with them as well as letting them know what my former optometrist had done [ordering them when I said I didn’t want them and charging my credit card]. I don’t doubt that they are an upstanding company with nice products, they just aren’t for me. I received a letter back from them with a prepaid postage label, they asked me to send the lenses back to them with any containers I had left. Less than two weeks later they replied again and said that the lenses were defect free. They did ask me to have my new eye doctor call them and they would arrange to have some sample lenses of some of their other lines for me to try. Again, I am not jeering CooperVision, 95% of this situation was the fault of an optometrist that clearly has no people skills.
Even though it sounds like I am really slamming these, they are thin and light weight. This might be beneficial to someone that has sensitive eyes or needs something that is thinner than your usual run of the mill contact lens. Of course with the thinness comes the risk of them ripping or tearing when you are putting them or when you are taking them out - especially if your eyes are dry. I didn’t have any problem getting these inserted or removing them but my eyes were extremely red when I did take them out. It goes without saying that some people just can’t wear certain types of contact lenses, in my case, most CooperVision products just don’t feel right when I am wearing them. Their customer service team really did go above the call of duty when helping me out and they arranged to have samples sent to my new doctor [CooperVision Expressions Accents and CooperVision Expressions]. If your doctor suggests these for you make sure that you ask a lot of questions first before you purchase them; once you open the box or take delivery of them, you may have a hard time getting your money back if they don’t work out for you. Your doctor should have samples of other CooperVision products for you to try, if they don’t then ask them for a contact lens that doesn’t require that you sell internal organs to buy them.
The Bottom Line
I didn’t have any luck with these and if I hadn’t contacted my credit card company about this, I would have eaten about $120.00 in contact lenses. Thankfully everything worked on in the end but it was a stressful situation that was completely unnecessary. From now on I am sticking with my new optometrist and his recommendation that I wear disposable lenses. Ironically enough, when he examined me again a few weeks ago he gave me the same exact prescription that I’ve had for the past seventeen years. These lenses might be good for a select few people but they weren’t comfortable for me and they didn’t do much to correct my vision problems. Always consult a qualified optometrist before you go shopping online to buy contact lenses, it’s better to make a call and ask a few questions than risk getting something that isn’t going to work for you.
Vantage Thin is a comfortable, deposit resistant year long lens. It is a good lens option for people with dry, sensitive eyes.More at Discount Contact Lenses
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