As i have a really strong prescription, i have been forced all my life to buy the lowest quality available on the market because of the price the opticians were charging me in Canada. Before i found any eyeglasses on internet, my prescription cost me between 800$ for single vision and 1200$ for progressive lenses. With my low income, i was wearing a 14 years old pair of glasses with so much scratch that i wasn't even cleaning anymore because i couldn't see any difference.
A couple years ago i found that some cheap eyeglasses were available on the web but i was skeptic about it. I tried three of these websites and compared their products.
With my high cylinder prescription, i had a pretty limited choice at first because the glass was so thick that the first site i have tried (zennioptical) were unable to do it under 1.67 index polycarbonate and also limited my choice to full rim metal frames. They also were charging a 9$ over charge for my left eye high cylinder(+4.00).This was cranking the bill to about 85$
The second one (goggles4u) was only offering me 1.71 glass lenses and cannot offer me anti-glare coating. But they can do plastic and metal frames for me. These were in the 70$ range.
None of these two was able to do progressive lenses for me.
I had two pairs of each of these two sellers on a two years period and i was satisfied but not amazed.
Recently i found Glassesshop.com and they were able to do my single vision prescription in any of their offered index.
The only limitation was that progressive glasses were available only in their highest index. 1.74
This was a bit more expensive that i was used to pay but what the heck, i needed those so i bought them for 175$
I was impressed with the quality of their product, So much more well built, comfortable, fashionable and precisely made. No flaw.
They also have a redeem points program and after my transaction with them, i discovered that i had 20$ worth of redeem points for a future transaction.
The same day i was browsing their site again to find what i could do with it but i was not ready to spend too much this time.
I discovered that if i was buying a single vision prescription they were offering low index for only the price of the frames. Just like for those people who have a "normal" prescription
I decided to go for it and buy a very Geek frame because it is very trendy these years and i found a very modernly made Geek frame. Their B-027 model.
I also decided to go for the lowest index to keep the Geek effect and minimize the price.
Believe it or not, i paid 9.85$ for these eyeglasses and this include anti-glare and shipping.I SIMPLY LOVE MY GEEK GLASSES, they are fun to wear, the prescription is very well done and they are not making my eyes as big as i expected. I'm about to buy another of these low index with a very unusual frame this time, just for fun.
Anyway, if you are browsing the Chinese and Pakistanese websites for eyeglasses, don't forget to try Glassesshop.com.
Their quality is awesome and they can do it all.
I'm just wondering why the Canadian opticians are charging so much more for the same results. That's not fair.