I took my kids in for their annual eye exam yesterday and the results were just as I had expected: my son failed his eye exam (miserably) and my daughter’s eensy teeny tiny, barely-there prescription didn’t change a bit. Our insurance only covers an annual eye exam and frames + lenses every two years, unless you have a significant change, as my son did.
While he picked out his eyeglass frames, I asked the optician for a copy of my daughter’s prescription. The doctor, who had a great repertoire with the kids, asked if she was going to pick out new frames. The optician quickly explained that without a change in vision, the insurance would not cover it. He was confused about wanting a copy of the prescription.
I have a difficult time lying so I blurted out, “We will order her some $6.95 glasses from zennioptical.com.”
The only way to describe the look on the eye doctor’s face is: total disgust. His reaction was as expected; this is an argument he cannot win and is too smart to get into.
First, there’s the math problem:
Average price of designer eyeglass frames: $150
Average price of single-vision eyeglass lenses: $50
If you stop there, you’ve spent $200 on a pair of glasses and I’ll bet you the optician gets you for at least ONE upsell. You might go for the the extended warranty or the kit of special cleaning cloths or a trendy little eyeglass case. I would think the average cost of eyeglasses, not counting the exam, sits somewhere around $250.
Opticians are a pushy bunch of people. I am not sure most understand that they are salespeople, but oh, they are. Opticians are some of the slickest salespeople out there. They look like medical professionals in their white lab coats, throwing around the occasional medical-sounding term, but don’t be fooled. Their costume is designed to give an air of authority where they really have none. When they tell you how necessary the anti-reflective, UV-blocking, chemically-processed coating is… just pretend you are buying a car and they are offering you that under car rust-inhibiting spray. Listen to the pitch: if you don’t get the special spray, your car will rust out and you’ll spend a ton on replacing everything. Or, if you don’t get this chemical process on your lenses, your corneas will get scratched and you could go blind. Let your mind wander: if this shit is so damn vital, why isn’t isn’t it just included? The answer is that it is NOT vital. It’s just that this salesman will hammer on you with it continuously until you say yes because it’s the biggest spiff in his pocket.
The other side of the equation:
$250/$6.95 = 35
For the same price, you could order 35 pair of glasses. That only sounds super indulgent because the optical dispensary has been raping you (and your grandma) for as long as you can remember with 90% markups.
The optical dispensary cannot compete with zennioptical.com. When you buy from zenni, you order direct from China; there’s no guarantee that Ralph Lauren or Candie’s or Gucci frames are manufactured in the US. The optical dispensary takes 7-10 days to order my new glasses in; Zenni takes two-three weeks – well worth the wait in my opinion, for the amount of savings. I know you ask yourself, “What happens if my glasses break?” Plan ahead and order more pairs of glasses than you need. It’s simple.
While the optician has a slight edge in that they can adjust frames to fit your face better, the Zenni pairs are so cheap that if they keep sliding down my nose, I can just throw them the fuck away.
To be fair, we’d spent the half hour waiting for our appointment trying on all of the high-dollar, designer frames. The intention was never to pick something out to order that day, but to find which styles we liked to order them for 90% off online. I think that the opticians and eye doctor both noticed that we’d wandered into the high-profit area of the store. Surely they were in the back room rubbing their mitts together, declaring their victory on selling us – who probably had a freshly loaded medical spending account – as much as possible. Easy prey really, a little bit of scare goes a long way when upselling warranties (“We have kids in here daily who break their glasses and need them repaired”), coatings (“Your child’s health is very important, you don’t want his eyeballs to rust out of his head, do you?”) and accessories (“Don’t use mere window cleaner on your glasses! Use this $4/ounce special spray that buffs away scratches and eliminates wrinkles.”)
Soon enough, opticians will find a way to scare you out of ordering glasses online. Perhaps they’ll tell you about the Ryerson boy whose cheapskate parents opted for the online pair, the pair from China, only to find out that he had an inoperable brain tumor the cause of which is still unknown. I mean, *shrug*, clinically they cannot say that the Chinese import eyeglasses caused it but they can’t prove that it didn’t, either. Wink, nod, smile. “So who is picking out frames today!”
LOL, so true. I have a yearly fight with mine because I won’t buy glasses period. I wear contacts, and when I switch to glasses I puke… literally. No matter who writes the prescription or what type of glasses they are, I step out and lunch hits the sidewalk. You should hear the threats… well, you know what? Been wearing contacts 24/7 for 10 years, and never once had an issue.
So freaking true!! Last year, I bought a pair for $360. I have really bad eyes so my prescription is really strong, which means more moola. I want to buy another pair soon, so I’ll be calling my doctor for my prescip. He’s pretty good, though, about finding ways to help his patients save money. Not all docs are.
There is an advantage to seeing a doctor that does not sell glasses. I was amazed at the difference. His focus really is on patient care and not on selling me new glasses. I had always done the glass store doctor until I met DH who introduced me to his eye doctor. I have gotten much better care and never once been asked to purchase anything.