Spectacles ' second pair free' rip off?

[andygo]

I've just ordered some new specs from Boots. Costing me £75 for a pair to let me see better long range and another pair for working on my PC. The deal was 25% off 1st pair and second pair 1/2 price. They come with anti scratch and anti reflective coatings.

The frames are pretty cheap and cheerful I suppose, but I tend not to worry about spec fashion when in the car, watching telly or on my pc as I'm in my own little world and don't give a toss what I look like in there!

[Sargeant Orange]

clonmult said:

I had my first eye test in 20 years over the christmas break, now need reading glasses (also for work, gazing at a screen). Amazing the difference its made on books. Interestingly I went to the local Tesco, got some fairly reasonable frames, free eye test, £20 for the glasses. Perfect.

I was thinking of cleaning with the various products I have for cleaning the cameras lenses. I tend to keep the cameras immaculate.

+1 for Tesco

Free eye tests with an online booking system plus my contact lenses work out cheaper than anywhere else & free delivery to my door

[clonmult]

Sargeant Orange said:

clonmult said:

I had my first eye test in 20 years over the christmas break, now need reading glasses (also for work, gazing at a screen). Amazing the difference its made on books. Interestingly I went to the local Tesco, got some fairly reasonable frames, free eye test, £20 for the glasses. Perfect.

I was thinking of cleaning with the various products I have for cleaning the cameras lenses. I tend to keep the cameras immaculate.

+1 for Tesco

Free eye tests with an online booking system plus my contact lenses work out cheaper than anywhere else & free delivery to my door

I was very pleasantly surprised; obviously it'll vary from store to store, but ours was pretty good. I was expecting to have to put in an expenses claim for the test and the glasses, but to be honest our expenses system is such a pain that its not worth it for £20.

Sheepshanks said:

Liquid soap - I use a drop of Johnsons baby stuff, but we have a baby - rinse off with cold water and dry off with hanky. In a perfect world a hanky that had been washed with fabric conditioner would be best.

Be careful of hot water (indeed anything hot) as it can damage any lens coating. Don't use tissue as they scratch plastic lenses.

I'm new to this facial optics lark. Are these things likely to be plastic lenses? I always thought they were glass ... I feel a derp moment coming.

[richcorsavxr]

Thanks for the above, popped into asda and picked up a cleaning spray for 99p. Seems to have done the job.

[Sheepshanks]

clonmult said:

I'm new to this facial optics lark. Are these things likely to be plastic lenses? I always thought they were glass ... I feel a derp moment coming.

Nearly always plastic except for the strongest prescriptions or other special cases. Plastic is much lighter than glass.

[yanmar]

Having to wear glasses for over far too many years, the last pair around £ 900.00 , this is really interesting. Vision Express was the last few checks have taken place, after reading this I think no longer. Don't know if I could go down the internet route, Pitpony said try Costco. Is there any sort of cut price other options? Many thanks to all, been really interesting

[Twincharged]

richcorsavxr said:

Daft question....
So as of yesterday I've starting wearing glasses (first eye test in 10 years). It's like going from standard definition to high definition, brilliant! Anyway.....
How do you clean your lenses? The cloth that came in the case dosent do a fat lot leaving smear marks over the lenses. Are there any techniques to cleaning them or products available to clean them? Any help appreciated

I use glasses lens wipes like these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/181462045603?limghl...
They come in individual sachets, so they are handy for on the go. Other than that, I tend to wipe them with a wet soft paper towel/kitchen roll and dry them off - both methods work well. You can scratch the lenses if there are bits of grit in there, but that's true of any lens wiping method.

The lens cloth and spray opticians sell is pretty much useless I find - the cloth just soaks up the fluid, so you're basically just wiping the glasses with a dry cloth.

[jamoor]

Buy a microfibre cloth.

[Tafia]

Took my wife's new glasses back yesterday and one lady suggested the problem was not with the new glasses ( reading area does not focus with both eyes) but rather that the previous Specsavers pair was wrong but my wife had become used to them so could not adapt to the new pair which were actually correct!

Like an out-of-step squaddie in a platoon of 20 soldiers claiming he was in step and all the others were wrong.

I pointed out that for that explanation to be correct, four opticians in three different towns would have all had to make the same error as my wife has never had a problem when moving to the new varifocal pair of which she has had four new presciptions since she began using progressive lens.

They are now sending the lens back to be altered.

[Sheepshanks]

Tafia said:

Took my wife's new glasses back yesterday and one lady suggested the problem was not with the new glasses ( reading area does not focus with both eyes) but rather that the previous Specsavers pair was wrong but my wife had become used to them so could not adapt to the new pair which were actually correct!

Funnily enough I had a similar reason for an issue with varifocals but the original and the new pair were from Specsavers.

I don't fully understand it, but the new pair used prism thinning (which is apparently normal) but the original pair hadn't and I couldn't tolerate the effect produced because I wasn't used to it. I'm not sure I buy that - to me, mid-range vision was not as sharp as it should have been.

Anyway, they changed both (2 for 1 deal) new pairs without question.