Prescription glasses

[Pommier]

I've just had an email from Glasses2You offering free delivery within Europe and 10% off (with code OCT10) just until 31st October.

[Chancer]

Just ordered mine from California but no doubt they are made and will be despatched from the far east, googles4you.com, I used them last year and was very happy, 4 pairs of reading and distance glasses $72 inc delivery, little over £40 I think.

The website doesnt work for me though, it will not give me the option to buy frames with lenses so I had to do it all via live chat with Samantha which was good that I was able to but rather tedious, not sure what time of day it is there or even which country the person was in!!

Anyway could someone else tell me if they can get to the checkout for a frame with lenses please, I think I had the same problem last year.

I can recommend them going by my last order, and will update when I recieve these.

[Chancer]

Bah!!! [:(]

After ordering I found the frames at $0 and then a voucher in my inbox for free delivery on the first pair, I need only have paid $45 for the 4 pairs including delivery!

How much are 4 pairs of specs from a French optician?

 

[Pierre ZFP]

Well of course glasses are expensive if you go to an Optician

 

They can see you coming!

 

(I'll get me coat)

[tinabee]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Thats a sensible procedure Tina and must add significantly to the overall cost as its effectively 3 lots of postage but I would think that it does work well.

Please let us know of the results as I am considering trying varifocals again.

in the meantime I will look at their site for single vision ones.

[/quote]

Glasses arrived during the week and friends are delighted with them. So much so that they want to order tinted lenses for the spare (free) frames they already have. The cost of 2 sets of tinted varifocal lenses - £140.

For information, so far I have only paid one lot of postage of £3.95, but I assume there will be an additional cost of postage for the 2 sets of tinted lenses.

 

[mint]

Tinabee, a big thank you.  It's kind of you to take the trouble to report back.  Indeed, I have been awaiting your reaction before ordering.[kiss]

[Chancer]

I had problems adapting to my new glasses, my right, undamaged eye is long sighted (age related presbtyte) and in the left during one of the last operations they put an ocular implant set to be very short sighted for reading and working up close.

In daily life teh right eye is used for everything beyond arms reach and the left for everything closer than that, it took some while to adapt but now the brain functions that way, I can close the non operative eye whilst viewing close or far and nothing changes.

The reading glasses were fine and the distance ones great except when I wanted to work, look at the computer, read etc, I had to take them off as many of you no doubt do with your own pairs.

So last night I cannibalised the 4 pairs to make 2 pairs with the long distance lenses in the right eye and close ones in the left and its superb [:D] No need for varifocals for me!

The remaining donor pairs of glasses are now reading glasses with only the right lens in the frame!

I doing this work I discovered just how clever the semi-rimless frame system is, you can change the lenses without any tools. Also the quality of the $5 frames from goggles4U.com are superb.

 

[Judith]

[quote user="Loiseau"]Used to make our windows rattle three times a day in SW London, but I forgave it everything as it was such a beautiful sight.

Angela[/quote]

Couldn't hear ourselves at a BBQ one, but a you say, a beautiful sight.  Sadly missed.

[Judith]

Late onto this thread, but I feel I do have something to contribute:

Until this time  last year when some of you might remember I had cataracts removed, I had spent 60 years wearing very strong glasses, the last 15 of then, varifocal .... we are not talking about the sort most of you on here are talking about, but -15, -12 .... ie very strong, with astigmatism, and with varifocals they need to fit absolutely correctly, with the lens fitted accurately to your eye, or they are worse than useless.  Since I've had  a lot of eye tests over the years ... and glasses fitted (and re-fitted, many times as the slightest knock or misalignment meant I couldn't see) both in France and in the UK, I know how many measurements they need to take, and how crucial a good fit can be. 

It was a French optician who first told me that one eye was fractionally lower than the other ... and adjusts for it each time he has (had) to refit my glasses.

I accept that the price of French specs is more than in the UK, but you lucky souls have no idea about costs of complex lenses ... even in the UK I was lucky to get away with under £600, even with relatively low priced frames .... and two for one or other reductions was NEVER an option for me, though I would dearly have liked a spare pair, they were  never offered at a reduced price.

After the op I was finally able to wear a pair of only -1, -2 spec (what bliss!) but I still needed varifocals, and I am still astigmatic, so need prescription reading glasses (easier than being a nodding donkey at the computer) as well as a full pair for driving, so I considered using an online service, but thought of the difficulties even now of wearing varifocals which don't fit correctly (yes, one eye is still lower than the other) and thought, but how do they do all the measurements, and I no longer have a suitable old pair to send to compare as my vision is now so different.  So gave that one up as a lost cause.

I have lost track of how many times I have had to go back in to the optician's for a refit, in fact this year must be a record - I haven't had them refitted since April, until this last weekend!  But I did treat myself when back in the UK with two pairs of single vision lenses for £25 each, one reading, one distance.  Now that I have never been able to do before, as the complex prescription of previous years would have not fallen into the good price category.

So, rather than complaining about the cost of glasses via optician's be glad that (1) you have eyes that allow you to shop around, and (b) that you haven't had the cost of specs that I have had over the years (minimal amount paid by NHS) and (c) you have not needed the precise and accurate help that only a visit to an optician can give you for much of your lives.

You lot don't know how lucky you are, if all you have to complain about is the  price of specs!

[Chancer]

On the positive side Judith it must have been wonderfull to have had close to normal vision for the first time after the crystallin implants of the cataract surgery?

I had a succession of detached retinas and surgery, basically I was blind in the eye throughout this time, when the vision did return it was hampered by a ripe cataract caused by the surgery, after that operation nothing really changed as a secondary post operative cataract grew as they warned me may be the case, a couple of months later when things had settled down it was removed by laser surgery and I drove myself home afterwards as I had always done with the utmost care beforehand, I was absolutely amazed to find that the vision had instantly returned to the eye albeit only close vision (by design) and with nothing to the left of straight ahead.

Looking on the positive side but for my accident, the operations and the cataract I would not now have close vision in my left eye and would have to wear reading glasses to work like my father did and having had to do so whilst blind in the eye  I am so pleased that I no longer need to.

They tell me that there is a cataract now growing on the right eye but it will be a very slow evolution, again looking on the positive side I am actually delighted with this news and cant wait for the deterioration to become bad enough to require surgery, why? Well if all goes well I wont ever need glasses again and will have very good close and long vision, thats not normally what becomes of us with age.

[Judith]

Chancer, it has been an unexpected blessing to see so well.  It was only when I could see so well after the ops that I realised how bad my eyes had been, even before the vision deteriorated with the cataracts, and even with contact lens which I wore sometimes until I became intolerant of them, it was never so good.  The implants are an incredible thing - and such a simple (comparatively) op, with microsurgery these days, not even needing much recovery period.  Even with only one eye done, and not even settled after the op, I could still see better with that one eye than with both before it.  Incredible!

I often think back to when I used to have such problems seeing and trying to get the glasses to fit correctly (heavy frames, heavy lenses, most difficult to wear!), and one optician said, that I must be one of the few people who would love to have cataracts as then they could correct my sight!  Strange to think how soon it came true after I left the UK!

You have been particularly unfortunate with your eyes.  My sister, also very myopic, has had trouble with her retina, also cataracts, but at a much earlier age than I, and nearly lost the sight in the one good eye which remains, so I do have some understanding of your difficulties.  She has to keep changing glasses as the one pair for all things doesn't work with her.  But it seems that in the long term you may, like me, live to bless your cataracts! Here's hoping, but it's a strange world out there!

[Chancer]

I dont really have any difficulties Judith apart from not seeing anything to the left of straight ahead, even that I barely notice now until I feel a nudge in my left ribs from someone who has been standing patiently to that side of me with their hand offered.

I did read that the operation is being offered as an alternative to glasses to the vain, a TV presenter whose name eludes me wrote an article after having one eye done for close reading, I can see the guy but not certain of the name, Paul Ross?

His description of how the brain has to relearn everything regarding the visual world, depth perception and balance was spot on for my experience. Putting on either the distance pair or reading pair disrupted that equilibrium, I could just about cope with the distance pair for driving, walking around etc (had to remove them for cloes etc) but they really disturbed my equilibrium, having created my Frankenstein pair I was comfortable with them after 15 minutes only and equally comfortable without them.

My opthalmogiste, a very impatient man just could not get his head around what I was proposing even when i explained that I had done it to a previous pair, I wanted to know if there was any risk, reason not to do it etc but he just couldnt understand, told me I was talking n'importe quoi!

[Judith]

Yes, my sister has managed without really using one eye for many years, but I do know that she had to adapt  more especially after  her last set of troubles, but which, with the aid of an excellent surgeon (Addenbrooke's - the NHS does get it right more times than we hear)  has kept what sight she had and drastically improved it, though she continues with a oil spot  from her retinal work ... better than no sight at all though which was a distinct possibility at one point if they hadn't caught the retinal /macular work in time.

I do know that they could also prescribe contacts with one eye shortsighted and one long sighted  ... but they don't do it unless needed, because of the brain adaptability problem.

When I was waiting my second eye being done, I could not wear glasses with the remaining lens for the undone eye, with the one for the "new" one removed, as it was too disparate, and I had the same problems as you.  The brain adapts, but it wasn't worth going there for only 6 weeks!

[mint]

http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/AddPost.aspx?PostID=3015916&Quote=True

 

[mint]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Tinabee, a big thank you.  It's kind of you to take the trouble to report back.  Indeed, I have been awaiting your reaction before ordering.[kiss][/quote]

Don't know what happened to my comment left, I thought, a bit earlier.

Just to report that glasses2you were great.  They helped us narrow down a search for deep varifocals (OH wanted deep lenses as he draws and plays music and it helps to have deep lenses if you have to keep looking up and then down and up again)

They emailed to check his prescription after I sent a copy that was a bit blurred.

They answer emails within hours or overnight if I write in the evenings.  They are charming and polite (an irristible combination).

The glasses came back yesterday, they were very well made and OH finds them light and comfortable to wear.

We still have the spare (free) frame which will now go back to the company at the week end for lenses to be put in (free service).

The cost of the first pair was something like £90.

I hope this recommendation is of help [:)]