for those whose kids wear glasses....

[Anonymous]

My eye doctor are all about charging as much as you can bear. There sales people are paid on commission and are trained to extract as much money from you as possible.

[Anonymous]

We have had a great experience at Colonial Optician in Rockville but they are pricey!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks all. This last time we looked, we visited Apex Optical and they had a wide variety and wonderful customer service. But they wanted nearly $500 and I couldn't spend that kind of money for a 4 year old. That's how we ended up at Costco, which was fine. Except we got frames that were screw in and she lost the screw more than once, and had nose pads (she's had them break off, twist sideways and are generally uncomfortable). Every single time, I had to find time to find a Costco and get them fixed. PITA. I don't think she's particularly hard on glasses either; I just think we picked a pair that weren't suited for a young, active kid.

Someone recently told me about a site called Optiwow. Might take a look at them too.

Does it ever work to go into a store, find some frames you like, then buy online? If you buy online, who fits them to your child's face and fixes them when they need adjustments?

Get plastic frames not metal.

[Anonymous]

For those not buying lenses from your eye doctor, do your children have simple prescriptions? My child's lenses have a near-sighted prescription with bifocal and prisms, so I don't trust just anyone to get it right. His frames are from LensCrafters (eye doctor didn't have any options that fit him/he liked).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those not buying lenses from your eye doctor, do your children have simple prescriptions? My child's lenses have a near-sighted prescription with bifocal and prisms, so I don't trust just anyone to get it right. His frames are from LensCrafters (eye doctor didn't have any options that fit him/he liked).

Lenscrafter is owned by Luxottica. From Wikipedia "As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes and retails its eyewear brands, including LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Apex by Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical, Eyemed vision care plan, and Glasses.com. Its best known brands are Ray-Ban, Persol, and Oakley."

Glasses are going to get even more expensive if luxottica and essilor merge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/business/dealbook/luxottica-essilor-merger.html?_r=0

My kid is farsided (hyperopia) and has astigamatism. Zenni Optical (an online store) had no problem filling the prescription. Lenses are all made the same way. They start with "blanks" or lenses that are close to the prescription and they input the prescription into the optical machine which then makes the lenses to the correct prescription.

I keep posting about Zenni just because I am so mad that I have been paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars in glasses. The markup is ridiculous. Zenni owns a 248,000 square-foot manufacturing facility that houses state-of-the-art Rx and Edging Labs. Zenni’s Prescription Labs are equipped with the most advanced machinery supplied by the world’s leading optical machine manufacturers, including Schneider and Satisloh.
http://www.zennioptical.com/zenni-optical-eyeglass-production-story


http://www.zennioptical.com/zenni-optical-eyeglass-production-story

[Anonymous]

For eyes using the Buy One Get One coupon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those not buying lenses from your eye doctor, do your children have simple prescriptions? My child's lenses have a near-sighted prescription with bifocal and prisms, so I don't trust just anyone to get it right. His frames are from LensCrafters (eye doctor didn't have any options that fit him/he liked).

Lenscrafter is owned by Luxottica. From Wikipedia "As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes and retails its eyewear brands, including LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Apex by Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical, Eyemed vision care plan, and Glasses.com. Its best known brands are Ray-Ban, Persol, and Oakley."

Glasses are going to get even more expensive if luxottica and essilor merge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/business/dealbook/luxottica-essilor-merger.html?_r=0

My kid is farsided (hyperopia) and has astigamatism. Zenni Optical (an online store) had no problem filling the prescription. Lenses are all made the same way. They start with "blanks" or lenses that are close to the prescription and they input the prescription into the optical machine which then makes the lenses to the correct prescription.

I keep posting about Zenni just because I am so mad that I have been paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars in glasses. The markup is ridiculous. Zenni owns a 248,000 square-foot manufacturing facility that houses state-of-the-art Rx and Edging Labs. Zenni’s Prescription Labs are equipped with the most advanced machinery supplied by the world’s leading optical machine manufacturers, including Schneider and Satisloh.
http://www.zennioptical.com/zenni-optical-eyeglass-production-story


http://www.zennioptical.com/zenni-optical-eyeglass-production-story

PP: not all are experienced with prisms and being, even slightly, off won't work - I'm ok paying a lot for his glasses, but understand others aren't/can't. My glasses come from LensCrafters (frames/lenses).

[Anonymous]

I use zenni too. We need back ups and he keeps losing them. Doesn't make sense to spend so much money on kids glasses

[Anonymous]

I know Apex is expensive but the variety of kids frames and customer service beats anyone. They did repairs at no cost, adjustments whenever DS needed them and even replaced DSs broken frames for free once. So in the end I think we were better off than a mall store.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Apex is expensive but the variety of kids frames and customer service beats anyone. They did repairs at no cost, adjustments whenever DS needed them and even replaced DSs broken frames for free once. So in the end I think we were better off than a mall store.

We had a lot of issues at their Montgomery Mall store with lenses not getting ordered and not being made properly as they don't cut their own lenses any more. We switched to Moda in Rockville (owned by a former Apex employee), which has great kids selection but extremely expensive and they forgot to order lenses for us too. I got tired of spending close to $1000 on glasses and go to Costco or another store now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those not buying lenses from your eye doctor, do your children have simple prescriptions? My child's lenses have a near-sighted prescription with bifocal and prisms, so I don't trust just anyone to get it right. His frames are from LensCrafters (eye doctor didn't have any options that fit him/he liked).

Costco - usually they get my prescription right but once they did not and they fixed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with ordering online. The markup on frames is out of control.

Just make sure you get polycarbonate lenses for our kid. Other than that, there are tons of great websites.

Personally, I wouldn't do this on line. Who takes the measurements, you? I had badly made off kilter glasses done by four eyes. It was awful.

[Anonymous]

I thin Lenscrafters has the best selection. I think MyEyeDr had better service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with ordering online. The markup on frames is out of control.

Just make sure you get polycarbonate lenses for our kid. Other than that, there are tons of great websites.

Personally, I wouldn't do this on line. Who takes the measurements, you? I had badly made off kilter glasses done by four eyes. It was awful.

We've had great success with zenni optical on line for DD's glasses.
Her eye doctor measures the pupil diameter for us (although I've gotten pretty decent at it and always come up with the same number that he does) and all the other info is already on the prescription.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Apex is expensive but the variety of kids frames and customer service beats anyone. They did repairs at no cost, adjustments whenever DS needed them and even replaced DSs broken frames for free once. So in the end I think we were better off than a mall store.

This is exactly how I feel about Apex. I've been going there since I was a small child myself. I have a fairly complex prescription that has been messed up before by places like LensCrafters, so I don't even bother with them. My DD just got glasses and I took her to Apex and got her a decent but not expensive sturdy frame.