Buying Specs on line.....good idea or bad?

[nickyboy]

Your sight test is subsidised by the store and those £10,000 iris scanners don't buy themselves. Who pays for that?

A qualified dispenser spent 3 years at uni to earn a degree in dispensing. Their skills are a lot greater than you give them credit for.

There are many downsides to online but the buyer will only ever see the benefit (cost saving)

Opticians should do eye tests and calculate prescriptions and charge a suitable rate for this service. They shouldn't sell glasses

Glasses manufacturers and distributors should do the selling as it's what they're good at

 

[Jody]

Opticians should do eye tests and calculate prescriptions and charge a suitable rate for this service. They shouldn't sell glasses

Glasses manufacturers and distributors should do the selling as it's what they're good at

Then you're left with the shady ground of whose fault is it when there are problems? As with online, they point at the Optician and the Optician points back at them.

It will be your responsibility to resolve as they only provide a sight test and the other company makes the glasses as per you instructions.

You also confuse "glasses manufacturer". You have one company produce frames and a separate entity makes your prescription lense. Hence why optical services exist as all three services are under one roof offering continuity of service with the ability to rectify issues.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Then you're left with the shady ground of whose fault is it when there are problems? As with online, they point at the Optician and the Optician points back at them.

It will be your responsibility to resolve as they only provide a sight test and the other company makes the glasses as per you instructions.

You also confuse "glasses manufacturer". You have one company produce frames and a separate entity makes your prescription lense. Hence why optical services exist as all three services are under one roof offering continuity of service with the ability to rectify issues.

A prescription is a prescription. A lens fitting is a lens fitting. They are separate, discrete activities, how would each point at the other?

 

[mistyoptic]

A prescription is a prescription. A lens fitting is a lens fitting. They are separate, discrete activities, how would each point at the other?

When the wearer returns complaining of blur or visual discomfort

 

[Jody]

A prescription is a prescription. A lens fitting is a lens fitting. They are separate, discrete activities, how would each point at the other?

No it's not. Hence why the expertise of a dispenser comes into it.

As with Shep. Was his issues because a PD was measured as usual or was it done mono (bridge to pupil giving two different measurements for varifocals). Was it measured accurately. A mm or two can make all the difference. Was the lense graduation placed correctly. Are there issues with a cyl. Are the frames correct for the lenses being fitted. Did you even check that the bridge of the chosen frame is correct for you facial features.

Customer says "my glasses feel wierd". Online retailer has made the prescription as asked based on the customers measurements. The Optician has done the sight test and is confident in their assessment. Why as a lamen are the glasses causing me an issue? You don't know and the Optician isn't going to use their time to find an issue with your measurements and someone else's glasses. What if there was an clerical error and your cyl is on the wrong axis? How do you know?

This can go on and on

 

[Bonefish Blues]

No it's not. Hence why the expertise of a dispenser comes into it.

As with Shep. Was his issues because a PD was measured as usual or was it done mono (bridge to pupil giving two different measurements for varifocals). Was it measured accurately. A mm or two can make all the difference. Was the lense graduation placed correctly. Are there issues with a cyl. Are the frames correct for the lenses being fitted. Did you even check that the bridge of the chosen frame is correct for you facial features.

Customer says "my glasses feel wierd". Online retailer has made the prescription as asked based on the customers measurements. The Optician has done the sight test and is confident in their assessment. Why as a lamen are the glasses causing me an issue? You don't know and the Optician isn't going to use their time to find an issue with your measurements and someone else's glasses. What if there was an clerical error and your cyl is on the wrong axis? How do you know?

This can go on and on

So you pays your money, you makes your choice as a layman [sic]

The question is whether as an individual one judges it is worth the premium (double, roughly) to mean that an optician either investigates an issue with a patient's sight, or refuses to.

I am not convinced that latter scenario is in any way likely, personally. Reading the GOC standards of professional conduct also tends to indicate it is highly unlikely, given the overarching duty to protect and care for patients' sight.

 

[Mike_P]

Sure I have seen a pair of glasses being used in a machine to gain the prescription that they are so it should be simple enough to have them checked if their is an issue. Buying on line is subject to normal distance selling regulations in any case.

 

[Jody]

Reading the GOC standards of professional conduct also tends to indicate it is highly unlikely, given the overarching duty to protect and care for patients' sight.

They have a duty of care as to look out for the persons health and making sure the eye test results are correct but not sorting problems with your spectacles if you went elsewhere for the dispense.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

They have a duty of care as to look out for the persons health and making sure the eye test results are correct but not sorting problems with your spectacles if you went elsewhere for the dispense.

They have to determine that, of course, and then actively refuse.

 

[Jody]

They have to determine that, of course, and then actively refuse.

Not quite. They have carried out an eye test and given you your results.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Not quite. They have carried out an eye test and given you your results.

That's not my experience. I have seen a number of issues on thread with optician-dspensed glasses though.

But there again, despite the grave warnings, and having converted to online maybe 20 years ago, and many pairs later I've never had an issue, other than a minor fit with my last pair, which, as I reported, my optician was happy to resolve foc.

 

[Jody]

That's not my experience. I have seen a number of issues on thread with optician-dspensed glasses though.

But there again, despite the grave warnings, and having converted to online maybe 20 years ago, and many pairs later I've never had an issue, other than a minor fit with my last pair, which, as I reported, my optician was happy to resolve foc.

This is why I said it would become a circular argument. Whilst your optician may have helped resolve issues, the majority wont.

I'll leave it there.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

This is why I said it would become a circular argument. Whilst your optician may have helped resolve issues, the majority wont.

I'll leave it there.

On what basis are you able to make that statement?

 

[nickyboy]

No it's not. Hence why the expertise of a dispenser comes into it.

As with Shep. Was his issues because a PD was measured as usual or was it done mono (bridge to pupil giving two different measurements for varifocals). Was it measured accurately. A mm or two can make all the difference. Was the lense graduation placed correctly. Are there issues with a cyl. Are the frames correct for the lenses being fitted. Did you even check that the bridge of the chosen frame is correct for you facial features.

Customer says "my glasses feel wierd". Online retailer has made the prescription as asked based on the customers measurements. The Optician has done the sight test and is confident in their assessment. Why as a lamen are the glasses causing me an issue? You don't know and the Optician isn't going to use their time to find an issue with your measurements and someone else's glasses. What if there was an clerical error and your cyl is on the wrong axis? How do you know?

This can go on and on

It's like buying a pair of trousers online that should fit and don't fit. Send them back, get a refund. Go to optician and request a second test (which may or may not be at a fee). Have a consultancy appointment with the optician at a fee

The traditional optician business model is stuck in the 1950s. They were the only place you could buy glasses but they were opticians and pretty useless retailers. They tried to make all their income selling glasses (hence the sky high prices) when they should be selling their optician services and letting customers deal with the suppliers (which presumably the opticians were doing previously).

 

[Jody]

On what basis are you able to make that statement?

I'm not going round in circles

It's like buying a pair of trousers online that should fit and don't fit.

Trousers and optics aren't comparable. I've explained why letting the customers deal with suppliers doesn't work and how it leads to issues.