Buying Glasses Online?

Everything you want, you can pretty much get or find on the web. Thats the luxury of our internet technology, all at your fingertips! I love online shopping for clothing, shoes, books, beauty products and so on... but would you buy your glasses online?

There are definite pros and cons to both.

PROS
- Cheaper!
Glasses online are usually cheaper due to lower cost of overhead such as eliminating the need of maintaining an optical with employees and stock
-Less hassle due to online purchasing, you just fill everything online and the glasses get sent to you.
-No interaction with sales staff: this could be good if you prefer not being bothered by sales associates


CONS
- Unable to try the glasses before purchasing.
Its definitely difficult to gauge if you will really like a pair of frames without trying them on
-No measurements performed by the optical; measurements such as PD and bifocal/progressive heights must be performed to assure proper fitting or glasses
-No adjustments by the optical; if the glasses come back and need tightening or adjustments to fit properly, a trained staff is unable to do it over the internet
-No interaction with sales staff: this could also be a con because you don't have help from a live person except through phone interaction


I was fortunate enough to be able to try out a pair of eyeglasses from an online prescription eyeglasses company, GlassesUSA. I chose the Liberty frame in black, just a cute little simple pair. The prescription glasses were a pair of good quality frames/lenses which I didn't have any problems with! I think a single vision pair would be easy to order from an online source, but definitely with a progressive/bifocal pair it would be more difficult due to accurate measurements that need to be done. With that being said, every online company has their own return policy -- I checked the return policy on GlassesUSA and it said "If you are, for any reason, not completely satisfied with your eyeglasses, you may return them to us for a FULL refund or a NEW pair of glasses – no questions asked! We will be happy to exchange your glasses or offer you a full refund- NO MATTER WHAT… even if your dog chewed the frames!", which sounds like a pretty good return policy to me! If you are interested in trying this site, here is an offer from the company for 5% off using the code "Mommy5".

Another tidbit about GlassesUSA is that they donate their returned glasses to various organizations that re-distribute eyeglasses to people around the world who cannot afford vision care. I think thats great that the company does this! I was part of a student organization at school called SOSH and we went to Haiti to give eyecare to those who are less fortunate so I definitely have to give this company props for helping out for a good cause!

There are pros and cons to everything we purchase online, what do you think? Are you for purchasing glasses online or do you prefer purchasing your frames at your local optical shop?