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Comment by blackearl | Hacker News Reader

I went to buy new glasses from a classic optometrist and was horrified by the prices. I also tried the more corporate Lenscrafters. Both wanted to push $2-300+ frames with Nike, Gucci, et cetera branding that I didn't care about. Finally tried WP. Cheaper glasses with pretty solid customer service. Sure it doesn't have a little swoosh on it but I buy glasses so I can see good, not so I can flex.

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When I recently needed to replace my specs, my options were (as you say) an independent optometrist (selling overpriced Luxottica stuff), a chain optometrist (selling the same overpriced stuff), online-only retailers like Zenni or 39dollar, or WP.

I know there are others like CostCo but I'm not a member and didn't feel like bothering with all that.

I've purchased from Zenni and 39dollar in the past. They're cheap and decent for the most part, but I couldn't just try on frames or easily get my script updated. WP has a physical store nearby where I could do just that and still buy cheap frames/lenses.

I have crappy eyesight and need to buy high index lenses, so I'm already out a couple hundred bucks regardless. No need to also spend that on molded acetate frames.

I have bad eye sight too and I find the high index lenses from WB are still super thick compared to other providers.

I do too in one eye, and when I was there in February a rep said that they recently changed them a bit so they're thinner. Just in case that helps.

You can do Costco, Walmart or Target.

I hate branding on glasses. I have a really old pair of Bausch & Lomb era Ray-Ban Wayfarers from back in the day. They have glass polarized lenses and 7-barrel hinges and they still look new, they've taken a beating over the years.

After Luxottica bought Ray-Ban and cannibalized their quality, introducing flimsy hinges and cheap plastic temples and lenses, they also started printing "Ray-Ban" not only on the temples but also the lenses. Yuck. Some people apparently love to display brands on their fashion no matter how cheap the quality is, but to me it makes it look cheap, tacky, and out of date (since in the time it takes for a brand to dominate in the way that Nike or Oakley and others do, they're already unfashionable).

I was especially irked by this the last time I went to a Lensecrafters. They said it's because Ray-Ban now makes the lenses themselves. So I was shopping at a store front for branded frames with in-house lenses, all owend, operated, and produced by the same parent company (Luxottica). Talk about vertical integration!

Warby Parker's purchasing/CS experience is incredible and I've been buying from them for at least 8 years now. But I think I may try one of the more corporate brands next time because I've just never been very satisfied with their lenses. Supposedly they use an anti-glare coating but in my experience I still get pretty bad reflections from screens and have to wipe them down multiple times a day because of how easily they smudge.

As much as I hate the idea of giving money to Luxottica, I'm more than willing to pay a premium for nicer lenses.

I have been buying from ZenniOptical for years. I’m pretty nearsighted and use bifocals. As a test I purchased $1,500 specs from my local optometrist and $39 bifocals from Zenni. No difference except the Zenni frames lasted much longer. Also I’d swear the Zenni lenses were clearer, which makes no sense.

You can go to an optician and get lenses installed on a frame that you bought elsewhere (at least in Europe). Did that for a vintage frame bought on eBay and it was the best of both worlds.

You can buy full-quality Essilor lenses on EyeBuyDirect.com with very little markup. They're still part of the EssilorLuxottica empire, but at a fraction of the price.

I needed progressives (tri-focals). WP doesn't do lenses like that.

My brand name frames were $200. Lenses were more than $300 on top of the frame price.

It's not just the frames.

One of my friends bought counterfeit frames from China and then got the special lenses he needed made to fit the frame. Regardless of the cost of lenses, there's no way in hell I'm paying extra for a frame that is otherwise identical to 100 others, but it has a tiny little logo on it so now it's 1000% of the cost.

Not only does WP do that, they have a page dedicated to it.

https://www.warbyparker.com/progressives

I do own WPs, from a couple of years ago, for general use.

I walked into a WP store in the last couple of months and asked.. alas, I was told something different.

Maybe they were thinking "Transition" instead of progressive. I wasn't thinking straight and made that mistake once.

Maybe.. As for Transitions, I went with GEN 8.

I tried WP. They had some nice styles and were close to what I was looking for, but none of them quite fit my face. I wanted a pair that was just a tad wider than what they offered but it seemed like they're 'one size fits most'(yes, they have a couple sizes, but not enough). I ended up settling for a Costco pair.

Costco is touch and go though. I've had problems with their coatings in the past(AR crazing, AR watermarks). I also had to give up on their prescription polarized after a couple pairs in a row had bad stress marks. I'll probably have to pay full price to get a pair of Rx polarized sunglasses that are free of defects.

i used to get glasses from costco for years now, but i've often had some minor quality issues.

not bad enough to return, but enough to annoy me. things like small scratches or poor fitting service (the employees at my local costco locations are spotty. some are good, others are terrible and i’ve had scratches or over bending). i tried polarized lenses and they came out terrible. at least the glasses are cheap enough that i don’t mind tossing them.

i recently got custom glasses from https://www.topologyeyewear.com/ and the fit and lens quality is the best i've ever experienced. very pricey though.

is there anyone else with asian bridge problem that they have a good solution for?

not affiliated, just a happy first time customer.

There are still other options than Luxottica, Warby Parker and Zenni. Search for local optometrists that stock eyewear designer brands like Lindberg. You don’t need to buy the Lindbergs (but do try them, they are crazy light and the hinge designs are amazing) but their presence in the store means you have found someone who is not Luxottica exclusive and has some taste in frames. You will typically find style options there that Zenni and WP don’t do, and without needless Prada or Gucci branding. You will pay premium prices still.

Just to lay out another option.

The shops at "classic optometrists" are almost always Luxottica (same company that owns Lenscrafters, Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, America's Best, basically the entire industry)

They use their sweet sweet monopoly money to pay doctors for floor space inside their offices. Usually the glasses salesperson isn't even on the doctor's payroll, they're Luxottica employees.

GF had the same experience.

She went online, bought a pair, they didn't fit well out of the box when they arrived. WB has a local shop in the city (we live in outlying suburb). Place was packed on a Saturday afternoon. I was thinking, "Oh man, this is going to take an hour."

We were out of there in 15 minutes. Her glasses were adjusted quickly and she was happy with the results. I was impressed with the quick service and the ability to buy online and they go to a local store and get them adjusted for free.

I had been meaning to check out WP, but never got around to ordering -- and then they opened a brick & mortar in my city, so I dropped in.

I'm glad I didn't order online, because compared to the glasses I usually buy, every WP frame felt super cheap and flimsy vs. my existing glasses (which I got, I think, at Pearl).

FFT.

> I also tried the more corporate Lenscrafters

LensCrafter's is owned by Luxottica, which becomes apparent when you see how/what they try to push you into.

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