Comments on: Eyes on the Prize

By: Dr. Click

Dr. Click — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:51:06 +0000

That’s bizarre. I get a contact lens exam every year, and an eyeglass prescription thrown in, no problem, in CA.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:44:41 +0000

That’s funny. When I lived in Pennsylvania, my doctor always wrote down my prescription for me. Now in CA, they’ll tell me what it is, but they don’t write it on a card and hand it to me as part of their routine.

By: peterb

peterb — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:56:36 +0000

Chris: My impression is that there’s less of a “gouge the customer at all costs” attitude towards contacts, because you don’t get to double-dip on lenses and frames. And as Mike observes, the markup on frames is beyond unreal. It’s all pure profit.

Thanks for the correction about the types of doctors involved.

By: ChrisC

ChrisC — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:14:22 +0000

Huh. I’ve never had a problem saying “may I have a prescription so I can buy contacts on the internet?” They always just gave it to me.

Once my optometrist in Pittsburgh warned me that some web sites sell old contacts which are about to expire (but have not yet expired). Turns out they were right — I ordered a 1-year supply, and the expiry date on the boxes was 6 months into the future… (Still worked ‘tho.)

AFAIK — most opthamologists don’t sell glasses, they are physicians which do surgery and treat glaucoma. “Doctors” of Optometry figure out your prescription. The people who convince you that thick black frames are “in” this year are salespeople, plain and simple.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:58:16 +0000

Me, I’ve always been afraid of poking my eyes, first thing in the morning; my dexterity is not the best to begin with — coupled with lack of sleep and I’d be looking at blindness if it wasn’t for the twenty-five years of eyeglasses.

I’m a bit torn, myself; I’ve fallen into the hey-I’ve-got-insurance trap where I decide to get new lenses after a year, forgetting that whoever runs the insurance company decided that they’ll only pay biennially, but want annual exams. And then my wife’s a vet; there’s all kinds of online discount animal pharmacies that just want that prescription faxed over to them before they’ll dispense animal drugs at steep discounts — it takes business away from the clinic, though, and then they’re reluctant to hand out the prescription without getting some sort of money out of the transaction. It’s a question of survival.

Then again, the markups that the frames must get locally — when there’s Internet places that’ll dispatch glasses for a pittance — is staggering. Surely there’s a reasonable middle path between supporting local business and getting robbed.

By: Goob

Goob — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:03:15 +0000

I only just got new glasses (and a new prescription was sorely needed) and it was vaguely hilarious how the machinations played out to try to keep that magic piece of paper out of my hands.

Or they might just have been incompetent.