A personal account of an eyewear consumers Internet shopping experience. Very interesting reading for any you contemplating getting in to the Internet eyewear business and/or if you are concerned about competing with Optical Internet sites:
Internet shopping for eyewear altered my vision by Hazel Platzer:
I had an idea it would be easy to order some glasses on the internet. I wanted some John Lennon style readers 
with a rose tint and a friend had told me about a new site where I could order some. It was supposed to be quicker and cost less than going into a high street retailer. The internet shopping site looked promising but I was soon to find out I should have gone to a store. The internet site had a virtual mirror I could upload my picture onto which meant I should be able to see how I would look wearing the John Lennon frames. I’m pretty computer literate so I felt confident. However, I had real trouble uploading a photo; incomprehensible error messages would disappear off the screen before I could get my head round them and decide what I had to do to make something helpful happen.
I like a challenge though so I persevered and finally managed to upload a photo; then I couldn’t navigate my way back to the virtual mirror and started to get really frustrated. Every time I went to the help menu or FAQS there was no information about the problem I was having. Every time I called the helpline they said they couldn’t understand the problem I was having because they couldn’t see my computer screen. The internet company offer a free 10 day home trial so you can try the frames on. As I couldn’t get the virtual mirror to work, I caved in and just ordered the John Lennon frames to try on at home but of the two choices in frame color one was out of stock. This also meant I now had to wait a few days before I could actually see the frames and try them on.
How does this tint look on me?
After I’d committed to ordering the free 10 day home trial I realized they were only sending me the frames with plain glass lenses in them so I couldn’t try the rose tint which was part of the whole plan. Also the company claim that the point of the home trial is to see how the frames feel and whether they are suitable when undertaking normal activities. If you need a prescription then you are not really going to be able to wear them for this purpose. You might not even be able to see yourself in a real mirror so this has to be a big waste of time for most customers. I also discovered that I had used up my 15% discount on the free home trial and it would have been much better to save it for if and when I ordered the glasses with the prescription lenses. To make matters worse the company kept e-mailing me with further discount offers which would expire before the frames arrived and I had a chance to try them on.
After trying on the frames at home I decided to order them with prescription lenses and the rose tint without my discounts which I had already used up or which had expired before I could use them. Then I discovered that my prescription from my optician does not include my PD which I really needed so then I really began to question the whole crazy idea that it would be easy to order a pair of glasses on the internet. However, I felt I had spent so much time getting to that this point that I ordered them anyway. When the frames finally arrived I realized that they didn’t sit on my face properly because my ears aren’t level and so I have to go into a high street retailer to get them adjusted. Maybe I should have just started there in the first place but somehow I’d been seduced into thinking I was getting a bargain this way and saving time. I definitely did not save anytime as I’ve spent four hours on the computer and more time at the post office and now I have to go to a high street store which I could have done in the first place. Had I gone into a high street retailer from the start I would have probably been in and out within an hour. The only thing which might redeem the internet company is their claim that I will save money ordering online. Just to make myself feel worse I check this out and find out it would only have cost me another $15 to get the same style from a store. Not only that I calculate I have spent at least five hours buying them. I’m self employed so I could have definitely earned more than $15 in the wasted time. And even worse than that, because I didn’t have my PD I can’t even read as well though the John Lennon glasses as I could through off the shelf readers!
Had I walked past a high street store which advertised how they took the hassle out of internet shopping and their service ensures the frames fit my face and take my PD into account I would have been tempted to go in. Had I held on to the idea that I should try the internet I would have abandoned it at the second glitch before I’d wasted five hours. So that is how the internet has altered my vision.
Best Image Optical Model +197
For great quality and unique vintage optical frames try Best Image Optical, they have a very interesting selection and here is one above that is very apt!
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This is a great blog and I like reading it, but this post is a ridiculous hit piece. She was upset she couldn’t take the frame home for a week and use it in every day activities, because there wasn’t a prescription in it? Sure, because when you come in to us we’ll grind a pair for you to test out, no charge. And she could see better through OTC readers with an average PD than when she measured her PD herself to order online? Give me a break.
There are plenty of reasons why going to an optician is better than ordering online, but this post does a poor job of highlighting them. Her final comment about needing adjustment is a very good example of this – but why didn’t she realize this when she tried the frame on at home? Here you have a consumer who not only missed that and then felt entitled to complain, but somehow managed to take 5 hours to figure out how to use a website, had a technical problem with her computer yet imputed it to the company, and was so bad at measuring her PD herself that she did a worse job than the average PD that comes in OTC readers. Oh, and she thought it was unfair that she couldn’t test out a completed pair before she purchased.
Come on, you’re better than this.
Thanks for your comment Steve, we really appreciate feed back. I just want to let you know that the experience related was true and I thought it was good for us optical people to get a consumers perspective. It was not meant to be a hit piece on optical internet sales but to show where it can be frustrating for a consumer. She did not expect to try the lens Rx just see what the tint was like. I think we need to find some other consumers who have tried internet optical purchases and relate their experiences as well.
As a licensed optician and business owner, I am delighted that this consumer had such a dreadful internet buying experience. There are many consumers out there who are simply not savvy to just exactly what an eye care professional does. Some believe we are merely order-takers, writing down what they want, so why not take a shortcut and order off the internet? Next time this naive eyeglass wearer needs new eyewear, she will go to a professional!