First, it's really frustrating experience overall. These online stores have serious problems and I have some tips to share if you are new to this.
39dollar : Their lens qualities are good. AR coating good. Price is a bit high. I ordered two from them. Both re-lensing service. I sent them a pair of Oakley whisker and had them to put Drivewear lens. The lens is pretty expensive. It took very very long. When I got the glasses everything looks great and I am happy with them. I also sent them a pair of sawfly sunglasses insert. I ordered it to AR coat it. But it came with no AR coating. I had to send it back to them and I paid for the return shipping. The insert came back and this time they transformed the shape into something totally different than the original shape of the insert. So the insert did not sit flush on the sunglasses. So I contacted them and sent them back again. This time, they paid for return shipping. This is the point where I started getting difficulties with communicating with them. Up to this point, I had no problem with live on line chat on their site with their CS. But from this point wenever I tried to chat with their CS on the website, no one answered. I tried for a week but still no one responded. I sent them an email with no answer. After few tries, I got response. They started to blame that the insert is the defect which is NOT. It was very obvious that it was their fault to screw up this. I took a lot of effort to convince them to do it again. It's been 3 months since I ordered this. I am under impression that they intentionally avoid talking to certain customers like ones who have some problem with them. I had no problem with grabbing their CS for talk when I was just checking the status of order. But when thing went wrong and I became "a headache for them", it became impossible to get a response from them. It's so much for co-incidence. SelectSpec: Ordered two pairs of photochromic eyeglasses. So far received only one. But came with regular lens. They have no phone number you can call. Email is the only option you can use to contact them. I sent them an email. No response for 3 days. I sent them another email. Then they replied saying that photochromic lens takes sometime to work properly so try few more days. I never heard of such thing and already tried enough. So I emailed them again and said I tried many times already. Also I asked if they are going to pay for the return shipping. They simply emailed me to send it to their office in Hong Kong. I emailed them again and asked again if they are going to pay for the return shipping. I am getting no answer from that point. This is one reason to avoid any non-US companies. If you are forced to pay return shipping to Asia, then what is the point of ordering from them??? We do this to save money but not to waste on expensive return shipping. Zenni: Ordered a pair of computer glasses. Their frame and AR coating is NOT good quality. Mine came with AR coating on only one lens. I sent them back (I paid for return shipping). Few weeks later new glasses came. But I felt that the prescription is wrong. So I sent them back (I paid for return shipping again). Now they said that the prescription is good and told me that I have to pay $5 shipping charge to get it back. See what is wrong here? I paid for shipping when it was their fault. Now that is "might" be my fault and they want me to pay the shipping. So basically, the return shipping is always customer's burden no matter whose fault??? I refused to pay for return shipping for this reason. Then they agreed to send them back to me for free "FOR THIS TIME ONLY". Yeah right, my purchase from Zenni will be "THIS TIME ONLY". I don't want to deal with people with this arrogant attitude. They are not granting me anything. So no thank you for this "this time only" crap. Optical4less : Ordered a regular glasses and a aviator sunglasses. I am satisfied with them. Nothing to complain. Their frames are good. AR coating is not very great but considering the price, I can't complain. Ok, so here is my take on this online eyeglasses stores. First, expect a lot of trouble. These guys make thousands of prescription glasses per day so it's impossible to expect high quality craftsmanship from them. When things goes wrong, it will be VERY VERY difficult to get it corrected because they have too many customers to take care and too less customer reps. Second, if possible deal with companies who have return address in US. Do you want to pay $10 return shipping to Hong Kong to fix your $20 eyeglasses??? Or what if they just don't respond to your complain?? Who are you going to report to about a company NOT in US??? Third, If you are going to order, order a lot of cheap ones. I won't spend more than $50 for a glasses with these online stores. That way if something goes wrong, you can minimize your loss. Anyway if you order many one of those orders will make you happy if others fail. It's about probability. To me it looks like 3 out of 5 orders turns out to be an nightmare. So, be prepared for that. IMHO, dealing with these online stores are very risky specially when they are not in US. BUT STILL, you can save a lot compare to what you have to spend at a B&M store in your town. They are SO MUCH expensive so even with all these risky factors, it is worth to go through all these troubles with online stores. Patience is the key. Expect to wait over 3 months or more if something goes wrong and I think it still worth considering the amount of money you can save. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Check us out at the oft-updated http://glassyeyes.blogspot.com! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GlassyEyes" group. 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