OT - Got my new specs

[Dave Baker]

After the eye test last week I nipped down to Fairplay Optical in Old's Close, Watford today. They've done all my spectacle repairs for over 20 years, putting new nylon wire in the frameless ones a couple of times, soldering a broken nosepiece back onto a metal frame once, fitting new plastic ear covers and changing the lenses when required after eye tests. Always for pennies and always while I waited. I think the last job was to replace a broken nylon wire and both ear plastics because one had started to crack. Took one of the guys about 20 minutes and cost me three quid which frankly was crazy and no way for anyone to make a living. A tenner would have been cheap enough. An optician would have charged two or three times more still.

The specs that finally broke a while back cost me an almighty £200 from the village optician 23 years ago which must be £300 plus in today's money. The nosepiece that snapped off was on that pair and not that many years after I bought them as I recall. The soldered repair was still solid and much stronger than the OE job when the other nosepiece finally gave up the ghost a while back and also snapped off and I decided to get new specs because that pair was so out of date.

Anyway I chose two cheap pairs of specs at £15 and £25 and they didn't even want any extra for posting them out to me because all the lense grinding machines were set up for long runs and they couldn't do them until tomorrow. Not bad at two pairs of specs for £40 all in and they should be here on Wednesday.

They've also got their own website now at

so you can buy online or use the contacts page to reach them. Highly recommended.

It's actually worth a trip down just to see how the lense grinding machines work while you wait for your specs to be made or repaired. When I first started using them they were a one man and a dog operation with a single lense grinding machine. Now thay have 5 or 6 CNC controlled machines and several employees and do the lenses for all the opticians in the local area. It's just if you go to an optician you pay several times as much for the high street shop rental and the consequent huge markup.

[geoff]

In message , Dave Baker writes

Good, aren't they

Across the way is a company that makes bespoke computer cables, and on the right at the end of olds approach is RL Supplies, a useful computer shop

You didn't see your way to popping in and saying hello, did you?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Baker" saying something like:

Oh yes, I found that out yonks back when an optician mate spilled the beans.

[Dave Baker]

Anyway somehow they arrived Tuesday morning which given I didn't leave them until 4pm Monday and they said all the machines were busy until tomorrow means someone must have stayed late and got them in the post Monday night.

I have to say in over 30 years of getting specs made I've never been completely happy with how sharp my vision was until now. It's always been ok but never quite what I thought crystal clear. This prescription is exactly the same as my 1987 pair of specs apart from the axis of the astigmatism correction but what a hell of a difference it's made. In 1987 I was -1.75 sphere, -0.50 cylinder and 75 degrees axis in both eyes. Seems a bit coincidental really that both eyes were identical. Makes you wonder.

Now I'm still supposedly the same sphere and cylinder correction but according to Tescos opticians 10 degree axis in the right eye and 160 in the left. A big change from previously. With the new specs everything is now pin sharp. I can read car numberplates and road signs much further away whereas previously I've always struggled a bit at extreme range. I now wonder if my eyes have always been like this but the previous tests were wrong.

I am a happy bunny. Big up to Tesco Slough free eye tests which are apparently better than all the ones I've paid for previously.

[Mike Barnes]

Dave Baker :

I'm always disappointed that opticians don't test your eyes again *with* the spectacles they supply. This seems to me basic common sense - checking that their prescription does actually work.

[pete]

Some opticians (well, one that I've used before) did test the spectacles against my prescription when they arrived. I know this because after many weeks of not hearing, I enquired and was told this is what had happened. Alternatively, they could have just forgotten to order them and this was their excuse. However, in these days of financial stress, I can't see an optician voluntarily giving a customer the opportunity to back out (by falsely saying they couldn't see clearly with the new spectacles) of a sale on a whim.

[geoff]

In message , Dave Baker writes

I can better that, last time I got some for the Mrs, they asked if I could wait an hour - they were ready in 35 minutes after walking in the door

[Mike Barnes]

That's better than nothing but testing against the prescription won't detect an error *in* the prescription.

I would suggest not giving the option of backing out, only of different lenses.

[pete]

Possibly, though I've noticed that when my prescription has changed the level of astigmatism correction, it's taken a while for my eyes to "settle in" to the new view of the world (during which time I have definitely not felt I was safe to drive). You might end up with customers rejecting the new specs, then requiring a new set of lenses and (on trying them out) preferring the originals. I suppose it depends on how confident the optician is with their abilities.

[Invisible Man]

Unfortunately not everyone's eyes work the same.

Apart from one pair of specs that had to be redone twice before the lenses actually matched the prescription I have had to part company with one optician completely. Optician rechecked eyes and lenses and eventually gave me my money back. Went elsewhere and a retired hospital expert who was working part time checked my eyes. Apparently if you set up each of my eyes separately they simply will not work together. He came up with a prescription that allowed me to see perfectly immediately. More recently varifocals have been a bit borderline. Last exam was by Vision Express but they declined to fit my -6 ish presription into rimless because of the difference in curvatures. Two other places quoted around £700 including high index lenses. Eventually went to The Specs Factory in Chelmsford who did it for less than £300 including Rodenstock lenses. Once the frames were adjusted they are the best varifocals I have ever had. Reading, computer and distance all come naturally without having to deliberately move my head. As ever DIY is the exception when needing close vision above eye level.

[Mike Barnes]

I found exactly that with my first pair of glasses. When I went back to the optician he said that I needed time to adjust, and I accepted that. But after a few weeks of failing to adjust I became suspicious. I went to another optician for another eye test. After the test I showed them my first prescription. They said it was completely wrong.

[R D S]

I bet the local opticians who are using their services don't know they are selling online, they bloody hate that type of thing.

Anyway i'm shamelessly hijacking this thread! As some of you already know I make specs for a living and have just acquired the business One Stop Glasses. We have been doing their manufacturing for the last 5 years and due to other commitments they have decided to sell up. I only took it on on Tueday and currently in the process of photographing our stock and clearing out theirs (we have frame suppliers we have a good relationship with, if it aint broke...).

So if anyone fancies a dirt cheap pair of specs there are approx 120 products listed in the clearance section from just over £15, use the voucher code 'usenet' and get a further 40% off, valid until the end of August.

other input, advice or feedback on the site would be also be appreciated.

Regards, Rick

[geoff]

In message , R D S writes

Fairplay are £15 - £20 for a standard pair of glasses

[R D S]

Any of ours which are more expensive will be so for a reason and I'll leave that there.

As I said I'm offering 40% off as I have acquired some stock I want to shift so it's possible to get a pair of specs for about a tenner.

Tell you what, i'll up it to 50%, you can get a *nice* pair of specs for under £20 delivered.

[Dave Liquorice]

Only mention bi-focals, are varifocals available? Though I appreciate that the fitting and eye/lens relationship with varifocals may preclude the selling of them over the internet.

On the site, no snail mail address that I can find in the obvious places like About Us, Contact Us, FAQ etc. AIUI commercial websites should (must?) have a snail mail address somewhere.

The search box is cunningly disguised as the same colour as the bar it is sat in.

I don't think you need the CC logos by the basket contents summary top right. I know that the CC companies have rules that insist that the logos are displayed but from what I have seen of those rules it only applies to pages that are asking for or giving options on payment, so display them only once you are actually in the basket. How many other store sites do you see with the CC logos on every page?

The site is quick and responsive, unlike some sites that overload the client with 100's of K of javascript for no real benefit to the user. It's easy to navigate but with such a large number of similar products I'd like to see the abilty to select only those frames, from all the sections that are purple, metal, flex hinges, and so on.

[R D S]

On my other site

we do varifocals. We can control the position better in a rimless frame as the bridge attaches to the lens in a relative position across the range.

I'm thinking of adding the advanced search to the front page somewhere and displaying it more prominently.

I hadn't noticed but yes, I agree.

Currently there are a lot of similar frames and a large number of categories with frames overlapping them. We intend to list more stuff in fewer categories and make better use of the search filters.

Thanks for the feedback.