Ordering from Framesdirect.com, my experiences...
Not sure if this is the right forum, but closest I could think of.
I thought I'd log my experiences order from FramesDirect.com, since I couldn't find many reviews from Canadian shoppers. So here goes...
12/25/08 - Broke my glasses on Christmas Day. Nobody open, and even worse, I figured it was time for a new prescription too, and I was no longer in the same city as my old optometrist, so I'd need to find someone I could go to over the Christmas holidays. Fortunately, my 10 year old pair of glasses were still kicking around, and the prescription was "close enough" to get by with.
While I was waiting to get in somewhere, I did some research on online glasses, as I remembered from the last time that buying locally was pretty expensive. Found a couple of online Canadian places, and the FramesDirect site. The nice thing about the FramesDirect site was the variety of glasses they had, plus they had a "FrameFinder" feature, that let you upload a picture of yourself and try out glasses on your face. It only works with a selection of frames, though, not all of them.
12/29/08 - Found an optometrist who had a cancellation, got in and made an appointment. If you go on-line, get your optometrist to take (and note on your prescription) your "pupillary distance" (PD). It is required for making sure your lenses focus in the right place, I guess. My optometrist wasn't associated with any optician, so he didn't care that I was ordering on-line.
12/29/08 - Thought I'd try a local place (LensCrafters) first, to make sure it was worthwhile before going on-line. Tried on a bunch of different frames, but for the ones I decided on, the best price he would give was around $500, minus a 20% discount for my company benefits provider. Still $400, though. The lenses were the big ticket there. Stopped by Costco on the way home as well, same story. Prices very comparable to local.
12/31/08 - Ordered the exact same frames from Framesdirect (had the optician write down the frame make/model/size). Came to $297.15 ($247 US), with shipping and exchange. I had got a quote of $30.50 for shipping USPS to Canada, and they originally charged $35 or so, but they applied a $5 coupon to cover that when I phoned them (even though I noted in my order comments that I was given that quote by a particular person).
Here's where things fell off the rails a little, and it's a bit of a mess. It's at least partly due to the holidays, though. First off, FramesDirect has to confirm the prescription somehow. If I had a fax at home, I would have faxed them my prescription, but another option was to get them to check with your doctor. I picked that. It took them till Jan 6 to do that, and a few phone calls from me to them to confirm that it was finally done. I'm a little grumpy about that, but next time, I'd scan/fax it directly to them to save a few days.
01/08/09 - Then the pieces all got ordered, and the glasses went into a "At Lab" status on Jan 8. Great, I thought. A day here, and they'll be ready to go. Nope. Sat there at the lab on Friday, and almost all day on Monday.
01/12/09 - I finally phoned them on Monday to ask what's up, and they said they'd check into it and phone me right back. I commented on how this seemed to be taking longer than expected. Nobody ever phoned me back, but by the evening, the glasses had a "Shipped" status.
01/13/09 - I was supposed to get a shipping confirmation number so I could track them, and never did get one. So I phoned them back on the 13th, and asked for it. Got it promptly, and can see on the USPS website that they've left Chicago.
So anyway, still waiting for the glasses, so I can't comment on the quality. I'll post back when I get them.
So far, I'm happy about saving $100 (or more, as I wouldn't be surprised if the local shops had some extra charges I'd find out about when it was time to pay), but I'm not so jazzed about the time it's taken. But if I hadn't needed the glasses because my old ones broke, it wouldn't be as big of an issue. I might still order some prescription sunglasses from them...
Clint
I thought I'd log my experiences order from FramesDirect.com, since I couldn't find many reviews from Canadian shoppers. So here goes...
12/25/08 - Broke my glasses on Christmas Day. Nobody open, and even worse, I figured it was time for a new prescription too, and I was no longer in the same city as my old optometrist, so I'd need to find someone I could go to over the Christmas holidays. Fortunately, my 10 year old pair of glasses were still kicking around, and the prescription was "close enough" to get by with.
While I was waiting to get in somewhere, I did some research on online glasses, as I remembered from the last time that buying locally was pretty expensive. Found a couple of online Canadian places, and the FramesDirect site. The nice thing about the FramesDirect site was the variety of glasses they had, plus they had a "FrameFinder" feature, that let you upload a picture of yourself and try out glasses on your face. It only works with a selection of frames, though, not all of them.
12/29/08 - Found an optometrist who had a cancellation, got in and made an appointment. If you go on-line, get your optometrist to take (and note on your prescription) your "pupillary distance" (PD). It is required for making sure your lenses focus in the right place, I guess. My optometrist wasn't associated with any optician, so he didn't care that I was ordering on-line.
12/29/08 - Thought I'd try a local place (LensCrafters) first, to make sure it was worthwhile before going on-line. Tried on a bunch of different frames, but for the ones I decided on, the best price he would give was around $500, minus a 20% discount for my company benefits provider. Still $400, though. The lenses were the big ticket there. Stopped by Costco on the way home as well, same story. Prices very comparable to local.
12/31/08 - Ordered the exact same frames from Framesdirect (had the optician write down the frame make/model/size). Came to $297.15 ($247 US), with shipping and exchange. I had got a quote of $30.50 for shipping USPS to Canada, and they originally charged $35 or so, but they applied a $5 coupon to cover that when I phoned them (even though I noted in my order comments that I was given that quote by a particular person).
Here's where things fell off the rails a little, and it's a bit of a mess. It's at least partly due to the holidays, though. First off, FramesDirect has to confirm the prescription somehow. If I had a fax at home, I would have faxed them my prescription, but another option was to get them to check with your doctor. I picked that. It took them till Jan 6 to do that, and a few phone calls from me to them to confirm that it was finally done. I'm a little grumpy about that, but next time, I'd scan/fax it directly to them to save a few days.
01/08/09 - Then the pieces all got ordered, and the glasses went into a "At Lab" status on Jan 8. Great, I thought. A day here, and they'll be ready to go. Nope. Sat there at the lab on Friday, and almost all day on Monday.
01/12/09 - I finally phoned them on Monday to ask what's up, and they said they'd check into it and phone me right back. I commented on how this seemed to be taking longer than expected. Nobody ever phoned me back, but by the evening, the glasses had a "Shipped" status.
01/13/09 - I was supposed to get a shipping confirmation number so I could track them, and never did get one. So I phoned them back on the 13th, and asked for it. Got it promptly, and can see on the USPS website that they've left Chicago.
So anyway, still waiting for the glasses, so I can't comment on the quality. I'll post back when I get them.
So far, I'm happy about saving $100 (or more, as I wouldn't be surprised if the local shops had some extra charges I'd find out about when it was time to pay), but I'm not so jazzed about the time it's taken. But if I hadn't needed the glasses because my old ones broke, it wouldn't be as big of an issue. I might still order some prescription sunglasses from them...Clint