Buying Contacts Online

[SweetErika]

I'm looking to buy some contact lenses online, but noticed there are a lot of mixed reviews for the major retailers.

Which retailers have you had good or bad experiences with?

 

[red_jane_doe]

I always buy from Coastal Contacts. I'm sure I chose by price but have never had an issue.

http://www2.coastalcontacts.com/index.ep?CMP=KNC-SMXHome

 

[Reba67]

I had great service from www.clearlycontacts.com (.ca for me). Fast and cheap.

 

[albertaboy]

www.visiondirect.com

 

[SweetErika]

www.visiondirect.com

I was looking at this one, but the number and severity of the complaints on Google. It seems a lot of people have had problems with them verifying their prescriptions, VD substituting more expensive contacts for the ones ordered without being told, being charged for things they didn't order, etc., recently.

Out of the 49 reviews, 27 are positive, 3 are neutral and 19 are negative. That seems like a pretty big gamble to me.

Red, when was the last time you dealt with Coastal, if you don't mind me asking? (Oh, and they might charge repeat customers more than new customers more, if they use the "re-order" option, just so you know)

Reba, I saw another Canadian say that Coastal (the US version of Clearly) has cheaper shipping than Clearly. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it might be something to check out, especially if the exchange rate stays so favorable for you guys (I'm hoping it doesn't; Hubby's probably getting Lasik up there in a few months!).

 

[red_jane_doe]

I order from them once a year. I haven't ordered this year but I've used them for the last two. I don't remember any extra charge, if there had been an increase, I would have shopped around for a cheaper price.

I think Sears optical told me they would match online prices. That might be worth asking at the place you had your eye exam done.

 

[SweetErika]

I order from them once a year. I haven't ordered this year but I've used them for the last two. I don't remember any extra charge, if there had been an increase, I would have shopped around for a cheaper price.

I think Sears optical told me they would match online prices. That might be worth asking at the place you had your eye exam done.

Thanks, Red.

There were a couple of complaints about extra charges. One loyal customer said they received an email when it was time to re-order, and they noticed the prices were $3/box more when going through the "repeat customer reorder" process than if they'd cleared their cookies and gone to the site like a new customer would. Customer service told them new customers get a special price, and they would be willing to give the customer that lower price. The customer was miffed they didn't treat loyal customers as well on the surface (s/he had used them for many years).

Another complained about handling surcharges added during the ordering process. She wrote a comprehensive review, and will still use Coastal because they're the cheapest for her unusual contacts, but she thought they should just include the surcharges in the prices, rather than tacking them on during the process. She gave them credit for not truly hiding the charges and explaining them in fine print, but felt keeping their face value prices low then adding surcharges was a bit of a bait-and-switch on their part.

I also noticed a lot of reviews that mentioned having problems with the lenses, getting the wrong order or being overcharged, said they called and emailed many times, but either never got a response, or the response was completely unsatisfactory (e.g. telling a customer the lenses are NEVER defective).

I may still use Coastal, but the complaints give me pause, and I figured some of you might be interested in what those who have ordered recently have noticed about extra charges and such. To be fair, it seems like just about all of the major online/mail-order retailers have a lot of complaints about poor customer service, receiving the wrong order, (at least somewhat) hidden surcharges and being overcharged. 1-800 Contacts appears to have higher ratings, but they also have higher prices, and I'm not sure how easy it is to get them to match prices.

Has anyone had experience with 1 800 Contacts, or have the higher prices deterred everyone?

I'll see if Sears will match online prices. The place Hubby got his exam done isn't an option because their prices on glasses even are ridiculous (they wanted to charge him $650 for not-so-incredible glasses because his insurance will pay $400 ).

 

[Reba67]

When I ordered my contacts from clearly, it was free shipping over $99....pretty easy when you get a year's worth (or more since I like my glasses so much that I wear them more than I used to).

 

[red_jane_doe]

I don't know where you're from but here in GA a lot of people that I know buy their glasses at Costco or BJs wholesale. I've never looked into their contacts but I know their glasses are pretty inexpensive.

With Coastal, I've never had wrong lenses. I've never had anything to complain about. My contacts are expensive, just over $100 for 6 mos supply. That allows me free shipping as well. I haven't checked into it this year but have had no reason (in the past) to not buy from them.

 

[mjl2010]

Emailed a friend who had trouble with contacts he ordered to find out where he got them, but he hasn't responded yet.

He got the new contacts and started using them about two weeks later I think. They seemed fine but he started getting headaches. It turned out they were slightly (off?). The company replaced them but he won't go back. He didn't associate the headaches with the contacts for at least a week, maybe more.

Just something to be aware of.

MJL

 

[WestMich69]

Vision Direct

I have used VisionDirect for over 5 years and have NEVER had a problem. Often they offer discounts. And once I needed contacts in a hurry and they over-nighted them with no problem.

 

[ewriter]

TBH online retailers are just big warehouses that post lenses out as if they are any other commodity so unless they are totally incompetant I can't see how they can really get it wrong. What is much more important is the quality of the prescription you are working off and that the lens itself suits you. Are you a long term wearer with an established lens type or are you trying something new.

I am typing this through gritted teeth as I am a UK optometrist (roughly equivalent to your OD,s) and I hate online retailers as they can sell lenses cheaper than we can buy them off the companies so we cannot compete at all on price. Our NHS system also means it is difficult for us to charge very much for our professional time so we must make all out money on the product. If online purchasing becomes big in the UK we will all be out of business pretty quick. The retailers are supposed to have a valid prescription before supplying lenses but as out professional bodies have shown that they have no wish to pursue online retailers who flout this people are quite easily buying leses online with prescriptions that are years out of date.

In the US it is different as I understand your system is very well regulated and OD's don't do very much dispensing at all, they make all their money from professional fees (probably a better way of doing it TBH). As long as you are happy with the service from your OD, go with the lenses they recommend and have regular check ups I can't see the online retailer making that much difference.

Please tell me if I am wrong however, I do not really know the US system that well and am just going on the little I do know.

 

[SweetErika]

I think you're right about many things, ewriter, and appreciate the input of an eye professional.

My impression is that the problems with a lot of online retailers comes on the customer service side of things. When they ship the wrong lenses, charge too much or try to add fees at checkout, people don't have a lot of recourse. I did see a couple of mentions of problems with the actual lenses, such as being labelled in Chinese only (as if Coastal got them from a Chinese manufacturer, dried out, not sealed and not fitting properly, even though the box was marked with the correct prescription.

Here, you're right, they are pretty strict about having the Rx faxed or calling the doctor to verify it, and doctors definitely make money off of professional fees. The doctors also pull in a lot by adding a big markup to glasses and contacts, though. They charge about double for contacts and wanted my husband to buy a $600 pair of glasses because his insurance will pay up to $400 for hardware/contacts. He can get two pairs (or one really good pair)of glasses AND a year's worth of 1-2 week contacts for under $400 if he buys both elsewhere.

If the optometrists here had a reasonable markup (something a little closer to the discount retailers), they'd get a lot more business, and thus make a lot more in the end, I think.

 

[bare_pussy]

i use justlenses.com

they seem to be the most reasonable for the lenses i buy (oasys) and they often times send reorder coupons for $5-10 off an order.

never had a problem. i buy my first 6 months from the doctor b/c insurance pays for them, then buy the rest of the year from justlenses. the site my insurance uses is considerably more for the lenses then if i just buy them myself from the 'net.

they always arrive in about 4-6 days, in case you wanted to know about delivery time.

 

[ewriter]

Here, you're right, they are pretty strict about having the Rx faxed or calling the doctor to verify it, and doctors definitely make money off of professional fees. The doctors also pull in a lot by adding a big markup to glasses and contacts, though. They charge about double for contacts and wanted my husband to buy a $600 pair of glasses because his insurance will pay up to $400 for hardware/contacts. He can get two pairs (or one really good pair)of glasses AND a year's worth of 1-2 week contacts for under $400 if he buys both elsewhere.

If the optometrists here had a reasonable markup (something a little closer to the discount retailers), they'd get a lot more business, and thus make a lot more in the end, I think.

Yeah I have to agree with a lot of that. As I am writing anonomously I can safely say that some of my colleagues do take the mickey a bit with their prices. $600 (£300) does seem steep for a pair of specs in the US unless they are the latest and greatest thin down coated varifocals (which few people need TBH) . For myself I could sell a year's worth supply of monthly contact lenses and a decent pair of specs for about £240 (or $480) which is pretty close to the figures you are talking about. Our average dispense is well under £100 while the UK average is over £200 which shows how much money some of my colleagues are taking in. We work in less than affluent area accounting for out lower takings, but we still do OK so some of the big boys (Specsavers optical express etc) must be taking serious money.

Personally I would be happy to take a better profesional fee and charge less for the product, but as the government sets our fees we have no control over this. We recently got a good increase in the fee (here in Scotland at least) for providing a better service which has helped a good bit.

As far as the lenses go I see your point about the lack of come back on mail order lenses that arrive damaged or wrong powers etc. TBH it isn't that difficult and any company who can't take the right lens off a shelf and put in in a post box in good time is a joke. Hard to know good from a bad as well, because a snazzy website may hide a multitude of sins.

Sorry I can't be of help regarding specific companies, my knowledge is all UK based. However you do seem to have a few good replies so far.

 

[SweetErika]

Okay, so we ordered from Coastal Contacts, and are very happy with the results.

The ordering process was easy, and I opted to email them a scanned copy of the prescription to expedite the order. I also chose the Bill Me Later option because I didn't want to pay upfront if there was a problem.

Unfortunately, Hubby's eye doctor put a certain brand/type of contacts on his prescription. Coastal emailed me, informing me they had to give the doc 8 hours to respond, but if they didn't hear from her in that time, they'd ship the order. She didn't respond to object to the different type of contacts (1-2 week Acuvue Advance, instead of Focus Dailies, which are much more expensive), so they shipped them right out via USPS.

They shipped from Blaine, WA (near the Canadian border), so they arrived in our mailbox in a day or two. The entire order was correct, and the contacts are fine. The order came with a pretty good lens case, too.

We're going to submit our Acuvue rebate, reducing the price for 8 boxes/a year's worth to about $145.

Thanks for all your help, everyone!