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Aren't glasses prices extortionate nowadays
Luner13
Posts: 2,968 Forum Member
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I suffer from keratoconus which I was diagnosed with only two years ago and now rely on glasses (my keratoconus isn't at the stage at which I need the contacts yet) to see at all times.
Due to the fact keratoconus gets progressively worse over time my prescription keeps changing every six or so months so I need to get both new frames and lenses (you can't just get new lenses in your old frames for some reason?)
Anyway my latest pair which is my fifth pair in over two years cost me over £100 although I paid extra to get a new smudge free lenses which is apparently really handy. I just gets Boots Opticians own make not designer ones (they are ridiculously pricey)
Anyone else suffer from a similar eye problem and keep needing new glasses? its pissing me off bigtime.
Due to the fact keratoconus gets progressively worse over time my prescription keeps changing every six or so months so I need to get both new frames and lenses (you can't just get new lenses in your old frames for some reason?)
Anyway my latest pair which is my fifth pair in over two years cost me over £100 although I paid extra to get a new smudge free lenses which is apparently really handy. I just gets Boots Opticians own make not designer ones (they are ridiculously pricey)
Anyone else suffer from a similar eye problem and keep needing new glasses? its pissing me off bigtime.
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Maybe you could try that if your prescription isn't unusual.
(BTW my first glasses were in 1973. The metal frames I wanted were £20. My pocket money only stretched to £8 plastic ones.)
I do sympathise OP, very frustrating. I used to have great vision until I started high dose long term steroid therapy which has wrecked my vision.
ETA: I use specsavers. They're much cheaper and great choice.
It is when you don't have a lot of money to start with.
I do appreciate how the glasses help me btw
I also have middle aged crap going on.
I have to have varifocals of good spec to see, and the lenses HAVE to be thinned to be wearable.
Mine cost between £350 (five years ago) and £390 (two years ago). These were ON OFFER.
The frames were less than thirty pounds both times.
It's disgusting that I have to do this when it's not my fault in the slightest that I can't see.
But it is how it is.>:(
Why not? When I last had my eyes tested I was told I needed a new prescription but they simply sent my old glasses off to have the new lenses fitted. Obviously the down side is you have no glasses whilst they're being fitted, but it does save on the cost of frames.
There's excellent value online.
Only if you have a very easy prescription.
Its a horrible disease to have isn't it just horrible. I know when I need new lenses as I get this "spacey" almost out of body experience in my head which must be too do with the strain of the wrong lenses on my brain. It freaks me out.
Boots Opticians don't do it then? I only stay with them as they have all my history from the beginning.
Don't get me wrong I wasn't saying you don't appreciate how they help, just giving my reason why I don't see them as extortionate.
I don't know. I go to a local optician not a chain.
I've been with locals, Boots, and specsavers.
Specsavers are very, very good.
It really is. I was really quite gutted to be told they thought I had keratoconus.
For a while they thought I had cataracts due to my vision deteriorating so rapidly which is daunting yes but least I could have had cataract surgery to resolve it? They don't think it's cataracts now.
As people have said, frames can be as little as £20.
I think specsavers start from £25 and then you have 2-for-1 deals and such.
If your prescription/lenses is expensive then that's a different matter.
The frames for that price in Boots are minging though like something from the 1970s lol
I'd rather go without for a while and have nice looking frames.
I hope it all works out and the contacts are fine for you.
If I was skint and needed new frames then the first few here I would find acceptable
http://www.specsavers.co.uk/glasses/mens-glasses#f[genders]=male&f[price_range]=[25+TO+49]&f[colors]=47
If I was getting new lenses every six months then I wouldn't buy new frames.
Again, if boots don't offer that then go somewhere else.
Specsavers etc have, along with the advances in technology* driven down the cost of glasses massively, as has been said Specsavers can do complete glasses for about £40ish.
If you've got a medical condition that results in you requiring new glasses on a regular basis I believe you can get NHS vouchers on a more regular basis (rather than the normal ~ 2 years), but it may require your consultant to sign something, i can't remember the details but my dad has/had major problems and I think would end up getting two free pairs a year with a very complex lens (one reading, one normal daily use), as his eyes changed so much.
In his case he goes to the same opticians every time (I think it's Boots now, but was D&A), and the optician there apparently thinks he's an interesting case (not least because he now has one lens frosted to blank it out and I think is the only person who goes there that needs that done).
*I think lenses used to have to be largely finished by a skilled tech, now it's almost all done by a machine operated by a tech who will be watching over multiple machines that work faster than they used to (IIRC the lenses used to be ground by a tech sat at a machine, now it's very much automated).
I like Boots though I like my optician and they know all my history from the start etc
Its just the prices I don't like but I guess I'll just need to deal with it. I can't imagine it to be much different at other major opticians.
You can't for keratoconus you only get free help with the contact lenses which at this stage I don't need.