Med-Psych.com

Overview: Eyeglass Lens Direct seems to offer a unique service of high quality name brand lenses and lens treatments and cheap prices. One fundamental difference from other online eyeglass stores is that they do NOT provide frames. You mail in your frames and they will provide the lenses of your choosing. For someone who wants top of the line lenses and treatments at discount prices, this seems like an excellent option.

I came across Eyeglass Lens Direct after someone asked a question in another thread on Transitions lenses about finding an online option for getting the very high quality lens treatments such as the Crizal Avance with Scotchgard. I did search a little and so far the only option I've found (please let me know if you find other good options online) was for Eyeglass Lens Direct.

They have an interesting system where you provide the frames, and then they replace the lenses. You can choose from many of the highest quality lens options including Crizal Avance with Scotchgard, Transitions lenses, and High Index lenses. Their prices seem very good and from what I could find, I haven't seen any negative information about the company.

In another thread about Crizal Avance with Scotchguard, one forum member posted that he paid a private optometrist $244 for the Crizal Avance with Scothguard treatment on polycarbonate lenses.

For comparison, Eyeglass Lens Direct sells the Thin and Lite 1.60 lens with Crizal avance with Scotchguard for $140. I believe the lens is this Thin and Lite lens made by Essilor. They say retail price is $238.50 which sounds close to what the other forum member said they paid for polycarbonate. $140 seems to be a great price.

A quick look at their site shows that they sell pretty much every option and combination available. They have the typical progressive lenses, single vision lenses, bifocals, trifocals, photochromic lenses, computer lenses, and sunglass lenses. Different from any other online eyeglass store is the name brand options and seemingly endless combinations.

For example - lets say I wanted a high-index lens with a high quality anti-reflective coating. Under the single vision lens option they have 15 brand name choices including: Drivewear, Essilor, Gentex, Hoya, KBco, Nikon, NXT, Optima, Pentax, Resolution, Seiko, Transitions, Trilogy, Xperio, and Zeiss. The site is very easy to navigate and find what you want. The only potential problem is actually too many choices. As I personally don't know the pros and cons of each brand, it's hard to know which is the best choice. Part of my posts here are to try to help figure out what is the best, and also the best value.

Since I am familiar with the Essilor name, I will select that for this example. The site then gives 3 options. The standard CR-39 plastic lenses for $39, the Airwear polycarbonate line, and the Thin and Lite high index line. <Great - I just saw they now have a Crizal Sapphire with Scotchgard that is supposed to be even better than Avance! Will need to do more research and another post on that now too>. The prices of the Thin and Lite high index lenses include the Crizal Avance and the 1.74 extended range lense offers the option of the new Crizal Sapphire antireflective coating for no extra cost. The 1.67 lens with Avance is $152 and the 1.74 lens with Avance is $222.

As to the company's service quality - I have only seen positive information so far. They have a BBB rating of A- with only 2 complaints and both listed as resolved. They have a reseller ratings rating of 10/10 (but only 2 reviews and both are over 6 months old).

I was thinking of getting a pair of transitions lenses from Zenni Optical, but now I'm think I may replace the lenses on an old pair of glasses from Eyeglass Lens Direct as I can get name brand top quality for only a little bit higher price.

I'd love to hear feedback from others as this seems like a really great option.

I would like to know what your experience with Eyeglass lens Direct was. I am seriously considering placing an order with them, but I did find one unsatisfied customer who complained about the quality of the lenses he received and the Owner's failure to correct the problem.

Please email me at sbarta@lava.net

Thanks,
Steve

As some of you know from reading the other thread, I sent some frames to Eyeglass Lens Direct so that they could make lenses for me. The result: let's see. What was that adage about deals that are too good to be true?

Unfortunately, the glasses I received weren't made correctly. I had more eye strain in the week that I wore them than the rest of my life combined. If I really strained, I could see properly, but I couldn't do that for very long or I'd get a headache. If I didn't strain, I couldn't see properly and that eventually gave me a headache too. After a few days of this I had my new glasses measured. Much to my dismay, the PD was 3.5 mm narrower than my prescription. (By Eyeglass Lens Direct's own admission, the margin of error for my prescription is only 2 mm.)

At Eyeglass Lens Direct's request, I sent the glasses back. The owner stated he measured them himself. Right away, he claimed that the person who measured my glasses was wrong and that they were in fact made correctly. Then he claimed the optician who made my old glasses was actually the one who made the mistake. I verified my old glasses were made correctly. Then he blamed my doctor for over-prescribing me. Then, he stopped responding to my emails. Herein lies the real problem: Eyeglass Lens Direct appears to be a one-man show. There's no customer service department to talk to. There's no supervisor to ask for. It's just one guy.

I filed a claim with PayPal. I sent in a letter from my doctor and won the claim. I got the money back for the lenses, but Eyeglass Lens Direct still has my frames. I'm still out $30 for the frames, $13.50 for shipping, $20 for second opinions, and about five hours of my time. I truly wish this had worked out differently, since there were many qualities of Crizal Avance lenses that I really liked. Oh well, (expensive) lesson learned.

The verdict: not recommended. Read the other reviews in this forum and choose a different optician.

m.

great experience with eyeglassLensdirect.com.

i put in an order and sent my lenses august 5, arrived back august 22nd. perfect.
i liked that they included the opened packaging from the hoya lenses with my rx as ordered right on them and that they carefully wrapped the blank lenses from my old frames.. little things.

i had very good communication with them during the process about time frames.

hoya highlux pnx (trivex) single vison lenses with super hivision AR (supposed to be harder than glass) for $168.85 - that's inc. shipping. fantastic.
i couldn't be happier and just sent them another pair of polarized sunglasses to do.

i am so happy i sought out this website just to tell somebody about them.
very pleased with the service and these lenses, it wasn't really about cost for me, i'm inclined to think that business that specialize in one thing often do them better.
this experience has proved that out.

also, the hoya lenses with their AR are outstanding. (zeiss? why?). these are fantastic, second to none.

I made every attempt to satisfy this customer, I asked the customer to visit the doctor and have the glasses checked. He took them to a competitor which said the glasses were made wrong. I asked the customer to return them to me and I would verify the prescription again. When I received the glasses back, and checked the prescription, they looked very very accurate and there should have been no reason for an experienced optician to say they were made incorrectly. I tried to explain this to the customer but unfortunately he didn't believe me. He immediately filed a complaint with PayPal and took his money back. After I learned of this I removed the lenses, returned his frames but they were returned back to me. I contacted the customer about this and he claimed they were never returned to him and didn't want them anymore. The comments this person has made against my business has absolutely no reflection on the excellent quality, craftsmanship and customer service I provide to all my customers.

ELD,

Thank you very much for taking the time to post your comments in this thread. I think it reflects positively on your company that you take the time to clarify your side of the story here. Best of luck with your business. Your prices are very good for high quality lenses.

Received back two pairs of glasses from Eyeglass Lens Direct last week. One with brown Xperio polycarbonate lenses and the Crizal Sunshield coating; the other a pair of reading glasses, Essilor polycarbonate lens with the Crizal Sapphire coating.

This company does an excellent job at an unbeatable price. The sunglasses were fit into a 15 year old antique Cartier platinum frame i had lying around and wanted to get some use out of. When they came back I inspected the lens fit carefully as the old lenses were constantly popping out, and as far as i can tell the fit is flawless. The lenses are awesome. The coatings perform as advertised, shed water, and fingerprints readily.

The reading glasses were of similar quality. The frames were 10 year old pair of plastic tortoise shells, so fit was not an issue, but the clarity of the lenses was quite noticeable, thanks in no small part to the superior anti-reflective properties of the Sapphire coating. Can't attest personally to the hardness of the lens coating, not yet at least, but so far I'm very pleased with the results.

Here in the Big Apple where i live I visited three opticians before ordering from Eyeglass Lens Direct. None would tell me exactly what lens brand/style I was getting, and all were considerably more expensive for no-name merchandise. Here you are getting (premium) name brand merchandise at a substantial discount to what you'd be paying in most stores locally. My opinion after numerous attempts to get the lens info from the local retailers is that the vast majority of eyeglass purchasers care most about the frame and the "look". Most do not pay much attention to the particulars of which lens option the are choosing, preferring to go with the optician's assurance that their lenses are as good as anyone else's.

I didn't buy into that logic. Yes, there's a lot of marginal marketing out there trying to convince us all that one brand is better than another. But in most cases there is a considerable difference in performance between the low end and high end. The beauty with Eyeglass Lens Direct is that you get the best quality for less than you'd pay locally for average. Nothing to dislike about that.

Good luck.

P.S. I don't usually write these reviews. But I was so happy with the value this service provides, I would like to see them succeed. Sooner or later i'll likely be needing a new prescription and i want to be sure they will still be around when i do.

<post editted by moderator - I am skeptical that this was not a genuine review. It is possible the person really is very satisfied (claimed he got single-vision Crizal Avance, with a 10 day turn-around). Poster was very satisified with price and quality. Maybe I am being overly cautious, but the exact same post was made to at least 4 websites.>