I just got back from the optometrist, and shockingly enough, my vision has IMPROVED over the last three years instead of worsened. Perhaps I do not yet have to resign myself to waking up one day, utterly blind.
After the exam, they laid out my options according to my insurance: they’ll cover up to $120 for glasses frames plus 20% off any amount above and beyond $120. They’ll put $15 toward my lenses, and since I require high-index lenses and edge-rolling so as not to have a coke-bottle-y appearance, I’ll have to pay ~$100 above what insurance will chip in. So base on glasses is ~$100 plus whatever frames I decide on.
Contacts, for now, are out of the picture. The insurance website made it sound as if they cover contacts entirely, minus the fitting charges. Realistically, they pay ~$100 and I’m immediately out ~$500 plus the continued cost of purchasing more disposables–so I suppose we’ve determined my interest level in contacts, and that level is below $500. Though it would be awfully freaking nice to be able to see just ONE HALLOWEEN OUT OF A DOZEN.
Having decided on glasses, the receptionist? assistant? at the optometrist’s took it upon herself to try to pick out frames for me, after I told her what I loved about my current glasses. Everything she picked out was met with a resounding ‘NO’; I don’t know what my current frames tell people about my taste, but I can tell you that diarrhea brown with electric green? NOT MY TASTE. Before today, I’d never seen recycled baby turds, but now that I have, I can quite CLEARLY tell you that it’s NOT MY TASTE. It became increasingly difficult to turn down this woman’s choices politely, and finally I said “Look, I have been accused of being nigh-unreasonably choosy. I have known my tastes for twenty-seven years, and you have known me for less than an hour, so not to offend you, but I don’t think you’ll be able to pick out something that I’ll like.”
…This woman was not a quitter. So I laid out my ground laws: I don’t want rimless, I don’t want wire frames, I don’t want anything round as it not only makes me look rounder in the face but owlish besides, I want a frame that’s thick enough to break up my face visually to give it interest and look less full but not dominate it (I don’t want the glasses to wear me), I prefer metal over plastic as I have a narrow-ish bridge and nosepieces help them stay on my face, I prefer a rectangular shape but am open to cat-eye styles and since this is to be my primary pair, I want a neutral color. Yes. I know. Very fucking picky.
And yet she kept handing me brightly-colored hugely thick plastics or ultra-skinny wire frames. I found ONE PAIR that I sort-of liked–for $567. Damn these birth control pills, I actually felt myself starting to get upset and hovering on the precipice of weepy over the idea of walking out with expensive glasses that I didn’t love. I asked about the possibility of finding a frame I liked outside of the shop and then ordering it through them–no, that was not a service they offer. I inquired about finding frames I liked and bringing them in to be fitted for lenses–she looked at me rather belligerently and said “Well, *that* won’t be covered by your insurance.”
Lady, if I find frames I love online for, say, $300, my cost out of pocket for those frames is $300. If I take frames that I’m just OK about from you for $567, my cost out of pocket is $357.60. I’m not really seeing the benefits of insurance, here.
When I asked her to please measure my pupilary distance, you’d think I’d just sprouted some grotesque appendage from some unspeakable orifice and presented it to her to be given a tongue-bath. She said, and I quote “Oh! You’re being sneaky–you’re going to order glasses from the internet, aren’t you?”
“I don’t see how being sneaky has anything to do with it. I deserve to have glasses that I’m thrilled about as I’m the one who has to live with them every single day, with every outfit, with every makeup application, for dress up, for dress down–they reflect ME. And whether they’re $20 on the internet or $500 on the internet or purchased from a physical location or anywhere inbetween, it has nothing to do with your business and everything to do with me.”
Her mouth was still gaping when I left.
Wow! Glasses in the states are expensive! I just got 2 pairs with lenses and eye test for £120, about $200 (without any insurance). And a friend had lenses put in glasses she had picked out somewhere else for $50! Bill’s disposable contacts come to £18 a month.
You were wise to stay clear of the crazy expensive ugly glasses!
Words can’t really express my jealousy at the moment over inexpensive Brit eyewear.
If I ever wonder about how much I love you, I need only to read blogs such as these.
Having not so long ago shopped for glasses myself, I have to agree that there are some ugly frakkin’ frames on the market.
As for the contacts, you CAN get a better deal than the ~$500 price. Where the hell are you going for your eye care? Do they also happen to sell Faberge eggs, Tiffany lamps and high end diamonds?
For example:
http://www.contactlens.com/catalog/Monthly_Contact_Lens-6-1.html
I use the Proclear Sphere ones. I keep them in 24-7 for an entire month, then dispose of them and start with a new pair. Break down the math on that, because I’m not a numbers sort of gal, but I think that’s somewhat less than the ~$500 you mentioned.
Correction, that’s the “old” kind. I actually use Focus Night & Day. More pricey, but still much less than whatever crazy pushy glasses lady is trying to sell you.
The breakdown goes $280 for the fitting and $220 for three months worth of contacts. I have very, very funky eyes (oblique astigmatism plus some other crazy bullshit) so I don’t doubt that my lenses are more than the average Jane’s.
That seems ridiculously high, both for the fitting and for the lenses. I think they’re screwing you, yo.
I buy my disposables from 1800CONTACTS.com and get a very good deal on them, especially since they price match. I Google around for the cheapest price, they price match, and I accrue points with MyPoints.com for buying from 1800CONTACTS.
“I’m immediately out ~$500”
Wait, WHAT? What kind of contacts do you need to have that are gonna cost $600??!?! (Your 5, plus your insurance’s 1)
~Aramada
The breakdown is $280 for the fitting and $220 for three months worth of contacts, and I’m not 100% sure where the other $100 is going as I was boggling a little at the numbers she was telling me.
And your insurance doesn’t cover the exam???
Unless you are getting very specialized contacts, $220 for 3 months is ridiculous.
I get mine from 1-800-Contacts, and I pay around $200 for a year’s supply, which actually lasts me longer than that because I don’t wear them to bed and I use a daily cleaner on them every day which extends their life.
~Aramada
No, they just cover the standard eyeglasses exam. Supposedly it’s one of the better eyecare insurers out there, which absolutely blows my mind.
My brain just exploded ’cause the difference between the “standard eyeglasses exam” and the “contacts exam” is actually incredibly minimal.
Frankly, it sounds to me like you are getting jerked around and that fucking sucks.
~Aramada
Nah, I would’ve been getting jerked around if I had blindly (oh ho ho puns!) agreed to pay whatever she asked.
Also, for the record, Washington law says the eye doctor MUST give you a copy of your measurements/records if you request it. They cannot refuse to give you this information in an attempt to prevent you from purchasing glasses/contacts elsewhere.
~Aramada
Oh, I made sure to get a copy of it. 🙂
this is awesome to know, because they try to play dumb with me when i ask them for this stuff. i could measure it myself, but um, i can’t always see the tiny gradations on my tape measure 😛
Contacts, for now, are out of the picture. The insurance website made it sound as if they cover contacts entirely, minus the fitting charges. Realistically, they pay ~$100 and I’m immediately out ~$500 plus the continued cost of purchasing more disposables–so I suppose we’ve determined my interest level in contacts, and that level is below $500.
wait, what? where does the extra $400 come from?
i actually had the same strange experience recently. i’m terribly nearsighted, to the point where i was once considered ‘legally blind’, but when i went to the optometrist last year my vision had mysteriously improved by a huge amount. he asked if i’d changed lifestyles somehow and i said ‘well, i’m in school again, so i now stare at computer monitors and books more than i used to.’ weird. i’m not complaining though.
have you ever considered gas permeable contacts? i wore those for 12 years. i only recently switched to soft contacts because i want lasik. they won’t give you lasik if you wear gas permeable lenses because apparently gas permeable lenses can prevent your vision from getting worse. it’s similar to how wearing a bra keeps womens’ breasts from sagging as much. but that can give them an inaccurate idea of how much your vision will change/deteriorate once you stop wearing them, so you have to wear soft contacts for a few years and see what happens with your vision before they will consider lasik. i didn’t find them significantly less comfortable than soft lenses. but you can’t sleep in them. they have to be taken out every night.
now that i’ve switched to soft lenses, i buy the kind that advertises itself as 30 days continuous wear. i still take them out every night. i’m used to doing that and it just generally seems like not the greatest idea to wear lenses for 30 days straight. plus sometimes i wear glasses. but the advantage of this kind is that they cost about the same as the 7-day disposable lenses, are more comfortable, and last longer.
i’m a hippie though so i don’t like the environmental impacts of constantly replacing lenses even though i do recycle the packaging.
i do like that with soft lenses i can occasionally wear colored ones though, just for fun. i want to get some of the crazy halloweeny ones.
My insurance doesn’t cover the fitting process, which is close to three hundred by itself.
I tried gas permeable contacts for a short while in 2001. I really struggled with putting them in and taking them out and they never stopped being painful. I’m sure that my legoland coworkers thought I was high 24/7 with as red as my eyes were all the time.
damn, that sucks. i hate the healthcare system. it’s pure insanity to charge someone $300 for something that takes 15 minutes. is it possible that it might be cheaper at a different eyecare place?
I’m definitely going to check my options as far as the contacts exam goes. Since my insurance doesn’t cover one cent of the fitting anyway, I’m free to shop around for the cheapest price.
p.s. that glasses woman sounds horrible. it’s not like it’s your fault that they have a small collection of unappealing frames. i do sales for a living. it’s not my passion in life or anything, but i strongly believe that a good salesperson will try to help somebody find something that’s right for them, even if it isn’t the product that you sell. i regularly recommend to customers that they consider products from x or y business if it’s more of what they need rather than trying to sell them something that my company has if it doesn’t suit them. and it’s common for people from other companies to refer people to us too.
earlier this year i was in a boutique in portland and trying on jeans. i hardly ever shop at ‘normal’ stores, i buy 98% of my clothes either on ebay or in thrift stores. but they had some really cute stuff and i had some time to kill. nothing fit properly and i was sad. i explained to the salesperson that i had a really rough time with jeans because i have a comparatively narrow waist but large hips/ass and jeans tend to be made for people whose measurements are more apple-like. she recommended that i try the ‘honey’ cut from joe’s jeans – a brand that i’d never heard of and one that they didn’t even carry. i found a pair on ebay for cheap and the measurements sounded right. they fit perfectly. jeans almost never fit me. sure, she made no money off that directly… but i gave the store a 5 star yelp review and now recommend it to friends who live nearby who are visiting.
i got lucky because i happened to like the selection at the eye place i go to (capitol hill vision) but i’d absolutely buy frames somewhere else if there were better ones elsewhere. there’s lots of stores that specialize in having awesome frames. women in glasses are hot and there’s no reason anybody should ever spend $300+ on something they don’t love.
my compromise of sometimes wearing glasses and sometimes wearing contacts has worked out pretty well for me financially. i like wearing glasses, but there are some situations for which contacts are useful (really rainy days, really sunny days, swimming, halloween/costumes, etc).
I remember you posting pics to your journal the last time you were picking out frames and you had some really funky, cool ones!
I definitely agree with you on salesperson ethics, but sadly it seems that mindset has fallen by the wayside. At Guitar Center, they really pushed US to be pushy–the best guitar for every person was the most expensive guitar with the highest profit margin, and that’s largely why I didn’t succeed there, because their sales methods didn’t match my ethics. Hell, I read this story about Teavana and their ethics the other day and it makes me want to never patronize one of their stores again. It’s hard to trust people to treat you as you would treat them in return, unfortunately.
wow. i’m glad you posted that actually because i’m a big tea person and frequently buy loose tea. i most often buy it from remedy teas ’cause i like everything organic but i’ve totally seen that store in the mall and quite possibly would have stopped in someday.
the whole “offer the most expensive thing first” sales tactic is common because it really does work. people are impatient and oftentimes they’ll buy something without even hearing all the options or researching them just because they want to get it over with. that said, forcing people to go through the same routine regardless of what the customer says they can spend or what their needs are is wack. it wastes everybody’s time. especially in this economy where you’re lucky if someone’s in your store to begin with.
i loved my retail jobs and the experience was pretty much the polar opposite of that guy’s. i worked at a record store on broadway and a bookstore. nobody cared if i read a book while working if nobody was in the store, sold things via my own sales process etc. at one of the stores they actually had me write my own paychecks.
in my current job we’re paid on commission and it’s stressful and competitive, but we’re not micromanaged. we’re given tips about how to improve sales but are never required to use the same formulaic response to every individual customer, to try to sell everyone a product no matter what, to upsell people things they don’t need etc. in fact, all our services are billed monthly and if the person cancels within the first few months it’s deducted from our pay. they do that to ensure that it’s especially unappealing to sell people things that they don’t need.
one of the reasons i don’t shop in malls (other than wanting to avoid sweatshop labor and things like that) is commission sales. i find it really uncomfortable to be followed around a store by somebody pressuring me to buy things. i don’t take it personally because it’s usually obvious that it’s required of them, but it still doesn’t feel good.
i think corporations clinging to tactics like that is just an example of old people living in the past. i read an article recently in the ny times about how malls in general are doing so badly that they’re resorting to things like indoor ski areas and stuff other than stores because they can’t rent the empty store space.
I can’t remember if you work in Bellevue or not, but if you do, I really like Xiu Xian Tea; they’re high-quality, reasonably-priced, and no-pressure.
In general, malls are not doing as badly as you’d maybe think. My dad works for a company that helps clients like Westfield save money on their taxes, and part of that involves figuring out how much money each store makes per square foot of retail space–midrange stores like the Gap are struggling, but spaces like Hot Topic are making money hand over fist.
per my friend who used to sell designer jeans, Joes’s jeans and Hudsons are the ones that fit us ladies that have wide hips and tiny waists. Levi’s used to, but a few years ago I guess they changed their cut, so it’s a bit hit or miss.
This seems like the ideal moment to plug Zafu, which is a freaking amazing jeans finder–you input your jeans problem areas, whether you have back gapping or puckering or whatever, and they point you to the jeans manufacturers whose cuts best fit your shape.
*edit* Hey, are you going to the Black BBQ this year?
Ugh, that Teavana thing is sickening.
Yeah, I saw an article on Consumerist about them doing insidious add-ons to a guy who went in expecting to pay $30 and ended up spending $90, and a little digging brought up that forum post. I wouldn’t have guessed that’s how Teavana does business, but then again, I went in LOOKING to buy a cast iron teapot so they didn’t really have an opportunity to try to put the screws to me further. However, I won’t be going back.
it sounds like you have eyemed, and it sounds like you went to either lenscrafters or sears.
i can’t stand shopping for glasses with pushy salespeople.
VSP. I went to Pearl Optical, it was the only place I could make an appointment for *today* that participated with my insurance. I don’t think Lenscrafters takes insurance at all? Regardless, I’m sure I irritated the fuck out of the salespeople at Lenscrafters three years ago as I meticulously tried on ~300 different pairs.
lenscrafters takes insurance (they say).
my eyemed is pretty much the same as your vsp, and i am dreading trying to deal with anyone they use as providers.
arg.
At the very least, they don’t participate with my insurance.
I’m sure eyemed/vsp works just fine for people with mild prescriptions, but when you have more needs, they just don’t seem to quite cut it.
mild and not the least bit weird. which is not me, either. i mean, i have a fairly mild prescription, but i’ve got astigmatism or some stupid thing, so it gets kind of nutty.
I’m with you on that. Don’t worry… keep trying on as many pairs of glasses as it takes. It’s your face and your eyes and your personal style. Salespeople who make you feel shitty for having a sense of taste should be flogged anyway.
I sympathize with you on all of this. I, too, have very unusual eyesight which means contacts can be particularly difficult for me to wear. Last time I wore them, my eyes were red a lot too. I had toric soft lenses then, but I have to say I’m really tempted by the extended wear stuff to return to The Red Side.
Oh, lens crafters can fully expect to have me skulking about this weekend, trying on glasses that I have every intention of buying more cheaply elsewhere.
I have VSP. I did some research and went to Seattle Vision last year. They didn’t try and push expensive frames on me, and the eye doctor was the first to point me to these amazing eye drops that make it possible for my poor dry eyes to wear contacts.
Ugh. I do not envy you or your shitty salesperson tractor beam. I wish I could let you borrow my eyeglasses place back home – my whole family goes there, and the guy owning it groans and rolls his eyes every time one of us walks in. he hooked me up with custom red perscription lensed Oakleys every year of my horrid middle school career. every time i gravitate towards what is obviously an ugly, terrible mistake of a pair of frames, Rich now swats them out of my hand and refuses to sell them to me.
Speaking of eyeglasses, I will get your sunglasses in the mail this week, I swear to Cthulhu.
Hah! Even just this afternoon, I was wandering around the apartment thinking “man, I know I used to have another pair of sunglasses, right? What color were they? And what the fuck happened to them? Oh well, I’ve got these blue ones…”
Yeah, these prices seem ridiculous. My friend just had to get glasses recently. She went into a budget eyewear place and got a totally decent pair for $150. No insurance involved.
After doing some further research, most frames and lenses cost optometrists $10 total, everything else is a sickening amount of profit. I’m sure their model is built on the idea that people will maybe buy a new pair of glasses every two to three years and they need to squeeze their customers for as much as possible–but I’d buy glasses more often, maybe a few pairs at once if they weren’t so insanely expensive.
Here is a place I was linked to that sells cheap glasses. I haven’t checked them out so can’t vouch, but thought I’d pass it along.
almost everyone i know uses Zenni:
http://zennioptical.com/cart/home.php
It definitely doesn’t hurt for me to check all of my options. 🙂 Thanks!
can you just get your new lenses put in your current frames? are your contacts expensive because of your Rx? i was using Focus Monthly, except i make one pair last about 3 months, but it was i think $60 for a years’ supply? or a 6 month supply? shit, i can’t remember.
also, i hate when they give you shit for asking for your Rx to go. by law, they can’t refuse it to you.
No can do, my current frames are a strong wind away from snapping. My prescription is strong, and I also have an oblique astigmatism so it makes fitting them them lenses particularly difficult. The last time I wore lenses, it was one pair, and they were put into a bubbly cleaning solution weekly. The ones the doctor is reccommending are thrown away every two weeks.
that is crazy expensive. i have astigatism too and wear daily disposables and my contacts are around $250/year with vision direct. i had VSP insurance and I could have sworn they covered the contact eye exam, just not the lenses. weird and annoying.
consider going to walmart… their contact lens exam is like $80 or something and then you can get contacts through either 1-800-contacts or vision direct.
well, thats if youre still considering contacts. might be worth checking their prices for glasses too, but i dont know as much about that. ry also looking at related tags in the seattle community; i know a lot of people have asked for good places to get glasses before and there have been some really popular recommendations in the past.
Since they don’t cover the exam, I’m free to shop around, so likely I’ll find a place that does contact fitting for less than an arm and a leg. I expected my lenses to be pricey since I have an unsual astigmatism but I didn’t expect the exam to run nearly as much!
I think you were remarkably restrained in your dealings with that girl at the shop. If it had been me, on this hot day, there would have been shrieking and spittle, believe it. Retailers who don’t listen are so infuriating. I was in a Brighton shop in SoCal some years ago and one of the dim but earnest shop ladies swooped down on me. I told her, “I am looking for a small excursion bag for a day trip to Disneyland.” Things she held out for my inspection: a lipstick case. A belt. A small purse with rhinestones. It was like something out of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.”
I’ve never had anyone approach me with “Look at this item we just got, I am so excited about it” come off as anything but insincere.
I’m really surprised that this woman didn’t understand that taste was subjective !