Archive for ‘Personal Shopper’

September 9th, 2007

How to buy eyeglass online

I was nervous about buying eyeglasses online so here are a few things that I recommend in order to get the most out of your money:

Go shopping first. Since you can’t try the glasses on, shop around at your local stores & pay attention to mm size & then buy similar glasses online.

Read reviews of the company that you are shopping with.

Have low expectations. Well maybe have reasonable expectations. It’s just that there are a dozen things that go wrong online when buying something as detailed as eyeglasses. I probably wouldn’t order glasses that I needed right away. Especially when sometimes you can pay as low as $8. I went into it with the attitude that if my glasses didn’t work for me, I’d just donate them. Be aware of the companies return policy.

Know your DPI. I don’t know exactly what this is, I think it’s the distance between your pupils. Just to make things really exciting, a lot of prescriptions won’t have the DPI on them but you need this to order glasses online. It’s possible to measure this yourself, but I just went to the eyeglass place & when I asked for my prescription they offered to measure the DPI free.


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September 4th, 2007

Zenni Optical

I’m not being paid for this review, I just really love the prospect of saving so much on eyeglasses. I think of glasses as just another accessory, jewelry that I always wear. So when I heard about zennioptical.com where I could buy glasses with lenses from $8 & up I was ecstatic. However, I thought that there must be a catch. So I did my research.

The rumors:

Here are the rumors or facts I found out about zennioptical.com. I heard that the shipping was slow. I heard that they sent the wrong glasses. I also heard that the glasses break after a few weeks. I heard that they had horrible & just plain rude customer service. On their site they state that they have only a 50% refund. So, I was wary about trying them out, but $8 glasses? I couldn’t pass that up.

My experience:

I ordered four pairs of glasses, the ones pictured above. The first two frames & lenses were only $8 dollars each including lenses. I paid a few dollars extra on the first pair so that they would be tinted as sunglasses. The frame-less pair was I think $24, which I thought was very air for frame-less glasses. I also liked that I got to choose the shape & size of lenses on the frame-less pair. So I sent $60 for four pairs of glasses including shipping.

They arrived in exactly the two weeks that zennioptical said they would take. I didn’t think that this was too much longer than it would have taken at the eye doctors. All of the glasses were the right prescription. I would’ve been happy if even one of the four pairs of glasses worked. However, my prescription is pretty straightforward.

Like ordering anything online, I couldn’t try them on first. I went & tried on several pairs of glasses at a local store so I could see what the different sizes looked like on my face. As a result, each pair of glasses really suited me. However, the lenses were slightly thicker than I was used to. This hasn’t really been a problem, it’s not enough to make a big difference. I’ve never had plastic fames before, like the bottom brown pair of glasses int he pictures. I find that sometimes the light comes through the glasses in a weird way & causes a reflection. This means that I don’t wear this pair as much.

In fact, I usually only wear these glasses when I want options. Other than that for some reason, I revert to my old pair of glasses. The glasses are still cute, & work well. Overall, I was pleased with my experience & thrilled with the price, although I didn’t have to deal with customer service at all. I’m glad that I ordered several pairs so that if one pair didn’t work out, I still had several to choose from. I will probably order more prescription sunglasses from them again. However, I will probably always try to have a more expensive pair that was actually fitted by an optician. What have been your experiences with buying glasses online?


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September 4th, 2007

Learning to love shopping

I usually like to shop, it is my talent after all. However, there is one thing that I absolutely hate shopping for & that’s men’s shoes. It seems like my dad or one of my brothers is always needing shoes. It’s not like shopping for my own shoes, which is fun. It seems like men’s shoes are a lot more expensive & they all look the same to me.

So last week I finally ventured out because my dad needed a pair of work shoes that also looked nice enough to wear as casual shoes. It took countless stores, & I was almost in tears because whenever I reached for work boots that I liked, they didn’t have his size. It seems like every store that I went to, no matter how nice, didn’t organize their shoes by size. I was looking at MetBoots today & was really surprised by their selection. They had more to choose from then all of the stores I went to combined. Plus, they have free shipping on orders over $100. Their shoes seem to be quite sturdy & reasonably priced. I was amazed at how low their prices on Dr. Martens were. So at least next time, I know where to go shopping. This should make even shopping for boy’s shoes fun.


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