Having gone nearly three years without eyeglasses after the tragic demise of my old pair, I was pretty well out of patience with having to stick in my contacts every time I needed to drive five minutes to the grocery store or wanted to watch TV. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pay the several hundred dollars a new pair would cost me. I’d heard good things about the website Zenni Optical over the years, but wasn’t too sure about buying from them. I mean…glasses, frames AND lenses, for as little as $8.00 a pair from some place on the Internet? My last pair of glasses clocked in at a cool $400 (my eyes are short-bus special).

A month ago, I finally gave in to the burning desire to own a good pair of glasses, and also gave into the equally burnariffic urge to NOT pay $400 for them. So I hit up Zenni-land, and was pretty impressed right away at what I had to choose from. So much so, actually, that I ended up with two pairs, one costing a sweet base cost of $8.00, and the other $9.95. My wonky prescription, which my old optometrist’s glasses office claimed they’d have to charge extra for? No problem! was Zenni’s stance, and my credit card and I rejoiced. I sprang an extra $4.95 for the anti-reflection coating on each pair, the lenses came with free anti-scratch coating and UV shielding, and the shipping was $4.95–a flat rate no matter how many glasses you order. I passed on the offer of polarized clip-on shades since I already have a pair of polarized sunglasses I wear over my regular glasses. My grand total for two pairs of eye-saving love? $32.80. Suck on that, $400 glasses! You’re no longer welcome in my life.

The glasses arrived about two weeks later, and I was thrilled with them out of the package. They were much smaller and lighter than my old pair, made of titanium (my former pair was made of a heavy bulky metal because I was told my lenses were too thick to be supported by lighter materials). After a day or so of my ears and nose getting used to the fact that there was something on them, it felt like I wasn’t wearing glasses at all. And the most important aspect, the prescription, is spot-on. I can wear these glasses all day if needed without eyestrain or headache. I know where I’ll be getting my glasses from now on!

You do need to do your homework before ordering. The best thing you can do beforehand is to go visit physical stores and try on their frames to see what feels and looks good on you. Write down the brand names and all the little letters and numbers engraved into the temple arms of the frames you like. Then, go to your favourite search engine and input that information until you find the specs of each set of frames: lens width, lens height, bridge, temple arm length, and frame width. The more info you can track down, the better chance you stand of finding just what you want, particularly when it comes to lens size information. On Zenni, look for frames that have lens shapes and frame size specs similar to the frames you liked in person. They don’t have to be an exact match, but you want them to be as close as you can get, within about five to ten millimeters if possible.

In addition to your prescription, you’ll also need to know your pupillary distance (PD), something optometrists often don’t write on your prescription. This is the distance between your eyes, and it’s VERY important you have this measurement correct (I don’t recommend trying to measure it yourself). Luckily, you can walk into just about any place that sells glasses and have them determine your PD. Zenni also provides helpful data on how to read the measurements you’re given for every section of the ordering process, so even though you may be confused to start, everything is explained and made easy. Trust me, doing the little bit of legwork is totally worth saving a few hundred dollars on your glasses!

Zenni also makes sure to verify the information in your order before making the glasses. If you make a mistake or buy an add-on you don’t really know that you need for your prescription, they’ll contact you to explain why you don’t need the extra purchase and refund any extra money you were charged. When you place your order, Zenni tells you that you will receive a receipt by e-mail; mine didn’t come until my glasses were shipped about two weeks later, so don’t worry if you don’t get your receipt e-mail right after ordering. But make sure to check your spam filters regularly–Zenni sends their glasses with Delivery Confirmation, which means you get a tracking code in that e-mail! Speaking of shipping, Zenni’s service is much faster than in previous years.

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