SelectSpecs
"Budget and Designer Prescription Glasses"
http://selectspecs.com

• Very International-Friendly - Multiple currencies - The default currency displayed is auto-detected based on your location.
• Offer a "reglaze" service - Effectively a service for those who wish to keep their existing frames and just have new lenses put in.

Introduction:

SelectSpecs is based in the UK, although they also appear to have an office in the USA (New York). Base pricing in brittish pounds, but currency selection defaults to your local currency based on your location - available in GBP, EUR, USD, YEN, AUS, CAN. They sell single-vision and bi-focal/progressive lenses, as well as a re-glaze service. Methods of contact include both a UK and US address, UK and US phone numbers (unmanned), UK and International fax numbers, and an online form. Payment methods include Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, Diner's Club, Maestro, NoChex, Paypal, Cheques (UK customers), with a mention of Google Checkout "coming soon". The BBB has a SelectSpecs listed in New York but the address's don't match. The SelectSpecs the BBB has on file shows a total of 1 complaint which was "administratively judged resolved".

Impressions:

Note that in the following sections, I'm using US dollar amounts since it's the easiest to help compare between other retailers mentioned on the site. However, these prices are based on the exchange rate shown at the time of this writing. For UK readers, I'll list the pricing in Pounds and Euros (as well as US and Canadian dollars) in the final pricing chart below.

SelectSpecs has done an incredible job of making their website work seamlessly for international customers in various currencies. They're also one of the few to promote a "reglazing" service for those who like their current frames, but simply want lenses for them. In addition, the website itself is straight-forward and easy to use for the most part, although it lacks some features that other sites have (more info a few paragraphs down). One issue that's noticed quickly is that prices are really all-over-the-place. For example, the product page shows Men's glasses starting at $14.47, while Ladies glasses start at $29.01. These are obviously prices at the current exchange rate, but the thing to note is how widely it varies. Sorting by "budget" frames for example, there was a decent selection in total, but at 11 different price points within the $14-36 range. $29 seemed to be the most popular one. Don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking them for not settling on one "popular" price. It's just worth emphasizing that they're different from many of the retailers who are known for $ X-dollar glasses.

Frame selection at the budget price-point is decent, but not large by any means. In the budget range ($14-37), they currently have 58 offerings each offered in anywhere from 1-7 colors (referred to as options), with 2-3 colors seeming to be the norm. A large variety of frames are offered, everything including full-rim, rimless, flex, titanium, metal, plastic, and more.

Single-vision lenses (either 1.49 or 1.56 index) come free with the frames. Bifocals add about $26 and Progressives add about $33 with "Rear-surface" progressives adding about $106 to the price tag. There are quite a few lens indexes offered from 1.49 to 1.74 for both single-vision and progressives. "High impact" lenses are available, but there are no polycarbonate offerings. Photochromic lenses are available. All lenses come optional with free AR, anti-scratch, and UV coatings (although you can choose not to take it on the 1.49 index lenses if for some reason you don't want them).

Website and Ordering:

All in all, the website is very well done in the majority of aspects. There are a few little issues though. First of all, they don't offer any sort of "see how these lenses look on you" feature. They do have a well written page called "Face Shapes and Glasses" which shows a few celebrity faces of different shapes/sizes and indicates what styles of glasses tend to go well with each shape, but it really doesn't compare to being able to actually see the frames on a face. The next issue is pictures of the glasses - they're certainly large enough and there are 2 pictures of each frame, but particularly in the case of light-colored frames or rimless glasses, the pictures aren't very clear. They tend to blend with the white background and in some cases you have to spend a few seconds adjusting your eyes to get a good idea as to what they look like.

Ordering is quite easy. Once you've selected your frame and the color (known as an "option"), you go to the prescription page. Everything is laid out for you right there - you can see all the options at once (with all the prices), and start checking boxes depending on what you're looking for. If a certain option isn't available based on your selection, it simply greys out. There are little ? bubbles that give good information for each category. The prescription layout is below the options and includes an option to simply upload your prescription if you'd prefer, or to mail/fax it in. The only hiccup in this area is that the ADD section for the prescription doesn't render correctly in Safari (Mac Browser). A nice feature following is that if you're unsure of your PD measurement, not only do they give instructions for taking it, but they also give the option to send your old glasses in so that they can determine your PD from your old pair, and yet another option to donate your old pair to charity if you no longer need them.

Pricing and Value:

The pricing really varies. Since $29 seemed to be the most popular number in the budget area, I'm using that for the chart.

As far as value goes, the absolute cheapest pair you can find on the site presently is a sale pair at about $14.50 (with most of the lowest-priced offerings being about $21). This gets you free AR, anti-scratch, and UV coatings. This is certainly very competitive for a low-cost offering with coatings. For a price area with more of a selection, $29 is certainly very reasonable as well.

Note that in the chart below, I've listed USD, CAD, GBP (pounds), and Euros. Pounds seems to be the default price, and the others are likely to vary depending on the exchange rate. UK customers also note that VAT will be added to the final cost as well. I apologize to bi-focal/progressive lens wearers on the chart pricing - I included lens and option prices for single-vision lenses only as the chart was getting rather large as it was (although if you're not looking for "extras", the chart should be accurate enough for you. If you'd prefer to see full pricing added for all the options in their bi-focal/progressive forms, please contact me and I'll look at getting them added to the chart. SelectSpecs also offers a reglazing service (putting new lenses in your current frame), but for the sake of not having pages upon pages of charts I haven't included it here. Again, if there's enough interest I'll add it later but in the meantime the pricing for that service can be found on their site.

A basic pair of single-vision lenses comes to $34.33 US, $42.23 CAD, €26.65 Euros, or £22.59 GBP, shipped worldwide.
A basic pair of bi-focal lenses comes to $60.76 US, $74.75 CAD,  €47.17 Euros, or £39.98 GBP, shipped worldwide
A basic pair of progressive lenses comes to $67.37 US, $82.88 CAD,  €52.30 Euros, or £44.33 GBP, shipped worldwide

Click here to go to the old SelectSpecs information page

Click here to go to the old SelectSpecs review page

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