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Quick notes:

  • Offerings essentially start at $55 plus shipping for basic CR39 single-vision lenses (assumed 1.5 index), with a very low selection at that price.
  • Trying to find glasses at low price points is painful. Website was slow during my test, and listings do not differentiate between kids and adult glasses, even if you chose a category such as “mens”.
  • Not terribly progressive friendly – the only way to find frames compatible with those was through trial-and-error.
  • AR at the high end, running at $35 for the cheap version.
  • No check-out as guest.
  • Very high price for international shipping.
  • Not listed with the BBB.

 

Introduction:

MyGlasses is based in the US (New York). Pricing in USD. They sell single-vision and bi-focal/progressive lenses. Methods of contact include a toll free number, email, and mailing address. Payment methods include Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, and Discover. They are not mentioned by the BBB.

 

Impressions:

I’m going to be straightforward. My most recent look at the MyGlasses website was awful. Had I not been looking to update the write-up, I would have left within the first 30 seconds. I’ll get into the details in the “Website and Ordering” section.

The focus at MyGlasses seems to be on the higher priced glasses, with designer frames advertised but most not having pictures. The site design itself is reasonable, but has it’s quirks. Finding bifocal/progressive-compatible frames can be a chore.

As mentioned, a focus seems to be on higher priced frames. The lowest that the price selector shows is “under $100″, and depending on what you chose previously, it might show you frames that are over $100 anyway.

Single-vision lenses start at $27, while Bifocals start at $49, and Progressives start at $59. Photochromic, Polarized, and Fashion Tints are available as options. Adding an AR coating starts at $25 with 3 different possible AR coatings being offered.

 

Website and Ordering:

The website doesn’t have the “dated” feel to it any longer, pop-ups are now clean and sleek, but the site has some major functional issues when trying to narrow down a selection by something such as price.

It’s not uncommon for a shopper to try and sort frames by lowest price – if you do this by selecting “Mens/View All Eyeglasses Brands”, you’ll get a few $6-10 frames, but after you select them, you’ll find out they’re kids frames. You might then click “back”, and check out the next. And repeat. Until you realize that the only low cost frames are kids frames. The website was slow to respond throughout the attempts, making this process even more frustrating.

The emphasis may be moving more to the designer frames, and a number of the name brands appear to be quite low in price, but the vast majority of the name-brand frames do not have pictures. It’s to the point where I wondered if the very low price on some are just because it’s an older model, or if they’re knockoffs.

Once you’ve found a frame, “Add to Cart” and “Add Prescription” are listed. It’s not clear that “Add to Cart” actually means “frame only”, and since consumers are typically used to “adding to cart” and then being asked for any necessary customization, that terminology should probably be changed.

Assuming you chose the “Add Prescription” option,  it asks for your prescription. While you can fax/call/email it, entering it online is an option too. The Basic/Good/Better/Best option has been changed, so my previous concern: that it was unclear, citing the example that Polycarbonate might be “best” for children despite being listed as “good” no longer applies. They’ve gone so far there as to ask if you play sports or are under 18 years of age, which isn’t a bad idea on the surface if implemented correctly. We’ll get to the consequences of implementing that incorrectly next.

The next page automatically selects the High Definition lenses for you regardless as to what you chose previously, at an increase of $92. They’ve added a blurry picture under the “SD” version, presumably to scare people away from non-$92 options. If you chose the sports/age bit from before, it automatically adds the polycarbonate for you too, but without telling you *why*. It makes the previous sports/age question utterly useless – by adding a $92 option automatically, people are just going to assume that the +$30 polycarbonate option that was automatically added is just another attempt to upsell and will likely disable it.

The correct way to implement the polycarbonate upsell might have been to state something to the effect of “oh, you play sports or this is for a child – polycarbonate is our most durable lens and is very shatter-resistant – we recommend you choose that option!”. You could *maybe* make the case for auto-selecting it if it was the only thing auto-selected, but you’d still want to say why. The MyGlasses implementation is an example of a good idea that was horribly implemented.

Checkout as a guest is still unsupported.

To be fair, the pages themselves are attractive and set up well from a usability aspect (aside from constant “Processing” waits every time you change an option). And being frustrated within a few minutes of browsing frames probably contributed to me being harsher on the issues in the ordering process. But compared to my previous look, the MyGlasses site is worse overall in a number of areas, enough that it overshadows the improvements they did make. I certainly would not send a newcomer to that site in it’s current state.

Note: during some previous attempts to reach the check out page, a notification was displayed in my browser that the security certificate had expired for MyGlasses – I didn’t reverify it this time around, but be careful if placing an order and check to ensure you’re receiving a secure connection to the site (as you should do with any retailer).

 

Pricing and Value:

For pricing, you’re looking at something well out of the discount range at $55 before shipping. International shipping was ridiculously high last I checked ($29.45 to Canada, $45.95 elsewhere) and thus, MyGlasses may not be viable for non-US customers.

Pricing excludes the “HD” versions, which tend to increase the price by $70-100.

FRAMES $26 (starting point)
LENSES CR-39 Polycarbonate 1.67 index 1.74 index
Single-Vision $29 $37 $99 $209
Single-Vision Photochromic (grey/brown) $99 $129 $199
Single-Vision Polarized (grey/brown) $85 $109 $249
Single-Vision DriveWear $165 $189
   
Progressives $79 $95 $175 $279
Progressives Photochromic (grey/brown) $129 $179 $259
Progressives Polarized (grey/brown) $159 $189 $289
Progressives DriveWear $229 $249
–NOTE: progressives also have “good”, “better”, and “best” listings, though they don’t explain what the benefit is. These upgrades run from a ballpark of $50-100 extra depending on the lens chosen.
OPTIONS
AR Coating +35
Premium AR Coating (required and automatically added with 1.74 index lenses) +75
SHIPPING
US (not recently verified) $6.95
Canada (not recently verified) $29.45
International (not recently verified) $45.95

Note that the table is updated by hand – if you notice it needs a correction, please contact me.

 

 

 

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