I wouldn't buy online when I can have my rather complicated prescription for lenses filled & my choice of specs properly fitted + aftercare whenever I need it, for under 20€ from my local opticien mutualiste... that's under twenty euros, in case anyone thinks I forgot to type in a nought.
Not so much on the side of the angels sorry
I rather suspect that many of the frames sold in France are also made in the far east. I did buy some specs actually in China several times, and actually there the service was great and, despite the complicated spec, I picked them up later the same day. The price was ?£40 I think, with thin lenses and so on.
I just can't bring myself to pay 500€plus for what the internet sells for 100€ or less; thank heavens for those people who do.
are you the bloke that lives on 3,000 a year?
oh dear Simon And Mike - I seem to have hit a nerve there, don’t I but Why come and live in France Simon, if everything here is that bad?
Why do you think the French HeLthcare system is promoted as the best in Europe, possibly in the world. It’s certainly much better here and NOT only because you see a doctor quicker than in the NHS system. Eyes and proper eye care with good quality products and excellent specialists means more to me than swing a few euros! Both of you, go and see a properly qualified ophthalmologist In the UK, and ask his/her opinion of the ‘cheap’ UK high street opticians and staff ‘qualifications’. Basic at best by comparison. A very good friend of mine in UK, now retired, did years and years of training by comparison to become an ophthalmologist and owned his own “high street” opticians shop, long before the advent of cheap and cheerful.
If price is the prevailing factor for you both, you might just as well go to Tesco and buy Ready Specs!
I bet you are both prepared to spend several thousands on a good marque car, rather than few on a naff one, or put retreads rather than Continental or Pirelli tyres, who also promote themselves and their products. It is not unusual for good quality specialist anufacturers to promote themselves or the the scientific developments they work in conjunction with.
Sorry guys, your comments don’t hold water, with me and I’ll be a happily non- cloned person who hasn’t bought the same make frames as everyone else, with excellent quality lens in them made by Essilor. I don’t know who makes the frames I have chosen. I intend to look through lens, not empty frames.
Why are men so macho when it comes to important health and/or vision? I also guess you’d both sooner have a chippie do a limb amputation, than a properly qualified surgeon? I’d rather buy a good quality make of trousers or dress secondhand from a Charity shop, than buy themfrom Matalan or QD,just because they are cheaper!
Steve, got in 1. Price isn’t everything, good service and quality always comes at a price.
The main difference between France and UK is that retail competition isn’t the driving factor here. The lower prices are driven, the cheaper the quality of products made and where they are made. I’d also rather see UK manufacturers producing good quality items at a dearer price, than have purchase managers and “suppliers” ordering from places like China, India or Thailand, who pay pittance wages. Manufacturing in UK and selling at higher prices than currently. would also help lower unemployment levels there.
In their defence they (at least three in my town) have fixed my rather dodgy frames for free, and finally swapped the lenses into an old frame of mine, a job which takes about an hour I think, again for free. They don't even have a charity box, and I can only buy so many accessories.
Not a total rip off, they aren't driving BMWs, it's just simply the other way of doing things, good service has to be paid for somehow. The UK has loads of online specs shops preaching better prices than the UK high street, it's not just here.
Steve
Agreed Mike!
No way would I use a French high street optician - total rip-off. One thing for sure - there are loads of them - along with pharmacies, hairdressers, shoe shops and of course bread, bread, bread.
We both order our specs on-line - normally a couple of pairs at a time, for a fraction of the price - great service. As I mentioned earlier - thorough eye tests in the UK whenever we want - no waiting. Contact lenses on-line as well - fully reimbursed.
In any case - I don't want to walk out of a French opticians looking like a clone!
I was referring to the French shops who sell overpriced lenses in overpriced frames. They always have the latest "fashion" which usually means you wouldn't be seen dead in them in six months time, so you have to go and buy new ones again!
As for "fitting" the backs of my ears have bled following the attention of incompetent assistants in opticians shops and have ended up un-bending them myself to make them wearable. I would rather choose the frame size and do the fitting myself (in the unlikely event that it is needed.)
You shouldn't believe everything businesses say about themselves and their products, especially when it is phrased in obscure "Company-speak."
Mike, not sure what you are saying, or if you are referring to UK or French optician shops. Having run asmall business in UK, I’m happy to give my business to a local optician here, whether it’s a franchise or not! I have a choice of 2only in the 1 town near me, the 1st went to was owner/manager run. She just tried to push me into choosing what she wanted because I have ACS. She even saids in English, she’d get her money quicker from the state. I didn’t like her attitude, she caused me so much stress with it, she had no interest in me as a customer because she assumed I was ‘poor’!
Sorry but I’d sooner have the personal service and help I needed and received from 2nd franchise optician, the big franchise co., run from a small shop, any day and where my ACS wasn’t a driving factor. Once started as a customer, that’s where i’ll return I the future, unless proved wrong, when I go to collect on Wednesday.
I can’t talk to an online website and have them fitted there either, no matter where they are made.
Having just written that, I decided to research my new lens manufacturer. It’s Essilor, www.essilor.com. and their website makes for very interesting,via Google, so in both and more languages, especially when looking at the following article on the French company, the largest manufacturer of lenses. …glasses can be ordered online and there are lists of opticians both here and in UK which use their lens…
“Essilor has a long history of collaboration with the CNRS following numerous research contracts signed over the past 20 years on various topics related to optics from materials, chemical analysis to simulations, that have resulted in more than a dozen joint patents. The CNRS has a globally recognized scientific track record with significant expertise in materials and physics. “Essilor has a strong and long history of partnership and joint-research ventures, co-developing with some of the best labs and experts across the world” said Eric Perrier, Senior Vice-President Research & Development. "The CNRS is a scientific partner of the highest quality and this partnership enables us to work in an agile mode to share knowledge and to commercialize jointly developed innovations”.
Collaboration with the CNRS, Pierre and Marie Curie University and the Vision Institute of Paris led to the creation of a unique Research Chair focused on ‘vision and aging’ which has received highest label by French Research National Agency. Another joint research with the Vision Institute allowed Essilor to identify the harmful component of blue light. This fundamental work also enabled the Group to propose lenses adapted to our new digital environment that better protect the eye’s retinal cells from exposure to LED lighting and digital devices (Crizal Prevencia, EyeZen…).
Through this new agreement, Essilor and the CNRS are ready to face future challenges and launch a series of fundamental research projects "
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My new lens for internal or daylight distance use, will be Essilor Ormix Cz Alize+ UV. I WISH I’d known all that before! My free sunglasses won’t! For now though I’m still happy with personal & good service thus far.
Thanks for setting me off exploring!
Take another look at those high street shops with a thousand frames on display and a couple of idle assistants waiting for a customer and ask yourself what you are really paying for..........
$43 - that's about 38€ is what I pay for high quality lightweight progressive lenses in a steel frame from http://www.zennioptical.com. takes about 10 days to make and deliver. China makes most of the top brand cameras, so don't tell me they can't make a decent pair of glasses. It isn't rocket science!
Wow that sounds complicated. I wouldn’t imagine it’s representative of ‘most people’ though…
Oh no, my eyes are no problem to ME - they have presumably always been weird so I see them as perfectly normal. I don't wear my specs half the time either. It's only ophtalmos who start sucking their teeth when they see how unalike my eyes are, I have been told I should have headaches/feel sick/see double etc etc but no, never have...
I havent seen myopia & astigmatism correcting/hypermetropy correcting + progressive lenses as daily disposables ;-)
I do get daily disposables just for my left eye, the myopic one, to take on hols & they are indeed cheap as chips - ( but they aren't quite as good as my special ultra technical monthly ones, which are the ones I get free) & I have to take it out if I want to read comfortably, hence the faffing.
Veronique that sounds interesting , my prescription says
-2.00 (+0.50) 160 deg. Add 3.00
-2.25 (+2.00) 0 deg. Add 3.00…No idea what it all means though!
Your eyes are or were a greater problem to you than mine are. I feel for you. My vision deterioration only really started when I was mid 40’s till the H in my mid 60’s when it got worse faster. I also am having titanium for the daylight longer vision frames, paying net of 15% discount 118.15 and 80.56€ for each lens, if I’d not asked for the coating they’d have been half that.
My 2nd not quite free pair at 20€’ are the sunglasses with a slightly larger and strong frame, not Titanium but with same lens adjustment. Have to admit that on reading whole devis I don’t really understand it all now. I went to optician after a particularly gruelling session with my Haematologist where we muddled through with his English and my French on a par, and a 50 min taxi ride back from CHM with 2 other patients, none of whom speak English, so much concentration needed from me to keep up with French. Not grumbling, that’s how I slowly learn more and new words! But feeling quite jaded after leaving optician. My mutuelle just started with Axa, and stand in soc worker is from CLIC apparently, not CAF, between them they sorted out best deal for me with my ACS. I haven’t heard of your Mutuelle co., but do know I can deal with an English speaking clerk at Axa, as she handles my tenants insurance. If I need further info from you, perhaps I can ask in future re glasses!
Shirley - best laugh of the night! :-) Thanks!
Really? I wear daysoftlenses.com contact lenses - cheap as chips daily disposables, a fraction of the cost of specs and fully reimbursed by my mutuelle i.e. no extra cost to me. Takes me about 10 seconds to put them in in the mornings and about 5 seconds to chuck them down the loo at night! I can't bear anything that requires me to faff!
For most people specs are much better reimbursed than lenses & they are less of a faff. I wear mine only for sports (& when I want to look glam, so about once every 2 years on average)
Simon I can’t answer for the young, except to suggest they may think they look ‘cool’ in glasses! There’s also the matter of fashion and style or perhaps they’ve got plain glass in and don’t all really need to wear them. Sadly my son was called four-eyes when he started wearing the NHS ones at age 5
For me a question of habit at my age and a bit of fear! I’ve seen my son now 45, his wife, my friends plus Heard others say they’ve dropped and or lost contact lens so many times, That in the here and now easier to see glasses if I take them off, plus a larger case to keep them in!
Given I was conscious all through the cataract ops, on the 1st one I was s***t scared when my real lens was being extracted, then new one inserted and suddenly saw Jesus walk past, complete with Long hair & beard, wearing blue robe that I thought he’d come to comfort and reassure me! It wasn’t till I was back for my post op Rdv the following week, that I saw him again seeing other patients, and he was one of the fully qualified optho’s who’d been mentoring and watching my lovely handsome young Interne having difficulty with the extraction,took over 20 mins in op theatre, it was that eye and body side physically affected by haemorrhage, I’m pleased to say 2nd op was a doddle by comparison!
So unfortunately, fear and habit are my reasons for choosing specs over contact lens, but hope I gave you a laugh as all is true! I also look forward to meeting Jesus personally next year on annual check, as that’s the Optho I want the Rdv with.
My specs are titanium wire ones with special anti-everything lenses and I have one myopic astigmatic eye & one hypermetropic not astigmatic eye & as a little bonus my ophtalmo recommended I have a bit of correction for presbytia in both - my specs cost me €16.57 as far as I remember & my contact lenses are free since I'm +2 in one eye and -2 on the other & if you have 4 or more dioptries difference between your eyes you get free contact lenses. I get my specs from les opticiens mutualistes & my assurance is the MGEN.
Shirley - I just don't get why specs seem to be so popular with the young guys and gals - noticeably so in France. Barring medical issues, I don't understand why anyone would willingly choose specs over contact lenses these days. Around these parts - the thick rimmed, rectangular ones seem to be the 'uniform' of choice.