I did it. I ordered a pair of Zenni Optical glasses. You can get a pair of single vision glasses for as little as $8.00 plus $4.95 shipping.
I ordered two pair for myself, and one pair for AJ. We both need a spare pair, in case our Costco pair needs to be replaced.
I ordered at 10pm on Saturday April 3rd, Arizona time. Shipping is a flat rate of $4.95 – for one or more pairs. The invoice says it will be about 2 weeks, but I read on the site under the shipping link if you order single vision glasses, and live on the west coast it could be less than ten days.
I ordered these in clear burgundy:
And these in purple:
I'll keep you posted as to how long it takes for them to arrive (our order arrived April 25th but it wasn't our order!), and how well they work. The really big problem with ordering glasses online is you can't try them on and see how they look on your face! To get around that, I paid attention to the specifications on the glasses I'd chosen from Costco, and tried to find some from Zenni that were close to the same size.
The Jill Stuart's from Costco had a bridge width of 17mm. The Zenni frames were also 17mm.
The Jill Stuart's had a lens width of 50mm, the Zenni's lens width was also 50mm.
I am not sure the height of the Jill Stuart glasses, but the Zenni's height was 23mm.
The temple arm length of the Jill Stuart's is 135mm, the Zenni's 142mm.
My main point in ordering these is to have an extra pair in case something happens to my main pair. I also decided to order only single vision, instead of ordering progressives. I'd like to see how they do with single vision, before trying something more complicated.
If you want to order from Zenni Optical, you'll need a prescription from an optometrist, preferably a recent prescription, and you'll need your pupillary distance – it's used to position the optical center of the lens of your glasses. You can measure this yourself, but if you go in to get a prescription, ask for it, so you know it's correct. Costco printed it right on the receipt for my glasses.
I'm very interested to see how this will turn out. This will be the first time in my 36 years of wearing glasses that I've had more than one pair of glasses at once.
Have you ordered from Zenni? How do you like your glasses?
Mrs. Accountability
Zenni Optical is the best. My friends and I are very pleased with the prices and excellent quality of prescriptions received from Zenni’s. A BLESSING from Heaven’s Grocery Store.
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paul Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
@Jossie Sapp,
You got lucky. My glasses arrive with window pane glasses and they scrod me out of 1/2 of my purchase price after I sent them back. Horrible, horrible.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Paul, I’m sorry you had a bad experience with Zenni! Some other folks have said they tried again and had a great experience. Although I can totally understand your not wanting to trust them again!
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A very good alternative to Zenni Optical is eyebuydirect.com. I use them frequently and so do all of my friends and family. No complaints from any of us, the customer service has been incredible along with the prices and quality. They really are #1 to me, please everyone do yourself a favor and try them out!
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
March 6th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Aaron, thanks for the heads up. I will have to look into them and see how it goes. Thanks!
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I usually buy 4 pairs of reading glasses a year. For the last 3 years I’ve been using Zenni Optical optical. I recommend them to my family, friends and co-workers. Not sure if they are buying from Zenni buy I think they are..
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