Last time I went to the optometrists and had a change to my prescription, I forked out $150 each for a couple of pair of glasses.  And that was about as cheap as I could go.  No fancy anti reflective or hydrophobic coatings just plain Jane lenses.  I think the frames were $40 or $50 and the lenses were the rest.  It's real easy to double and quadruple those prices on glasses bought in-store.

Now I'm all for supporting local business and I feel bad when I don't, but there is a point where too much is too much.  The last few pairs I've bought I've ordered on-line from overseas and I can get reasonable frames but really nice lenses and all the anti reflection/hydrophobic coatings I want for around $70AU delivered to my po box.  The same glasses would cost me at least three times the price in store here.  One of those pairs was a pair of multifocals which I had always wanted to try but not willing to risk the $300 plus in case I hated them.   I had even gone into SpecSavers during one of their sales.....and then, of course they start saying stuff like, 'oh, you'll need to pay for the extra strength prescription ($50) and you'll need to go the better lenses and then you'll want to add on the coatings....the 'special' soon started looking more like $400.  So I payed the grand sum of $60 to Zenni and got some really nice lenses and ok frames - they're great for going out to eat or shopping when you need to read stuff as well as focus on everything around you, but turns out I can't work in them as when I rake stuff up, I'm looking at my feet, which through multifocals are all out of focus.  So had I forked out $400, I'd be feeling a bit ripped off.

Speaking of being ripped off, this is what cheeses me off about buying glasses from the store - part of my prescription is -3.5 cylinder in my right eye and this get's me the 'extra strength' penalty.  From the optometrist, that's $50 extra.  From Zenni (where I buy my online stuff from) it's $9.  Same sort of deal with coatings - Zenni's premium anti reflective, oleophobic (oil and fingerprint resistant) coatings are $14.  Tinting is $5 or thereabouts.  I can understand why optometrists charge more for their service and their frames etc to pay for staff, rent, equipment etc and I'm fine with that, but not when a coating or charge is 6X the price.  That's not what I consider 'fair'.

So for the last couple of years, my glasses have come from overseas.  I think Zenni has their office in California, but everything is made and sent from Hong Kong.  And they do a damn good job on my prescriptions - certainly better than OPSM ever did.  Coatings are great - for your next pair, go for the anti reflective and hydrophobic (or oleophobic) coating - they're the best lenses I have ever had.  Water just beads off them (wears off after a couple of years), super easy to clean and no reflections (the last two seem permanent on my 3 year old Zenni's.)  I will never go back to plain lenses again.  Online frame choice is a lot more hit 'n miss however.  The very first pair I ordered online from a store in Melbourne have the crappiest most awful frames ever.  Certainly most of that is my own fault for not understanding frame width, lens height, temple length and bridge spacing - stuff you need to know before you order anything along with your prescription and interpupillary distance.  The first you can get from measuring your current favorite pair of glasses, the last two you can get from your optometrist.  It's your prescription and it belongs to you - they cannot withhold it from you.

Another thing I like about Zenni is that they print your reviews - good and bad, so you can always get a general consensus feel for what people are saying about a particular model.  I should say that I did get one pair that was tinted a little more darker in one eye than the other and a couple pairs of frames I ended up not liking, so ordering online is not all beer and skittles and I'm not cheeky enough to go into my local optometrists and ask them to fix glasses I bought from overseas - that wouldn't be fair either.  But overall, it's been a big win for me with lots of money saved and I've been able to afford to try out different scripts and styles without fear of losing hundreds of bucks down the gurgler.

This is not me btw and I tend to steer clear of plastic frames now - if they're not quite right, I don't have the gear to bend 'em.  Steel/titanium frames seem more versatile in that regard...