It's funny that the only reason I went with ZenniOptical not because it was cheap, but because Eyeconic had screwed up my order. When they screwed up my order I ranted about it and figured someone in the chain screwed up. Eye Doctor, Doctor's receiptionist, Eyeconic's agent who called the Eye Doctor for prescription, middle men in between and then lab. They are expensive glasses!
Since I have no transparency, I decided to go and buy a kit to measure my eye sight to figure out if the parameters my doctor gave me were correct and see how much I could decrease the parameters so I could read my computer screen close up. I posted about this recently, so I won't delve into details. I bought eye glasses, with lowered parameters, from ZenniOptical and couldn't be happier. Couldn't believe how cheap and good they were relative to what I was used to.
Why the hell are eyeglasses so expensive anyway? I just want to see farther with my eyes. I'd gladly pay reasonable price without insurance (same with health care). The video below answers that.
Answer: Just because they can.
Great, so they are ripe for disruption right? Not so much. They own a lot of retail and brand power. They are a monopoly then right? It is a gray area apparently. They abused they power to put eye glass brands essentially out of business and bought them. They get to price the glasses however they want and rationalize it as we'll price it at whatever people are willing to pay. 😂 I mean paying $399 or more when your doctor is selling glasses and paying that every year. What choice do you have?
To be frank though, I only ordered from Eyeconic because my doctor didn't have the glasses' material I wanted, so they gave me the prescription to find it. Exploration time was fun, so many stores, materials and styles. I initially wrote off Zenni because it was so cheap and unbelievable. With the cheap price means that some corners were probably cut and you'll have to take extra care fo your glasses. With prices this cheap though, who cares. Buy a new one. Will Eyeconic replace my expensive glasses for free if I break them or will I have to spend another > $299 for glasses? That's the difference.
I have been enlightened and will order from Zennis periodically without insurance. Fuck eye insurance.