Specsavers - bad quality, where do you buy your prescription glasses

[Fere]

We have Specsavers on our High Street and have used them for a few years now. I am fine with their eye examinations. My problem is that the current set of mine and my son't prescription lenses is terrible. In under a year there are so many mini scratches on the surface of each, mine got a hairline crack out of nowhere. My son's frames broke under a year but I can't say it was 1005 due to their quality.

Where do you buy your prescription lenses/glasses from? I pay well over £200 for mine, with 2 week waiting because they have to be ordered to my prescription (bad astigmatism) and I just want to have something what is going to last at least at least a year without those terrible wear marks. I am pretty sure ones I had before the current pair weren't as scratched as the current ones.

Is there anything I can ask to make sure that if I go to an independent Optician I get a better quality item.

We use Specsavers with no issue (whole family wears glasses).

I get my test at Boots and buy from a reputed online Hong Kong based optician (Smart Buy Glasses). They let you buy glasses from any of their domains but I prefer the hk one as they tend to do the best options for small nasal bridges like mine.

Boots.
Will be eternally grateful to one of their opticians who fastracked me for a hospital referral . Saved my sight .

Spec savers here too. Never had a problem with scratches on lenses

Vision Express

@posterSoontobe60 When did you last change your glasses? This year is the first time it happened. But for both of us.

We all go to specsavers and have never had any trouble. I don't even pay for the coatings and my glasses are never scratched. Have you been back and told them the problems you're having?

It's funny as is used some savers for years but my last 4 pairs have all literally fallen to pieces-really crap quality and the last two pairs I really felt pressured into purchasing them, hated the style too.
I've since got a beautiful pair for about £40 from glassesdirect arrived in three days and are ten times better!

Their aftercare is pretty good, it's really hard to get my complex prescription right but they have happily corrected it more than once. I've also had no problems with the lenses.

Ds and I have had new ones this year March or April I think. I wear mine all the time which is better than taking them off and on like ds does.
It sounds like you've been unlucky, not that specsavers are rubbish.

When I complained to Specsavers about this they said they'd replace the lenses if they were scratched that badly within a year. I get mine online now though. Even if they are scratches quickly at least I've paid a lot less for them

Glasses Direct, always been pleased with the service and the quality.

I have always and will forever go to an independent optomestrist. I even travel to stick with the same one as I've been with my whole life - the original eye doctor has retired but the small company remain amazing with their service and offers. I can swing by any time I want for adjustments to my glasses to no cost to myself, they even posted my glasses back to me when an arm fell off while I was away. The personal touch is so worth it.

Independents all the way.

Costco

Outside of recommended indies, the best chain I've used is David Clulow.

I use Asda. Did have a lovely regular optician, unfortunately retired now, but his replacement seemed lovely and very competent too. Last pair were £45!

Glasses direct! Brilliant glasses and great service, can’t recommend them enough!

I've had awful experiences with Specsavers. I switched to a local independent & find them much better.

I think each outlet of specsavers must vary.

We moved from our independant to specsavers as we got better service and better value glasses. Im impressed with the heath check too.

They really do adjust for free and although all ours have been fine I wouldnt hesitate to pop back if they were scratched.

Few years ago I tried my local independent optician. He gave me such but prescription that I never went back. He overcompensated my astigmatism by giving me too strong short-sighted prescription instead. And he joked: oh only 0.5 till you have free prescription (as near blind!). Not only was I upset but ended up with headaches, so not all independents are great.

I get free prescription and have astigmatism. Blind as a bat without glasses, and I get a voucher towards glasses... of about £12!!

In under a year there are so many mini scratches on the surface of each

That could be down to how he cleans them. DH's specs were fine until he started wiping them with blue paper towel at work.

I get my eyes tested at specsavers then get my glasses from glasses direct.

They are lovely glasses and way, way cheaper than the high street. Had 6-8 pairs from them now and all brilliant.

I've used Specsavers for years without any problems and I have bad astigmatism too. She did say the lady pair were a bit scratched and we got it down to cleaning them with a towel after a shower and getting hairspray on them. I would take them back and at least give them the opportunity to put things right. If you have your lenses thinned and all that they do work out very expensive so I would stand my ground from that perspective.

l've gone to Specsavers for about the past 8 years for reading glasses. They've always had difficulty in getting my prescription right because apparently l have "weird eyesight" - one eye longsighted, one eye shortsighted, and astigmatism. The senior optician l saw a few years ago was thrilled when he got it 'right' - he said it had been "a real challenge."
Until last time they've always been very good and it's taken three tries to get my prescription right. That was when l lived back up north, before l moved to Yorkshire.
Then last time when l went back after the first set of lenses, they retested my eyes, as l was still finding my vision was blurred/double vision in one eye when l was wearing my glasses for reading.
The optician said "there's nothing else l can to do correct that. All l can suggest is that we reduce the strength of the other lens so that the difference isn't so obvious."
So instead of having one eye l can read very well with, (my vision's extremely good with that lens) and one that's blurred, they wanted to reduce the focus on the 'good eye' lens. Which would mean that neither eye has particularly good focus.
l know l'm not an expert, or qualified in the field, but l can't see the sense in that. To be honest my eyesight isn't that bad until l'm tired at night. That's when l get the blurring. Which is why l'm so bemused as to how other people who have much worse eyesight than me can see with their glasses, but they can't correct mine sufficiently so that l can see to read?
l'm due new reading glasses in the new year and l'm seriously considering trying another branch of Specsavers, or going somewhere else. Not sure which yet.