Ordering contact lenses online instead of Specsavers Lensmail

[ChefWifeLife]

I currently pay £25 per month for my contact lenses with Specsavers lense mail scheme. My sight test and contact lense check every two years are included plus discounts on glasses frames.

We are tightening our spending and I wondered if anyone had swapped from a similar plan to buying lenses online instead and paying for contact lense checks and sight tests separately? If so, is it a big difference in price? I can find contacts online for £16.99 per month for a similar product.

Thanks in advance.

I switched to Vision Direct when I moved overseas and just have a Specsavers contact lens check up (£25) when in the UK annually.

Does the £16.99 include solution and cases and postage as well?

I changed my specsavers subscription online to only include the lenses and not the cases or solution which I buy separately in bulk. I still get the free checks and glasses discount.

I priced up doing it myself and it was ever so slightly cheaper by about £1 -2 a month.

for me the small saving wasn't really worth the hassle of having to remember to buy them and remember to organise the eye tests etc.

The absolute clincher for me was the reliability of supply- you will always get your specsavers contact lenses regardless of any general supply issues which are quite frequent these days. I've been trying to buy a spare box of my fairly straightforward prescription online after losing a box of three and its been out of stock online everywhere for months.

My specsavers ones have been a little late a few times due to 'supply issues' but they have always turned up eventually presumably because they get priority due to buying power.

Thanks both for your replies.

I do daily lenses as did monthly’s for years and was struggling to keep them clean (two young kids) and two different prescriptions in each eye and my eyes drying out.

I hadn’t thought about the supply chain issues 🤔

I think I can claim back the cost of a sight test through my work so that would be offset.

the thing I dislike with Lensmail is you can’t delay a pack if you have worn glasses more so I end up with a stash of lenses then if my prescription changes they won’t take them back unless it’s a whole box of three months worth unopened!

I use Vision Direct and just order daily disposable lenses as and when I need them. Contact lens check ups and sight tests with specsavers every couple of years

I also use Vision Direct, or sometimes other sites like Lenson. Very quick delivery and much cheaper than the shops.

Of course they won't take them back, they can't give a half used pack to someone else.

I've gone back to my optician's scheme now as when you factor in the contact lens checks and discounts off glasses there wasn't much in it (I don't pay for sight tests due to complex prescription but have both checkups annually) also it was quite a faff getting the online places to verify my prescription but its definitely worth shopping around. I used to find Asda very competitive.

Give Boots Opticians a try. I used their services for 6 years after becoming dissatisfied with Specsavers Lensmail.
Boots offers the same services but with better discounts and an extra 10 percent off their own brands, including No7, in their shops. 😊

Good point about Boots - I was in their scheme, stopped about 15 years ago but I still get the discounts because it has been logged against my advantage card.

@EquallyDetermined a delivery box (bigger brown one) contains 6 smaller boxes of lenses. They won’t take back the smaller unopened boxes of a full months of lenses. I’m not talking about those ones which have been opened. They will only take back a brown box that is unopened. Hope that clears things up.