39dollarglasses.com: a review

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I had never imagined buying glasses online before reading this New Yorker article. It seemed crazy. Crazy! Yet . . . . They were happy with 39dollarglasses.com and 39dollars? That's cheap. Crazy, hella, wildly, worth-the-risk cheap. So I decided to do it (though months passed before Little Lord Steed destroyed by scratchless glasses and forced my hand).

I stayed up late April 26, finally pressing order just after midnight into April 27. The receipt email came and I didn't bother looking too closely. Just archived it and went to bed. Which was a shame because when my glasses finally arrived (later than I expected, but that would only be a problem if I were blind without my specs; they shipped May 3), the second pair (the sunglasses, luckily), had the wrong prescription. I have no idea how this happened as I'm quite certain I only entered one prescription during the ordering process, but the initial email they sent me listed different prescriptions for the two pairs, so if I'd been a little more paranoid, I might have noticed before they mailed me my order. I refuse to accept blame for this of course (of course), but it's worth mentioning.

I received the lenses and wrote them back about the wrong pair promptly:

Hello. First, thanks for the terrific shopping experience and the good-looking glasses that came in the mail yesterday and the handy little bags for keeping them in. Those I was not expecting.

I do have an issue I need help with though. The prescription on one of the two pairs (the sunglasses) is wrong --- makes things look like I'm underwater.

Can you help me get those fixed?

Thanks.

I had to send this twice (May 6 and May 10). On May 11 I received a boilerplate hold-on email saying they would get me sending-them-back info promptly. On May 16, I received a pdf to glue to the envelope. (In the meantime, I had been wearing the nonsunglasses pair I received and was quite happy with them. They were smaller than I expected but that's my own fault --- I hadn't printed off the lifesize mockup to hold to my face.)

Having sent the sunglasses back, things began to get interesting. Here's our exchange (minus intros and outros):

June 7 Thank you for choosing 39dollarglasses.com. Your order was inspected by our lab and has passed inspection. If you feel that the prescription was made in error, please advise. We can return the glasses to you with a Prescription Verification Form to take to your doctor to have inspected. If you would like to change your frames or your lens package, please advise us of your new selections. Please contact us on how you would like to proceed with your order. You can contact us at 800-672-6304 or through Live Chat Support or E-mail at contact@39dollarglasses.com.

= = = = = = = = = =

June 7 You've got to be joking. You sent me two pairs of glasses. One pair works. I'm wearing it every day. The other pair made me feel like I was under water. So the problem is not the prescription (both glasses have the same precription), the problem is the lenses. Please check again.

= = = = = = = = = =

June 8 Thank you for contacting us. The prescription that is entered on your order from online order placement was correctly processed through our lab. We have noticed that the prescription on the second pair (Tivoli) is different then the prescription that you ordered on the first pair (Gramercy). Please advise if the prescriptions are supposed to be the same. If so, we can process a no cost remake and remake the glasses for you in to the correct prescription. Please advise.

= = = = = = = = = =

June 8 Thank you. They are meant to be the same. Since I only entered one prescription when making my order, I'm perplexed how the mixup happened and thank you for the correction.

= = = = = = = = = =

June 9 Thank you for choosing 39dollarglasses.com. We do apologize. We have noted your account. You should receive your new order number shortly for the remake of your order. Once the new order is placed, production will take about 4-6 business days for completion, pending final inspection.

At this point, my initial fears seemed dissipated. See, notwithstanding The New Yorker's happy feelings, the internet's loudest voices (naturally) were the haters. And of course haters probably have some legitimacy and so I was filled with panic that I might get screwed.

But the same day I received that last email, I also received a new receipt email for the new order of the original glasses. And June 14 I received an email saying they had shipped. And I received them on June 16. Happy ending.

Mostly. It was, of course, fifty (50) days between placing the original order and getting the second pair of glasses, which seems an unconscionably long time. And they didn't, you know, offer to upgrade my lens package for the inconvenience.

But I've thought it over and decided I don't mind. After all, it was midnight. There's some room for reasonable doubt over whether or not the screwup was my fault. And, on top of that, they threw in some of the nicer hardshell cases I've ever received, a nice microfiber cloth for each pair (since I didn't send this back, I ended up with three of these), a nice keychain glasses screwdriver set (ditto here), and a bag for keeping the glasses in which I love (except that they are the most invisible beige color I've ever [not] seen --- I lose my glasses even more often than usual, now).

Plus, the two pairs of glasses, combined, cost me $70.95 (most glasses at the site are $39, but not all, including, as in my case, tinted-lens packages). Which is utterly unbeatable.

So in the end I am a satisfied customer. I've always wished I could afford to own several pairs of glasses.

It appears I may have finally arrived.