Looking for Lenses

Buying Time

The FDA recommends ordering contact lenses from known suppliers with proven reliability. Watch for sneaky attempts to swap an unfamiliar brand for the brand you request. Not only do different lens brands have different shapes, they also have different water concentrations. Only a personal visit to your doctor can make an accurate assessment of the brand you need. Make sure your vendor gives you the exact brand, lens name, power, sphere, cylinder and axis (if any), diameter, base curve, and peripheral curve (if any). If you believe you’ve been given an incorrect lens, check with the eye doctor who gave you that prescription in the first place, then file a complaint with the vendor itself. You can also report problems with online contact lens purchases to the FDA, by emailing webcomplaints@ora.fda.gov, or via web form at fda.gov/medwatch.

We still recommend buying contact lenses in person, but if you’re bound and determined to buy them online, it’s a good idea to do some comparison shopping first. Froogle.com, a sister site of the Google search engine, is a good place to start, as are Shopping.com and shopping.yahoo.com. The problem is that their search results may not reflect the most up-to-date prices.

Most online vendors function as mail-order retailers. Soon after you’ve entered your prescription and order details, or in some cases filed the same information via toll-free phone call, the product is packed and shipped to you by USPS, FedEx, or some other postal service. Smaller mail-order vendors may offer the lowest prices, but there are other factors to consider. Does the vendor you’ve chosen offer a wide enough selection? Is the brand your doctor recommends for your eyes even listed? Thanks to its acquisition of Lens Express, 1-800 Contacts is now the largest mail-order seller of contact lenses, with over twenty million lenses in stock. By contrast, Vision Direct, a subsidiary of Drugstore.com, has an inventory about a tenth of that size. Does the company you’ve chosen offer satisfactory customer service? Do you trust it with your credit card information? Above all, have you checked the vendor’s return policy? If your prescription changes while you still have a large stock of lenses on hand, it’d be great if your vendor would accept unopened boxes for credit.

AllAboutVision.com conducted a survey of online contact lens prices in January 2004. The following results were all obtained for a two-box set of Acuvue 2 contact lenses. As the site warns, “[T]his is only a snapshot; we found that several of the prices had changed from just a month earlier.” Online prices included shipping and handling, but some stores (including Wal-Mart) allow customers to purchase their contacts online but then pick them up in person. If this option is chosen, no shipping charges would be applied.

• 1-800 Contacts: $39.90
• AC Lens: $39.85
• BJ’s Optical, for members: $34.91 (plus a $40.00 annual fee)
• BJ’s Optical, for non-members: $39.10
• Vision Direct: $37.89
• Wal-Mart Vision Center: $38.20

By contrast, Pearle Vision charged $43.48 for the same product in its walk-in stores, and Target Optical charged $38.20. Now, keep in mind that all of these prices—which vary by over $13.00—are for the same product, and all of those prices have changed since the survey was taken. Long story short, comparison shopping makes a difference. Unfortunately, by the time your prescription runs out, you may no longer be paying the best price available. If you’ll pardon the expression, we advise you to keep your eyes open for new opportunities.

Part 1: Getting Started