[JoeSoap]

I’ve had the pleasure of wearing glasses with a complicated prescription since I was three years old. There has been some great progress with specs since I started wearing them and I spend a lot of money to get the best in terms of vision, lightness, thinness of lenses and aesthetics.

My current pair cost over £600 and with a second identical pair at half price, the cost of an eye test and insurance, I spent nearly £1000. This was over eight years ago and, as my eyesight has hardly changed, I’m in no hurry to buy new ones.

A couple of Sundays ago, I was just on my way out and my good pair broke clean in half at the bridge. Kerching… this is going to cost me dearly. I went out with my spare (damaged) pair and tried not to sulk all evening.

When I woke up on the Monday morning I researched spectacle repairs and found a company a couple of hundred miles away that could laser weld the titanium frame. I uploaded a photo to their website then phoned them to get a quote and confirmation they could mend them. No problem.

Next, I filled in my details on line and paid the fixed price. I boxed them up and took them to the post office where I sent them off guaranteed delivery by 1pm Tuesday. I got an email around lunchtime on the Tuesday saying they had already been fixed and were back in the post by the same means I had sent them.

I tracked them on their outward and return journeys and took delivery of them on Wednesday, less than 48 hours after I took them to the post office. Good as new.

Fast, efficient and cost a total of £55 including postage both ways. I shudder to think what an equivalent new pair would have cost me but several hundred pounds for sure.

I very nearly just went to an optician but it’s always worth a quick internet search. Saved me a small fortune 👍

[WizzyWigg]

@JoeSoap
You must have heard the joke about the optician? 🤓 ........
He made a spectacle of himself 😉. 👴😂
Glad to hear you found someone to repair them. 👍 😉

[retrotecchie]

@WizzyWigg

A Welshman goes into an optician to have his annual sight test. The optician asks him how many lines he can read on the sight chart.

"All of them," he replies, "and I've lived in three of those places!"


Optrex.co.uk. A site for sore eyes!


I wear reading glasses myself, and sometimes for close-up work I have a couple of pairs of specs like Steve off Repair Shop. I spent over £100 on a proper sight test and a pair of prescription glasses from an optician and I just couldn't get on with them. Yes, I could read small print easily, but my laptop screen, books and anything I looked at while wearing them looked trapezoidal rather than properly square or rectangular. Very disconcerting.

Anyway, I carried on for a few months, then accidentally sat on them. Back to the opticians got another eye test and the prescription was identical to before. I ordered an identical pair of frames with no lenses and paid about £19. Took them home and put the original lenses in and struggled on for a while longer. Then I broke an arm off and was stuck for a few days so went to the local supermarket and picked up a pair of 'readers' for £2.99. And they are better than the prescription by some margin! And my eyes have got better according to my last sight test a few weeks ago.

But I got new prescription glasses....and the same problem. Nothing looks square any more when I put them on. Now I'm typing this wearing another pair of £2.99 specials, only 2.5 rather than 3.0 diopter...but the same frames in case I break them again.

[Tommysgirl]

@retrotecchie; @WizzyWigg

A duck goes into an opticians and chooses a pair of sunglasses. The assistant says. 'How will you be paying?' The duck replies,' Just put them on my bill'. 🦆👓.

[WizzyWigg]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@WizzyWigg

I wear reading glasses myself, and sometimes for close-up work I have a couple of pairs of specs like Steve off Repair Shop. I spent over £100 on a proper sight test and a pair of prescription glasses from an optician and I just couldn't get on with them. Yes, I could read small print easily, but my laptop screen, books and anything I looked at while wearing them looked trapezoidal rather than properly square or rectangular. Very disconcerting.

3 possible reasons :
1. Slightly over plused, not allowing for changes in working distance.
2. Face Form Angle either too steep or too shallow. (Optimum 5 degrees)
3. Pantoscopic Angle again either too steep or too shallow. (Optimum 10 degrees). Possibly will require vertical OCs changing.
2 & 3 easily remedied by your optician.
There is a fourth and that's all 3. 🤓
I have multifocals and a good optician. No problemo.

PS There is a very very slight chance you might be non-tol to an astigmatic correction if there was one incorporated.

[WizzyWigg]

Originally Posted by Tommysgirl

@retrotecchie; @WizzyWigg

A duck goes into an opticians and chooses a pair of sunglasses. The assistant says. 'How will you be paying?' The duck replies,' Just put them on my bill'. 🦆👓.

.............😂😂😂

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by WizzyWigg

... Glad to hear you found someone to repair them. 👍 😉

There are a few to choose from. I chose a company called AlphaOmega. I put my email address, photo of broken specs and description of make, model, material (as best I could) into their website portal and got an immediate acknowledgment with a reference number. Being impatient, I phoned them immediately with my reference number and the lady took the photo straight to a technician who said they could fix them and gave me the fixed price quote for a titanium frame repair. The price includes a general reconditioning of the frame.

Back to the website where I filled in the order form and paid the fee. Then simply print the receipt and put a copy in the box with the bubble-wrapped specs. Off to the local post office and job done. It took me around an hour from start to finish and was so easy even I did it with a minimum of stress 😂.

I think these people could fix almost any frame and mostly on the day they receive them. I'm a satisfied customer 👓

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

... But I got new prescription glasses....and the same problem. Nothing looks square any more when I put them on. Now I'm typing this wearing another pair of £2.99 specials, only 2.5 rather than 3.0 diopter...but the same frames in case I break them again.

I've been lucky that for the last few pairs I've had, the optician has managed to cram all my prescriptive needs into quite small and thin (for me at least) varifocal lenses. I used to need prisms but one day an optician didn't build them in. I queried it and he said that he didn't notice anything that suggested I needed them but he could put them in if I wanted him to. I declined the offer and gave it a shot. Turns out, I really only use my right eye and suppress the image in my left eye. I can see double if I want to but unless I try hard, one of the images is suppressed.

It's great that you can correct your vision with off the shelf reading glasses. I've tried the strongest ones and I'm still as blind as a bat, as they say.

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by Tommysgirl

A duck goes into an opticians and chooses a pair of sunglasses. The assistant says. 'How will you be paying?' The duck replies,' Just put them on my bill'. 🦆👓.

Reminds me of one of my favourite jokes... ''Daddy, there's a man at the door with a bill.'' ''Don't be silly, it's probably a duck with a hat on.'' 😂

[JoeSoap]

Following on from the double vision/prisms discussion... when the appointment was finished I got up from the chair, pointed at the only door in the room and said, ''Which door is the way out?'' I can't describe the look the optician gave me 🤣