How I Finally Stopped Being Price Gouged for Contact Lenses

I’ve worn glasses and contact lenses for as long as I can remember. Every year, it’s been the same old routine. I call up my eye doctor and schedule an exam. I leave work early and head in for my appointment. They do a checkup and I get a prescription for glasses, but much to my frustration, it’s an extra charge to get examined for contact lenses.

Only once I’m a few hundred dollars in the hole for all of that can I purchase contact lenses from my eye doctor’s office – another expensive endeavor. Usually, they don’t have them in stock and have to order them, so I end up waiting a week before I can wear my new contacts.

Visually Frustrated

I mentioned my annoyance to one of my buddies who also wears glasses and he laughed. “Why aren’t you ordering your contacts online?” he asked me.

“Because I still need a prescription, and if I’m going to go through all of the hassle to go to my eye doctor each year, I may as well just buy from them.”

He shook his head. “You’re being gouged, man. I’m going to e-mail you a link to the site I use. I get all my contacts for a lot less then I used to at the doctor’s office and they don’t require a prescription.”

I was skeptical, but I promised I’d check it out.

Easier? Cheaper? Who Knew?

The site he sent me was for VisionDirect.co.uk. As he promised, the site didn’t need to verify a prescription before ordering. They simply asked me to put in the information off of my old contacts box. As long as I was certain that my old prescription was still the right one for my eyes, I was good to go.

The next thing that surprised me was the price. Getting my lenses online was much cheaper than purchasing them from my eye doctor. I couldn’t believe that I had spent so much money on appointments and overpriced contacts for so many years.

The final determination for me was the quality of the lenses. My order arrived fast, but as I opened it, I wondered what would be inside. The answer? The exact same lenses I had been getting from my eye doctor. I wear special contacts for astigmatism and the ones I received were the same brand and the same high quality I’d been purchasing for years.

That cinched it for me. While I’ll still visit my eye doctor for checkups, I won’t be trotting in there for contact lens exams every year anymore. Although I was skeptical at first, I’m now an online contact lens ordering convert.