I have written about Zenni Optical a few times in the past, but for the first time ever I can write about them from firsthand experience! Zenni Optical, which you may or may not know, specializes in providing eyeglasses for the lowest prices available! With Zenni Optical, everything is online-based, so you don’t have to incur added fees and higher prices due to the company trying to recoup what it pays out in overhead, middlemen, the costs of maintaining a store and paying employees, etc.
It’s funny that I ordered a pair of prescription eyeglasses from Zenni Optical, seeing as how in October of 2007 I couldn’t wait to order contact lenses. But glasses really are handy to have around. Later at night, for example, after the kids go to bed, Dan and I will settle in bed with a movie or an episode of House to watch. The last thing I feel like doing when settling in with him is getting back up to take my contacts out. On the mornings I’m tired and rushed or just not in the mood for contacts, glasses are also useful. I do have an older pair, but the prescription is four years old, the lenses are scratched, and the frame is bent.
So, off to Zenni Optical’s website I went. I picked out a spiffy pair of black & green retro glasses. The frames + anti-reflective coating on the basic lenses + shipping came to $27.95. Not bad for a pair of glasses! I don’t know about you, but I became quite used to ordering glasses that were at least $100 for the frames only!
The ordering process went very smoothly. I picked out my frame, chose the color I wanted, and then set to work plugging in my prescription info. The only snag I encountered was when it came to entering in my Pupillary Distance, or PD, which is the measurement, in millimeters, of the distance between my two pupils. That number wasn’t on my prescription, and when I called my optometrist’s office, they were all, “Durr we don’t have that info, you’ll need to come in for another exam, and by the way since you already had an exam in February, your insurance company won’t cover this one”. Now, since I’ve only gone to this optometrist for contact lenses, I decided to call my previous optometrist. Luckily for me, they were very nice and quick about pulling up my old prescription and providing me with my PD number.
To be honest, the only reason optometrists would withhold that info — which is a very standard part of any eye prescription — is to try and wring more money out of consumers. Tell them you don’t have the number, invite them in for another exam, then spring on them the fact that since they already had an exam X amount of months ago, they’ll be charged for this one. It’s BS, and more people need to stand up to their optometrists in order to get the info that they are legally entitled to have!
Okay, I’m going to step off my soapbox now. I really loved my shopping experience with Zenni Optical. I loved it so much, in fact, and love the glasses themselves (they just arrived today, and the color and quality of them is impeccable!) so much, that I ordered another pair of glasses this evening. They cost me $17.95 with shipping, and are another pair of spiffy retro frames, only these are chocolate brown with a hot pink interior, and cute little rhinestone crystals on the outside of each lens.
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My name is Jenn, and I'm 27 years old. I'm happily married to my best friend and soulmate, Daniel. Together we have a six year old daughter named 
Name: Alyssa
Name: Ryan
