High street opticians are a rip off

Very good point speccy, some people are short sighted in more ways than one!

When all the high street opticians have been forced out of business by online discounters, how will one get ones eyes tested? The online retailers are totally dependant on Specsavers, Vision Express et al, as how do you buy without prescription?

Why do glasses cost so much - simple, just plain old human greed by the owners of the companies. They just know that there will always be somebody who needs improved vision, and they can sleep at night.

street optician are putting prices very high.i have bought my kid some glasses two months back and have not receive spects.i wonder if I have been cheated or wat.people have recieved their within days.want to claim my money back and order online.is that possible.i was using a medical aid .it that possible.

Optometrists are grossly overpaid for the level of skill they represent. Minimal training for maximum profit, there's no such things as a poor optometrist.

Some of these guys are on £200,000 per year, paid more than GPs and IT specialists.

I quite agree that it's important for opticians to be paid appropriately for their professional services and you shouldn't skimp costs to your eyesight BUT.....................the mark up on glasses in MASSIVE. Opticians could vastly reduce the mark up and still make a tidy profit. A friend of a friend is an optician and he is raking it in!!!
I wear contacts and pay £28 a month for lenses, solutions and 2 check ups a year. I'm happy to pay that because I loathe wearing glasses and am willing to pay this so my eyes are healthy and I don't have to!!
To get costs down to a bare mimimum for "emergency" glasses, I got a free eye test voucher from work - as a regular VDU user they have to provide this. I'd already got an old pair of glasses I'd bought at an opticians a few years ago (for £300!!), so I got these reglazed (new lenses) with an on line company called Ciliaryblue for £40. This is with 1.6 index thinner lenses; if your eyesight isn't as awful as mine it's only about £20 for a reglaze with normal lenses. They are perfect and excellent value!! If you already have a pair of glasses that are in decent nick do this to save money. The company is owned by an optician - check out their website. I've worked out that most opticians would have charged about £200 for a reglaze with thinner lenses so this is a great saving!

I have worked for Specsavers and know it is ther epolicy to have converstion rates e.g tests to sales and some opticians run at over 90% this is complete over selling and ripping off.There is plenty of profit but greed seems to be all there after

I rencetly got quoted nearly £300 for a pair of glasses through one of the high street stores and was a little shocked that the lenses were over half the price. I went home googled a little and ended up at www.UKSpecsDirect.com and got the same frames and lenses for half the price! not only that they were able to get my order quicker that I was quoted before.

Why is it that these high street opticinans can get away with charging so much? I'll getting my glasses online from now on.

On this page I see lots of ads for cheap specs and even laser eye surgery. Theres so such choice and you bemoan it! This is a sucessful profession that being well regulated ( by members of the public ) is acting in the public benefit. Most would like to see all those people who need glasses to see able to afford the devices. That is happening. Convieanace with the internet is there and even low price. You have to admit its rather like food, if you can afford to wear Optometrists prescribed well adjusted fashionable glasses then I certainly think theres alot worse ways of spending your money...this is your eyesight..and you absolutely can tell the difference. Apart from the obvious gripes about absolute difference in retail cost....errr cherry picking. I know when I buy a cheap monitor its not as good as a samsung. I wear Drivewear lenses and my optician is a professional at what he does. Glassesdirect is quite expensive now I think you can get specs for about £8.50 which is fantastic....( I dont wont them though! )

go to glassesdirect.com (this is not an advert) they are fantastic, I was like everyone here fed up with over the top pricing - I have seen the light

You're subsiding the cost of the trained staff, the optometrist and rents and rates. Otherwise stick to your internet shopping and buy you're glasses from a vending machine. Any problems with the glasses? Talk to the vending machine! People like you are the sort that are never satisfied and expect everything for nothing and never look at reasons beyond your own pocket! Eventually opticians WILL listen to you and put the prices down. but as a result of this there will be no staff to help in ANY opticians (as they cannot afford them) and then you will have to wait years in advance for an eye test, not the fast (and amazing value) service you know and love at the moment for the service of a professional. I hope opticians do what they SHOULD do and charge £100 per eye test and you can have you internet prices for glasses!!!

I have been looking for a pair of contacts for about 2 years now. Interestingly I used to have contacts for my prescription that I bought from the UK in 1999 which cost £90 each, they where Hydron zero 6T's. Now however decisions have been made in the industry for the UK market not to have lenses for my presciption, however I can find (a lot) of lenses abroad that are. The high street retailers whenever I say "Hydrosoft lenses" they make no mention of them and offer me some sort of lenses for over £200 each. The Hydrosofts I found I could get for about £50 off the internet. I have absolutely no problem with going to an opticians, getting eye check and buying stuff from them but not if the UK Market is selectively restricted by manufactureres for profit margins and high street retailers ask for about £500 just for the lenses as opposed to £180 in 1999. The problem with optometry is that seeing as it is scientific and more complicated than your average purchase, the retailers can pretty much convince the laymen of whatever they want, you couldn't for example hike the price of a Biscuit and give a scientific explanation without the cutomer being suspicious.

1 word: Scum