1-800-CONTACTS

Introduction

1-800-contacts is based in the US. Pricing in USD. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover. You can also finance orders over $150 with their "Bill Me Later" option ("don't pay for 90 days") which is arranged through CIT Bank. They appear to ship just about anywhere in the world. Methods of contact are through their 1-800 number, a "contact us" form on their website, live chat, as well as the "We'll Call You" feature. The BBB has them listed with an "A+" rating, with a total of 39 complaints, all of which were resolved/closed.

Impressions

1-800-contacts is a popular online contact lens retailer. The seem to promote the "We'll Call You" feature where you enter your phone number and one of their representatives give you a call. You can certainly order online, presumably without any need for verbal communication, but it's an option available for those who want it. The website is easy to use and navigate. Pricing seems reasonable. They have a price match guarantee, so if you find a lower price online (total price after shipping + all charges), you can email them or input your phone number to have them call you, and they will refund the difference. Having them call you is probably a better idea, because if you order first and they decline the price match for some reason, you might be out of luck. They offer free shipping on orders over $50 to Canada and the US. Large orders often qualify for a rebate certificate, although I'm not sure if they're valid for international orders.

When ordering, you have to create an account, which is pretty quick. If you live in the US, you will have to provide your optometrist's info. If they do not have your optometrist listed in their database, you may have to phone in the order. If you do not live in the US, this step is unnecessary.

A little searching showed mainly positive input from others about 1-800-contacts. A BBB search showed 39 complaints against 1-800-contacts, all of which were resolved, which is a fairly good sign. Between the price matching and the apparant willingness to resolve customer conflicts, 1-800-contacts is probably a pretty decent place to order from. In the event you were to have any issues that weren't resolvable through 1-800-contacts directly, going through the BBB would probably yield results.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. Remember that if you have a different prescription for each eye, you will need to buy 2 boxes - one for each eye. If you have the same prescription in each eye, you can buy one box, but remember that 30 lenses really means 15 lenses per eye when calculating how long they'll last.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices - make sure you take note of how many lenses there are in each box to determine how long they're last.

There are faster shipping methods available for an extra cost.

1-800-GET-LENS

Introduction

1-800-GET-LENS is based in the US with pricing in USD. They accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. They apparently accept money orders as well if you order by mail instead of online. They ship internationally to anywhere in the world. They have a phone number, fax, email, and mailing address listed as contact info on their site.

Impressions

Again, what seems to be yet another sister site to Lens.com. Pricing and most of the contact info are the same. You can read the Lens.com or Contacts America review, but suffice it to say you can probably expect a very similar experience regardless of which place you order from.

A little searching, and I wasn't able to find much mention of 1-800-GET-LENS. A BBB search resulted in nothing as well.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. If you get 2 boxes (1 for each eye, only necessary if your eyes have different prescriptions), you can double the expected supply listed below.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices.

Prices current as of Jan 20, 2008. There are also faster shipping methods available via FedEx within the US at an additional cost.

Clearly Contacts

Introduction

Clearly Contacts is based in Canada. Pricing in Canadian Dollars. They accept Credit Card (Visa, MC, Amex, Disc), Cheque and Money Order as methods of payment. They ship within Canada only. They have phone, fax, and email as methods of contact listed in their FAQ.

Impressions

Clearly Contacts is very unique. They're the only Canadian retailer I've found that will actually send you your order before you've paid for it. This is in fact how they operate. You place an order - when it ships, they email you a tracking number. When you recieve the product you find an invoice enclosed which must be paid within 15 days (I don't recall if it's 15 days after you recieve the product or 15 days after the invoice date). You can either pay online or over the phone with a credit card, or mail in your payment.

Clearly Contacts is one of the places I've ordered from, although my order was actually something of an accident. I was price shopping around for contacts from various online sites, and to compare total prices, I'd typically go through the order process on each site right up to the payment section to see what the final total would be, which usually involves going through a multitude of pages to complete the order. I'd jot down the total, and move on to the next site. I didn't realize that the Clearly Contacts order process was any different until I inadvertantly placed the order and found that they were about to ship to me even though I hadn't put in any payment info. The pricing was reasonable, so rather than phone in and cancel I decided to wait and see if I received the contacts, which I did a few days later, and then sent payment for. It actually turned out to be a pretty good experience.

There are a few things to note about Clearly Contacts. First of all, they're a subsidiary of Coastal Contacts, with the same payment style and web-site layout (Coastal ships internationally however). Pricing on most lenses seems competative, with some being slightly higher. They do however offer a 110% price match guarantee. From their FAQ, the customer care representatives are "available to serve you in English, French, Farsi, Punjabi, Spanish, Hindi, Tagalog, Cantonese, Mandarin, Malay, Arabic, Afrikaans and Japanese." They offer free shipping on orders over $99.

The website itself is set up quite well. When you change quantities of a lens or the shipping method, it dynamically updates the total price, which is actually quite necessary since you're 1 click away from having placed the order (all your address info gets added on the same page). The FAQ section is fairly detailed and also contains some basic contact lens care and info.

A couple issues with the site. First of all, it's way too easy to accidently place your order (I've read about quite a few others accidently placing orders as well). A final confirmation page would be nice, although I suspect they way they have it set up is intentional. Second, there's a hidden processing fee (appears to be percentage based - was only a couple of dollars on a single box of Night & Days), which is included in the total. Again, like the other sites that do this, I'd really prefer that they either make a separate subcategory called "handling", or simply include it in with the shipping or overall price of the lenses.

A small bit of searching around showed that most people seemed pretty happy with the orders from their site, with the major issue usually being that it was easy to accidently place an order. Depending on the exchange rate, it was also recommended to check out Coastal Contacts in the US and consider ordering from them if it'ss cheaper. A BBB search showed Clearly Contacts as having a "satisfactory" record, with 2 complaints, both of which were resolved.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. If you get 2 boxes (1 for each eye, only necessary if your eyes have different prescriptions), you can double the expected supply listed below.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices.

Prices current as of Jan 29, 2008. Fed-Ex Overnight and Canada Post Priority (2-5 days) are currently the same price.

Contacts America

Introduction

Contacts America is based in the US with pricing in USD. They accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. They apparently accept money orders as well if you order by mail instead of online. They ship internationally to anywhere in the world. They have a phone number, fax, email, and mailing address listed as contact info on their site.

Impressions

I copied the introduction from the Lens.com review because... well only is it the same, but they appear to be exactly the same company. They haven't gone to many lengths to differentiate themselves from one another:

• The ordering process works exactly the same
• The same hidden handling fee is applied to the subtotal on your purchase
• The 1-800 number is different, however the international and fax numbers are exactly the same. The mailing address for Contacts America is listed as a PO Box, however the address where you send returns is the same for both companies.
• Pricing is exactly the same.
• The "customer testimonials" (which are almost always bogus), are the same word-for-word, with "Lens.com" replaced with "Contacts America"

I have no idea whether the companies are actually run separately to any degree, but I would suspect that regardless of whichever site you order through, your experience is likely to be exactly the same. I suggest reading through the Lens.com review for more information on my initial impressions of their site.

For completeness I did a little searching and couldn't find much in the way of customer comments about Contacts America. The BBB has them on file, but with 0 complaints thus far.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. If you get 2 boxes (1 for each eye, only necessary if your eyes have different prescriptions), you can double the expected supply listed below.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices.

Prices current as of Jan 19, 2008. There are also faster shipping methods available via FedEx within the US at an additional cost.

Discount Contact Lenses

Introduction

Discount Contact Lenses is located in the US. Pricing in USD, CAD, GBP, Euro, and JPY. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover/Novus, Paypal, Google Checkout, Electronic Check (requiring bank info & drivers license info), and the option to phone/fax card info. "Bill me Later" is listed as an option as well. They ship internationally. Methods of contact include local & toll free phone/fax numbers, email, and a mailing address. The BBB has them listed as AC Lens with a rating of "A+" with a total of 7 complaints, all of which were resolved/closed.

Impressions

Discount Contact Lenses seems to be run from the same location as "AC Lens". The websites are set up in a similar fashion, the BBB has them listed as the same, and they share both an address as well as fax numbers.

The website is pretty well designed. A minor issue when adding a box of lenses is that by default it will add both a box for the left and right lens. Therefore if you only want 1 box, you have to click Edit and then remove the additional box. If you're order isn't above the free-shipping threshold, a little icon shows up at the start of the order, right under the shipping selection which lets you know that if you increase the order amount you'll qualify for free shipping. If you already do qualify it doesn't show up at all. Note that free shipping does not apply to international customers. Towards the bottom there's a "Special Comments or Instructions" box which you can fill out if necessary. The next page for those in the US is the "doctor info" page where you can either manually put in your Doctor's name and phone number, or search through their index. There is also an option on that page to fax in your prescription to save time, or even to scan & email it in. Finally, you get to the page where you choose the payment option, including by credit card, Paypal, electronic cheque, or a Fax/Phone option.

A couple minor irritations with the ordering process, but they only apply to international customers. First of all, even though international customers don't qualify for free shipping, the icon still comes up encouraging you to increase your order amount for free shipping, even once you've selected a non-US country. Second, all of the payment options show up, even though I'm pretty sure international customers won't be able to ue the Electronic Check option (the others should still be fine though). I realize I'm nit-picking here, but fixing those small things would bring the process from "impressive" to "pretty much perfect".

It wasn't very tough to find info from others on Discount Contact Lenses, and the majority of people had good experiences. Some had issues with the length of time it took to receive their order, but customer service was generally considered pretty top notch.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. Remember that if you have a different prescription for each eye, you will need to buy 2 boxes - one for each eye. If you have the same prescription in each eye, you can buy one box, but remember that 30 lenses really means 15 lenses per eye when calculating how long they'll last.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices - make sure you take note of how many lenses there are in each box to determine how long they're last.

There are also faster shipping methods available at an additional cost.

Just Lenses

Introduction

Just Lenses is based in the US with pricing in USD. They accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. They apparently accept money orders as well if you order by mail instead of online. They ship internationally to anywhere in the world. They have a phone number, fax, email, and mailing address listed as contact info on their site.

Impressions

Yet another Lens.com spinoff. I'm starting to think they're trying to corner the market by having the majority of the online contact lens stores, even if they're all exactly the same and all come from the same place. Something to note, if you create an account on even 1 of the Lens.com or sister sites, you can log in to any of the others with the same account information. For now anyway, they all seem to have exactly the same pricing. Check out the Lens.com review or any of the sister sites for more details.

Again, not a lot of talk about them on the web that I could find. The BBB has them on file with 12 complaints that were resolved and 1 "no response" complaint.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. If you get 2 boxes (1 for each eye, only necessary if your eyes have different prescriptions), you can double the expected supply listed below.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices.

Prices current as of Jan 20, 2008. There are also faster shipping methods available via FedEx within the US at an additional cost.

LensWorld.com

Introduction

Lens World is based in the US. Pricing in USD. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover. They offer international shipping. Contact methods include email, a toll free phone number, fax, and mail.

Impressions

The LensWorld.com website is fairly basic and well laid out. Selection is good, and you can choose from their entire product list, sort by manufacturer, or sort by lens type.

The FAQ section is fairly small, but the second portion of it contains good information relating to actual contact lens usage.

A nice thing about their shipping specials (for example at the time of this writing they have free shipping for orders over $89) is that international customers aren't completely excluded. Shipping is basically reduced by the amount of standard US shipping, so if you live in the US it's free, and if you live elsewhere or would like faster shipping, you'll simply have that portion taken off of your shipping fees.

When you go to complete your order, they ask for your credit card information before asking for optometrist info or giving you the grand total, which is a little backwards in my opinion. I wasn't willing to put in any credit card information so early in the order process (since I have no intention of ordering just yet), so I wasn't able to get to go through the entire checkout. They claim to ask for your doctor's name and phone number, so I assume that's done at some point after getting your credit card details. While this could simply be a good business tactic (once the customer's put in their CC info, they'll be less likely to change their mind once they're asked for optometrist details, etc), I wouldn't be surprised if it also scares away some business. It would be like walking into a store and having the cashier ask for your credit card as soon as you put an item into your basket. Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and is really my only issue with the site.

From what I could find about them, there seemed to be a lot of complaints about their service. Most complaints seemed to be about Lens World charging credit cards immediately, and taking a long time to ship.

The BBB gives Lens World an "unsatisfactory" rating. They show 136 resolved complaints, and 6 that were not ("unresolved" and "no response").

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. If you get 2 boxes (1 for each eye, only necessary if your eyes have different prescriptions), you can double the expected supply listed below.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices.

Prices as of Jan 20, 2008. I did not get to the page with the grand total, therefore I was unable to verify the final price.

Lens.com

Introduction

Lens.com is based in the US with pricing in USD. They accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. They apparently accept money orders as well if you order by mail instead of online. They ship internationally to anywhere in the world. They have a direct and toll-free phone number, fax, email, and mailing address listed as contact info on their site. The BBB has them listed with an "A" rating, with a total of 139 complaints (137 resolved/closed, 2 unresolved).

Impressions

Lens.com is probably one of the most popular contact lens companies out there. Their website is easy to navigate. You can select the lens you're looking for, sort by brand, or sort by type (daily's, monthly, colored, etc). and ordering is pretty quick. The selection is very high as well.

Pricing seems competative. Ordering multiple boxes usually results in a discount.

Lens.com claims that 90% of their orders are shipped the next day. For the remainder, it can take up to 5 days for them to receive stock. Orders placed on the weekend are processed the following business day.

When ordering, you have to create an account which involves entering your email address and creating a password. If you live in the US, there will also be a section during the order process that will ask for your optometrist's name (or store name), phone number, and patient name. According to the FAQ on the site, they will attempt to contact the optometrist to verify the information. If they don't hear back within 8 hours they'll assume the information is correct and proceed with your order. If you do not live in the US, it will not ask you for the optometrist info.

One thing I did not like was a hidden handling fee of 6.5% that's included in the subtotal. Setting up an order for a $35.95 box of lenses, the subtotal was between $38-39. While I'm not fond of handling fees to begin with (they should include it in the shipping or the base price), I'm especially not fond of magically adding it to the subtotal. It seems... well... sneaky. When comparing between online stores, make sure you compare the final totals.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. If you get 2 boxes (1 for each eye, only necessary if your eyes have different prescriptions), you can double the expected supply listed below.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices.

There are also faster shipping methods available via FedEx within the US at an additional cost.

LensMart

Introduction

LensMart is based in the US. Pricing is in USD. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, and Diners Club. They also offer a 90-day "Pay Me Later" through CIT Bank. Purchases are FSA eligible. They offer phone, fax, and email as methods of contact. LensMart ships internationally. The BBB shows them with "No Rating" provided (presumably no complaints).

Impressions

The website is simple in design and well laid out. Good selection, and you can select either lens type or brand from the left column on their site to narrow down your choices. They also carry a few other things ranging from contact lens solution to jewelry.

When checking out, your payment info is required before entering in your optometrist info or getting the shipping totals. Again, something I'm not too keen on, and therefore I didn't go through the entire process.

Pricing seems competative. However, they mention a processing fee in their help pages which I presume is added to your bill, so the pricing information below after shipping is only going to be an estimate. It'll likely be higher depending on whether there actually is a processing fee, and how much the processing fee actually is.

The little information I was able to gather showed that most people who have bought from LensMart were happy with their purchase.

Pricing

To compare online stores, I use the pricing for a *single* box of daily, 1-2 week, and monthly lenses made by CIBA. Remember that if you have a different prescription for each eye, you will need to buy 2 boxes - one for each eye. If you have the same prescription in each eye, you can buy one box, but remember that 30 lenses really means 15 lenses per eye when calculating how long they'll last.

Granted, you may be looking for other lenses, but this should give a general idea of what to expect when comparing prices - make sure you take note of how many lenses there are in each box to determine how long they're last.

*estimated based on $6.99 shipping to US, $9.99 to Canada, and $19.99 internationally

I did not get to the page with the grand total (since it requires entering your purchase information before getting the grand total), therefore I was unable to verify the final price, and it's unknown if any additional fees are added.

FAQ

Q: Do I need to mail/fax my prescription when I buy contacts online?

A: No. When you order, there is usually a section where you simply enter in your prescription information. Make sure you enter it in correctly! Depending on your country, you may also have to provide your optometrist's information so that the retailer can verify your prescription. However, if you lost your prescription or it's old/outdated, you can usually order from a retailer outside of your country, as they're usually not obligated to verify info for customers in other countries.

Q: I've never used/worn contact lenses before. Is it still a good idea to buy online?

A: Probably not. Your first screening should be from an optometrist/optician. That way you will receive proper information directly on how to care for and clean your lenses. The reasoning for this is because improper cleaning as well as leaving them in too long can lead to permanent eye damage and even blindness. The first time putting them in can also be tricky too. Other benefits are that local retailers and doctors can notice contact related reactions quicker. If you decide to get your first set of contacts online anyway, read up on how to clean and care for your lenses, make sure your hands are clean when you put them in, initially only wear them for short periods of time, and at the first sign of any trouble, go to your eye doctor.

Q: Is there a difference between the contact lenses I buy online and the ones I buy in stores?

A: No. Unlike some eyeglass retailers, none of the contact lens retailers actually make the contact lenses. They're simply selling brand-name contact lenses, just like the regular stores. The manufacturer remains unchanged.

Q: Is buying online safe?

A: Buying contact lenses online is no different from buying anything else online. One way to ensure a buyer's personal safety is by using reputable companies or someone you have heard about. If ever in doubt on a company's reputation to its customers please check the BBB website for further information about them, and search through forums to see what others have to say.

Q: What if I have a problem with a retailer?

A: First, contact the retailer. It's entirely possible that issues will occur beyond the retailer's control  (manufacturing defect, etc), and mistakes on the retailers part can and do happen from time to time (incorrect prescription, wrong product, shipping error, etc). Regardless of the circumstance, give the retailer the opportunity to resolve the situation. Most of the time they'll have contact information on their website. If you're not getting a response by email, try phoning. Make at least a few attempts.

Start documenting your attempts at communication, including times, dates, and the names of anyone you spoke to. This will be extremely helpful if it becomes necessary to involve the BBB or your credit card company.

If communication with the retailer fails to provide results, contact the Better Business Bureau ( http://complaints.bbb.org/ or navigate the http://www.bbb.org website). Involving the BBB often increases the chance of success when dealing with retailer issues. If the company fails to resolve the complaint or attempt to come to a resolution, it will count as a strike against their BBB rating.

Another option is to contact your credit card company and dispute the charge on your credit card. Note that most credit card companies offer this option, although there is typically a "grace period" of time in which you have to dispute the charge. This is often a very effective method of getting your money back. Contact your credit card company for more details as well as the pros and cons of forcing a chargeback.

Finally, regardless of the outcome, spread the word. Word of mouth is the most powerful tool in driving business for retailers. If the retailer was happy to resolve the situation, let others know through forums, etc. If you were forced to contact the retailer multiple times, contacted the BBB, or reversed the charge on your credit card, that's certainly information that would help others who are trying to decide whether or not to order from that retailer. I'd also love to hear about your experiences, good or bad. If I receive enough feedback about a retailer that's ripping off customers, I'll be sure to post a warning about them, similar to the one you'll find on another of my sites here.

Q: How can I contact you?

A: I can be reached at eyeglassretailerreviews AT gmail DOT com.  Due to time constraints as well as the sheer volume of email I receive, I may not be able to get back to you right away, but I assure you your message will be read.

Q: My prescription has expired, but my current contact lens's work fine and I'm still able to buy contacts online even with the expired prescription. Is there any need to go back to the eye doctor, or am I just throwing away money by getting an unnecessary check-up?

A: I would certainly recommend that you still see your eye doctor on a regular basis. Issuing a prescription is just a small part of what the eye doctor does. They also look for and diagnose other issues you may not be aware of. For example, they check the interior of the eye for a variety of things, many of which can cause permanent blindness if not diagnosed & treated quickly. The few dollars saved by not seeing your eye doctor is not worth the risk of having a condition go untreated to the point where it causes permanent damage.