I chicklet, am BLIND as a bat without my contacts. For those who KNOW prescriptions, I'm a -5.5 and a -7.75. For those who DON'T know prescriptions, the easiest way to describe it is when my husband is laying in bed next to me, I can see that his face is white - but unless I stick my face RIGHT UP NEXT TO HIS, I can't see if he's awake, asleep, has a nose, doesn't have a nose, etc. So I wear contacts. Disposable contacts to be exact.
And while disposable contacts are great in many ways - fresh pair every couple weeks, always an extra pair handy in case something feels WEIRD with the current pair or you lose one - the one way they're NOT great is that you have to buy them all the time. Yes, you can buy them in big multi-packs where you get 60 or so at a time (which is what I do), but it still means keeping an eye (pun intended) on your stash, to ensure you never run out and can't actually SEE your husband's face, the road [when driving], and other critical things in life.
So for the last couple years, I'd always gone into my optometrist and just picked them up there. They were only a 10 minute drive away, they were near a mall I could shop at to make the drive worth it, and there was a Starbucks next door... which is NEVER a bad thing. But where it started annoying me was they started keeping these STRANGE hours where they closed at 5pm weekdays, 2pm on Saturdays, and weren't open at all Sundays. The hours weren't TERRIBLE, but they weren't convenient either. So rather than looking around for another optometrist, I thought I'd save myself some time AND money, and just order them online. Through 1.800 Contacts.
Sigh.
The first problem? Well, there's a LOT of contacts to choose from. The second problem? The way they ask for your prescription is messed up - or at least it was for me, because trying to match what they were asking for to my actual paper prescription, DIDN'T work. I ended up having to grab my contacts box, entering THOSE numbers in, and hoping I ordered correct.
Thankfully, I did order correct, and when they arrived, all was well. Or so I thought. Because out of 8 boxes (containing 6 contacts each), I've thrown out at least 2 contacts in EVERY SINGLE BOX. And I've thrown them out before I even wore them, or after wearing them for 5 minutes and running (almost screaming) to rip them out. Because these contacts? Well, they have CRACKS in them which scratch my eyes, they have TEARS in them which irritate my eyes, and they're actually mis-shapen (not 100% round) and just don't sit right on my eyes - and all of this is immediately upon removing them from their package. Meaning, they CAME this way.
While I will admit there's a chance I just got a bad batch, the flaw in that theory is how did I get at least 2 bad contacts in EVERY single box? One bad box? Okay, I can see that happening. Eight bad boxes? Really?
So for me, 1.800 Contacts is a BIG thumbs down. In theory, I saved some money, but in reality, I threw out probably everything I saved in the additional contacts I'll have to buy to replace the bad ones I never even got to wear.
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4 chiming in:
I have been using Clearly Contacts for several years and can't say enough nice things about their customer service.
Maybe you can give them a try since 800 contacts didn't come through for you.
They are in your neck of the woods, too!
www.clearlycontacts.ca
You do know that 1-800 Contacts will replace problem lenses, don't you? Just call them and tell them how many you had problems with. It's that easy.
Anonymous, thanks for the tip - I didn't know! I should try that out, see how they handle it, and then re-review:-)
I have purchased my contacts through 800-Contacts and haven't had any problems with them. I can get a year supply of them for half the price I can through my eye doctor. I wear mine for a month, then start a new pair.
Definitely contact their customer service and let them know what happened to you. If they don't resolve the issue, then the complaint is valid. If they do, then you just happened to get a bad batch, which could have happened with your eye doctor too, because they get them from the same manufacturers, if you are using the same brand (which I do).
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