EyeBuyDirect Review: My Experience Buying Affordable Glasses Online

EyeBuyDirect Review

I’ve been purchasing glasses for the last 20 years. In the last 10 years, I’ve switched to purchasing glasses online.

I haven’t looked back.

It looks just as good! The comfort and quality are the same! Most importantly…

It’s so much cheaper!

The 2 most recent pairs of glasses I purchased were from EyeBuyDirect.

It was on a BOGO deal. The total was $121 before taxes and included:

  • 2 Eyeglass frames
  • Prescription
  • Blue light filter (Yes even the blue light filter which is normally over $100)
  • UV protection

$121 for 2 pairs of prescription glasses!!!

Even at the cheapest online store I’ve shopped at with a BOGO, it’s normally $120 for 1 pair.

Naturally, I was skeptical. With such an affordable price point, there’s got to be something wrong with the glasses.

Well, to my surprise, they arrived and there was nothing I would change about them.

I shared this news with my family and friends and I was surprised to hear that none of them had heard of EyeBuyDirect.

So now you know why I had to post about this…

It’s just too good of a deal to not talk about.

In this post, I’m going to discuss my review of EyeBuyDirect including:

  • What’s EyeBuyDirect
  • How does EyeBuyDirect work
  • What I purchased from EyeBuyDirect
  • What I like about EyeBuyDirect
  • What I dislike about EyeBuyDirect
  • Alternatives to EyeBuyDirect
  • Final Thoughts on EyeBuyDirect
How is EyeBuyDirect

    

What is EyeBuyDirect

Founded in 2005, EyeBuyDirect sells adult eyeglasses and sunglasses online. They also sell children’s eyeglasses.

They do everything in-house from design to manufacturing, which is how they’re able to keep prices down. They have no physical stores.

They’ve donated over 600,000 glasses to their partner charities – the Lions Club and Feed The Children.

How does EyeBuyDirect work

I’m going to break down the main 3 steps to purchase glasses on EyeBuyDirect which are:

  1. Find your ideal pair of glasses
  2. Use the EyeBuyDirect virtual try on
  3. Select your lenses

Find your ideal pair of glasses on EyeBuyDirect

When you’re on the website, you can easily see the 2 main categories of eyeglasses and sunglasses.

When you navigate to either of these sections, you’ll see that products can be sorted by:

  • Gender
  • Size
  • Color
  • Frame shape
  • Rim vs. semi-rimless vs. rimless
  • Material
  • Feature for just eyeglasses (e.g. lightweight, bifocal, progressives, for small face, for wide face, spring hinge, 2 day delivery, for low nose bridge, adjustable nose pads)
best place to buy glasses online

This is the most extensive list of sortable options I’ve seen yet! I love how easy they make it for you to find your perfect pair!

If you’re new to purchasing glasses online…

I know this list can be overwhelming!

If you don’t know what you want, EyeBuyDirect has a few resources where you can start:

eyedirectbuy

Use the EyeBuyDirect virtual try on

Once you have a clear idea of what you want and you browse through the results, you can try on each pair virtually.

How does the EyeBuyDirect virtual try on work?

  1. Upload a photo of yourself. It should be a clear picture of you facing forward.
  2. Crop the image so it only shows your face.
  3. Drag the markers so they’re in the center of your eyes.
  4. Enter in your pupillary distance (PD) – the distance between the center of the pupils of your eyes in mm. I got this done while getting my prescription, but you can also do it yourself. Here’s a video walking you through how to measure your PD.

Now you’re done!

When you navigate to a pair you’re interested in, just click “Try On” and the glasses will automatically appear on the photo.

One tip: As you browse through, when you find a pair you’re interested in, tap the heart underneath the glasses. This saves this pair of glasses to your “wishlist”.

When you’re finished browsing, you can navigate to your “wishlist” by hovering over the heart on the upper right hand corner of the screen. This is when you’ll see a link for “View My Wishlist”.

Select your EyeBuyDirect lenses

Depending on if you’re getting eyeglasses or sunglasses, there are quite a few options to consider.

I found this guide helpful to understand how to choose the best lenses for my situation.

I also used the “i” button you’ll see on the lens options after you “select lenses” and start the checking out process.

If you’re interested in seeing what eyeglasses I purchased including the lenses I went with, here’s…

What I purchased from EyeBuyDirect

I got these 2 pairs:

reviews for eyebuydirect
  • Cosmo (I haven’t included the link as this product no longer exists at EyeBuyDirect.)
eyebuydirect blue light review

I love them!

They’re comfortable!

They’re both incredibly light (16-17g) as compared to my other glasses.

The available selection can be even lighter! I was also considering this Strike pair that weighs 8g!

I’ve gotten numerous compliments on them. The colors are so modern and attractive, but they can also be fun party glasses!

They both come with a nose pad section, which is rare for these types of frames.

I have a low nose bridge. I love plastic frames, but they often don’t come with a sufficient nose pad area.

Whenever I get plastic frames, I often have to add nose pads because otherwise, the glasses will just keep falling off! The nose pads cost me $60/pair!

In terms of lens selection, I got them both for single vision distance. I got the most popular lens bundle with a 1.59 index thickness and UV protection.

I also added on the blue light filter coating at the end.

Blue light at night can be particularly harmful to your sleep and health.

I’m always in front of a computer, phone, tablet, TV or other digital screen. Getting a blue light filter was very important to me.

When I found out I could get 2 pairs of glasses with blue light filter for $121! That’s as inexpensive as it gets!

Here are additional things I like about EyeBuyDirect…

What I like about EyeBuyDirect

There is a 14 day return policy. There are no questions asked.

If you’re not happy with the glasses, just ask them for a refund. They’ll direct you on how to return the glasses.

They also have a 365 day product guarantee. If there are clear defects in material and workmanship, you can get your pair replaced within 12 months.

eyes direct buy

What I dislike about EyeBuyDirect

It can take quite a long time to receive your eyeglasses.

When you place the order, they send you a confirmation email stating that the eyeglasses will be shipped within 7-14 business days.

For my order, it took around 1.5 weeks. For my husband’s, it was closer to 3 weeks!

Also, unless you have a coupon code, shipping is not free. I paid $9.95 to ship my glasses. However, that was included in the $121 so the overall price is still cheap!

Alternatives to EyeBuyDirect

Warby Parker:

I haven’t tried Warby Parker, but I’ve heard it’s another popular online glasses retailer.

From what I’ve researched, it is a lot more expensive. One of the cool things they offer is trying on up to 5 pairs at home before you buy glasses.

Clearly:

I used to be a long time customer Clearly. in Canada.

Like Warby Parker, it’s more expensive than EyeBuyDirect. Recently, they changed their virtual try on so you can now only try on a Iimited selection of glasses.

However, one thing that might be of interest about this retailer – they have a selection of branded designer frames (e.g. Ferragamo, Michael Kors) if that’s what you’re interested in – that might not be available at other retailers.

buy eye direct

Final Thoughts on this EyeBuyDirect Review

I’m very happy with my EyeBuyDirect purchases. I will definitely be buying from them again this year.

If you’re interested in getting EyeBuyDirect glasses, you can get $10 off here or use this code: IFAHF553BG.

Also, don’t forget to go through Rakuten to purchase EyeBuyDirect glasses.

Rakuten (formerly Ebates) allows you to get cash back for shopping online at over 2500 stores – many of which you would normally shop at like Amazon, eBay, Macy’s, Kohl’s etc. It’s FREE to sign up.

EyeBuyDirect is one of their affiliated stores!

To top it off, for U.S. residents, Rakuten will give you a welcome bonus of $10 after making your first online purchase of $25 or more.

For Canadians, it’s a $5 welcome bonus for signing up. You can read more about how to use Rakuten here!

Resources for Saving Money

Looking for other ideas to save money?

Here are my favorite money saving resources:

Honey

Honey is an application that looks at the items in your cart and helps you search for coupon codes. If it finds relevant codes, it enters them AUTOMATICALLY! You never have to search for coupon codes online again!

It also has other money saving features like cash back, price drop notifications, and a price history. It’s also FREE to use.

Sign up for Honey here!

$5 meal plan

If you spend hours meal planning every week only to stress out some days and eat out, you might be interested in the $5 meal plan. For $5/month, they send you a weekly meal plan where every meal will cost approximately $2/person! They save you time and money so that you can focus on doing things you enjoy like hanging with your kid!

They offer a 14 day FREE trial (approximately 40 recipes) – regular or gluten-free – that you can cancel at any time with no questions asked.

Amazon Prime

This membership has 2 great benefits: free 2 day shipping and free access to movies, TV shows, music and books. You no longer have to worry about last minute items. You can cancel your other movie, music and book subscription services. You can also get 20% off diapers and baby food when you have more than 5 subscriptions.

Get the Amazon 30 day FREE trial here. You can cancel at anytime. No questions asked.

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4 Comments

  1. I am glad your experience with EyeBuyDirect.Com went well. Mine was the opposite. After two attempts and being provided a copy of my eye doctors prescription they could not provide me with a pair of glasses that I could see with. They then hide behind robo -emails and refused a refund. My comment is ‘Buyer Beware”.

    1. Good question! I get an eye exam through my local eye doctor and then I use the prescription to purchase glasses online.

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