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You get what you pay for

19 May 2011

When I heard that certain retailers are charging as little as £6 for glasses online, I had to wonder what hidden nasties lurk behind this bargain basement offer? On our quest for cheaper glasses to what extent are we really prepared to lose out on quality and to take a punt?
I mean come on SIX POUNDS! That’s the price of a pint of beer with a pie and chip lunch at your local Wetherspoons!
Analyse the costs further and the equation becomes even worse! If you factor in the VAT that the company has to pay to the government (at 20% of the glasses price) and the cost of the case, postage and packaging - then you are looking at an actual cost of the glasses of about £4. FOUR POUNDS! That the price of a Large Big Mac Meal and not much more than a posh coffee from the likes of Starbucks or COSTA Coffee!

So how much do glasses really cost and how can they do this?

As someone within the industry I don’t believe that a company can genuinely sell a quality pair of glasses for less than £10 - and still make enough profit to continue trading over a sustained period of time. We are not talking ready readers here which can be mass produced by machine. These are glasses with lenses that have to be made to your specific prescription and the then cut and fitted into your chosen frame – each job is 100% bespoke.

So how or why do they do it and what is the catch?

Some firms use loss leaders. These are products that they sell at below cost price as part of a marketing strategy. This is done to gain your trust and to build a customer relationship with you. Their marketing teams hope for future more profitable sales from you - or from people you recommend them to. A few ‘headline grabbing’ incredibly cheap products may be thrown in to the mix in the knowledge that you might spend some time looking at their website and then buy an alternative more profitable item.
Sometimes, the answer is rather less appealing and the firm may be run by cowboys. Select one of these outfits and at best, the quality of both product and service are likely to be severely compromised. Sometimes it can be far worse and your ‘bargain buy’ can become your worst nightmare. You pay your money online in good faith and despite increasingly angry emails you start to realise that you are never going to receive your glasses – you have been scammed!

Feast or famine

Loss leaders if you can find the ‘real deals’ can prove to be great bargains. The problem is that it can be hard to tell the difference between the good, the bad and the ugly. Some would argue that if you are only dealing with small quantities of money – then perhaps the potentially amazing bargain is worth the risk? Well, yes, maybe – so long as you don’t get scammed for further unauthorised larger debit card transactions. If you are really unlucky this could cost you hundreds of pounds in fraudulent transactions and whilst you may be able to claim it back from your bank – it’s stressful and a hell of a hassle.

So what would we recommend? How can I choose a decent pair of specs online?

Choose the right company and Mail order glasses via the internet can offer safe and genuinely significant savings, but going for the cheapest deal in town is probably not the best solution for you. With online glasses, like with everything else if something looks too good to be true then it probably is. When searching for your next pair of glasses online, think “great value” glasses, not “cheap” glasses.  

For those looking to buy some of the best value cheap prescription glasses please check out SpecsPost's online spectacle shop via the navigation bar at the top of this page.
 

Posted by: Specspost