while it will feel ridiculous

rob-anybody:

thinkbyfeeling replied to your post: This is why I hate mornings. Also, everything ever.

…but it’s true you can’t recut lenses to a new frame of a different size, because the ocular centre ends up wrong and with a prescription that’s strong like yours you wouldn’t be able to see shit. Glad you figured something out. Your frame snapped?

It’s totally true that you can’t recut lenses to a different size frame, but he didn’t even try to find a frame that could possibly fit. He didn’t offer me any kind of alternative, except to buy new frames and lenses, which I could not afford there because everything is an expensive brand name and my lenses cost a fortune. I didn’t expect him to fix it, but I just wanted him to make an effort that wasn’t “Buy new glasses!” 

Yeah, my frame broke when I was trying to clean my glasses. Because Monday didn’t suck hard enough.

This has triggered my helpfulness mechanism, so! Former optical retail employee pro tips for anyone who ends up with busted eyeglass frames (cut to spare your dashboards because I had a lot to say):

• The only frame that your lenses will fit in is the same model you got them cut for originally, as shape and dimensions vary too much even within a brand, and yes, it is tough for the unknowledgeable person to tell by looking but I swear to you it’s true. If you can find that model, though (like if your busted glasses are less than a year old) it’s a straight pop-out-pop-in job and you’re back out the door in under ten minutes. In these cases, try ebay if you can’t find them at a retailer anymore; if the model number hasn’t rubbed off the frame with wear it’s usually a couple letters and numbers, like RB1234 for a Ray-Ban model. If it has rubbed off, your receipt or your customer file at the place you bought it might give you the model number (at Lenscrafters, definitely, and they can also find it in stock at their store or another local one, or special order you a new one if it’s still available, and THEY SHOULD BE DOING THIS). Lenscrafters will do your lens swap for free on any pair of identical frames you bring in, provided you waive liability in case something happens to anything you didn’t buy there. Other retailers like Pearle Vision (same parent company) may do the same but I can’t speak from authority on those.
• They don’t do recuts because of a combination of liability, the risk of recutting wrong, the odds of fucking up the ocular centre and leaving you unable to see through your lenses anyway in a new frame (especially high with a higher Rx), and the chance of something happening to the coatings, depending on whether anything was done to the lenses after they were cut the first time. This happens sometimes with the online stuff and the Walmart and Superstore Optical stuff.
• If you need new lenses and you’ve gotta order them, Lenscrafters now offers (and their major competitors better start offering) free of charge temporary lenses for you to wear on loan until your good ones arrive at the store. You have to return these when you get your good lenses, unless you want to pay for them at that point. If you ask for this option at Lenscrafters and they tell you they won’t do it, the person you’re talking to probably just doesn’t want to. Put your foot down and ask for the manager if it comes to that. They should want your sale badly enough to give you what you’re asking for because this service is company policy (provided they’ve got lens blanks to accommodate you; if you’re over -10.00 it may be trickier at some stores).
• Speaking of Lenscrafters, that Eyewear Protection Plan they offer now, for ~$29.99 a pair (that’s what it is in Canada anyway)? It’s a good deal. A very good deal. They’re not screwing you over with it; if you get the plan and you come back to the store for a replacement pair for any reason within the allotted period—it ended 15 months after purchase when I worked there last year—and pay your $25 for replacement, you get a brand-new pair of glasses, no questions should be asked. I don’t even work there anymore and I hope not to again for personal reasons but I’d still recommend it to anyone shopping there. Some of these plans are a scam but I never found a loophole in this one. They can, however, tell when you try and pull a fast one and claim the plan on a pair of glasses you didn’t buy it for. That shit is all in your file.
• Even if you buy your glasses at Hakim or Crown or Target or at one of those online sweatshop $10 glasses places, if you need them adjusted (you will almost always need new glasses adjusted for fit) or repairs like new screws etc, Lenscrafters will fix your shit for free, so take it in there and let a licensed optician work their magic. They don’t have the equipment to weld a snapped metal frame and won’t be liable if your glasses unfortunately and tragically break during fixing, if you didn’t buy them there, but none of these guys should be assholes who are snapping frames, it’s usually hard to do if you know what’s going on. You should be able to find the licensed opticians in the store from the word ‘licensed’ on their nametag and/or their actual license displayed on the wall somewhere near the rear of the sales floor. There should always be one working.
• If you do snap your metal frame, take it to a jeweler who does repairs to get it welded. I had to tell people this all the time when they brought me in whatever the dog had done to their frames. Also, keep your glasses out of reach of your dog at all times, even if they ‘don’t normally chew stuff’, or someday you’ll be going to a jeweler for repairs. Dogs love glasses, man. I don’t know why they do but they do.
• If you’re friends with me and I have access to a screwdriver and you bat your eyelashes/bribe me, I’ll fix your glasses for you. I am also not liable if there’s an accident. Spoiler alert: my job trained me well and I don’t break frames.
• Take care of your glasses to lengthen their lifespan. Metal fatigue usually isn’t visible so just because they look good doesn’t mean they ARE still good. Ditto a plastic frame. Don’t whip them on and off one-handed and try not to fall asleep wearing them and you’ll reduce a lot of frame stress right there. If your frame is over two years old I don’t recommend just getting new lenses in it and calling it a day, because if your frame gives up the ghost six months later (entirely possible), you’ll be up Shit Creek where the scenery isn’t pleasant and you have a pair of expensive lenses you can’t do anything with. It happens. A lot. Frames don’t wear well. The only high-end frame brand I can recommend from experience for its durability, both from my personal wear and from how infrequently I had to fix them, is Prada. And Prada is not cheap.

You can hit up my ask if you have any questions about glasses ownership and purchasing and you’d like an experienced answer. There’s a lot of misinformation out there but I worked in that industry for two years, and recently, and I know a lot about it. Contacts, though, you gotta go somewhere else. Don’t wear them, couldn’t dispense them in my province.