SAN ANTONIO - Buying eyeglasses for your family can be very expensive. But if you try to save money by going to a discount store for glasses, will they get your prescription right? News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila conducted a simple test to find out if buying low-cost eyewear could be "short-sighted."
Your doctor checks your eyes and gives you the prescription. But if the optical store you go to doesn't measure and fit the lenses correctly, you can end up with blurry vision, irritated eyes, even headaches.
We tested lenses from four discount optical places: Costco, Walmart, My Econo's $39.95 Optical and Sears.
First, we had News 4 WOAI photographer Ben Cruz go in for an eye exam. "When I don't wear glasses I don't see anything far away, so I'm near-sighted," says Ben.
Performing the exam, San Antonio ophthalmologist David Shulman.
"We did a refraction, or a check for glasses, and found that his prescription changed slightly, and we gave him that prescription," describes Dr. Shulman.
Next, we took that prescription to all four discount optical places and ordered glasses.
At Costco, we bought a pair for about $90.
Walmart had some for only $38.
My Econo $39.95 Optical charged us $51 for one pair.
And at Sears there was a special: Two pairs of eyeglasses for $99.
Great prices, but would the prescriptions be accurate?
When they were all ready we picked up the glasses and took them back to Dr. Shulman, who used a machine to check prescription strength, and whether the lenses were measured correctly.
The first pair that we got from Costco came out almost perfect.
The glasses we got from Walmart and My Econo $39.95 Optical also passed the test.
"Three out of the five pairs of glasses were really pretty close," says Dr. Shulman. "there were two that were off."
The glasses that failed were the two pairs we bought from Sears Optical. When they measured our photographer's eyes for the lenses, the measurement was off by seven degrees. The industry standard is they can be off by no more than three degrees.
That could be a big deal if you have a strong prescription, but our photographer's prescription is relatively weak, so he only noticed the Sears lenses seemed blurry when compared to the others.
"Just looking across the room, I noticed the letters on a sign that I was looking at were a little clearer than the ones that were off a bit," says Ben of the Sears glasses.
So how would the folks at Sears react when we brought the glasses back and told them the prescription was inaccurate?
To their credit they admitted the mistake, and offered to remake the lenses, at no extra charge.
A Sears spokesperson did tell us the company has documentation showing one pair of glasses needed correction, but contends the other pair was fine.
In Texas, opticians don't need to be licensed or pass any kind of test. So you should have your eye doctor check the prescription for you, if something doesn't seem right.
Although the state doesn't require it you may want to look for an optician who is certified by the "American Board of Opticianry" or "ABO". That means the optician has had training.
