18-03-2012, 04:52 PM
Here's my few penn'orth for what it is worth: I've worn glasses since my mid-20s, originally partly due to an eye injury. I find that vari-focals - when made by a reputable company and to a prescription by someone who knows their subject - are OK, with the inevitable distortions of verticals, a problem that means I can no longer rely on my 'eye' for straight lines and have to check everything with tape measure, square and spirit level. I too am quite severely astigmatic in both eyes, but both are different. Without glasses the right eyes sees everything quite widely doubled, one thing above another in the vertical plane, with similar but less marked deviation in the horizontal. The left eye refuses to come to focus at all but is worse at around a 45 degree angle! Glasses correct most of these symptoms quite effectively though for the computer I have to use mid-range (2-2.5 feet) reading glasses. Varifocals for everything else except books, for which I have an essential pair of standard focal length reading glasses.
I get my glasses from Boots. I've tried Dollond and Aitcheson (now taken over by Boots) but didn't get on with the glasses they prescribed. As for Specsavers, I had the worst experience of my life with glasses there. Its a cattle market. Queue up to give them your money, pay through the nose for what they assure you is perfection in lenses. Utter rubbish. Eight visits, two full eye tests and then the glasses failed by the lenses dropping out, necessitating a further visit.
There's much more to the optical horror story but I won't test your patience except to say that the glasses were still useless. I went to Boots and paid quite a bit less for a far superior product that has given me absolutely no trouble whatsoever. Moral: don't believe all you see in TV adverts!
-Tony
I get my glasses from Boots. I've tried Dollond and Aitcheson (now taken over by Boots) but didn't get on with the glasses they prescribed. As for Specsavers, I had the worst experience of my life with glasses there. Its a cattle market. Queue up to give them your money, pay through the nose for what they assure you is perfection in lenses. Utter rubbish. Eight visits, two full eye tests and then the glasses failed by the lenses dropping out, necessitating a further visit.
There's much more to the optical horror story but I won't test your patience except to say that the glasses were still useless. I went to Boots and paid quite a bit less for a far superior product that has given me absolutely no trouble whatsoever. Moral: don't believe all you see in TV adverts!
-Tony
