Fixing eyeglasses

[Catscankim]

I didnt break them, they just dont fit right.

I always wore the glasses with the little nosepads. They started irritating my nose and leaving semi-permanent indents. So at somebodys recommendation, i bought the molded plastic frames.

Long story short, i got mad at the eyeglass store and walked out without having them fitted.

I have progressive lenses, so they really need to sit on my face just right. The earpieces are too wide…as if somebody with a fat head put your glasses on and stretched them out. But they arent stretched out, they are just too wide. Now they keep sliding off my face and i cant see.

I tried tightening the screws. That did nothing (and its nearly impossible to tighten those little screws on your eyeglasses, without your glasses on lol).

Somebody suggested a hairdryer to the middle/nose part and gently bend them inward. The dryer does not get hot enough to make them pliable enough.

Would the heat gun be too hot? Or does anybody have any tricks to get them to fit more snugly?

 

[dibbles]

When I had mine adjusted, they heated up the ends that go around your ears and bent them slightly more. IDK about the heat gun.

Could you go back to the optical store and hope someone else is working there and ask them to adjust the frames for you?

 

[Catscankim]

Lol i dunno. I raised a pretty big stink. Damn temper of mine. When i went back to pick up my glasses, the (different) girl offered to do my glasses and when i said no, i need to go to work…it was like eyes darting at each other, sigh of relief that i was leaving lol.

 

[dibbles]

OK, so maybe not...

 

[earlene]

Glasses are so expensive these days, I'd be afraid to use my heat gun on them. It gets VERY hot. How about going into another glasses place and say you are traveling from out of town and be all sweet and sugary and say they are just driving you nuts with how they are sliding off your face and all. Really lay it on in a sweet helpless kind of way. (I know, it's probably demeaning to even think of putting on an act like that, but it works....) Ask if they'd be so kind as to help you out by doing an adjustment. Offer to pay for the adjustment, of course, but emphasize how hard it is to drive with your glasses falling off your face every time you turn to change lanes and whatnot, and how you're scared to drive all the way back home again (remember you're traveling? - it's part of the act.) And they may even do the adjustment for free. But if they charge you, pay it. It's the price of your temper tantrum, after all. (I say this as someone who has had to pay for having a temper tantrum or two in my adulthood, so I do know what it is like. Thankfully, I don't do that anymore and hope I don't again in the future.)

Or if you don't want to put on the act (it's probably not really necessary), but just ask straight out if they do the adjustment for you and pay a fee, maybe they will. If that fails, I'd go somewhere else and put on the act.

I have had my hearing aids fixed twice while traveling by simply going in and asking for help and both times for free because people realize how important hearing is to the hearing impaired. I am sure people who work with glasses have the same kind of compassion.

 

[Catscankim]

Glasses are so expensive these days, I'd be afraid to use my heat gun on them. It gets VERY hot. How about going into another glasses place and say you are traveling from out of town and be all sweet and sugary and say they are just driving you nuts with how they are sliding off your face and all. Really lay it on in a sweet helpless kind of way. (I know, it's probably demeaning to even think of putting on an act like that, but it works....) Ask if they'd be so kind as to help you out by doing an adjustment. Offer to pay for the adjustment, of course, but emphasize how hard it is to drive with your glasses falling off your face every time you turn to change lanes and whatnot, and how you're scared to drive all the way back home again (remember you're traveling? - it's part of the act.) And they may even do the adjustment for free. But if they charge you, pay it. It's the price of your temper tantrum, after all. (I say this as someone who has had to pay for having a temper tantrum or two in my adulthood, so I do know what it is like. Thankfully, I don't do that anymore and hope I don't again in the future.)

Or if you don't want to put on the act (it's probably not really necessary), but just ask straight out if they do the adjustment for you and pay a fee, maybe they will. If that fails, I'd go somewhere else and put on the act.

I have had my hearing aids fixed twice while traveling by simply going in and asking for help and both times for free because people realize how important hearing is to the hearing impaired. I am sure people who work with glasses have the same kind of compassion.

Omg you are funny. I cant even imagine you putting on an act (as much as i cannot put on an act).

my problem at the time with them is that i went to get glasses AND contacts, which I needed because I have issues with fogging and masks. I have never had contacts before and had no clue how to use them, etc.

They stuck me in a room all by myself, requiring me to keep my mask on the entire time, and learn from an app from accuvue on my phone that I had to download and scan a qr code...with their shotty wifi, with nobody else in there to teach me how to use them. After a half an hour of wasted time ....put glasses on, watch video, take glasses off, try to insert contact. Put glasses on to rewatch video, repeat. With a mask on, in a room by myself. My eyes were totally bloodshot from failed attempts. Finally I dropped the stupid contact on the floor, and flipped out. I stood at the door for another 5 minutes waiting for help...But darn straight as soon as I took my mask off I got attention LOL.

Might as well go home and do this crap by myself. That's the hissy fit I had.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

We could try switching glasses. My face is always a little too wide for one size but then the next size up seems too big

 

[Guspuppy]

Just go to a different optical store and tell them you got your glasses shipped to you in the mail. They will likely do a free fitting for you. I get my glasses from the VA and instead of driving all the way to the VA hospital once they arrive in the mail, I just go to the nearest eye doctor and they fit them for me.

 

[artemis]

If the store is a chain, you can probably walk into another of the same name and get them adjusted for free.

You can probably walk into different store and ask for an adjustment, but you might have to pay for it, since you did not get them there. When my brother got his from an online store, they had him do that to get them adjusted.

 

[lucycat]

Do you think you could go back to the store and apologize and ask to start over? If you can, then that would be the best way to not spend more money. If not, try another office, just explain up front what you did, ask for help and be prepared to pay additional for their time and service.

If you try do it yourself and cause the bifocal line to get too high or low you will make the glasses useless.

Frames with nosepieces don't have to fit as well around the sides and ears because the nosepieces support them. Plastic frames have to fit better. I avoid them because to fit around my face they usually hurt my ears. It is very likely that the frame selected is just too large. If a technician just wants to sell you glasses they may not steer you away from too large a frame for your face/head size. I like a practice where the frame I pick out is my frame, no ordering. The adjustments then are made before sending out for the lenses. It helps a lot in preventing the purchase of a frame that doesn't fit.

If you can afford an expensive loss maybe it is time to go shopping for a practice that is knowledgeable, you trust and like the way they run their office.

 

[Johnez]

My solution to this issue was a ghetto one, and it may not work for your progressive lenses, but here goes nothin'-I pulled off the elastic bands from the cheap COVID masks that are everywhere now and simply tied them to the legs of my glasses. I sweat a lot at work and got annoyed with them sliding down my nose, even with the dang silicon nose pieces.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Nothing is worse then paying high cost for medical insh' copays' then to set in a room to watch "makeshift-videos" so you can be self educated on inserting contact lens. Kaiser does the same MO I guess its standard. I do understand your frustration.

Yes you can go to most any place that sales eyeglasses to get an adjustment, may or may not be a fee' call ahead of time you might need to pencil in a time slot.
Good luck .

Update: I had the best fitting at Costco's, great customer service to, much to my surprise.

 

[Catscankim]

I forgot that I have a friend that works at a private store in the mall. I am going to hit them up on Saturday after a class.

He said that they do hands on contact training and had no idea why the other store thought it was a good idea to let somebody just sit in a room and figure it out on their own, and they don't let you leave with prescriptions until they are sure you can comfortably put them in and take them out. He also said that even during covid, they never sat a patient in a room with a card and a video and said that was absurd, and never heard of such a thing.

And phones are germy. I had to keep picking it up, restarting the video, put it down and then what? pick up a contact to stick in my eye? LOL. There were no wipes around to clean the phone with. My final straw was dropping it on the floor.

When I finally got their attention standing at the door, I kinda thought that they were going to give me a part 2 (hands on), but she's just like "all set?!" Like that was it, lets go check out.

First words out of my mouth were "Are you freakin SERIOUS?"...and that was the beginning of the end of my visit at eyeglass world LOL.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

First words out of my mouth were "Are you freakin SERIOUS?"...and that was the beginning of the end

I had a freak out this week too. I chewed out a person, her supervisor and a manager. I left without my order, which I needed. I called back to apologize to the first incompetent person. She interrupted me, politely with, "Would you like to pick your order up tomorrow?" We agreed upon 10 AM.

I arrived, prepared to apologize for my bad behavior. You can imagine my surprise... I not only got a profuse apology from not one but two "Pick Up" carry out guys, but also a $5 discount for my trouble!

Lesson Learned: Sometimes it pays to do the right thing. It lays the groundwork for others to do the same.

 

[earlene]

@Catscankim, I used to wear contact lenses (way back in the last century LOL); hard lenses to boot. You may not even be able to buy hard lenses anymore for all I know. Let me tell you, I recall how difficult it was to learn to wear those darn things and even more uncomfortable to get used to wearing them. Putting them in and taking them out was very difficult at first. I have to say I was ready to quit contacts altogether almost daily for the first month of wearing them. I know I would never have learned to put them in or take them out by watching some (back then) VHS video tape alone in a room AND wearing a face mask. This was before I had even gone to nursing school, I think; I certainly wasn't used to wearing face masks yet. Not to mention the actual damage I caused to my eyeballs (abrasions, infections, ocular visits and ocular antibiotic drops to treat the abrasions - not fun.) I never understood how my dad adjusted to hard lenses so easily (maybe he only made it SEEM easy and really had just as much trouble as I had, but being a man wouldn't let it show.)

Anyway, I did eventually switch to soft lenses, and learning to use them was easier, but only because I had already done the hard part by learning the hard lenses. Even then, there were new problems. Soft lenses can turn inside out, and they can rip! And finding on on the floor is even harder than finding a hard lens on the floor.

Don't think those of us who wore or wear lenses don't empathize with your dilemma.