Ed's Contact Lenses

Lentillas (Contact Lenses) in Spain

2009-09-30T10:53:00.002Z

Susana from www.Lensbase.es is telling me that they sell lentillas (Contact Lenses) there. Tell her I sent you and you will get... well, just the normal excellent service and lentillas baratas (cheap lenses) that you get every day and Lensbase.

They are growing by leaps and bounds (as is the Spanish online contact lens business in general), and you can read on the testimonials page exactly how happy the customers are.

Kudos!

Money Saving Expert

2008-12-10T11:47:00.002Z

I just reread the contact lens article on Money Saving Expert. It has lots of interesting info, mostly about saving money, but also sections like "Are daily lenses secretly the same as monthlies?". Check it out.

The Eye of the Beholder

2008-11-26T08:34:00.000Z

Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

- Laurence J. Peter

Excellent FAQs

2008-11-21T15:27:00.004Z

My buddy Andrew tells me there are some excellent FAQs here, and he's absolutly right.

Proclear Sphere

2008-10-06T07:49:00.003Z

Contact Lenses Today reports that Coopervision has expanded the parameters available for their Proclear Sphere monthly replacement contact lenses, with 8.6 powers going from -20.00 through 20.00.

Acuminder

2008-09-09T08:10:00.002Z

Acuvue and Johnson & Johnson have just converted their Acuminder application to a Facebook application. Both the Acuminder site and the Facebook application provide you with reminders about ordering your contact lenses and getting annual eye exams.

Be the Best You Can Be

2008-08-10T15:24:00.002Z

www.acuvue.com has published a PDF called "Be the Best You Can Be", which highlights the ways in which improving your vision (using, of course, Acuvue brand contact lenses) can make you better at what you do. It was an interesting read, especially about the soccer player and why UV protection is important (something that I should take more care of since I spend a lot of time outdoors here on the Mediterranean coast). I got the news from the Contact Lenses Today newsletter, which also talked about free samples, but I assume that's only for the US market.

SiBoSol

2008-08-08T17:37:00.002Z

Lensbase's new SiBoSol product has obviously hit a sweet price point, as it's selling very well. The fact that instructions are also in various European languages makes it especially interesting for the non-English-speaking hoards (one of whom I'm married to, so I know the interest is heartfelt).

What I have noticed however is that people do not order many lens cases, even though all the opticians say they should be changed every three months. The next time I visit the warehouse, I have orders to pick up some more piggy shaped lens cases. Let's see if I can start promoting them better. Steffan, I have an idea... details to follow...

Great Point Light - Seeing is Believing

2008-05-21T09:37:00.010Z

At the recent Vision Expo East conference in NY, late on the last day, Steffan found the Great Point Light stand. We were both really excited about it - Steffan because he wanted to sell the products we found there, me because I wanted to buy a bunch of them.

My wife Cristina has been using the products since then, including the LightWedge and the Wallet Magnifiers, and she is very happy with both of them, and (as usual) sending new clients to our website since she's a big believer. I only purchased one LightWedge but, since I haven't been able to get my hands on the one we have at home (since Crys is always using it), it looks like I'll have to pick up another one. Recommended.

We also have a great selection of Great Point Light products for sale now. Besides the LightWedge and the Wallet Magnifiers (which, as part of the over-40 club, will now become part of my standard equipment), I also plan to get the USB Flex Neck light.

In my next post, Steffan will cover European States and Internet Sales, in particular what the future holds!

Alpine Crystal Ski Goggles

2008-01-07T14:06:00.000Z

I was coordinating a change to the VisionDirect.co.uk shipment scanning system the other day - the ability to get the DHL tracking number directly from the DHL EasyShip program so that scanning the order against the DHL bar code would catch any mistakes. In order to do so, I needed a DHL label to make sure the scanning would work. We agreed that the best way to get a DHL label to me was to DHL something down here to Spain. "What do you want?" I was asked (I LIKE those kind of questions). Since I was going skiing in Andorra to bring in the new year, I asked for ski goggles. Much to my delight, the arrived here at the office shortly before I left. Thanks, Steffan!

Well, I didn't set any ski records on this trip (I spent too much time teaching my 5 year old sweetheart Martina to ski), but I WAS very, very impressed with the goggles. The vision was excellent both in the morning / midday in the glaring sun, in the late afternoons when the mountains provided an early sunset on the lower slopes, and even on the day when we had heavy snow and a lot of wind. Also, despite being roughed up both by falls and by rushed packing (renting skis for 6, including 4 kids, tends to induce careless behavior), the goggles did not get scratched or broken (unlike the 28 EUR sunglasses I bought for my son Nick, which got broken within 6 hours of purchase). Also, the goggles were super comfortable - I totally forgot that I had them on. They just worked. The field of vision was great, the strap was great - they just blew me away.

Although the price you pay will be a bit higher than what I paid (can't get any cheaper than free), I feel very confident in highly recommending these goggles.

VisionDirect.co.uk DHL Discounts

2007-12-07T13:39:00.001Z

The VisionDirect.co.uk RSS newsfeed just reported that they are lowering their DHL shipping costs by one third during the holiday season. This is a nice gesture that allows contact lens users to avoid the usual jam in the Royal Mail services that occurs around the holidays. Kudos! [or "Déu n'hi do" as they would say in Catalan]

Eye Power

2007-11-30T08:47:00.000Z

Dvice.com is reporting on "Eye Power", a machine that "correct near-sighted/myopic vision problems" and can "supposedly caress your eyes back to perfect 20/20 health".

Ummm, right. If you're buying for me for Christmas, I'd rather have the Cheeky Chimp air freshener...

Various Stuff

2007-11-27T08:52:00.001Z

I have another mailing from CoastalContacts.co.uk trying to move their European customers over to Lensway.co.uk. Coastal is a Canadian company which owns the Holland based Lensway, and it makes more sense for the sales to go through there. They are even giving a 10% "welcome" discount for switching. Anyone here how the marriage between Coastal and Lensway is going?

VisionDirect.com did a mailing offering a 10% off discount with coupon code HOLIDAYTEN up through December 11th. In addition, you can "Get a free air freshener when you buy any two Cheeky Chimp beauty products". Um, right.
Their stock dipped below $3/share before showing an uptick to reach $3.05. Knowing that more and more shopping is going to the Internet, and that they may soon reach profitability, the price actually looks tempting.

I've been hoping to see Christmas contact lenses (red and green eyes, reindeer eyes, something of that sort), but no go. Looks like I'll have to go to all the xmas parties with my baby blue's ;->

Flames

2007-11-16T09:18:00.000Z

Although the prices are a bit out of my budget, and it's a bit late for Halloween, you have to love the variety of theatrical lenses available at 9mm SFX. I think I'll go for the "flames" design!

VisionDirect.co.uk: Ski Goggle 33% Off!

2007-11-14T08:30:00.000Z

I received a 33% off ski goggles offer from VisionDirect.co.uk. They offer UV protection and excellent quality polycarbonate shatterproof lenses. They are made of G-TECH multi-layer Titanium Lens technology as used by aerospace engineers at NASA. If you buy two, the savings are even greater.

I talked to Steffan, who used them on the slopes last year. He's the type of person that can afford and buys the best of everything, and truly enjoys great design and quality. He was impressed with the goggles, and will be using them again this year.

They are now selling like hotcakes, and for a good reason - they give great bang for the buck. I'll be getting 6 pairs for my trip to Andorra this January. What color do you suggest?

Eye Makeover

2007-11-12T09:12:00.000Z

Johnson & Johnson has released iMakeover, a site that allows you to virtually "try on" Acuvue 2 Colors. You upload a picture, virtually put the lenses in your eyes, and then try adjusting the colors to find out which ones look best. The interface is very slick, and while the results are not as exciting as I was expecting (I was looking for a super noticeable green for my son - just the eyes in a commercial he was commenting on the other day), it did clearly change his look.

It also includes the possibility to get a free trail pair certificate, but only for US addresses. Let's see if Johnson & Johnson Europe can comment on that...

Beijing blur

2007-10-30T18:01:00.000Z

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Australian Olympic athletes will be given contact lenses to fight the bad Beijing air. Johnson & Johnson will be providing lenses with UV filters. At the very least, it's a great publicity stunt.

I would have thought that Nike Max Tints would have been in the running for this one...

Another VisionDirect.com Offer

2007-10-30T08:33:00.000Z

The guys at VisionDirect.com are at it again, with a 10% off (coupon code HURRY10) through November 13th.

VisionDirect's mother company, Drugstore.com, saw it's stock price rise to the $3.50 mark, after falling as low as $2.35 earlier in the year. Their 3rd quarter results were still in the red, but down to only 2 cents per share, and they expect a "breakout" 4th quarter. In any case, at a guess, they are doing well in their contact lens division.

CooperVision Learning

2007-10-29T10:43:00.000Z

CooperVision has a free online learning center for people who work in the optical branch - both for opticians and for non-specialists. All you need is a CooperVision Business Partner number to register on the site and sign up for the courses.

Nike Max Tints

2007-10-26T13:42:00.001Z

Nike? Selling sports contact lenses? Here's a short news report video on YouTube. NikeVision also has more info and a PR video.

DMOZ

2007-10-25T17:08:00.000Z

In my continuing effort to make sure users can find us wherever they look, I submitted VisionDirect.co.uk to DMOZ (the site needs to be reviewed before it's actually added to the list, so don't expect VisionDirect to appear for a couple of weeks yet).

DMOZ (a.k.a. Open Directory Project) was started in 1998, and has a checkered and interesting history outlined on Wikipedia.

It's about time we're there!

Royal Mail

2007-10-22T09:16:00.000Z

Royal Mail expects that the offer they made to the union will be put up for a vote to the 130,000 members of the CWU, and all strike actions called off until the results are in. They expect it to take about a week for service to get back to normal, and about a month to know whether the union accepts the offer or not. For up-to-date info, check out Royal Mail's Industrial Action Update page, or follow the story on the BBC News site.

CoastalContacts->Lensway

2007-10-18T09:51:00.000Z

Sorry I haven't been posting lately - I've been hanging out on the MoneySavingExpert cheap contact lens forum reading what buyers have to say (and showing them why I think VisionDirect.co.uk has the best contact lens service). I've learned a lot, and it's fun to see how well VisionDirect.co.uk stacks up against the competition.

Now back to the grindstone: I received an interesting mail today saying "CoastalContacts.co.uk has changed to Lensway.co.uk!". I can't find any reference to this on their websites, but the email says "As of October 10th Coastal Contacts will transition customers to LensWay".

So, I went over to the LensWay site to compare prices. LensWay claims that "this month we have lowered our prices", and claim a 9% discount on Soflens One Day. However, their price (26.90 GBP per box plus 3.50 in shipping = 30.40 GBP), even with a discount, is higher than VisionDirect.co.uk (27.50 GBP plus free shipping = 27.50), whose price is TEN PERCENT cheaper.

Your best bet for cheap contact lenses continues to be VisionDirect.co.uk.

Pounds, Shillings and Pence

2007-10-11T08:57:00.000Z

Pounds, Shillings and Pence - funny words for a Yankee like me. I was raised on Ben Franklin's quotes, which favored a different currency - "A penny saved is a penny earned". Later, I got an effective financial education from the school of hard knocks, my boss while working in Germany that taught me about investments, and my ex wife who is an expert penny pincher (Catalans have a tough reputation here in Spain on money matters).

However, for me, the holy grail of finance has always been Andrew Tobias' "The Only Investment Guide You'll Even Need". It has served me well through good and bad financial times, and I've bought at least a dozen copies for friends and family. There are better books for pure investment, but Andrew's holistic approach to money have deeply enriched my understanding of the subject.

Which is why I took an instant liking to Martin Lewis and MoneySavingExpert. From the little I've read about him so far, he seems like a UK version of Andrew Tobias, with a zeal for finding the best deals for the consumer. He has a page dealing with Cheap Contact Lenses which he updated quarterly. Although I think that it's unfair to the consumer that Lensbase does not appear more prominently, and VisionDirect.co.uk does not appear at all, I will definitely join in the forum and see what I can learn. I highly recommend that you join his newsletter, and I hope that I can prove to him that we're on the consumer's side.

Daysoft

2007-10-05T07:30:00.000Z

The Herald had an interesting story about Daysoft, and their hope to become a major supplier of contact lenses direct from the factory to the customer.

The IDEA is interesting - of course they are able to have the cheapest prices - but I feel Ron Hamilton (the creator) is forgetting two major points. First, if opticians know that Daysoft will be selling directly to the customers for reorders, why the heck would they recommend Daysoft to their clients?
I would be interested in knowing just what percentage of contact lens wearers go back to their optician for reorders. Perhaps if this percentage is very low and getting lower, Daysoft might be on to something.

Second (and much less important), shipping within the U.K. is fairly easy - if you want to ship outside of there, things get MUCH more complicated.

Mr. Hamilton, any comments?