How To Buy Contact Lenses Online

Buying contact lenses online is easy, but will you get the best value? Here's how to decide where to purchase.

By Liz Segre

Ordering contact lenses online can be very convenient: it takes just a few clicks of your mouse. But before ordering online, consider whether it's really the best option for you. Optical stores, your eye doctor and mass merchants also sell contact lenses. Is one of those a better option? To find out, read "Where's the Best Place to Buy Contact Lenses?"

If you're ready to purchase online, the first thing to know is that there are dozens of online contact lens sellers. But they are not all created equal.

Even when a website looks credible, it's sometimes hard to know who is behind it. Internet contact lens sellers range from large, publicly traded companies like 1-800 Contacts and Walmart to back-room operations with no full-time staff. Although smaller operators may publicize attractive prices on their websites, they may not offer the service and selection you're looking for. Some have little or no inventory and may buy lenses from the manufacturer only after you place an order.

Using Online Contact Lens Shopping Sites

You can compare online prices for contact lenses by using price-comparison websites such as BizRate, MySimon, Shopping.com, Google Product Search and Yahoo! Shopping. Entering a brand name will pull up listings with prices, as well as links to sellers.

The downsides: All sellers may not be included, and listings may not reflect recent price changes, specials, rebates or availability. Also, the per-box prices listed may factor in high-volume discounts (such as for a year's supply of lenses). If you are ordering only a three-month supply, you may have to pay a higher per-box price than what's shown on the price-comparison site.

Comparing prices for contact lenses online can be difficult, because sometimes prices include rebates, and sometimes they don't. Also, include shipping costs in your calculations, as these can vary significantly among online contact lens vendors.

An advantage of price-comparison websites is that they may introduce you to contact lens sellers that you wouldn't otherwise have found. Plus — and this is a big benefit — they often include user reviews to help you judge unfamiliar sellers.

Comparing Online Contact Lens Sellers

When evaluating online contact lens sellers, size matters, for two reasons:

• Large contact sellers generally have more lenses in stock, so they may be better able to ship your lenses quickly. For example, 1-800 Contacts, the largest online contact lens seller, says it maintains an inventory of more than 20 million lenses.
• Large contact lens sellers may be more stable companies. You want to be sure that the company you buy from will be in business tomorrow, in case you need to return or exchange a product or you have difficulty with a credit card transaction.

The company you choose to buy your replacement contact lenses from doesn't have to be huge. You just want to make sure you're not doing business with a basement operation.

And bear in mind that if you have an unusual contact lens prescription, even a high-volume seller may not stock your particular lenses. Since contact lenses come in thousands of combinations of power, curvature and diameter, no company can stock every prescription.

Put any company you're thinking of ordering from to this test:

1. Do they accept telephone orders? This is an indicator of a true "mail order" company (think L.L. Bean and Lands' End) and not just one person with a website.

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2. Will my order ship ASAP? Smaller, low-volume companies may stock only the most common prescriptions. If they have to obtain your lenses after you order them, delivery time may be longer than you expect. During the ordering process, a seller worth doing business with should tell you if the product is in stock and give you a ship date. (Important note: An online or mail-order seller must, by law, contact your eye care practitioner (ECP) to verify your prescription. The law says your ECP's office has eight business hours to respond. If your ECP does not respond within eight hours, it is assumed that the prescription is valid and the company may ship the lenses without verification. But this legal requirement may delay the shipping of your lenses by a day or two.)
3. Do I trust this company with my credit card information? There is always some risk in buying from companies you have no experience with or have never heard of. Thoroughly research any company you are considering buying from with shopping websites that provide satisfaction ratings and verbatim user reviews. The Better Business Bureau is another useful resource, which tracks complaints against a company and how they were resolved.
4. Is customer service readily available? If there's a problem with your order, it's nice to know that you can easily get immediate attention. A reputable seller should provide a toll-free phone number and a website contact form. Even if you order online, try the phone number: if you get an answering machine, it's likely a back-room operation.
5. What's the return policy? If you buy a year's supply of lenses and your prescription changes, make sure the company will accept the unopened boxes for credit. Also, ask the company what happens if your shipment is damaged in transit.
6. Does the site have an "About Us" page? It should provide credible information about the company, its people and its history, and not just a vague statement about how they want to serve you with a vast selection and terrific service.
7. Is the ordering process secure? When you reach a page to enter personal information, check the URL of the page at the top of your browser. It should begin with "https://" rather than "http://" if the page is secure. Also, there should be a padlock icon — locked, not open — in your browser's status bar.

Buying contact lenses online is easy, but make sure you are getting the best value.

Comparing Online Prices

After evaluating online contact lens sellers for trustworthiness and customer service, you'll want to make sure you pay the right price for your lenses. When comparing prices:

• Be sure to compare the total cost, including shipping and handling fees. You may have to add products to a shopping cart, and then click to the "checkout" page, to do this.
• Try pricing larger quantities (such as eight boxes instead of two) to reduce or eliminate shipping costs. Most websites will prompt you to do this anyway.
• Before finalizing your online order, check the math on the final shopping cart page. Make sure the seller is not hiding any "handling charges" by incorporating an extra fee into the subtotal or total without an explanation (see an example of this).

Finally, factor in rebates, and perhaps compare prices with traditional "brick-and-mortar" optical stores and your eye doctor's office. To learn more about comparing prices and getting the best value — including information on vision insurance plans, rebates and private label brands — read "Where's the Best Place to Buy Contact Lenses?"

[Page updated September 2009]