How To Buy Contact Lenses Online

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 Wal-Mart 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.

You can compare prices from Internet contact lens sellers by using price-comparison websites such as BizRate, MySimon, Shopping.com, Froogle and Yahoo! Shopping. Entering a brand name will pull up listings with prices, as well as links to the seller.

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

Also, prices can be hard to compare because sometimes they include rebates, and sometimes they don't; and these sites don't always allow you to compare shipping costs, which can vary significantly.

The advantage of price-comparison sites is that they may introduce you to 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.

Among contact lens sellers, size matters, for two reasons:

• Larger contact sellers can be in a better position to get your lenses to you quickly, because they stock a lot of lenses. For example, 1-800 Contacts — the largest mail-order seller — says that its inventory is more than 20 million lenses.
• You want to be sure that the company you buy from will be in business tomorrow, in case you need to return or exchange product, or have difficulty with a credit card transaction.

The company you select 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 prescription, even a high-volume seller may not stock your particular lenses. Since contact lenses come in millions 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.
    
2. Will my order ship ASAP? Smaller, low-volume companies might 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/or give you a ship date.
    
   Important note: A 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; sometimes this can delay the shipment of your lenses. (If your ECP does not respond within eight hours, the company may ship the order anyway.)
    
3. Do I trust this company with my credit card information? There's always some risk in buying from companies you have no experience with, and 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 website contact form. Even if you order online, try the phone number: if you get an answering machine, it's likely to be 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 how the company will handle the situation in the unlikely event that 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.

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

• Be sure to compare bottom-line cost, including shipping and handling. You may have to add products to a shopping cart, and then click to the "checkout" page, to do this.
• Try pricing larger quantities — for example, eight boxes instead of two — to lower or eliminate shipping costs. Most websites will prompt you to do this anyway.
• Check the math on the ordering page, to make sure companies are not hiding charges (see an example of this).

Now you'll want to factor in rebates, and perhaps compare prices with offline sellers. To learn more about comparing prices and getting the best value — including information on vision insurance, rebates, and private label brands — read "Where's the Best Place to Buy Contact Lenses?"