Apparently I’ve entered that phase of blogging where people occasionally offer me free things. Lol wut. It’s a little weird, and I’ve turned down a couple of things that were wildly off brand for me, but I was legitimately pretty excited when I got an offer for a company called Firmoo to get a new pair of glasses.

Now, I love my glasses, and I feel like they work really well with my style, but they’re getting pretty battered. My dog (who passed away a couple of years ago) actually chewed on them one time, so the lenses also have tiny scratches that don’t impair my vision, but make my glasses look like… well, like they’ve been chewed on by a dog.

Firmoo has a special section with the frames that they recommend for bloggers, perhaps because they’re a little trendier or something. Either way, they’re got a pretty good variety of frames, including one cat eyed pair that I briefly considered before deciding they’re too similar to my old pair, which I plan to continue wearing at least part time.

Ordering through the website if pretty easy. I got an eye exam the day before, then measured my current frames to get a reference for how big the frames I was shopping for would be. When you find a pair of frames that are a good size for you, you just put in your prescription information. I’m really blind (not joking – I can’t clearly more than a few inches from my face), and one of the reasons that I hadn’t gotten glasses in several years was that I hate all the pressure sales people will put on me to get special lenses and different coatings and stuff. No, dude, I really don’t care that my lenses will be super thick, so please stop trying to sell me on the $300 ultra high index lenses that my insurance doesn’t cover, ok? If you like those options, they’re still available on the website, but you don’t have to deal with a bitchy sales person pursing their lips at you when you politely but firmly decline them.

I’m not 100% sure what I thought of the customer service. It’s sort of hard to evaluate something like that when you’re getting something for free, and when you know they’re trying to get you to say good things about them, you know?

One thing that kind of raised my eyebrows was that they basically gave me a voucher for a basic pair of glasses, shipping included; however, the base shipping option wasn’t available, and the courier shipping they were offering wasn’t included with the voucher. I wasn’t too concerned about it, but I figured I might as well see if I could get the shipping charge refunded. When I reached out to them to let them know about it, though, they argued with me that I wasn’t charged for shipping, just a more expensive lens type that I had to get. They did give me the refund for the shipping charge, which I appreciated, but I wonder how they would respond to another customer, one they hadn’t asked to write a review of their service, if there was some sort of issue with their order.

Edited to add:

Ok, so that last paragraph? Yeah, I’m an idiot. After Firmoo saw my review, they explained to me again what the charges actually were, and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I totally missed a charge for an extra strong prescription. Can I blame it on the fact that I need an extra strong prescription and thus, can’t see shit? Either way, they were right, I was wrong, and they really were just being nice when they refunded that charge for me.

Overall, I recommend the website. Personally, I have a pretty decent vision plan through my insurance at work, but this could be a real money saver if you find yourself in need of a new pair of glasses and don’t have, or can’t use, insurance. Pros include low prices, a good selection of frames, accurate prescriptions, and fast shipping; the only potential con is slightly questionable customer service.

If you need a new pair of specs, new customers can get 50% off their frames; given how cheap they already are, that’s not a bad deal.

These giant hipster frames are taking some getting used to, but I think I like them! What do you guys think? Now all I need to do is get some contacts before I’m dealing with summer sunshine again.

Translated from http://www.zellamaybe.com/new-blog/2015/2/22/looking-at-the-world-with-new-eyes