recently i mentioned a pretty cool website called zenni optical where you can buy nice and affordable glasses, and you only need your perscription. well i was looking though the choices trying to decide on which ones i would like and did a bit more personal research on buying eyeglasses online, when i came across an interesting article about how opticians try to keep you from going to different places for glasses by withholding perscription information!

the part that they are keeping from people is the “PD” or Pupillary Distance, which is basically the distance between your pupils. you could obviously try to measure this at home but without the proper equipment you’re never going to get an accurate number. that number is important to places that sell glasses because they need it to make sure your glasses fit correctly.

i think this is absolutely ridiculous. they are trying to stop you from having a choice as to where you buy your glasses, trying to force you into purchasing a pair directly from them instead of shopping around. of course there are some opticians who will give you this info but it seems to be a growing trend that they don’t. some are even charging a fee for you to come in and get your PD measurement instead of just giving you the number on your prescription! your PD never changes, so you only need to have it measured once in your life.

at any rate, i think that sucks, and i hope if i do decide on buying a pair of these glasses that my optician will not be a jerk and will give me my PD without any hassle, otherwise i’ll be finding a new eye doctor.