How to Get Glasses or Contact Lenses Without a Recent Prescription
We highly recommend getting eye exams and updating your prescription regularly, but sometimes life gets in the way. You may break or lose your glasses just a few weeks after your old prescription expires, or you may need replacement glasses or contact lenses. But to get new glasses or contact lenses, you usually need an up-to-date prescription – although there are ways around this as a last resort.
Order contacts from abroad
This advice comes from Reddit , although you should know in advance that the subreddit moderators deleted the original post a few hours after it was published. (Again, you really should use a recent prescription whenever possible.) According to the now-silent Redditor, you can order contact lenses from the United Kingdom to an address in the United States without the need for prescription verification.
Numerous commenters have recommended lenstore.co.uk , but others have pointed out that even American brands like 1-800 Contacts usually fill orders, even if they make a fuss about your prescription being out of date. One Redditor explained : “They check [with your optometrist], but if they don’t respond fast enough, they process the order. Requests for contact lens checks are common in most of the offices I’ve worked in.”
Use the online store
Online glasses stores like Zenni may ask you to manually enter your prescription, but they usually don’t do much more than that. You just need to enter one of them. However, knowing what to inject first can be tricky: some eye doctors won’t just give you a prescription if you call; they feel like you’re going to shop elsewhere and they don’t like it. However, it is your prescription and you are entitled to it, so go ahead.
It’s a good idea to ask for a copy of your prescription every time you have your eyes checked and buy new glasses or contact lenses from your regular optometrist. If you don’t have a copy and they refuse to give you the details, a little lie for the good can make them bend easier: Let’s say you’re doing a personal medical record for yourself and just want everything to be in order. date.
Negotiate a little
This worked for me last year: the online store wouldn’t accept my eyeglass order without validating my prescription. I had already used up my insurance company’s glasses allowance for a year, but I needed another pair that I saw online. I entered my usual recipe but they wanted more confirmation. I didn’t have the time (or insurance) to get tested and use a bunch of official channels, so I just said no. This went on for about four emails, but eventually, without warning, I received a notification that my order had shipped.
It worked because retail companies want to make money. As the Reddit user said above, if they don’t get the confirmation in time, they probably won’t miss the opportunity to get your money because it’s not their job to make sure you make the right choice. It is their job to accept your payment.