Joia L.

SUMMARY: Although shipping & manufacturing aren't as fast as some vendors, the great pricing, excellent quality & sturdy durability of EBD's frames far exceed that of their online competitors. This is a trustworthy company & it's worth the wait to get high quality glasses from EyeBuyDirect.

I've become a mini-expert at ordering glasses online, as I've been the one in my extended family to do this for several of us for several years. Since 2014 I use Coastal.com and EyeBuyDirect.com almost exclusively, and while I recommend them both, I'll be honest and say that EyeBuyDirect has some clear benefits over Coastal.

EyeBuyDirect Pros:
(1) Customer service is fast, responsive, friendly, and very efficient. As of Dec. 2018, they are open till Midnight (Eastern time) and have multiple methods of contact. They are also very fast in responding to emails sent overnight.

(2) I believe their glasses are made of better materials and seem to be better constructed than the glasses of Coastal.com. (To be fair, it's not like I've tried all the styles and brands of both companies, so my ability to compare isn't perfect here. In this case I'm specifically comparing EyeBuyDirect's rimless, hingeless Giroux frame with Coastal's rimless, hingeless Perspective frames.)

(3) They have a large variety of styles.

(4) They offer frequent, sizable discounts.

(5) Their regular pricing is incredibly low, but the quality of frames is always great.

You know those axioms, "You get what you pay for," and "If it looks like too good of a deal to be true, then it probably is"? That doesn't apply here. You get great quality for very cheap prices here, no strings attached.

EyeBuyDirect Cons:
(1) There's really only one, and this is sole disadvantage I care about vs. Coastal.com: Based on my experience, you will have to wait about 7-10 business days to get your glasses via regular mail. For example, I recently placed an order after hours on 12/11/2018 and received both pairs of glasses via USPS on 12/22/2018. This was pretty good given the typical delays during the holiday season. But if, like me, you're spoiled by Amazon Prime, adjust your expectations and remember that you are ordering high quality, personalized medical equipment at a very, very low price.

As with any online order of glasses, remember that the frames and the lenses are priced separately, because every person's order is different, so the lenses have to be priced separately for it to be fair to both customers and vendor.

Their website is pretty easy to use, and I do recommend their feature of uploading a picture of yourself so that you can see what it looks like with the glasses on your own face. Just use a mug-shot styled photo, with your face turned directly toward the camera.