Are online glasses vendors 'Opticians'?

[Normanm]

Hi everybody,

Just found the site. Spent 2 hours browsing! Excellent stuff, dunno how I never saw it before.

I'm a marketing consultant to the Optical Trade in Europe. A couple of years back, I was at a seminar in London. Met a very nice (very rich!)Chinese guy with a website. Sells prescription glasses and sunglasses.

His site is well prepared and gives the impression of a sizeable, UK-based online Optician. BUT: No employees in Europe at all. Not one. Uses an outsourced call centre in the UK for credibility. Target market is the UK.

His workshop (factory?) is in Shanghai. In 3 years, he's sold 320,000 pairs of glasses.

UK Opticians tend to be of the usual 'stiff upper lip' brigade and don't have a lot to say about this.

What are members' thoughts on Chinese, Indian, East-Euro etc. online glasses suppliers (can we call them 'Opticians???) masquerading as UK, USA, Canadian-based online suppliers?

Don't get me wrong: this guy does NOT claim to be based in the UK... he's running a legitimate operation and he appears to have a lot of satisfied customers; but how do High Street Opticians or Optical Stores see this kind of HEAVY competition?

Or is this okay???

Best to all for 2010!

Norman.

[coupe]

Evetually the goverment boards regulating the dispensing of medical devises (pills,eyeglasses,etc) will be obliged to act on this type of situation(website sales). One, reason being the loss of financial revenues, out of the country (taxes)....two, the lack of control as to what is actually being received by the buyer (is that really Viagra) third...the increase in unemployment caused by these sellers....and the list can go on.

The goverments at the present have turned a blind eye to this situation but it will eventually come back and bite them in the a**.

[Normanm]

Hi Coupe,

See your point. Nothing wrong with an optician with a website.

But I'm dead against only-online foreign 'opticians'. This is not 'fair trading'.

But until Governments find a way to stop this (which I doubt!) how do bona-fide opticians with shops handle this?

Norman

[YrahG]

No they are not opticians.

In a traditional shop the guy in the back making the glasses is a lab technician, the person who solely sells glasses is refered to as a frame stylist, the person who fits and dispenses glasses is called an optician. The online vendor sells glasses and fabricates glasses but never fits or dispenses glasses, so it would be more fitting to call the person ordering the glasses and optician then the vendor.

[FVCCHRIS]

Opticians are professionals trained to assist patients in all necessary areas regarding prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses. Trained to follow a Dr's written orders and instructions in the form of a prescription and to insure that each patient's visual needs are provided to their fullest extent their training allows.

On-line eyeglass peddlers are like pharmacies that will fill any script you are pleased to write yourself and couldn't care less whether that product is correct for the wearer. They don't serve patients, they serve the uneducated masses to no end simply to make money hand-over-fist, knowing they don't need to follow-up on anything they sell. They are, in my opinion, all breaking the law.

Chris.

[wmcdonald]

FVCChris provides an excellent description of what an Optician should and possibly could be. Unfortunately in the vast majority of states, the description he provides in not quite accurate. 27 states require the arduous requirement of a pulse to be called an Optician. What is different than those folks online? Even in licensed states their is a significant variation. States like Florida, NC, NY, and a possibly a couple of others require Opticians to be trained in all aspects of the field, from lab, to spectacle dispensing, to contact lenses, and more. Many others only require Opticians know something about spectacles. We must get real about ourselves, and make changes that clearly define an Optician......any where in the country, not just pockets. Until that happens, almost anyone can be called an Optician.

[Wes]

They are, in my opinion, all breaking the law.

Chris.

In SC it is illegal for an eyeglass manufacturer to issue eyeglasses directly from their manufacturing site.
Will the board do anything about online vendors? I don't think they have any methods in place to do so yet. Maybe someday.
Wes

[Normanm]

Great responses. Most of you are in the USA but it certainly appears that you have the same opinion as UK/Euro Optometrists/Opticians.

I am neither. I'm in marketing for you guys. I've been wearing glasses for 40+ years (!) and I think that those who buy eye glasses or contacts from Chinese/Indian/Portugese etc. websites should contact Toyota & God and ask for their money back. (ie Toyota brakes & their brains, same prob. Don't work.)

Norman.