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Thread: Buying Group

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    OptiBoardaholic Optical Roy's Avatar
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    Buying Group

    As much as I fight to avoid buying groups, I am forced to look into Healthy Eyes Advantage, I have found nobody that knows anything about them, and I have called my reps that the manufacture is listed as part of their group. I have heard a lot about Perc, "all good" and the best part, they are free. Can anybody tell me anything about HEA?
    Roy W. Jackson, Sr. ABOC

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    OptiBoardaholic OptiBoard Bronze Supporter
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    HEA used to be C&E Vision (CE Vision). We used them briefly as CE Vision, at the recommendation of our zeiss rep, but werent doing enough volume to make it worth the admin fees.

    We did recently switch to WVA from OOGP and they are pretty good. Their discounts are as good or better than OOGP/HEA and they dont charge admin fees and have pretty good policies. They'll even let you return unopened contacts that werent purchased thru them and give you credit for it. I recommend checking them out unless you need to specifically use HEA.

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    OptiBoardaholic Optical Roy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dona View Post
    i suggest best online store for buying <spam link removed> they provide high quality frames

    Not sure how that fits with my question, but thanks for the info.
    Roy W. Jackson, Sr. ABOC

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    Master OptiBoarder DanLiv's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alex Camblor View Post
    HEA used to be C&E Vision (CE Vision). We used them briefly as CE Vision, at the recommendation of our zeiss rep, but werent doing enough volume to make it worth the admin fees.
    Hmm, interesting. To me HEA used to be Vision West. I guess HEA is just a larger group buying up and consolidating smaller ones. Anyway, HEA is large and has lots of vendors. PERC seems good as well, but they have stronger relationships with a smaller pool of vendors to maximize discounts. As long as PERC has the vendors you want, they arrange good deals.

    What's pushing you to look into buying groups? The only real advantage to them is, in exchange for some return to the group (either fees or promise to work with their vendors), you get immediate access to a wide selection of volume discounts it would be hard to get independently. Great if you're a new business without established vendor relationships, or if you want to dabble with a lot of different vendors. But most established independents I know, myself included, prefer to go deeper with fewer vendors. Almost all of my vendors agreed to honor the same buying group discounts if I ordered through them directly, and I converted all who would to direct billing.

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    OptiBoardaholic Optical Roy's Avatar
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    What's pushing you to look into buying groups? The only real advantage to them is, in exchange for some return to the group (either fees or promise to work with their vendors), you get immediate access to a wide selection of volume discounts it would be hard to get independently. Great if you're a new business without established vendor relationships, or if you want to dabble with a lot of different vendors. But most established independents I know, myself included, prefer to go deeper with fewer vendors. Almost all of my vendors agreed to honor the same buying group discounts if I ordered through them directly, and I converted all who would to direct billing.[/QUOTE]

    Our CEO, I don't believe we have the volume to benefits us to join a group, I know all the vendors pretty well and have good discounts, I am just doing some fact finding so I can refute any claims from them. I was even told they purchased Vision Source, which I found to be untrue.
    Roy W. Jackson, Sr. ABOC

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