I have been looking for eyeglasses as soon as I landed in India as I broke my glasses. I know there are several stores in India to buy eyeglasses without insurance of course. I was kind of shocked seeing the prices of frames and glasses whereas I was so used to buying glasses and frames off insurance and even branded ones like Silhouette costed 100 bucks with all coatings and with transitions. When i checked for Silhouette it almost costed 20k with all the coatings and light lens.
I started hunting around shops and saw lenskart, their online store and home testing etc. I like their approach and being online store they offered nice discounts, free frames or free lenses etc. But this is how my experience went.
I found a really nice Oakley frame and started customizing it. My power is just -3.25 and I’ve had glasses for almost 15 years. So i know how glasses with my power looks like. I chose the following
- Oakley frame
- British Optics Thin Lens
- Photochromatic coating
- Home eye check up program
Ordering was hassle free and customer service helped answer my questions and ordering was quite simple. Everything was done and I got a call next day for home eye check up. Representative from Lenskart visited home with complete eye check up kit and did good eye testing. He carried some frames for checking and ordering immediately if needed. He did explain each and everything as he did eye testing. We were quite happy with it and i confirmed if the lens i ordered is good enough for my power. He assured that it is one of the good lens and it will be thin. I had not heard of British optics. Only lens brand I knew in India were Essilor, Zeiss, Crizal, Seiko.
Getting confirmation from lenskart rep, I was quite confident that I’m going to receive a good frame with thin lens. Finally I got the glasses after a week of waiting. I was so eagerly waiting for the glasses. When I opened, I was totally shocked to see that the lens was extremely think which I had seen for the power above -6 or -7. Lens was chipped over the corner showing poor grinding of lenses. I couldn’t believe as they were advertising as robotic controlled quality testing. I don’t know how such a lens passes quality testing.
You can see the thickness of glass and chipping in the right sight of frame near nose bridge above.
I tried for sometime to see how it feels. Being so thick, the lens was very heavy and it was pushing against my nose. Even though, I liked the frame so much I cannot wear such a thick lens. So I decided to check if they really applied thin lens. Lenskart customer care assured me that it is thin lens. I took a photo of it to show and finally they agreed it is bit thick. I asked customer care if they can replace with thinner lens. I was ready to pay a little more for thinner lens. But I was shocked to hear that either I have to return it fully and order a new one or complete new one. I don’t know how a company can do business if they cannot replace a lens on a frame. Who will be ready to spends 1000s of rupees if one of the lens goes bad.
Without any other choice, I opted for return and they initiated a pick up. Another representative from Lenskart came home and took the frame. He tried convincing me that this is the thickness anyone can get for my prescription(-3.25). I know mine is not very high and I’ve used extreme thin lens for lesser price. He agreed to take my frame to his local eye clinic to find out if this is the maximum thinness they can achieve and he promised to call back.
I never received any call from representative. When i pinged customer care via chat, they mentioned refund has been initiated and i’ll get call next day to confirm refund. Next day, I got a call to ask if they can refund to my account(store credit) which I declined and finally I got refund back after 2-3 days.
- Day 1 – Order
- Day 2 – Call from Rep for eye check
- Day 4 – Eye check completed
- Day 10 – Received framed
- Day 11 – Initiated return
- Day 13 – Rep picked up frames
- Day 20 – Confirmation call for refund
- Day 22 – Got money back
My experience with lenskart was not good in terms of handling and customer care’s response. But the product I received was of inferior quality. It did not meet my expectation and I had to return it. Maybe for some other lens with higher price in Lenskart may work. But this one time experience did not allow me to try lenskart again. I urge others to be cautious and get confirmation about lenses especially before placing order. You do have 14 days time to return the glasses but its not worth the hassle if you get product of inferior quality.
I feel Lenskart should step up by offering better quality lenses like seiko, zeiss etc…
crazydezi 