UPDATE: I reached out to the email address provided in the response by the owner and they did the right thing by replacing my mom's glasses for free. And for that, I was grateful. Nevertheless, I wanted to wait a little bit to see how the new lenses held up before updating my review. It's been about a month so far and they've been fine. I've updated my rating to four stars to reflect the prompt effort to remedy our bad experience.
Original review:
Terrible Experience At Warby Parker
Last April, I took my mom to the Warby Parker store at Roosevelt Fields because I had heard good things about the brand and the quality of their glasses. Prior to this, she had always gotten her progressive lenses from Costco because their glasses are great value for the price. But I thought a new pair from Warby Parker would be a step up in quality. (I was wrong.)
The service itself was good on our first visit, and we were able to find nice frames that my mom liked and order a pair with her progressive lens prescription. But after having them for only a few months, she noticed two small scratches. So, we went back to the store and to their credit, they honored their no-scratch guarantee and replaced the glasses with a new pair for free.
That was last June. And if this was the extent of our experience, it would have been a great one. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Last month, my mom happened to drop her glasses on the floor and when she picked them up, she noticed large stress cracks on one of the corners. All of the damage was inside the lens as the lens itself was intact.
Both my mom and I have been wearing glasses for over 30 years, and something like this has never happened before. I mean we must have dropped all the glasses we’ve ever owned at least a 100 times each and never did they ever cause this kind of stress crack. Once similar cracks started showing up on other corners of the lenses out of the blue (see pics) and without being dropped or otherwise treated roughly, we realized it wasn’t the drop that caused this but the poor quality of the lenses themselves.
So, again to the store we went to see if there’s anything they could do. Even after seeing the cracks in person and even conceding that the type of frames (rimless) may have contributed to these internal cracks (something we were never told in advance was a possibility), they refused to do anything except provide a very small discount for a new pair (and I mean so small that it was actually insulting).
That means my mom is now stuck with a pair of glasses she’s embarrassed to wear, which she got less than 7 months ago and originally paid $445 for--or nearly double what her last pair of progressives from Costco cost. And those remain crack-free even after three years.
Maybe Warby Parker’s regular lenses are better quality. We’ll never know because we’ll never buy from them again. What I can say with absolute certainty is that their progressive lenses are dime store quality. Let my mom’s poor experience be a less to you all. It’ll save you $445.
Response from Warby Parker
March 01, 2024
Thank you for sharing this feedback with us, Taesik — we are very sorry to hear about your mother's glasses. We always stand behind the quality of our products, and we apologize for the issues she is experiencing with her lenses. Please reach out to us at social@warbyparker.com so we can follow up and help from here!