Two years ago, M got glasses (age 9). He broke them within the year and they were replaced for free because they were under warranty. He broke them again just after a year (age 10) and they were replaced again by Skyvision. This time Skyvision told us they would cost $25 but that they were still under warranty. They charged our insurance for frames and lenses to replace the glasses which was very shady after having told us they were still under warranty. After many angry calls to Skyvision, they refunded the lenses but left the insurance charge for the frames because they were over a year old and not covered by the replacement warranty as they had claimed.
Unfortunately a month ago, M broke his glasses again (age 11). This time I decided to vote with my wallet and take my business elsewhere since Skyvision tried to secretly charge our insurance company for glasses while claiming it was a free warranty replacement.
This time we went to Target. M’s glasses were priced at $266. Insurance covered certain lens charges but not the frames. I had forgotten about what was covered and what was not covered so I put the glasses on hold and called the insurance company. They reminded me that the frames would not be covered this year because they had already covered frames earlier in the year. I was not happy with the price so I decided to shop around.
Finally we went to Walmart to price out glasses. Wow, what a huge price difference! At Walmart, the same types of frames with the sames type of poly-thin lenses cost me $103 before any insurance reimbursement. After the out of network reimbursement it will cost just $75. How do places like Skyvision and Target stay in business selling glasses when Walmart can offer them for so much less? I’m not always a fan of Walmart but in this case it was an easy decision.
Monty Kamath 