JCPenney

I have used bifocals and heard mixed reviews on Progressive lenses and heard horror stories on costs in the $300 to $500 range for only one pair of Progressive glasses. I was not prepared to head down that path but was curious if they would be better than my lined bifocals which were no longer doing the job. (Note: my eye correction is fairly mild compared to many who need glasses.) This JC Penney promotion was better than anything I had ever seen so I thought that I was willing to risk $99 for two pair as an experiment to see if they might work. Frame Selection: I am not fussy and went through about 75 pair of glasses searching for those that qualified as $100 frames or less. While this took time and I only found ~8 pair that qualified, i could easily find two pair that were satisfactory to me. ( Note if you want fancy frames you can forget getting them for the two pair for $99 deal. Many people will be paying more or much more if they are demanding hi-style frames.) Progressive Lenses: I could see that there were three grades of Progressive lenses, providing increasing levels of area of lens that were corrected. Because my goal was to stay within the two pair for $99 I chose what I would call probably the original Progressive design. The prices then escalated what seemed to be wildly if you wanted broader degrees of Progressive correction. I did not get any extra coatings or insurance to keep the price under control. Just the $99 deal. Crossgates Staff: all three staff I dealt with were highly professional and responsive. Conclusion: As I have used the glasses for a week or so, I am finding that they are a substantial improvement for me over my old bifocals. My basic goal has been met that Progressive glasses will work for me and they are incrementally better than what I had. My guess is that if you are used to $300 to $500 Progressive lenses that provide maximum correction across the area of the lens you would not be satisfied with what is obviously a less expensive technology. While I will still use reading glasses as the full lens is corrected, I do find that these Progressives are a very good value, if not a bargain. I also now have two pairs of frames and if I decide to go with a higher level of Progressive correction, I can explore the very highly rated Angies List mail order provider(s) where you send in your old frames and they install just the Progressive lenses ($~140), far less than a full service bricks and mortar optical retailer. Finally, I learned something very important and that is that it is one company that performs optical services for BJs, Penneys, Sears and Boscovs, (US Vision)-- so I believe that if you comparison shop among all those providers that where you get the best prices will likely get your best value and that the quality of the lenses at the three levels of correction is probably the same. My final speculation is that because Penney's stock has been financially extremely fragile to the point of possibly going under, that they ran the two pair of Progressives for $99 to get folks into their stores and it is not going to be easy to find a comparable price from other providers. I approached another competitor to see if they would meet or beat the Penney's $99 two pair of Progressives deal which they politely declined to discuss.

I had trouble with the glasses that I bought from JC Penney store. They refunded my money. The glasses were very uncomfortable. The optician adjusted the glasses several times and he said to give them a chance to see how they fit me. I used it for couple more weeks but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I went back to them. The optician said he wanted to speak to his regional supervisor which he did and got approval to refund my money. He expedited everything pretty quickly. He was absolutely sweet about it. He was very nice to me. They had initially charged me $225 which I thought was pretty inexpensive for glasses. It wasn’t any of their faults that the glasses didn’t fit me, a lot of it had to do with the hardware. The lens was bigger and it was to have more hardware on the frame itself according to the prescription. That probably was a big contributing factor that their glasses didn’t fit me well.

I am not good at coordinating colors. This was the best thing I have ever done. Ms. Regina (forget her last name) took her time and listened to what I said. Yes the prices are steep but I never plan to change my colors. I ended up with traditional window coverings that tie all of my homes colors together. I had problems with one wooden window blind looking scraped and they sent a person out to look at it, order the replacement slat and then installed the replacement at no charge. It took the rep 2 days to come to my home and 2 months for the blinds and 4 months for the curtains/drapes but the curtains are made to order. The price is fair for the quality but it is pricey.

IT WAS VERY GOOD AND VERY POSITIVE BECAUSE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PERSON WHO CAME OUT HERE WITH THE SAMPLES AND THE EXPERTISE OF THE PERSON WHO CAME OUT TO DO THE INSTALLATION.