Bargain Quest

When my husband had an eye exam and contact lens fitting several months ago, the optometrist’s office offered to sell him his contacts, Acuvue Advance, for $28 a box. He politely declined and we hopped online, where the base price for a box from Vision Direct was $19.95, with free shipping on orders over $100.

But could we do better than $19.95? Buying “in bulk,” absolutely. For an 8-box purchase of Acuvue Advance, VisionDirect gave
-an instant discount of $16 off the total
-an Acuvue rebate for $30 back
-an Acuvue rebate for a free cell phone charger

Plus a quick internet search for Vision Direct promotion codes netted me an additional 15% off discount.

So the transaction was:
$159.96 (8 boxes x $19.95 a box)
-$16.00 (instant discount)
-$21.54 (15% off code)
+$ 1.95 (processing fee)
+$ 0.00 (free shipping)
-$30.00 (mail-in rebate)
and an emergency cell phone charger via rebate, which was less flimsy than I expected

$94.01 ($11.75 per box) Final cost for 2 years worth of contacts,
$130 less than the same product bought through the optometrist

Vision Direct, affiliated with drugstore.com, can call your optometrist to verify your prescription, or you can fax a copy with your order. I’ve written a string of bad company reviews recently, so I’d like to mention that my two experiences with Vision Direct have been positive - I received the correct orders promptly.

The only potentially challenging issue of the transaction was the Acuvue rebate. My rebate submission had to include the eye exam receipt, product purchase receipt, and 5 box tops from the contact boxes. It was also only valid on a contact purchase made within 90 days of the eye exam. But after meeting those requirements, I received my check well within the 4-6 week return time frame without hassle.

Does there even need to be a lesson from this? Once again, thanks to the Internet, we the consumers are not at the mercy of traditional distribution channels, and can save significantly by shopping around and buying directly.

(And I didn’t even remember to use this, but even more savings are added by shopping through loyalty program rewards. Vision Direct seems to have a high rewards percentage - 7% through FatWallet and 5% through Upromise, for instance)