Prescription glasses are always expensive, but surprisingly not at Misterspex. This left me wary and unsure if Misterspex is legit or good. But, I ended up giving it a shot after doing a little bit of research and so far so good. I personally feel like Misterspex is honestly changing the game of (prescription) glasses shopping. They offer up-front and transparent costs and I feel like that is huge. I personally don’t have prescription glasses myself nor have I ever bought glasses myself. But, I often hear stories about how confusing and non-transparent the process of buying glasses is. For instance, you might see that the frame itself is 250€, but your invoice later is for 450€. I know whatever they charged might actually be necessary, but I’ll personally feel ripped off if it’s not clearly communicated from the start.
Anyways, it was my boyfriend’s birthday recently and I really wanted to gift him (prescription) glasses. He always wears contacts and his eyes can get really irritated at times. We both thought that it’d be nice if he can sometimes switch from lenses to prescription glasses. After weeks of searching for the best deals, I’ve finally decided to go for Misterspex. The main motivator was the transparent outline of the costs of the glasses and no surprise bills. I personally found this super helpful for a newbie like me who doesn’t even own glasses. You’d know everything upfront and there’s no hidden charges. Plus, they have a huge selection of brands including the high-end brands that I like. Since my boyfriend has had his glasses since May, I thought I’d make this post cause we can finally be assured of the whole process and quality of the glasses.
Just as an FYI – this is not a sponsored content.
So, is Misterspex legit? Who are they?
From what I can find online, Misterspex is a Berlin-based company who’s been around since 2007. They offer contact lenses, brand-name glasses and sunglasses, with cost saving and transparency in mind. Though they’re technically an ecommerce, through Misterspex you get the option to get in touch with an optician near you to basically measure your eye and discuss your options in real life.
I was a bit skeptical because the prices seem to good to be true, but I mean this could be due to a number of reasons. For instance, not having a physical store can really help shave down some costs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming to be an expert and I could be wrong, but I just don’t quite see how they can still run an online shop at such a large scale if they’re offering fake goods. Intershop, one of the biggest players in the e-commerce world, did a case study on them and their figures are huge (see here). I doubt that they can take the shortcut with counterfeit goods at such a large scale of operations. In Europe especially, this is quite regulated and I don’t think they can be around for this long whilst offering counterfeit goods.
Anyways, I could be wrong. But, this was why I personally decided to buy from Misterspex and why I thought they were legit.
What the process was like for us
First: Virtual fitting
My boyfriend and I just looked at some glasses we liked from the Misterspex website and basically tried it on virtually. Note: I don’t think this is super accurate, but it’s prety damn close and it’s super convenient.
Second: Getting his eyes measured
So we downloaded this voucher from Misterspex which allows us to to get his eyes measured at an optician near us for free. You have to set up the appointment yourself via phone/website of the optician, but you don’t need to pay for it. These opticians are all regular opticians and they’re just a partner of Misterspex. They are not a Misterspex brand shop. We thought that this was good cause firstly it feels a little bit more independent, and, secondly we didn’t feel pressured to buy at the store immediately. Typically at one of those chain opticians, you’d have to buy the glasses there right away and you can’t just come in to get your prescriptions.
Third: Ordering online
After my boyfriend got his eyes measured, we got this paper from the optician and it basically listed everything that my boyfriend needed for his glasses. We used this information at checkout after we selected which glasses he wanted. And, basically that was it. We just waited, I think around 10 days or two weeks before it finally arrived (to our neighbor’s door). Good to note/FYI: the glasses did arrived quite big without any proper/tailor-fit adjustments. My boyfriend had to go to the optician again to get the frames re-adjusted. This was not a huge deal for him because it was relatively fast to get it re-adjusted and it was also free of charge.
Well, is it all hunky-dory then? No.
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Mod shots coming soon cause my boyfriend is shy 🙂
Would I recommend it?
We definitely had good experience with Misterspex and so I’d definitely recommend it. We personally found that website is super easy to use. It’s super intuitive and we hardly needed any assistance. But, recalling the cons I’ve mentioned above, I don’t think you would like this as much if you’re not a fan of the multiple trips to the opticians. That is less convenient and is a bit of a chore, albeit not being too time demanding. I think that Misterspex is most convenient for someone who wants to shop at their own pace and who wants a huge selection of glasses right on their fingertips. Most of the physical stores I’ve walked past didn’t really have the exact models which I wanted for my boyfriend. And, I was also a bit wary of the possible “surprise bill” when buying from a store. If you’re not worried about that, then I suppose it’s easier to go to a physical store. You can measure your eye, pick the glasses, and get it adjusted* all at the same time.
*I do think some stores offer same day services, but I’m not sure if all do.
Here’s where you can find Mistersepx:
the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and, Finland.
I hope the above helps! I know that when I was trying to learn more about Misterspex I couldn’t find that many articles/reviews on them, other than the ones on Trustpilot. If you want to know more/share your experience with me/us, feel free to leave a comment down below or contact me privately here. Thanks for reading.
I’ve ordered glasses for my office from Misterspex and they were really good in quality and has a blue light filter too. I was able to grab great coupon from Couponmonger.com/de/misterspex.