Due for a new prescription, I thought I was wise when I selected my new eyeglass frames in New York City before I left the USA. I made a lot of correct choices when choosing my frames, but I made one mistake:
I selected semi-rimless glasses — the issue being “rimless.”
The rimless effect is created by a piece of plastic cording that rides in a groove of the lens and ties off within the frame.
Enjoying Las Bolas De Fuego in Nejapa, El Salvador – my eye glasses all fixed
Maybe it is the extreme heat, but the plastic cording must stretch causing the lens to fall out. This is not something I can pop back in and be done with. That is, I’d put the lens back into place, but the lens falls out again.
This happened to me twice. First, in San Salvador at the beginning of September and again in Panama City on December 22 when the glasses are almost exactly a year old. (I believe each lens has now fallen out.)
I am told this is a common issue with these frames.
Luckily in both cities, I have found that there is amazing reciprocity amongst the eyeglass stores. In each city, the first optician shop I walked into repaired my frames free of charge! Each time, with just a few words and a fast look at the situation, the plastic band has been fully replaced.
In San Salvador, it required a return the next day. In Panama City the repair was immediate. In Panama City I started to take money out, having forgotten to do so earlier and out of sight. The optician said no. So I went out, got change for a $5 note at the Bingo hall next door, and returned and insisted he take $3 – Por favor, para mi.
At home in the USA, I have always been impressed that one eye glass shop will unbend a bent frame, adjust the fit, or even replace missing nose pad – when the glasses are from another shop.
Now I have been extremely pleasantly surprised three times when my NYC-bought frames have been fitted and repaired like this, gratis, in both San Salvador and Panama City.
I am so happy to have the glasses for situations when I want the safety that perfect vision provides as I travel.
Update 2017: Once these bands were replaced, the issue never came up again so I might revise my advice about not choosing rimless glasses.