I need help repairing or replacing my glasses

[ChaosMageX]

This morning, while I was routinely cleaning my glasses, they unexpectedly snapped in half, right down the middle of the bridge.  I didn't even think Flexon glasses could break like this, but they did.



Now I'm in a bit of a difficult situation, because after calling my optometrist, I found out my warranty on my glasses has expired, and my insurance won't cover a replacement, so I would have to pay $200 out of pocket to get them replaced, money I don't have.  I tried looking up the frames on Ebay, but they aren't that much cheaper.  Besides, getting them from there would be a gamble because I can never be 100% sure they're the right frames and if my lenses don't fit, I will have thrown away just slightly less money than would be needed to get guaranteed matching frames from my optometrist.

I've tried taping them back together multiple times, with different kinds of tape I have around the house, but no matter how well I seem to clean them before applying the tape, they keep slipping out.  According to what I've managed to find on the internet so far, they might be able to be soldered back together, but I don't have the soldering equipment on hand or the necessary small gauge metal tubing to act as a splint.

My father doesn't have the money to help me replace my glasses, especially since it's so close to Christmas.  I've been trying to see if I can sell stuff on Craigslist, LetGo, and other similar apps, but I haven't had much luck just casually trying to sell stuff on them,  so I doubt I'll succeed now even though I really need the money.

At this point I'm grasping at straws trying to figure out what to do, so I figured I would try asking here for help.  I need my glasses, because without them everything more than 6 inches from my face is blurry.  I certainly can't drive without them.  Even typing out this message was hard without constantly putting my face up against the screen.

That's why I figured that I would ask on the forums for any possible solutions, in case this has happened to someone else with similar frames.  Maybe there's a tape I haven't tried yet, or another cost effective solution that doesn't involve soldering.  Any ideas?

If nothing else, I do have a Paypal Donate Button on my Tumblr Account if you would care to spare a little cash to help me simply buy replacement frames.  If I got small donations from enough people, I would probably be able to afford buying them from my optometrist, but then again I'm still not sure yet if I should try creating a GoFundMe for this situation.

[Tapewolf]

GoFundMe sounds like a plan.  Soldering them won't work, or at least it didn't when I tried a similar approach.  I bit the bullet and got them repaired at the opticians.

[ChaosMageX]

GoFundMe sounds like a plan.  Soldering them won't work, or at least it didn't when I tried a similar approach.  I bit the bullet and got them repaired at the opticians.

Yeah, it seems that memory metal frames are more trouble than they're worth if the soldering method I found won't be effective.  And by now it seems that the anti-scratch coating on the lenses is also more trouble than it's worth, since it's a smudge magnet and has caused me to clean them a lot more often than I have for past pairs, and doing that might have been what led to the degradation of the memory metal in the first place.

Anyway, despite my apprehension towards using GoFundMe, I have tried creating a campaign for this situation: https://www.gofundme.com/bn-new-glasses

[Dishonored]

 If your last pair of glasses used the same or nearly the same frames, some eyeglass places will put your current lenses in the older frames for a small fee.

[ChaosMageX]

Okay, I figured I would give an update after over a month of trying to raise the money to replace my glasses through Patreon, as well as trying to get the money on my own.  Frankly, I'm starting to get more and more desperate as I'm starting to grasp at straws to try to get the money.

During the holidays, when I wasn't spending time with what little celebration I do by myself and with my family, I started by basically turning my closet inside out to try to find any spare pairs of glasses I had, as well as stuff I could sell to try to get the money I would need to replace them myself.

I did manage to find a bunch of stuff I could sell in my closet, mainly stuff I only used a few times or didn't even open at all.  Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck at all in selling any of this stuff on the LetGo and OfferUp apps.  What really pisses me off is that I've had many people come along in those apps and ask me if one of my items is still available, only to never get back to me when I tell them that it is, like they're trolling me or something.  In fact, I was even going to post this a few days ago, but a string of offers from these apps got my hopes up again, only for all of them to end in failure once again.  Just more of my time wasted.

At this point, I'm not sure what else I can do to try to get the money.  My options are pretty limited when I can't safely drive and there isn't much within reasonable walking distance of my house.

If your last pair of glasses used the same or nearly the same frames, some eyeglass places will put your current lenses in the older frames for a small fee.

I only managed to find one pair of fully intact and usable spare glasses.  The lenses are very scratched, but still okay enough to improve my vision.  It's basically like they're permanently dirty, which is good enough for everyday tasks, but I am not comfortable using them for driving.  Really, I only wear them when I absolutely need them, because I don't want to risk breaking them as well from excessive use and cleaning.  Even though the frames do look like they would be compatible with the lenses from my broken glasses, but I don't want to do that because then I would have no other spare pairs of glasses until I got my replacement glasses, and at the rate I'm going, it looks like I'm not going to get a replacement pair for a long time.

[Merlin]

Thank you for updating us, sorry that it's not with better news.


Everyone reading this thread: if you donate $10+ to this gofundme please message me here or on twitter, I will draw you a single-character sketch in return. Thank you.

Retweets would also be handy https://twitter.com/MissyMerlin/status/827297614374658049

[ZacAttac21]

Thank you for updating us, sorry that it's not with better news.


Everyone reading this thread: if you donate $10+ to this gofundme please message me here or on twitter, I will draw you a single-character sketch in return. Thank you.

Retweets would also be handy https://twitter.com/MissyMerlin/status/827297614374658049

I'd love to, but when I try it just rejects me and says there was an "error." First time I've ever been unable to donate to anything, no idea what the problem is.

[Merlin]

I'd love to, but when I try it just rejects me and says there was an "error." First time I've ever been unable to donate to anything, no idea what the problem is.

It didn't work for me earlier using internet explorer, but it did when I tried on chrome on my phone instead. Not sure why...

[Ellian]

While I can't help with money right now (January is usually an awfully tight month, and I won't receive my february wages before the 15th), I have a suggestion for a makeshift solution: If you can get "adhesive lined heat-shrink tubing" with an inner diameter a bit larger than the part of your glasses that broke, you could try to put that over the broken parts and heat it up. However, I'm not sure if it's easy to remove later.

[ZacAttac21]

Thank you for updating us, sorry that it's not with better news.


Everyone reading this thread: if you donate $10+ to this gofundme please message me here or on twitter, I will draw you a single-character sketch in return. Thank you.

Retweets would also be handy https://twitter.com/MissyMerlin/status/827297614374658049

I'd love to, but when I try it just rejects me and says there was an "error." First time I've ever been unable to donate to anything, no idea what the problem is.

Okay, it looks like they were having technical difficulties on their end when I was trying to donate. Go figure. So congratulations Chaos, you managed to get two $10 donations from me.

[ChaosMageX]

First, I want to apologize for not giving any sort of update for nearly 5 months after getting the money.

One of the reasons I delayed was because life got in the way.  Things were really hectic because my entire family was going through a really rough financial spot (rougher than usual), and I had to do my part to help them out.  In hindsight, I realize I should have at least given a text update thanking everyone once the funding goal was met, despite not actually having the new glasses yet, but I didn't think it would take as long as it did to get my new glasses frames.  That was the other reason for my delay.

The good news is that I now have my new glasses frames, even though they took a quite while to get.  After I got the money, and I made sure that it had successfully been transferred to my bank account, I had to schedule an appointment with my optometrist in order to even get them to order the replacement frames, since I have to pay for them in person at their office.  Setting that up took over two weeks, because apparently they were really busy at that time and that was the earliest they could squeeze me in.  On top of that I had to make sure the appointment was at a time my father would be willing to take me the optometrist because I can't drive there myself.  And then, when I finally did physically get there, it turned out that it would take them another three weeks to even get the frames in because they had to back-order the frames, since they were older frames.  And then I had to make another appointment with them once they got the frames in, but luckily that wasn't as big of an issue because I was scheduling far in advance.  In the end, I finally did get my new glasses frames, even though it took over a month from start to finish.

I want to thank everyone for their help in funding my new glasses.  I really do appreciate it.  Now I'm one step closer to being able to legally drive again.