How do I start? The people here are friendly, and I’ve been using America’s Best for over a decade. I’ve generally been very happy with their pricing and service model. Unfortunately, this experience was a major disappointment. I brought in a current prescription from CRC Training that I had received the previous week. I’m deploying to the Middle East and needed two new pairs of prescription glasses before leaving. For one pair, I chose Ray-Bans and went all-out on the lenses: Transitions, anti-glare, coatings, etc. All told, these were several hundred dollars. The problem? My PD and fitting measurements were never taken while I was wearing these frames. I called afterward because I was concerned about this. I was told they had simply used the PD measurement from a pair of glasses I purchased from America’s Best in 2022. I specifically questioned whether that was okay and was assured it was, so I trusted them. When I later ordered my second pair directly through Oakley, the optician explained that while my actual pupillary distance doesn’t change, the placement of the optical centers in the lenses can depend on the frame and how it sits on my face. That immediately made me concerned about the Ray-Bans. After having a coworker overnight the finished Ray-Bans across the country to me in Orange County, I put them on. They’re a blurry mess. The frustrating part is that I can actually see better through my older glasses with my older, weaker prescription. And here’s the part that makes the problem particularly obvious: if I physically grab the new Ray-Bans and hold them approximately half an inch higher on my face than where they naturally sit, everything suddenly snaps into crystal-clear focus. The difference is dramatic. Put them back where the frames naturally rest on my face, and everything becomes blurry again. That strongly suggests something about the lens positioning/fitting is wrong—not simply that I need to “adjust” to my new prescription. Unfortunately, I deploy Monday, so there isn’t enough time for me to bring these back and have the problem corrected before I leave. I’ll now have to leave a several-hundred-dollar pair of brand-new Ray-Bans at home, deploy wearing my old prescription, and wait for the Oakleys I ordered separately to eventually reach my APO address overseas. After more than a decade of being an America’s Best customer, this is easily the most disappointing experience I’ve had with them. I just wish someone had taken the extra few minutes to properly measure and fit a several-hundred-dollar pair of prescription glasses before sending them out the door.
