Binyon’s

Big pro: I got an exam and two pairs of glasses for less than $ 130!
Sure, there’s no brand name screaming at people from the side of my head. But they’re nice-​looking glasses, and the frames I wear more were recommended by a very helpful employee after I’d spent an hour choosing the first frames. I’m not a particularly careful person, but the lenses and frames have held up really well for over two years.
Binyon’s loses one star because the optometrist responded pretty gruffly to my attempted chitchat, there was some excessive waiting, and you feel sort of watched and pressured the whole time you shop, which is unfortunate when you’re deciding how your face is going to look for the next few years.

Bang For Your Buck: 5 Stars
I didn’t get my eye exam here, but know that their rates are fairly middle of the road — somewhere between $ 75 and $ 90 for a standard eye exam. However, it’s really in the promos and range of frames that Binyons shines. They have a good selection of frames from under $ 90 to somewhere in the $ 200 range, and often run a buy one pair, get one free promo that can save you a good lot of money. If you’re like me and have awful eyesight, glasses never come cheap, so I walked in preparing to pay a pretty penny to see clearly. I came out better than I’d hoped. My partner and I both took our prescriptions to be filled, and after the anti-​reflective coating and polycarbonate lenses for both of us, we ended up paying a little over $ 200 each for our glasses — and this was with the expensive frames. If you’re on a budget, it’s pretty easy to squeak out of there for a little over $ 100 for a basic pair of glasses.
Ambiance: 3 Stars
Let’s be honest here: a boutique or local business this is not. Binyon’s is a large corporation, and the store is located in the mall, right near Nordstrom’s. While it’s a step up from Lens Crafters, the advertising is all several years out of date (although bowl cuts are coming into fashion again, sadly), and the set-​up very cookie-​cutter. That aside, though, the folk can be very helpful if they’re not overwhelmed with customers.
Overall Rating: 4 Stars
The four stars is contingent on going when they’re not overwhelmed with customers. Your best time to get there is during the daytime on weekdays — the guy who helped me was efficient and friendly, and, once he knew what I was looking for in frames, dug around the entire store to grab six or eight different options, so I ended up with exactly what I was looking for. Between that and the buy one get one deal — by which my partner and I were each able to get our own pair of glasses (with our wildly different prescriptions), this was definitely a pleasurable experience.

I broke my glasses and needed to get a new pair quickly. I went to Binyons and got the two for one deal. What should have been an easy transaction turned into a comedy of errors. I made 6 different visits (and am about to make a 7^th) to have everything taken care of with my two pairs of glasses. From defective lenses to chipping anti-​reflective coating, to damaged hinges, to long wait times. I wouldn’t recommend Binyons to anyone.

You might be tempted to save some money on glasses here, but it has been nothing but hassles for me.
The employees are well intentioned, and manager Patrick tries hard to make things right, but it seems all the staff have been worn down by an inefficient and usupportive corporation.
They never have the time to get things right, even if they want to do so, and when I had a problem they couldn’t even get a replacement hinge. How annoying.

My husband got two pairs of prescription reading glasses made cheap in under two hours at Binyon’s. I don’t know that I’d go there for a complicated prescription, but what we wanted they were fine. Plus we got to spend our two hours strolling through the always hip and hapnin’ Lloyd Center Mall. Absolutely not awful. Binyon’s staff was friendly.

After having bad luck at Lenscrafters, also at lloyd center, i went to binyons. Although they were very sales people-​y, they hooked me up with a pretty great deal. I go back the next day, give them my frames, which i Love, so they can pop some new lenses in them. wellll, after waiting around in the mall for 3 hours, turns out, they broke them! my frames! And claim it’s not in any way their responsibility. I finally, after some coercing, convinced them to give me another pair of frames with my old lenses in them so i could at least drive somewhere else to get some new glasses. They did this, so that was nice, but acted like it was the biggest favor in the world. Hey dudes, you broke my nice glasses and gave me some purple ones. I’m a step back from where i was when i walked in.
Lesson: Don’t buy glasses in the MALL!