Hubble Contacts

Hi! I have a review for you today! 😀(Can you tell I'm excited? lol) I recently had an eye exam but because of my insurance, I can't get my glasses because I'd need to have the lenses shaved down and that's considered a cosmetic procedure so my insurance won't cover it. I've been looking at glasses online for a couple of years now to see if it would be cheaper to get frames I like and be able to shave my lenses, but I hadn't come across anything for contact lenses. I forget exactly how I came across Hubble; I'm guessing I signed up for the newsletter because I do remember reading an email and going to the site to check into it further. So let's get to the quick deets:

What is it? Hubble is a monthly subscription service that provides sets of daily contact lenses. 

How much does it cost? A two-week, 15 pair lens trial period is free, but an automatically renewing monthly membership fee of $30 is the standard charge afterward. 

Sign-up and ordering: Like I said, I remember reading about the trial in an email so I guess I either signed up for the newsletter or came across it in another company's newsletter, I can't remember exactly which. Anyway, signing up for the site and ordering your free trial are extremely easy. After entering your prescription and eye doc in the site form, Hubble confirms your prescription with them and sends out your lenses. The trial box is preset and the monthly subscription is set to automatically renew following the end of the trial, so all you have to do is enter your shipping information and confirm the purchase. 

Site navigation: The site is simple and easy to navigate. All of the important information about the site and its services are clearly expressed and easy to find.

Delivery and cancellation: Delivery was very swift. Within a week of signing up for the trial, I already had my lenses. I ordered the trial back on the 14th, received an email notifying me my contacts had shipped on the 16th and I received them on the 18th. Cancelling the service is done over the phone during business hours, but is also easy and by the time you finish speaking to the customer service rep, you already have a cancellation confirmation email in your inbox. After cancellation, you'll receive an email asking you to rate the customer service rep you spoke to and what reward, if any, you think they should receive for their service with you. Yet another email comes a day or two after that, giving you another opportunity to go into detail about your experience. As of yet, I haven't received any more emails from the company, promotional or otherwise. 

So what comes in the box? 

The box is pretty small and compact, with only the contacts and a small booklet about the company inside. The box for my left contact lenses are orange, while the box for the right lenses are green. On the side is the number of lenses included in the box, so both of mine show the trial 15 lenses. Inside it are three rows of five lenses apiece.

My experience: My experience with Hubble Contacts, from start to finish, was nothing but easy and pleasant. As I mentioned in the 'Quick Deets' portion of the review, ordering, receiving and cancelling were all a breeze, which are extremely important for my personal overview of a service. For me personally, though, the contacts weren't the best fit. The contact was a bit too big for my eyeball and as a result they moved every time I blinked, which hurt my eyelid after awhile. Because they were too large, I could see where the prescription ran out on the contact, which made my peripheral vision trash. lol When the contact is too large, it feels like you always have allergies or dirt in your eye but you can't rub them for fear of scratching your cornea with the contact. I also noticed that the lenses dried out rather quickly. In my left eye, the vision was a bit distorted because I have astigmatism in that eye, so my vision was a little blurrier than the right one. Because Hubble is still relatively new, they haven't yet accommodated those with astigmatism so the slightly blurry vision in my eye was to be expected. I'll keep an eye out for when they update their website on it again.

Extras: After I cancelled my subscription, I received another email asking me to rate the call and the ability of my customer rep to handle my issues. I appreciated that not only was the company aware of exactly who I spoke to but that they allowed me to actually list what the rep helped me with rather than a generic multiple choice survey. I was also asked for my opinion on what reward my rep deserved, another thing I hadn't seen before and really enjoyed. Somehow, the company balanced the feedback from their users with allowing the customer to be part of the reward experience and I thought that was different but enjoyable. The following day I received another feedback email, during which I got another opportunity to tell the company about my experience.

Coincidentally, I found out a week after I got my lenses that one of my brother's friends is also using Hubble and he loves his contacts. He says they fit his eyeball nicely, he doesn't have any issues seeing out of them, and they've almost completely replaced his glasses. His only complaint was that they dried out rather quickly as well, which can easily be remedied by keeping eye drops on hand. I actually didn't realize that until he mentioned it; I have dry eyes so I just figured it was my eyes, not the contacts. My brother's friend doesn't have the same issue I have with my eyes nor is his vision as bad as mine, so for him these have been a perfect and affordable alternative to glasses.

Overall, I like Hubble and I like the concept of subscription contact lenses. I appreciate that they make efforts to set you up with Hubble-approved doctors in order to get all the specifics of your contact lenses correct in your order. At least that's what the website says, because of a detail I'm going to mention below, I don't know that all of the doctors on the list are necessarily Hubble-approved. Regardless, the entire service seems to run very efficiently and my experience with customer service was nothing but pleasant. The packaging was compact and cute, the little card that accompanies the contacts is simple and informative, and the contacts themselves aren't rough on the eyes or difficult to put on. Because I uploaded my regular prescription rather than a specific prescription from a doctor on Hubble's list of partnered doctors, I got the stock size contact, which was too big for my pupil. I also have astigmatism, which Hubble hasn't been able to accommodate just yet, so for me these weren't the perfect fit just yet but I'm willing to return once Hubble has allowed for more personalized contacts and expands the type of lenses they can provide. But if your eyes aren't as bad as mine so your prescription is easier to accommodate, I definitely recommend giving Hubble Contacts a try. The two-week trial period will give you a sufficient preview of their contacts, which is more than enough time to know if it'll be a good option for you. I'd personally give it a little more time, let them tweak their operations a bit and allow for more specificity before ordering from them again.



Mandy's Note: While finishing this review, I read an article that was lightly exposing Hubble; the person filled a fake prescription complete with a fake doctor's name, and the prescription still got filled. I can understand the point of the article because that can be dangerous for people's eyes and the company does need to improve that part of their service but I also think you have to expect things like that when the company is in its infancy and still figuring things out. Hopefully that article reaches the powers that be over at Hubble and gives them something to make a concentrated effort to fix. If you are going to require that people enter their doctor's name to verify the prescription, it should probably actually get verified. I noticed this when I was filling out the form; my doctor's name didn't come up in the list so I had to enter it manually, but my prescription was still pushed through so I noticed it probably wasn't actually verified. I think when doing something like filling contact prescriptions online you should be diligent with ensuring the safety of the contacts you receive as well as their fit for you. Of course there's a risk when doing things like this or ordering prescription glasses, but that's a given. It's an online company. You just have to determine if the risk is worth it or not. For me, right now it isn't but there are quite a few success stories coming out of people who've tried the service. I recommend giving it a look, but do your homework first.