How to Get Free Trial Contact Lenses With No Committment

Contact lenses can be a great alternative to wearing glasses, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably want to try them out before deciding if you like them or not – which is the whole point of trying some free contact lenses.

If you’ve never worn them before, they can take some getting used to with having the lens actually on your eye, which is why I stated looking for suppliers of retailers who would let me have some free contact lenses before parting with my money.

There’s quite a few retailers who will now let you have a free contact trial, but this isn’t always ideal as they will usually expect you sign up for a contact of some form, as their trial is simply allowing you to find which lenses suit you best. But if you decide that contact lenses aren’t for you, then you don’t really wanted to be tied into anything. So you need to check that the free trial contact lenses really are free, and not some marketing gimmick.

Fortunately the major retailers in the market, like Acuvue and 1800 Contacts have listened to a lot of customer feedback in the market, and started to offer free contact samples to anybody who wants to try them out. This isn’t so that you can try out various lenses to see which suit you best, but rather to see if you can actually get used to wearing contacts instead of glasses.

Generally the company offering the free contact lenses will want something in return, though it will usually be your contact details or email address so that they can follow up with you to see how you’re getting on with the lenses. They won’t ask for any money nor for you to sign up to any kind of contract or commitment.

The main benefit to the contact lens company is that by offering you the free contact trial, they are simply building their list of potential customers, which usually works out considerably cheaper than their normal advertising channels. The benefit to you is that you’re able to try several different suppliers and brands of contact lenses to see if you can find something you can live with. You still need your contact lens prescription, which will be based on the quality of your vision, but it does mean that you can try some free contact lenses before making the decision to move away from regular glasses.

Newbies: Beware the `Free Trial’ Pitfall!

When I started out as a total newbie about a year ago, I made several blunders that cost me a lot of time and money.

One of my major blunders was signing up blindly for `free trials’ just because they were free! You know the ones that ask you for your credit card details, saying that “this is for record purposes only and your card will not be charged”.

I made a huge mistake once when I signed up for a one-month free trial program. I had expected that when the one-month was up I would get a notification saying that my free-trial period was up and ask me to confirm if I wanted to continue.

But I received no such notification, in fact not even an email confirming that the sum had been charged. Instead it was only when I received my next month’s credit card statement that I learnt that I had been charged $99. Now as a newbie just starting out online, I could ill-afford the money, especially as it was to be a monthly recurring payment!

So I frantically looked around for a way to cancel. Being a na? newbie, I had not read any instructions on cancellation procedures! In fact I had totally forgotten about signing up. I could not remember my username and password.

But somehow after several tries, I managed to log-in to their website and contacted someone at their help desk. When I asked why I had not been notified, the reply was: `It was already stated in the free trial offer you signed up for!’. When I asked to cancel, I was directed to another department, before I finally managed to cancel the subscription!

Costly lesson learned – always read the fine print!

If a program says `one-week free trial’, immediately check the fine print to see what happens after the one week is up. How much would you have to pay? Would it be a monthly recurring billing? Would it be automatically charged to your credit card or PayPal? What are the cancellation procedures? And so on.

The above caution also applies to those `$1 Trial’ programs.

Note that I am not saying that all these progams are scams or would not work!

A lot of legitimate programs out there are good, but the question is good for whom? They might be wonderful for an internet expert looking to expand his business but be totally unsuitable for a newbie.

As a matter of fact, there are also some programs out there that can be ideal for newbies. These programs do coach the newbie step-by-step in the basics of building an online business.

However the onus is on you, before you purchase or sign up. Remember the phrase `caveat emptor’ which means `buyer beware’! You have to be clear about what your intention is when starting your online business. You have to be very focused, very selective and must ask questions such as these:

* Is this what I really need at this moment? Will it help with my just-begun business or would it be useful only at a later stage?

* How much does it cost? One-time payment or monthly?

* How do I cancel?

In conclusion, I am not saying that you must avoid all free trials! Just be more discerning.

If you do find one that is up-front about the cost and is something you really need (like webhosting, auto-responder etc.) by all means do take advantage of the trial period to test-drive the system.