58mm Aviator Sunglasses

After purchasing this pair of sunglasses, I’ve sworn off all Ray-Bans, and, by extension, all sunglasses produced by Luxottica. After a year of ownership, while sitting in the original case, in luggage, the lens cracked, propagating from the top of the frame – clearly a manufacturer’s defect. When I sent them into Luxottica (which owns Ray-Ban), they denied warranty service. Any attempts to contact customer service (phone and email) was met by the rote “a trained technician has deemed your eyewear non-defective.” In the end, all they did was ship the broken sunglasses back to me. I wish I could more strongly dissuade everyone from purchasing Ray-Ban and Luxottica products: the quality of their products is now terrible (having owned 3 pairs of Ray-Bans), surpassed only by their abysmal customer service. Unfortunately, alternatives are few and far between: Luxottica does have near-monopoly status, with ~80% market share in the eyewear market, which helps explain their ~70% gross margins – exactly what happens when you sell terrible, cheaply-made products at a premium. I’d recommend a quick Google search, which will reveal a few independent alternatives. Bottom line: for Ray-Ban/Luxottica products, buyer beware!