A frame comes back from a holiday with one arm in the case and the rest of it loose in a bag. Or a hinge has gone soft and the arm swings on its own. Or a lens popped out on a beach and never turned up. The question is always the same: can it be fixed, and what will that cost?
We have been repairing frames by hand in the UK since 1999. Here is what actually happens when one arrives, what we can put right, and what we cannot.
What the standard repair covers
The Sunglass Repair Service is from £40, whatever the brand. That covers a full-frame service — hinges, arms, nose pads and screws gone through — your existing lenses refitted and secured, and an ultrasonic deep clean before the frame goes back in its box.
Typical turnaround is five working days from the day your frames reach us. You book the repair first, then we email you a free post label to send the frames in, so nothing is posted before we are expecting it.
It is from £40 rather than a single flat figure because some frames need spare parts beyond that standard service. Where they do, we contact you with a price before any work is done, so you are never surprised by the invoice.
Which faults are a part, and which are a repair
A part is a component that exists and can be bought: a replacement arm, a set of nose pads, the rubbers on an Oakley, a screw, a lens. If your model is current or recent, the part is usually on the shelf. We carry 788 items across the replacement parts collection, including 352 for Ray-Ban alone. Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Lindberg, Tom Ford and Tiffany parts are supplied through our authorised dealer account. If you are confident with a precision screwdriver, a part on its own is often all you need.
A repair is work on the frame itself: re-pinning a hinge into acetate, straightening a front that has been sat on, freeing a screw that has sheared off inside the barrel. No part will fix those. They need the frame on a bench.
The faults we see most
A snapped arm. Usually a part rather than a repair, provided the model is still supported. Send us the model and colour code and we will tell you whether an arm exists for it.
A broken hinge. On acetate, the hinge is pinned or heat-set into the frame and comes out; a new one goes in and the plastic is re-flowed around it. On metal it is a solder job. Either way this is a repair, not a part.
A sheared screw. The head comes off and the shank stays in the barrel. It has to be drilled or driven out without damaging the thread, which is the fiddly part, and then the frame takes a new screw.
Lost nose pads. Straightforward. Sizes and fittings vary far more than people expect, so tell us the model and we will match the fitting rather than guess at it.
Perished rubbers. Common on Oakley X Metal frames, where the bridge rubbers harden and the frame starts to wobble on the face. That has its own service: the Oakley Juliet bridge repair is £50, or £60 with a full set of replacement rubbers, and includes new internal bridge rubbers, new metal pins, the lenses refitted and an ultrasonic clean.
Scratched or missing lenses. A scratch in a coated lens cannot be polished out. The coating is the thing that is damaged, and the only honest answer is a new lens. For Ray-Ban that means genuine replacement lenses, from £60 non-polarised to £100 for polarised mirrors, with £10 on top if you want us to fit them.
A frame that no longer sits straight. One lens higher than the other, or the arms splayed. This is alignment work, and it is included in the standard repair.
What we cannot do
We cannot rebuild a front that has broken where no part exists for it. If the model is long discontinued and the component is gone, there is nothing to fit.
We cannot polish scratches out of a lens, as above. We can polish an acetate frame, which is a different job: frame polishing is from £50 and takes scratches, scuffs and dullness back out of the plastic. It does not apply to metal or painted finishes.
And we cannot make a frame worth repairing if it is not. If a pair cost less than the repair, we will say so.
What the different services cost
- Sunglass Repair Service — from £40
- Tom Ford Sunglasses Repair Service — from £50
- Oakley Juliet Bridge Repair — £50, or £60 with a full set of rubbers
- Lindberg Repair Service — from £60
- Frame Polishing — from £50
These are separate services, not upgrades to the standard one. The brand services exist because those frames need tooling and parts of their own — Lindberg screwless titanium in particular is not a job for a general bench. All five sit in the repair services collection.
If the repair cannot be completed
Sometimes a frame turns out to be beyond what was quoted once it is open. The terms are published for each service, and the Oakley Juliet repair states them plainly: the work is carried out at your risk, and if the repair cannot be completed you are refunded less £5 towards postage. Read the terms on the product page for the service you are buying before you book it.
How the frame travels
Book the service, send the frames in with the free post label we email you, and we assess them on arrival. If parts are needed, you hear from us with a price before anything is touched. The Juliet repair typically takes five to seven days in the workshop, with return shipping included.
Postage on a repair is free both ways. The label to send the frame in costs you nothing, and return postage is included in the price of the service. If you would rather use a different postage service, you are welcome to upgrade to a paid one at your own cost.
Pack it properly. A hard case inside a padded envelope, not a frame loose in a jiffy bag. Put every piece in, including the snapped-off bit — even when we are fitting a new part, the broken one tells us the exact size.
Before you send anything
Some of this you can do at home in ten minutes, and we would rather you did than paid us to do it. A loose screw needs a screwdriver, not a workshop. Our guide to fixing broken sunglasses covers what is genuinely a five-minute job and what is not.
If it is not, start on the repair page and tell us what has happened. We will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.