Brett tried on a pair of “Made in Italy” Ray-Bans at a Sunglass Hut and liked them, but they were the display model so he had to come back to pick up his own a few days later. When he did, he discovered that the real pair he bought said “Made in China,” and in his opinion they felt lower quality.

My girlfriend and I went to a Sunglass Hut about 3 weeks ago and tried on some sunglasses. I found a pair that I really like and my girlfriend liked as well. So I noted the name and style (Ray-Ban) and thanked the lady who helped us. So my mother gave me a gift card for my birthday present, not enough to buy them all but enough to get a third or so. So I went and got them with my girlfriend and we went to the beach with some friends. When I bought them the same lady (who I found out that was the store manager) told me that she ran out of the models that I wanted and she gave me the display models. They had a nice firm build quality and said Made in Italy, so I accepted them and was satisfied.

Although I wanted new glasses I excepted the displays and I asked if I could come back and return them later for new ones, which she said was perfectly alright. She then told me when the next shipment comes in and to just drop by and trade them — which I did.

I didn’t check the glasses until I got back into the car. That’s when I was showing my sister how one could tell genuine Ray-Bans and I noticed that they were Made in China. I stopped there as the previous models were Made in Italy. The old ones that I traded (Italy) were extremely sturdy, it felt as though I could wear them without having to worry about them breaking. The new ones (China) were extremely flimsy, they didn’t feel like they should cost $169 dollars and they made me feel extremely regretful because I could have gotten polarized sunglasses that were made in China over at Wal-mart.

I’m sending you this email after my girlfriend who called Sunglass Hut (as I’m just too enraged to talk about it). What she told me was interesting, they claimed that Ray-Ban outsourced their sunglasses to China, I thought this was funny and I found some people around the internet saying that they do outsource (although on the Ray-Ban website they claim it takes 3-4 weeks to ship from Italy). Sunglass Hut also claimed that the Made in China sunglasses are of the same build quality as the Italian ones and not to discriminate (for lack of a better word) against the China-made sunglasses.

I thought this was fishy, but I don’t know what else to do as I’ve gotten my money fully refunded as well as my gift card. I just thought the community would like to know this as well.

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