MYKITA: 3 Disappointments in 2 Weeks
I started wearing glasses out of necessity back in 2001. Since I am short-sighted and I have to wear the prescription glasses almost all the time, I always paid great attention to detail when it comes to choosing eyewear. Right after I moved to Berlin in 2006 I bought my first MYKITA frame, followed by a new one in 2008 and another one in 2010. You can safely assume that I am a returning and loyal customer.
My latest MYKITA frame is called Daniel. He used to be a pair of sunglasses which, because of the überhuman proportions of my head was one of the least models which fit me. The lovely people at the MYKITA shop exchanged the dark glasses with prescription ones and billed me sweet €800 for the pair. Since I knew I was getting quality I didn’t hesitate to pay.
Two years and 4 months later however, I came to realize that maybe buying this last pair of MYKITA glasses was a big mistake and that the brand doesn’t seem to value its loyal customers.
The first disappointment came while cleaning my glasses 2 weeks ago – the frame cracked right above the left lens without any excessive pressure whatsoever. I decided not to panic first, went to the MYKITA shop and explained the situation. Daniel could be repaired for €30 – not for free, because the 2-year warranty period was just over. Compared to the 800 I paid for it, this was nothing so I gave it for repair. Four days later I went to pick up Daniel after a call I got from the staff. He didn’t really look like new, but was fine enough.
Disappointment number two came when, two days after I picked up the repaired Daniel, it cracked on the same spot, again – while cleaning it. It happened in the evening so I ran to the shop before they closed. After explaining the situation, the staff at the shop just shrugged and said they couldn’t do anything, but offer me to buy a new pair of glasses. I think the people from staff had fallen down on the pavement and cracked their heads open or something – offering an obviously unsatisfied customer to purchase another pair of glasses for €800 maybe in the Top 3 of Retail NO GOs you should avoid if you want to succeed as a brand. But this obviously was not an issue for MYKITA.
Nevertheless, I agreed to give Daniel for another (free) repair. And here comes the third disappointment from MYKITA – this was last Saturday. I have been developing my sixth sense while walking the streets of Berlin and trying to get smashed by a car or run over by a tram. I received a call during the week from the MYKITA workshop saying I will hear from them on Friday when my frame would be fixed. I asked if the woman was fucking kidding me and she was not fucking around. I am probably supposed to stay blind for yet another week, because that’s what MYKITA considers customer service and loyalty towards returning customers.
I am thrilled to see how the situation with MYKITA develops and how many more disappointments I have to bear before they finally are capable of repairing my glasses. I know one for sure tho – there won’t be a fourth purchase from the Berlin based eyewear brand.
This is a developing story.
14 Comments
I bought new MYKITA eye wear, from day one I tried I take the lenses out and when I tried to put them back I broke the arm as they are very fragile and now I’m stuck with them I don’t know what to do next.
Hi, I am from MYKITA Asia. Accidentally, I dropped by this website and I have noticed your situation and see if there is anything i could possibly assist you.
There’s a follow-up on that article coming soon. Merry Christmas!
I have had the same problem as you! I´m from spain and I spent a lot of money with the glasses, but the arm broke once, later they changed and the new glasses has broken another time! tomorrow i´ll go to see the optician and I hope he gives me a solution. I´m short sighted and I can’t live without my glasses!
Sorry my english is not very good but I hope you could understand my explanation :-)
I bought a Mykita Oliver in October 2008 which broke at the left hinge in February 2011. It’s a metal frame which is claimed to be unbreakable. My local shop sent it to Berlin and Mykita generously sent a brand new frame back for free. After this experience I snapped up an identical almost-new one on eBay just to be on the safe side if it breaks again.
I’ve called their customer support a couple of times and can confirm that they’re a bit flaky. Sometimes I reach someone nice and helpful and sometimes I reach someone completely crazy. E.g. when I bought my first Mykita frame I called them to get a list of local shops and the person on the phone claimed that it’s secret, not everyone gets to sell their brand and they need to protect their sellers from the competition. Hello?! Not interested in selling me a product?! I also made a few calls to ic! berlin and these guys seemed even more unreliable.
I still buy a new Mykita frame every now and then, though somewhat begrudgingly, because they seem to be the best thing on the market with regards to engineering and design.
I just bought a pair of Mykita Aldous for my wife at an authorized reseller in Canada. After reading the above, I wonder if we should have gotten her a pair of ic! berlin’s instead??? It seems like Mykita doesn’t really care about customer service.
hi,
The first thing what I am thinking, as a optician & Mykita dealer, is in the first place, the lenses are too tightly fitted.
The acetate has the characteristic of shrinking over the years (PH value of the skin/sweat/beauty-hair product, can fasten up the process), with the result if the lenses are fitted too tight, the acetate can break.
Thats just the case with your glasses… (assuming that the glasses are normally used/cleaned).
What we do in this kind of cases, we send a mail to Mykita HQ, and most of the time we can make a good arrangement…
I think in your case its more the shops policy that was giving the troubles
Find a good optician, especially with the metal series of Mykita, those are more difficult to make than other frames…
And about IC! Berlin… Mykita’s are better & more beautiful/fashionable ;)
I have a similar experience, my new Mykita Moon sunglasses just got a crack at the hinge area. The strange thing is that I have not started to use them yet since it is winter and I live in Sweden. I have only tried them on probably less than ten times in front of the mirror and the rest of the time they have been kept in the protective box. I have never carried the glasses with me.
It will be interesting to see if they will give me new pair or not, I hope so since they are not very cheap. I am worried however about the future if they break this easy without even using them, when will they break next time?
A correction of my last mail. What I thought was a crack was in fact a deep scratch. At the shop they could readjust the frame so it is not floppy anymore at the hinge and the scratch I will have to live with.
It is still a mystery how it happened though. The frame must have received a hard blow for the scratch and the loosening at the hinge to happened and I have no clue about it.
I bought a pair Mykita in 2011, within a few months the left hinge became floppy or wobbly, had it adjusted by a authorized dealer. They apparently require a special tweezer to adjust the frames. only authorized dealer have it, so a regular optician cannot adjust a pair of Mykita frames!!! again after a few months same thing, so basically it keep on getting loose and wobbles. Eventually they it cracked and paid $80 to change it, but still wobbles. For a pair of almost $500 frames, they’re very light but ver flimsy. They say hand made in Berlin with stainless steel and all that, but what’s the use? You need to adjust it every so often. Worse part is not all optician can do it. So if you’re somewhere where there is no Mykita dealer, GOOD LUCK! I will not buy again PERIOD.
Hi
I’m a jeweler in Thailand
I strongly recommend people to NOT BUY MYKITA frames for galssses. They are permanentlty out of work especially due to their patented hinge=It brakes after few weeks. I have 2 pairs Helmut and Edwin and after 3 weeks , hionges form both did not work and brake. The wedoasia send hinges to replace but happen again and again, until iask the exchange pf the glasse whihc Alice from Export coordination refused too.
nicolas
I bought my Mykita 10 months ago and used it less than 5 times. Always store it in the Mykita case, and wipe only with the soft cloth it came with. There are already several scratches on the lens.
I have Prada and as well non expensive Rayban as well. The Prada is 4 years old and its still in mint condition – no scratches what so ever, and wear it very often. Same case with Rayban – I don’t even keep this inside a case – but still no scratches what so ever with abuse.
I emailed Mykita about the lens and they say that their lens are not scratch resistant. To me, paying $600 for piece of junk just because it looks good is just ridiculous.
I would never buy a Mykita again.
I too have purchased three pairs of Mykita Frames, I love the style but their customer service is atrocious. Very difficult to receive responses to emails. I live rurally and have an issue with the hinge mechanism coming loose frequently and have to wait until I travel abroad to visit a shop to have them tightened. I asked if I could purchase the tool myself from Mykita and they refused. I’ve spent over $2500 on their frames but won’t give them another dime.
Does anyone know whose making similar looking frames? I enjoy the space on the front by the hinge, and keeping this is important to me.