Style: Echo (Black)
In short: These are phenomenal - do yourself a favor and buy a pair!
For years I'd been dreaming of sunglasses that I could put in my pocket worry-free, and a few months ago I decided I'd search the internet until I found such a thing. That's how I came across ROAV.
Don't worry about the "flat lens" some people comment on. Yes, the lens is flat, but it doesn't make a difference. Occasionally I do see a very slight reflection of what's behind me in the outer lens corner, but it's not noticeable enough to be annoying - I actually think it's kind of cool.
Everything about these is high quality, as advertised. Everyone I show these too thinks they're amazing and wants a pair.
So...why 4 stars? After about 1 month, the polarization film began to peel / air bubble. It got bad, fast (I'd add a picture, but that isn't allowed here). I contacted ROAV who said I could send them in for repair/replacement. The glasses were delivered to ROAV on Thursday and I was notified the following Thursday that my replacement had shipped (so 5 business day turnaround).
I'm hoping that this was a one-off issue and my new pair will be fine for years to come. I think the Echo may be a newer style so perhaps they've yet to work out the kinks? If it happens again, I'll ask ROAV about this, and if I'm correct I'll request a more tried-n-true model as a replacement and will update here accordingly (if possible).
I may have actually given 5 stars despite this problem (with the assumption that the new pair would not encounter the same fate), but I was a bit disappointed that ROAV initially expected me to pay for the return shipping: they simply provided a return address and said to include a note that my package was for return/replacement. I then asked:
"Thanks, but does ROAV not provide a shipping label for cases involving manufacturer defects? I mean, it's been a month, and the polarization layer is already peeling off...for a $175 pair of glasses..."
...and they responded with a prepaid return shipping label 😄. Much better, but when a product is almost certainly defective, the customer should not need to ask for this. Especially since ROAV doesn't have physical stores, so I didn't have the option of bringing them in myself.
Anyways, thank you ROAV for the amazing sunglasses and sending out a replacement. This should be seen as an extremely positive review, with only a minor piece of negative feedback.