Compare contact lens prices across retailers from a prescription with Perplexity and save $150
- Posted
- by Dmitry Shamis (LinkedIn)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.
Outcome
Needing new contacts after an eye exam (the old lenses were discontinued), Dmitry Shamis found 1-800-CONTACTS expensive, so gave Perplexity the prescription and asked it to find prices. It checked 1-800-CONTACTS, Costco, Walmart and other sites and organized a comparison; Walmart was $150 cheaper for the same contacts, a retailer Shamis hadn't known sold them.
Agent
Prompt Recreated prompt
The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Find the cheapest trustworthy place to buy my exact contact lenses for a year's supply. Fill in before running: - Brand, lens type and prescription details (no personal ID numbers): [DETAILS] - Quantity needed (e.g. 12 months, both eyes): [QUANTITY] - Country or ZIP code for shipping: [LOCATION] Rules: - Check at least five retailers, including warehouse clubs and big-box stores. - Compare the total for the same quantity, including shipping, tax and any rebates. - Note which retailers need my prescription verified and how. - Link every price so I can confirm it. - Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. Output: A table: retailer, total price, shipping time and link, cheapest first. You'll know it worked when: I buy the same lenses for noticeably less without a second search.
Customize this prompt
Answer these questions and we'll put your answers into the prompt for you. You can leave any of them empty.
Your prompt
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Find the cheapest trustworthy place to buy my exact contact lenses for a year's supply. Fill in before running: - Brand, lens type and prescription details (no personal ID numbers): [DETAILS] - Quantity needed (e.g. 12 months, both eyes): [QUANTITY] - Country or ZIP code for shipping: [LOCATION] Rules: - Check at least five retailers, including warehouse clubs and big-box stores. - Compare the total for the same quantity, including shipping, tax and any rebates. - Note which retailers need my prescription verified and how. - Link every price so I can confirm it. - Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. Output: A table: retailer, total price, shipping time and link, cheapest first. You'll know it worked when: I buy the same lenses for noticeably less without a second search.
Scroll to see the whole prompt. Your answers show in green.
3 blanks are still empty: Brand, lens type and prescription details (no personal ID numbers); Quantity needed (e.g. 12 months, both eyes); Country or ZIP code for shipping. They'll stay in brackets in your prompt, so the chat tool may ask you about them.
What you type stays in this browser tab. We don't send it or save it, and it's gone when you leave the page. If you use a "Try this in" button, your answers go to that tool as part of the prompt.
Try this in:
This prompt has blanks to fill in, like [DETAILS]. We'll copy it instead of filling it in, so you can edit it before you send.
The source used Perplexity. These are general chat tools, so results may differ.
Opens in a new tab. We don't see what you send.
These links are only a shortcut. We're not affiliated with OpenAI, Google or xAI, and your results may not match the source.
Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Find the cheapest trustworthy place to buy my exact contact lenses for a year's supply. Fill in before running: - Brand, lens type and prescription details (no personal ID numbers): [DETAILS] - Quantity needed (e.g. 12 months, both eyes): [QUANTITY] - Country or ZIP code for shipping: [LOCATION] Rules: - Check at least five retailers, including warehouse clubs and big-box stores. - Compare the total for the same quantity, including shipping, tax and any rebates. - Note which retailers need my prescription verified and how. - Link every price so I can confirm it. - Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - Mention any manufacturer rebate that changes the ranking. Output: A table: retailer, total price, shipping time and link, cheapest first. You'll know it worked when: I buy the same lenses for noticeably less without a second search. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
Source
Related cases
- Compare prices for 60–70 garden plants across 5 sites with OpenAI OperatorRecreated promptEvidence: Screenshots or logs
Overnight, Operator cross-referenced a list of 60–70 plants across 5 sites into a price comparison table; the poster called it buggy but fun.
OpenAI Operator · Shopping · Source date:
- Find the cheapest seats left for an opera, a sold-out-looking play and Hamilton with Meta's Muse checking the official sitesEvidence: Article or interviewBeginner-friendly
PCWorld's Ben Patterson, a Manhattan theatre lover who can't afford Broadway every night, used Muse to hunt for ticket bargains. Asked how much tickets to Verdi's Macbeth at the Met were, it first gave a general web answer, but when asked to check the official site it opened a browser and found a $71 seat (including a $10 service charge) for a weekday evening, logged in and teed it up for checkout. Patterson cancelled, then had it go through every remaining performance of a limited-run Off-Broadway play, finding which had seats and the best price, $92.41. For Hamilton in the next 30 days it found a rear-mezzanine seat for a Saturday matinee at $222 all-in. Patterson didn't buy this time.
Muse · Shopping · Source date:
- Watch two new phones for a price drop during the price-match window with a daily Claude Cowork check, and claim $40 backRecreated promptEvidence: Described by posterBeginner-friendly
George Liu bought two Samsung phones from Best Buy, one for themselves and one for their father, and noticed a 30-day price match policy covering drops at Best Buy or major competitors. They spent 15 minutes building a Claude Cowork skill, gave it the model number and told it to check Best Buy, Amazon, Costco and a few other retailers every morning at 7 AM. One morning it found a quiet $20 drop on Best Buy's own product page: not a coupon or a sale, just a lower price. They opened Best Buy's chat, its AI walked them through the price match and a human agent approved a refund of $40 plus tax for the two phones.
Claude Cowork · Shopping · Source date: