All of it feels a bit like like highway robbery.
They actually do in the UK, I was once offered a weekend loan of a car by a dealer we had bought from several times over the years and he even tried to organise it so that I could do a 600 mile trip in it over the weekend. He couldn’t get it in time, but it was a great offer.
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Yeah that’s pretty good, don’t get these offers offen enough, but demo models for a couple of days can usually be sorted with limited KMs and the insurance excess.
Fair enough: that’s a marketing decision: virtually all the manufacturers offer designated ‘Demo’ units to independent businesses. It’s the model we use.
The only ‘non-Free’ bit is the actual test, we usually charge £40 whether you take the demo or not but this obviously gets subtracted from the purchase price if you go ahead and buy after your ‘free trial period’. We then run a 60 day refund window, but returns are very rare as we’ve usually ironed out the kinks during the demonstration portion.
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I bought my aids from an audiologist employed by Costco. I also saw her on her last day. She was moving to a hospital center (talk about outrageous markups) for more money, fewer hours, and perhaps a more interesting clientele.
Costco is great in many ways, but it isn’t perfect.
The only private audiologist I’ve consulted with did my hearing test and told me I needed a pair of aids for $6,000, with no explanation of why I needed that specific pair or what my options were. It took me 3 years to get up the courage to go to Costco, and I did that mainly because of the recommendations I got.
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My first pair were Starkey’s ric/bte. I went to a local audi who gave me opportunities to try several brands. He took me outside and talked to me with each set. I bought Starkey because of the quality, it was so long ago that if I wanted streaming or tv modes I would have to buy a separate box to carry around. I still have them and they’re excellent, but they won’t stream phone calls or anything extra. My next set was from Costco where the audi gave me different sets to walk around the store to trial. I easily made my decisions based on sound quality, price, and his recommendations. No others have ever been as high quality and sturdy as the old Starkey’s but, they were definitely cheaper to buy. I will continue to go to Costco as they only charge $40 to replace a receiver after the warranties are up. I stream a lot and wear them 12-18 hrs every day and have only ever had 2 receivers break. You have to do what feels right for your comfort.
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I returned the Jabra Enhanced Select 200’a that I was trying. I returned them using the FEDEX return label Jabra provided. They received them this past Monday and posted a full refund the next day. I wish they had worked but they were never able to get sufficient volume for me to use.
A restocking fee is required by many businesses, but they should tell you about it up front. I have seen a 15% fee charged in many cases.