I read the Starkey internet sales policy. One internet retailer specifically mentioned is Hearing Planet. I am not sure exactly how Hearing Planet works, but I do know they require you to go to a local audiologist so I am not sure of why Starkey is objecting other than to try to enforce the local pricing policies. If you buy from Hearing Planet are you buying from them or from the local audiologist who then pays Hearing Planet a “finder”/referral fee?
who were extremely helpful and patient with my enquiries and much pleasanter to deal with than the testing audiologist
but will they still blow in your ear after they have your money?
There are Audiologists (like myself) who will charge a fee for service (office visit) for programming hearing aids not purchased from my office. However, before I will even touch the aids,I call the manufacturer to verify the validity of the aids. Many aids purchased online are counterfeits, and believe me, you CANNOT tell the difference between real and not.
So many Audiologists refuse to touch them based on this reason aside from the financial reason. And true, you may pay for an office visit at your physician’s office, but they are also billing your insurance for things. And many insurances do not cover hearing aids. Many physicians don’t fit durable medical equipment, they are selling you their services. If you don’t believe me, ask your physician what their annual marketing budget is - you won’t find one in any sizeable city in the US that will say they don’t have one.
Now if you’ll excuse me - I have a sales meeting to go to 
dr.amy
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I did phone a few audiologists before i found those who do it. It’s not cheap, one programming cost me 140$, one of the audiologist asked for 230$ for 3 visits, finally I chose my old audiologist (I bought from him one hearing aid in 2001) because he was OK. the main problem with this is that you cannot come back 10 times to reprogram but the aids work fine and I did save many thousands of $$$ buying online.
I read that in 2007 Oticon is against any sale of hearing aids not through an audiologist. That’s why you hardly find new oticons on Ebay. You can find many Siemens, Hansanton, and others.
Want a cheap hearing aid from a ‘real’ audi? Just ask!
You might strike lucky and find someone who has excess stock, or unwanted trial aids, or who simply needs some money to pay an urgent bill.
What can you lose by asking?
Counterfit hearing aids. Never heard of such a thing,scare tactics. The big manufacturers protect their brand name.
Look it’s real simple… a local professional must charge much more as their expenses are much higher than an internet provider. But the local pro does provide much more and probably better services.
Its up to you, do you want local hand holding or the cheaper distant internet guys.
My advice: Only go with the internet guys if you are an experienced user and are comfortable with the idea of having programmed at a distance. Ed
Unequivocally FALSE statement.
I have seen 6 pairs of counterfeit Siemens hearing aids in the past 16 months alone! They look legit and have serial numbers. But they come from China, and when you call Siemens to verify serial numbers, they will verify that they are counterfeit.
With all due respect Ed, don’t mislead people by making such a claim. I never have and never will resort to “scare tactics”. And anyone who knows me here on this forum can vouch for that. It is a REAL issue that unsuspecting, well-intentioned patients fall prey to all the time.
dr.amy
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Try an audi working with an ENT doctor. I’ve had fairly good luck, for $200, in Seattle.
How did you end up buying?
good luck, elijah
elijah,
Just curious if you even looked at the date of Deafheads post? This thread has been inactive since 12/15/2011; Deafhead joined the Forum on 6/22/2011 and the last time we heard from him was 8/19/2011, so I’m going out on a limb here and guessing that he won’t see your reply and hasn’t been on the Forum for a long time. Dr. Amy has also dropped out in the two year time period also, with her last post being on 3/5/2012. If you’re going to respond to 2 year old posts at least click on their name and see if they are still active otherwise your going to be waisting your time trying to enlighten them.
Dear Seb,
You are one of the posters who has taught me the most, as I read the forums. I really appreciate the contributions you make.
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to dates, since I think that some others may also rummage around in the Forums, finding what they can learn from.
(I do this a good deal.)
So I was writing for general readers, not the posters. Is that silly?
My thought du jour is that people can buy decent used aids for a few hundred dollars (or less) and get them adjusted to an audiogram by mailing to someone who offers that service by mail. I’ve used
donald = hearingguy1@gmail.com for several aids, with flawless service, and moderate charges. < $50 to adjust one aid to my graph.
I’d be very happy to hear from you any time, on the forums or at
lovejoyelijah@gmail.com.
Again, thanks for your input, today and in the past.!!. elijah
Where did you buy them?
That’s 6 years ago. That user didn’t make the move over to the new forum. Who knows where he is now.
I tried clicking on the url you provided but is not an existing web page.
Many users did not make it.
Trolls drove zct away. He was a very helpful professional who is missed.
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Here is a more current link for Starkey’s Internet sales policy.
In fairness, his ‘Starkey can do no wrong’ policy probably cost him more supporters than anything else. He seemed pretty knowledgeable otherwise.
True. zct was a Starkey rep, training dealers. You are another of the experts I admire. Is dr.amy still around?
People could say (and have said) I feel that way about one of my vendors when the reality, in my case, is they offer better functionality for less money.
This forum finally led me to Costco due to their low price & REM equipment. Unfortunately, the 2 branches I have used for the past 2 years do not actually do REM measurement. I am considering another branch some distance away. On the phone they said they do REM if needed.
ah, memories…
Don’t think she is, but that could be due to time pressures or a change in work.
Running two centres gives me less time on here too, my job has moved on since I started doing wax removal work as wel.
Same with my Audi too.he has affiliation with ENTs so has less time